Wikipedia:Today's featured list/March 2017
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March 3
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The works of Maya Angelou encompass autobiography, plays, poetry, and teleplays. She also had an active directing, acting, and speaking career. She is best known for her books, including her series of seven autobiographies, starting with the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). Angelou's autobiographies are distinct in style and narration, and "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US. They take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Angelou wrote collections of essays, including Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997), which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, such as in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay Georgia, Georgia (1972) was the first original script by a black woman to be produced. (Full list...)
March 6
There are eleven officially named tributaries of Mahanoy Creek, a 51-mile-long (82 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Schuylkill County and Northumberland County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. Of these, six are direct tributaries and five are sub-tributaries. These include seven creeks and four runs. The largest tributary by both length and watershed area is Schwaben Creek, which is 10.7 miles (17.2 km) long and drains an area of 30.2 square miles (78 km2). The second-largest by these measures is Zerbe Run, which is 8.3 miles (13.4 km) long and drains an area of 13.1 square miles (34 km2). Many of the tributaries of Mahanoy Creek have been impacted by mining, including Zerbe Run, Shenandoah Creek, and North Mahanoy Creek. Schwaben Creek and Little Mahanoy Creek are the only large tributaries that are not affected by mining. Many of the upper tributaries are in the Western Middle Anthracite Field. In March 2001, the pH ranged from 4.7 for Lost Creek to 8.4 for Schwaben Creek. Some streams were downstream of abandoned mine drainage discharges accounting for their acidity. (Full list...)
March 10
The South Africa women's national cricket team has played five Test matches since 1997, and 71 Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) since their first such contest in 2007. The team has represented South Africa in international women's cricket since 1960, when they hosted England, contesting four Test matches. Their next officially recognised series was against New Zealand, more than eleven years later. In 1977, they were excluded from competing in international sporting events, when the Commonwealth of Nations signed the Gleneagles Agreement as part of the international campaign against apartheid. Although the men's national team returned to international cricket in 1991, the women's team did not compete again until 1997, when they toured Ireland and England. Since then, the team has played regularly in One Day Internationals. South Africa have played four different sides in women's Test cricket, with England their most frequent opponent, having faced them in six Tests. South Africa have similarly faced England more times than any other team in women's One Day International cricket. (Full list...)
March 13
There are 402 species of parrots, birds that collectively make up the order Psittaciformes. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoidea ("true" parrots), the Cacatuoidea (cockatoos), and the Strigopoidea (New Zealand parrots). Parrots have a generally pantropical distribution, with several species inhabiting temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere as well. The greatest diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia. Of the known parrot species, 387 are extant; the remaining extinct species all went extinct after 1500 C.E. and are thus considered to be recently extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Full list...)
March 17
American singer, songwriter, and fashion designer Gwen Stefani has recorded more than 70 songs. After releasing five studio albums with ska punk group No Doubt, Stefani began work as a solo artist in 2004 by releasing her debut Love. Angel. Music. Baby.. The record produced several top ten singles worldwide, including "Hollaback Girl", the first song to sell over a million digital copies in the United States. Her first extended play, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (The Remixes), was released in 2005, followed by her second studio album, The Sweet Escape in 2006. Stefani took a hiatus from her solo career to work on a sixth studio album with No Doubt, Push and Shove, which was released in late 2012. Stefani's third and most recent studio album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like, was released in March 2016 after a series of non-album single releases in 2014. Throughout her musical career, Stefani has collaborated with several artists, including Eve, Eminem, Fetty Wap, and Justin Timberlake. The latter artist and Stefani contributed to a total of five songs on the Trolls soundtrack in 2016. (Full list...)
March 20
The position of Keeper of the Archives at the University of Oxford in England dates from 1634, when it was established by new statutes for the university brought in by William Laud (Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University). The first holder of the post was Brian Twyne, who prepared an index of the archives in 1631 as part of the preparatory work for the statutes: he was appointed Keeper of the Archives as a reward for his work. The archives were moved from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin into the Tower of the Five Orders in the Bodleian Library under Twyne and his successor, and some of the storage cupboards built at that time are still in use. The archives include charters, title deeds, university registers and records, and other official documentation from the university (but not from the colleges of the university, which keep their own archives). Most of the material dates from the 19th and 20th centuries, with few photographs and no sound or video recordings. In total, 21 people have held the position. (Full list...)
March 24
American actress Meryl Streep has had an extensive career in film, television, and stage. She made her stage debut in 1975 with The Public Theater production of Trelawny of the Wells. A supporting role in the war drama The Deer Hunter (1978) proved to be a breakthrough for Streep and she received her first Academy Award nomination for it. She won the award the following year for playing a troubled wife in the top-grossing drama Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Streep established herself as a leading Hollywood actress in the 1980s. She played dual roles in the period drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), and starred as a Polish holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982), winning the Best Actress Oscar for the latter. Her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the biopic The Iron Lady (2011) earned her another Academy Award for Best Actress. The starring role of Florence Foster Jenkins in the 2016 comedy-drama film of the same name garnered Streep her 20th Oscar nomination, more than any actor or actress in history. (Full list...)
March 27
Tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones are named by various warning centers to provide ease of communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches, and warnings. The names are intended to reduce confusion in the event of concurrent storms in the same basin. Generally once storms produce sustained wind speeds of more than 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph), names are assigned in order from predetermined lists depending on which basin they originate. However, standards vary from basin to basin: some tropical depressions are named in the Western Pacific, while tropical cyclones must have a significant amount of gale-force winds occurring around the centre before they are named in the Southern Hemisphere. Before the formal start of naming, tropical cyclones were named after places, objects, or saints' feast days on which they occurred. The credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is generally given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge, who named systems between 1887 and 1907. (Full list...)
March 31
The Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for quality female vocal performances in the rock music genre. The honor was first presented to Donna Summer at the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards (1980) for the song "Hot Stuff". While the award has not been presented since the category was merged with an equivalent category for male vocal performances in 2005, an official confirmation of its retirement has not been announced. Pat Benatar, Sheryl Crow (pictured) and Tina Turner hold the record for the most wins in this category, with four each. Five-time nominee Stevie Nicks holds the record for most nominations without a win. (Full list...)