Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 August 28

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From today's featured article

Óengus I was, from 732 until his death in 761, a Pictish king and one of the most powerful rulers in Scotland. Pictland, representing one of four political groups in north Britain in the early 8th century, ran from the River Forth northwards, including Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. Óengus became its chief king following a period of civil war in the late 720s. During his reign the neighbouring kingdom of Dál Riata was subjugated, and the kingdom of Strathclyde was attacked, with less success. He was also involved in wars in Ireland and England. Some sources say that Óengus was a joint ruler with Æthelbald of Mercia; others dispute this, but still accept him as the dominant force in northern Britain of his time. After his death, probably in his seventies, kings from his family continued to dominate Pictland. In 839 a disastrous defeat at the hands of Vikings began a new period of instability, which ended with the coming to power of Kenneth MacAlpin, Kenneth I of Scotland. (Full article...)

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The exoplanet Proxima Centauri b is discovered in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri (pictured), the closest star to the Sun.
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
The Summer Olympics conclude in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At least 54 people are killed when a wedding is attacked by a suicide bomber in Gaziantep, southern Turkey.

On this day...

August 28: Feast of the Assumption (Julian calendar)

2015 production of Lohengrin

1850 – German composer Richard Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin (2015 production pictured), containing the Bridal Chorus, was first performed under the direction of Franz Liszt in Weimar, present-day Germany.
1859 – A massive solar storm began, causing a coronal mass ejection to strike the Earth's magnetosphere that generated aurorae that were visible in the middle latitudes.
1901 – Silliman University in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, Philippines, became the first American private school to be founded in the country.
1937 – Toyota Motors, now the world's largest automobile manufacturer, was spun off from Toyota Industries as an independent company.
1963 – Two young women were murdered in New York City; the mistreatment of the suspect by the police and his forced confession led New York to abolish its death penalty.

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NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight-ready primary mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Intended to serve as a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope is currently under construction and scheduled to launch in October 2018. It is expected to enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology.

Photograph: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham

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