Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 August 23

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From today's featured article

The highway in Hamilton

The Queen Elizabeth Way is a 400-Series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York. The freeway begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels 139.1 kilometres (86.4 mi) around the western shore of Lake Ontario, ending at Highway 427, where the roadway continues as the Gardiner Expressway into downtown Toronto. The freeway's history dates back to 1931, when work began to widen the Middle Road as a relief project during the Great Depression, to bring it up to the quality of the nearby Dundas Highway and Lakeshore Road. In 1934, the design was modified to resemble German autobahns. When it was initially opened in 1937, it was the first intercity divided highway in North America and featured the longest stretch of consistent illumination in the world. While not a true freeway at the time, it was gradually upgraded, widened and modernized beginning in the 1950s, taking on more or less its current form by 1975. Since then, various projects have continued to widen the route. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Self-portrait of J.G. Bruff

... that in 1849, adventurer J. Goldsborough Bruff (pictured) led an expedition of sixty-six men to California for the purpose of mining gold and conducting trade?
... that Bach composed the cantata Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35, 15 years after its text by Georg Christian Lehms first appeared in print?
... that in 2015, Alissa St Laurent became the first woman to win the Canadian Death Race?
... that at an Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, a perpetrator beheaded the manager and then crashed the victim's van into gas cylinders, causing an explosion that injured two people?
... that Nigerian footballer Uchechi Sunday scored five goals for FC Minsk in her debut at the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2015?
... that apart from gold and diamonds, the mining in Mali also includes rock salt, semi-precious stones and phosphates?
... that Qing dynasty philosopher Li Guangdi's machinations resulted in the exile of his friend Chen Minglei?
... that American entrepreneur Pamela Meyer has been described by Reader's Digest as "the nation's best known expert on lying"?

In the news

Hawker Hunter

At least seven people are killed when a Hawker Hunter (pictured) crashes onto a busy road during an airshow in Shoreham-by-Sea, UK.
A bomb explosion in Bangkok, Thailand, kills 20 people and injures more than 120 others.
In golf, Jason Day wins the PGA Championship.
The Netball World Cup concludes with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.
Trigana Air Service Flight 257 crashes in Papua, Indonesia, killing all 54 passengers and crew.

Ongoing events
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On this day...

August 23: Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism/Black Ribbon Day in Canada, the European Union and the United States

Sacco and Vanzetti

1572 – The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots, began, lasting for several months and resulting in an estimated tens of thousands deaths across France.
1650 – General George Monck founded "Monck's Regiment of Foot", the predecessor to the Coldstream Guards, in England's New Model Army, making the regiment the oldest one in the Regular Army in continuous active service.
1896 – Andrés Bonifacio and his Katipunan comrades in modern-day Quezon City rose up in revolt against Spanish rule, marking the beginning of the Philippine Revolution.
1927 – After a controversial trial, and despite worldwide protests, Italian-born American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti (both pictured) were executed via electrocution in Massachusetts for the charges of murder and theft.
1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 10-year, mutual non-aggression treaty, which also included a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

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Today's featured picture

Spanish rider Maikel Melero at an exhibition in Jarama Circuit, performing the "Rock Solid" trick. Freestyle Motocross is a variation on the sport of motocross in which motorcycle riders attempt to impress judges with jumps and stunts. Riders may either perform routines of a set duration or a number of tricks in one jump, and then are scored on a scale of 100.

Photograph: Carlos Delgado

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