Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 June 11

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Today's featured article
Makinti Napanangka (died January 2011) was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She lived in the communities of Haasts Bluff, Papunya, and later at Kintore. Kumentje Napanangka began painting contemporary Indigenous Australian art at Kintore in the mid-1990s, encouraged by a community art project. Interest in her work developed quickly, and she is now represented in most significant Australian public art galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia. A finalist in the 2003 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, Kumentje won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2008. Her work was shown in the major Indigenous art exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Working in synthetic polymer on linen or canvas, Kumentje's paintings primarily take as their subjects a rockhole site, Lupul, and an Indigenous story (or "dreaming") about two sisters, known as Kungka Kutjarra. She was a member of the Papunya Tula Artists Cooperative, but her work has been described as more spontaneous than that of her fellow Papunya Tula artists. (more...) Recently featured: Luton Town F.C. – Ancient Egyptian literature – Phil Hartman Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that part of the High Fens reserve in Belgium is closed in spring because of the breeding of the endangered black grouse (pictured)? ... that Samuel Noah Kramer noted the Debate between Winter and Summer "is the closest extant Sumerian parallel to the Biblical Cain and Abel story"? ... that despite tests showing "virtually zero" risk, utility companies still cite islanding concerns to refuse connection of new distributed generation systems? ... that Jamaican sprinter Nickel Ashmeade beat a former Olympic and World champion in the 100 m and set a meet record at the Ponce Grand Prix in May 2011? ... that the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. sponsors a yearly festival that features the works of Filipino animators? ... that Papyrus 49 is one of three early manuscripts with the text of the Epistle to the Ephesians? ... that African-American Civil Rights activist Gloria Blackwell and her daughter Lurma Rackley missed a court appearance because they were arrested for going to the white-only restroom in the courthouse? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 closes, having featured the next generation in console systems. Indian painter M. F. Husain (pictured) dies in London at the age of 95. Soyuz TMA-02M is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying a three-person crew to the International Space Station. An IUPAC committee acknowledges the discovery of the transuranium elements ununquadium and ununhexium. Security firm RSA announces that a breach in its SecurID authentication system will necessitate the replacement of almost 40 million electronic tokens. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
June 11: Trooping the Colour and the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries (2011) 1345 – Inspecting a new prison without being escorted by his bodyguard, Alexios Apokaukos, megas doux of the Byzantine Navy, was lynched and killed by the prisoners. 1594 – In the Philippines, Philip II of Spain recognized the right to govern of the Principalía, the local nobles and chieftains who had converted to Roman Catholicism. 1847 – Afonso died at age two, leaving his father Pedro II, the last emperor of Brazil, without a male heir. 1937 – Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky (pictured) and several senior officers of the Soviet Red Army were convicted for belonging to a Trotskyist organization in a secret trial during the Great Purge. 1963 – The University of Alabama was desegregated as Governor of Alabama George Wallace stepped aside after defiantly blocking the entrance to an auditorium. 2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologised to the First Nations for past governments' policies of forced assimilation. More anniversaries: June 10 – June 11 – June 12 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now June 11, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A portrait of Edward M. Thomas, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American pilots in United States military history. During World War II, the U.S. military was still racially segregated. In 1941, the Army Air Corps formed the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Their first combat assignment was to attack the island of Pantelleria in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily. On June 11, 1943, the island surrendered; it was the first time in history an enemy's military resistance had been overcome solely by air power.

Photo: Toni Frissell; Restoration: Lise Broer

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