Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 April 20

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From today's featured article

Kona Lanes was a 40-lane bowling center in Costa Mesa, California, that closed in 2003 after 45 years in business. Built during the advent of Googie architecture, its Polynesian Tiki-themed styling extended from the large roadside neon sign to what the Los Angeles Times called the building's "flamboyant neon lights and ostentatious rooflines meant to attract motorists like moths". At its peak, Kona Lanes was open 24 hours a day, averaging more than 80 ten-frame games of bowling on each of its 40 lanes. The center also hosted music concerts and other events. Following years of decline, Kona Lanes closed and was torn down in 2003; a portion of the distinctive sign (pictured) was saved and sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, for display in the American Sign Museum. Plans for a department store on the Kona Lanes site were rejected; in 2010, the still-unused land was rezoned for senior citizens' apartments and commercial development. Construction on the apartment complex began in 2013 after the lot had sat empty for ten years. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Sagunto Castle

... that Hannibal sacked the Iberian settlement within the site of Sagunto Castle (pictured), an action that led to the Second Punic War?
... that the Hopkins County Museum and Heritage Park includes the Atkins House, the oldest brick building in Hopkins County, Texas?
... that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered was the first Call of Duty game to have accurate bullet casings ejected from every gun?
... that microbiologist Jane Gibson established through her 1954 discovery that selenium, a trace element, is essential for coliform bacterial growth?
... that Abu Omar returned home after the Battle of Aleppo to find that only 13 of his 30 vintage cars remained?
... that Ilse Hess, who was one of the first women to study at the University of Munich, remained a committed Nazi after World War II?
... that "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" means that it is advisable to follow the conventions of the area in which you are residing or visiting?
... that Elder Charles D. Beck's boogie-woogie-based piano playing on "Memphis Flu" anticipated the style of rock and roll pianists?

In the news

Sergio García

Turkey votes in favour of changing the parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency in a constitutional referendum.
A suicide bombing of civilian evacuation buses near Aleppo, Syria, kills more than 120 people, including 68 children.
Emma Morano, the last living person born before 1900, dies at the age of 117.
Pakistan sentences former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for espionage and sabotage.
In golf, Sergio García (pictured) defeats Justin Rose in a playoff to win the Masters Tournament.

On this day...

April 20: Ridván begins at sunset (Bahá'í Faith); 4/20 (cannabis culture)

Enoch Powell

1537 – Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation, was conquered by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada during the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, effectively ending the Confederation in the Colombian Eastern Andes.
1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: Napoleon led a Franco-German force to victory over a reinforced Austrian corps in the Battle of Abensberg.
1939 – Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday was celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
1968 – British Member of Parliament Enoch Powell (pictured) made his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech in opposition to immigration and anti-discrimination legislation, resulting in his removal from the Shadow Cabinet.
2010 – An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, caused the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

Cædwalla of Wessex (d. 689) · Allegra Byron (d. 1822) · Frances Ames (b. 1920)

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Today's featured picture

Girl with a Pearl Earring is an oil painting by 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. This tronie depicts a girl in an exotic dress, an oriental turban, and a pearl earring. The painting has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902.

Painting: Johannes Vermeer

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