Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 31

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From today's featured article

The history of the taxonomy of lemurs dates back to 1758 when Carl Linnaeus first classified them. Having undergone independent evolution on Madagascar, lemurs have occupied niches filled elsewhere by other mammals, and approximately 70 to 100 species and subspecies are recognized today. They include the smallest primates in the world, and once included some of the largest. Currently living lemur species are divided into five families and 15 genera. Since the arrival of humans around 2000 years ago, lemurs have become restricted to 10% of the island, and many face extinction. The recent steep increase in species numbers is due to improved genetic analysis, a push to encourage the protection of isolated lemur populations, and the elevation of existing subspecies to full species status. Concerns over lemur conservation have also affected their taxonomy, since distinct species receive increased conservation attention. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Kruszyniany Mosque

... that the historic wooden Kruszyniany Mosque (pictured) was targeted in 2014 during a wave of attacks on mosques in Poland?
... that in 1999, Pam Coats was promoted to senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Animation Studios, becoming the highest-ranking woman at the company?
... that Neanderthals in the Valencian Valldigna valley hauled young elephants up a 100-metre (330 ft) climb to the Bolomor Cave, for use as food?
... that Claude Batchelor, a former trumpet player with the 1st Cavalry Division Band, was convicted on charges related to collaboration with China during the Korean War?
... that the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill introduced in 2019 by the Indian parliament has been met with protests and criticism by the queer community?
... that Scottish economist Hugh Quigley was a member of the secret XYZ Club in the 1930s?
... that forests in the Guineo-Congolian region of Africa include patches dominated by a single species of tree, such as Brachystegia laurentii, Julbernardia seretii, Michelsonia microphylla, or Gilbertiodendron dewevrei?
... that the BBC has produced a new version of their 1953 film London to Brighton in Four Minutes every 30 years?

In the news

Wildfire locations in Brazil and the Amazon

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research announces that it has detected more than 80,000 wildfires in the country (satellite rendering shown) since January, at least 40,000 of which have occurred in the Amazon rainforest.
At least 80 people are killed and 160 others injured in a bombing at a wedding in Kabul, Afghanistan.
All 233 people on board Ural Airlines Flight 178 survive a crash following bird strikes in both engines of an Airbus A321.

On this day

August 31: Independence Day in Malaysia (1957)

Dilma Rousseff

1888 – The body of Mary Ann Nichols was found in Buck's Row, London, allegedly the first victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
1897 – Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor to the movie projector.
1959 – A parcel bomb sent by Ngô Đình Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam, failed to kill Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
1969 – On the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival, an event attended by approximately 150,000 people over three days, Bob Dylan appeared in his first gig since 1966.
2016 – President Dilma Rousseff (pictured) of Brazil was impeached and removed from office.

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (b. 1842) · Alma Mahler (b. 1879) · Mickie James (b. 1979)

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Today's featured picture

The black-bellied whistling duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) is a species of whistling duck that breeds from the southernmost United States and tropical Central America to south-central South America. In the U.S., it can be found year-round in peninsular Florida and parts of southeast Texas, as well as seasonally in southeast Arizona and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. Since it is one of only two whistling duck species native to North America, it is occasionally just known as the "whistling duck" or "Mexican squealer" in the southern United States.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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