Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 May 18

From today's featured article

Prototype K class No. 790

The SECR K class was a type of tank locomotive designed in 1914 by Richard Maunsell for express passenger duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). The Southern Railway (SR) K1 class was a three-cylinder variant of the K class, designed in 1925 to suit a narrower loading gauge. They were among the first non-Great Western Railway (GWR) types to use and improve upon the basic design principles of power and standardisation established by George Jackson Churchward, the GWR's chief mechanical engineer. The locomotives were based on the GWR 4300 class, improved by the Midland Railway's ideals of simplicity and ease of maintenance. The K class was designed to be mechanically similar to the SECR N class mixed-traffic locomotives. The class was the earliest large-scale use of the 2-6-4 wheel arrangement in Britain. Production began towards the end of the First World War, and the prototype rolled out of Ashford Works three years after design work was completed due to wartime production constraints. They continued in service with British Railways until 1966. One K class rebuild (No. 31806) is preserved on the Swanage Railway in Dorset. (Full article...)

Max Reger in 1895

... that after attending the premiere, a critic wrote that Gesang der Verklärten by Max Reger (pictured) "may well reach the outermost limit of musical expression altogether"?
... that Josephine Nesbit, an American army nurse and second-in-command of the Angels of Bataan, was credited with their survival through internment at Santo Tomas?
... that human activity has helped the gray encrusting sponge to disperse across the Pacific?
... that S.S. Held's 1931 novel The Death of Metal was an inspiration for works by Ross Lockridge and perhaps David H. Keller?
... that the crash of Sonicblue Airways Flight 604 bankrupted Sonicblue Airways?
... that Paralympic snowboarder Carl Murphy competes using a specially designed carbon fibre prosthetic leg?
... that when viewed from above, the choreography of Oh My Girl's "Closer" forms the shapes of the astrological signs in order to highlight the song's cosmic imagery?
... that when the office of Poet Laureate of Washington was established in 2007, it was proposed to pay the incumbent with a firkin of beer?

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen (pictured) becomes the youngest driver to win a Formula One race by winning the Spanish Grand Prix at the age of 18.
Jamala, representing Ukraine with the song "1944", wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is suspended after both houses of the National Congress vote to impeach her.
A series of bombings in Baghdad kills at least 93 people and injures more than 165.
Werner Faymann resigns as Chancellor of Austria and leader of the Social Democratic Party.
In horse racing, Nyquist, ridden by Mario Gutierrez, wins the Kentucky Derby.

May 18: Flag and Universities Day in Haiti; Day of Revival, Unity, and the Poetry of Magtymguly in Turkmenistan; Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Crimean Tatar Genocide in Ukraine

Sada Abe

1388 – During the Battle of Buyur Lake, General Lan Yu led a Chinese army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Toghus Temur, the Khan of Northern Yuan.
1863 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant led his Army of the Tennessee across the Big Black River in preparation for the Siege of Vicksburg.
1936 – In a crime that shocked Japan, Sada Abe (pictured) strangled her lover Kichizo Ishida, cut off his genitals, and carried them around with her for several days until her arrest.
1991 – The Somali National Movement declared the independence of Somaliland, a de facto state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia, following the collapse of central government during the Somali Civil War.
2006 – The Parliament of Nepal unanimously voted to strip King Gyanendra of many of his powers.

The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Aspherical is an ultra wide angle prime lens produced by Samyang Optics for the 35 mm film format. Released in 2009 as a replacement for the short-lived Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical, this manual focus-only lens has an aperture ring which manually adjusts the aperture with half-stop clicks.

Photograph: David Iliff

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