Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 February 7

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From today's featured article

Johnson Creek, about 100 yards from its confluence with the Willamette River in Milwaukie, Oregon

Johnson Creek is a 25-mile (40 km) tributary of the Willamette River in the Portland metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed covers 54 square miles (140 km²) of mostly urban land occupied by about 180,000 people. The creek flows generally west from the foothills of the Cascade Range through sediments deposited by glacial floods on a substrate of basalt. Though polluted, it provides habitat for salmon and other migrating fish along its free-flowing main stem. Prior to European settlement, the heavily forested watershed was used by Native Americans of the Chinook band for fishing and hunting. In the 19th century, white settlers cleared much of the land for farming. The stream is named for William Johnson, a settler who in 1846 built a water-powered sawmill along the creek. By the early 20th century, a rail line parallel to the stream encouraged further residential and commercial development. Damage from seasonal flooding grew as urban density increased in the floodplain. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Damage and debris from the Manzanita tornado

... that during an October 2016 tornado in Manzanita, Oregon (damage pictured), the local branch of the National Weather Service issued a record ten tornado warnings in a single day?
... that Carlos Enrique Díaz de León, president of Guatemala for two days, once refused a bribe of US$200,000?
... that a 2011 takeover of the Universidad Autónoma Intercultural de Sinaloa in Mexico by protesting students lasted for two months?
... that the composer Peter Janssens subtitled his Menschensohn (Son of man) a "Sacro-Pop Musical"?
... that you can go directly from Aqueduct Racetrack to Manhattan, but not directly back?
... that Elijah, archbishop of Nisibis, befriended the Abbasid vizier and recorded their conversations in his Book of Sessions?
... that some specimens of the fossil egg Macroolithus have been found with embryos of oviraptorid dinosaurs inside?

In the news

Protest in Bucharest

In American football, the New England Patriots defeat the Atlanta Falcons to win Super Bowl LI.
Protests in Romania (pictured) grow over the Romanian government's proposals to decriminalize certain corruption cases.
The United Nations releases a report stating that the Myanmar Army has committed serious human rights violations against the Rohingya people, including mass killings, systemic sexual violence, and the killing of children.
Under the Alan Turing law, more than 49,000 men in England and Wales are pardoned for breaching historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.

On this day...

February 7

Charlie Chaplin as "The Tramp"

1497 – Supporters of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects such as cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.
1813 – Napoleonic Wars: Two evenly matched frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy fought for four hours, causing significant damage, but resulting in a stalemate.
1914 – The film Kid Auto Races at Venice, featuring the first appearance of comedy actor Charlie Chaplin's character "The Tramp" (pictured), was released.
1943 – World War II: Japan successfully withdrew its troops from Guadalcanal.
1999 – Abdullah II became the reigning King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan following the death of his father King Hussein.

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Today's featured picture

The Magpie, by the French Impressionist Claude Monet, is one of approximately 140 snowscapes produced by Monet and is his largest winter painting. It depicts a solitary black-and-white magpie perched on a gate formed in a wattle fence, as the light of the sun shines upon freshly fallen snow creating blue shadows.

Painting: Claude Monet

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