Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 March 20

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Amir Hamzah (1911–1946) was an Indonesian poet and national hero. Born into an aristocratic Malay family in the Sultanate of Langkat, Sumatra, he began writing poetry while still a teenager. Though his works are undated, the earliest are from around 1930, when he first travelled to Java for schooling. He continued writing while studying in Surakarta and Batavia. He helped establish the literary magazine Poedjangga Baroe in 1932, and published his two poetry collections in it, Nyanyi Sunyi (1937) and Buah Rindu (1941). Amir stopped writing in 1937, when he grudgingly returned to Sumatra to marry the sultan's daughter and take on responsibilities of the court. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, he served as the government's representative in Langkat; the following year he was killed in a socialist revolution and buried in a mass grave. His poetry deals with themes of love and religion, and often reflects a deep inner conflict. He has been called the "King of the Poedjangga Baroe-era Poets" and the only international-class Indonesian poet from before the Indonesian National Revolution. (Full article...)

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On this day...

March equinox (04:30 UTC, 2016); March 20: Nowruz in Iran, Central Asia, and Zoroastrianism (2016); Independence Day in Tunisia (1956)

Cyclone Larry

1602 – The Dutch East India Company—the first company to issue stock, one of the first multinational corporations, and possibly the first megacorporation—was established.
1760 – A fire of unknown cause broke out in Boston, Massachusetts, destroying 349 buildings and left over a thousand people homeless.
1942 – World War II: After being forced to flee the Philippines, US Army General Douglas MacArthur announced in Terowie, South Australia, "I shall return."
1987 – The antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) became the first antiviral drug approved for use against HIV and AIDS.
2006 – Cyclone Larry (pictured) made landfall in Far North Queensland, eventually causing nearly AU$1 billion in total damage and destroying over 80 percent of Australia's banana crop.

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A black-lip oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) specimen. This species of clam in the genus Pinctada is a marine bivalve mollusc that is harvested for its pearls in the Persian Gulf and southwestern part of the Indian Ocean, Fiji, Tahiti, Myanmar, Baja California, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Photograph: Didier Descouens

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