Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 May 21

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From today's featured article

Marcel Lihau (1931–1999) was a Congolese jurist, law professor, and politician who helped create two constitutions for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He attended the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, becoming one of the first Congolese to study law, and was made dean of the law faculty at Lovanium University in 1963. The following year, he helped deliver the Luluabourg Constitution, which the Congolese adopted by referendum. In 1965, Joseph-Desiré Mobutu seized control of the country and directed him to produce a new constitution. Lihau was First President of the new Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo from 1968 until 1975, when Mobutu summarily removed him from his post and placed him under house arrest. After Lihau helped found the reform-oriented Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social, Mobutu suspended his rights and banished him to a rural village. Lihau eventually moved to the United States, where he continued to advocate for political reform in the Congo until his death. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Rainbow plaque outside Charlie's Nightclub

... that Leeds Civic Trust has created a trail of rainbow plaques (example pictured) to commemorate individuals, significant places, and events which have contributed to the LGBT+ history of Leeds?
... that Francis Augustus Silva was promoted to captain in the American Civil War and later dishonorably discharged by mistake?
... that the fictional village of Kattegat in the television series Vikings is located at the base of Luggala in County Wicklow, Ireland?
... that Scarlett Johansson was nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year?
... that the Slovak periodical Svedectvo (Testimony) receives a government subsidy, despite having published apologist articles defending convicted war criminals?
... that the founder of the media watchdog organization Ad Fontes Media has compared low-quality news sources to junk food?
... that James Strachan-Davidson, Master of Balliol College, Oxford, believed that the college should be as "wife and children" to its fellows?
... that in 1917, the crew of HMS Terror had to abandon ship after the captain refused to sail the damaged ship stern first?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Cyclone Amphan

Cyclone Amphan (satellite image shown) impacts eastern India and Bangladesh, forcing the evacuation of more than four million people.
The Iranian Navy frigate Jamaran accidentally strikes the Iranian support vessel Konarak with a missile, killing nineteen sailors.
A gas leak in Andhra Pradesh, India, kills thirteen people and injures over a thousand others.

On this day

May 21

Richard Loeb (left) and Nathan Leopold (right)

1403 – King Henry III of Castile sent an embassy to the Timurid court to discuss a potential alliance against the Ottoman Empire.
1703 – English writer Daniel Defoe was imprisoned for seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet that was perceived to satirise the Tories.
1851 – The Congress of Colombia passed a law abolishing slavery in the country, to take effect at the beginning of the new year.
1924 – University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (both pictured) murdered a 14-year-old boy in a thrill killing out of a desire to commit a "perfect crime".
1998 – Indonesian president Suharto resigned following the collapse of support for his presidency amid economic and political crises.

Tommaso Campanella (d. 1639)
Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (b. 1806)
Leonidas Vasilikopoulos (b. 1932)

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Today's featured picture

Self-Portrait is the second of the German Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer's three self-portraits. He painted himself in half length and slightly turned, under an arch and beside a window that opens onto a landscape with mountains. Created after his first trip to Italy, the work portrays him with an arrogant, cocky expression, which betrays the assured self-confidence of a young artist at the height of his ability. Dürer is dressed with effeminate grace in flamboyant clothes and fine gloves, showing the influence of Italian fashion. On the windowsill is a German inscription that translates as: "I painted this from my own appearance. I was twenty-six years old." The work was painted in oil on panel in 1498, and is now held at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Painting credit: Albrecht Dürer

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