Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 July 20

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From today's featured article

The Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy involved more than 3,000 military personnel serving under British command, the majority from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) (Australian members of No. 196 Squadron pictured). Others served with the Royal Navy and British Army. After participating in the Allied landings on 6 June 1944, Australian air force and army personnel fought in the subsequent Battle of Normandy between June and August 1944, and an RAAF fighter squadron operated from airfields in Normandy. Throughout the campaign, Australian airmen provided direct support to the Allied ground forces by attacking German military units and their supply lines, as well as forming part of the force which defended the beachhead from air attack. Australians also indirectly contributed to the campaign by attacking German submarines and ships which posed a threat to the invasion force. Australia's contribution to the fighting in Normandy is commemorated in memorials and cemeteries in London and Normandy. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that alligator gars (pictured) are "living fossils" that can breathe in both air and water?
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... that Operation Goodwood was the last in a series of "intensely disappointing" attempts to sink the German battleship Tirpitz?
... that after Marcel Perez started as a clown, he directed and played the character Robinet in 150 silent films?
... that at the 2013 Boat Race, for the second consecutive year Cambridge had only one British rower in its crew?
... that American military history expert John C. McManus is the author of Grunts?
... that the European Court of Justice was asked the meaning of parody by the Court of Appeal of Brussels ?

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In the news

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (aircraft pictured), en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, is shot down in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Israel launches a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Militants attack two checkpoints in the Chaambi Mountains, Tunisia, killing fourteen soldiers.
Typhoon Rammasun causes at least 40 deaths in the Philippines.
The BRICS summit is held in Brazil.
A train derails on the Moscow Metro, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 160 others.
The Church of England votes to allow women to be ordained as bishops.

Ongoing: Ukrainian unrest
Recent deaths: Elaine Stritch – Johnny Winter

On this day...

July 20: Friend's Day in Argentina and other Latin American countries; Independence Day in Colombia (1810)

1779 – Tekle Giyorgis I began the first of his six reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.
1807 – French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce received a patent for their Pyréolophore (diagram pictured), one of the world's first internal combustion engines.
1922 – The German protectorate of Togoland was divided into the League of Nations mandates of French Togoland and British Togoland.
1940 – The Arroyo Seco Parkway, one of the first freeways built in the United States, opened to traffic, connecting downtown Los Angeles with Pasadena, California.
1999 – The Chinese government began a persecution campaign against Falun Gong, arresting thousands nationwide.

More anniversaries: July 19 – July 20 – July 21

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It is now July 20, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

The crew of Apollo 11, which, 45 years ago, became the first manned mission to land on the Moon. From left to right: Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, lunar module pilot. Armstrong and Aldrin spent almost a day on the Moon, including several hours outside their lunar module collecting lunar material; Collins remained in the command module in orbit.

Photograph: NASA

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