Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 May 19

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From today's featured article

Joe Sestak

In the United States Senate Democratic primary election in Pennsylvania on May 18, 2010, Congressman Joe Sestak (pictured) defeated incumbent Arlen Specter, who had been in the Senate for five terms as a Republican. Just before the primary campaign, Specter switched to the Democratic Party in anticipation of a difficult primary challenge by Pat Toomey. Sestak was ultimately defeated by Toomey in the general election. Political observers and journalists described the race between Specter and Sestak as one of the bitterest and most watched of all the 2010 primary elections. Specter led Sestak by more than 20 percentage points for most of the race, but this lead narrowed in the final month of the campaign, when Sestak concentrated his funds and efforts on television commercials questioning Specter's Democratic credentials. Political observers said that Sestak's commercials and a national swing in momentum against incumbents harmed Specter's chances. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Grünbaum–Rigby configuration

... that although the Grünbaum–Rigby configuration (pictured) has been studied since 1879, it was not depicted in its realization as three overlaid heptagrams until 1990?
... that Soviet admiral Yuri Panteleyev was appointed a Companion of the Bath by the British for his role in supporting attacks against the German battleship Tirpitz?
... that more than twenty species of cetaceans have been stranded on the mudflats of Bahía Lomas?
... that Mary Stuart Fisher, a Temple University professor of radiology who was named Physician of the Year in 1996, was discouraged from following her chosen career path by her father, a physician himself?
... that Luciano Burti's 111G crash at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix led to a ban on creating holes in racing helmets for drinking tubes and radio communication wires?
... that the motto of Midleton College, Spartam nactus es, hanc exorna, is a mistranslation of a line from a Greek play by Euripides?
... that George Backhouse Witts read the Riot Act on a hill in Gloucestershire?
... that the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island banned automobiles for more than a decade starting in 1908?

In the news

Scott Morrison

The Liberal–National Coalition, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured), wins the most seats in the Australian federal election.
Taiwan becomes the first state in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei dies at the age of 102.
Former Prime Minister of Australia Bob Hawke dies at the age of 89.
American actress and singer Doris Day dies at the age of 97.

On this day

May 19: Pesach Sheni (Judaism, 2019); Pontian Greek Genocide Remembrance Day in Greece; Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey; Ho Chi Minh's birthday in Vietnam

Thermometer built from
Jean-Pierre Christin's design

1051 – Anne of Kiev married King Henry I to become Queen of France.
1655 – Anglo-Spanish War: England invaded Spanish Jamaica, capturing it a week later.
1743 – French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer (pictured) with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
1911 – Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, was established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.
1991 – With the local Serb population boycotting the polls, voters in Croatia passed a referendum supporting independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Dunstan (d. 988) · George Washington Whistler (b. 1800) · John Gorton (d. 2002)

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Today's featured picture

The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American twin-engine medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation (NAA). The design was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in every theater of World War II. After the war ended, many remained in service, operating across four decades. Produced in numerous variants, nearly 10,000 B-25s were made. These included a few limited models, such as the United States Marine Corps' PBJ-1 patrol bomber, as well as the F-10 reconnaissance aircraft and the AT-24 trainers used by the United States Army Air Forces.

This picture, taken in 2007, shows a B-25J operated by the United States Air Force, nicknamed Russell's Raiders, at the annual International Air Picnic in Góraszka, Poland.

Photograph credit: Lukas skywalker

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