Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 November 24

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From today's featured article

3D-printed reconstruction

Spinophorosaurus was a sauropod dinosaur that lived around 167 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic. The first two specimens of the genus were excavated from the Irhazer Shale formation in Niger in the 2000s by German and Spanish teams. Spinophorosaurus ("spine-bearing lizard") was the first sauropod to have its skeleton 3D-printed (reconstruction pictured), when the fossils were brought to Europe and digitally replicated. The shoulder height was an estimated 4 m (13 ft), and its weight was about 7 metric tons (7.7 short tons). The braincase was short, deep, and broad, and the teeth were spoon-shaped. The neck contained 13 vertebrae. The tail was powered by strong musculature and had a rear section that was rather rigid due to long and overlapping chevron bones. Features of the vestibular apparatus suggest that vision and coordinated eye, head, and neck movements were important in Spinophorosaurus. Paired spikes on the tail may have been used for defence. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Flag flown by the NAACP

... that between 1920 and 1938, the NAACP flew a flag (pictured) at its New York headquarters to mark each lynching that occurred in the United States?
... that as a 10-year-old, Lin Mei-hong joined a dance troupe in Taiwan founded by the Italian priest Gian Carlo Michelini, and later choreographed for the troupe?
... that the tree Drypetes gerrardii was named after William Gerrard, who collected plants in southern Africa in the 1860s?
... that CNN political correspondent MJ Lee became an American citizen during the 2016 United States presidential election, which she reported on?
... that the first Paleolithic sculpture of a woman found in modern times was excavated at Laugerie-Basse, one of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley?
... that in 2019, Ivorian footballer Amad Traoré became the first player born in 2002 to score in the Serie A?
... that the 1934 choral composition Totentanz (Danse Macabre) by Hugo Distler combines motets with spoken dialogue between Death and its victims?
... that English diabetes specialist Harry Keen conducted a scientific study in which every adult in the town of Bedford was asked to provide a urine sample for testing?

In the news

Kyle Busch

In stock car racing, the NASCAR Cup Series concludes, with Kyle Busch (pictured) winning the drivers' championship.
Amid protests against fuel rationing and price hikes in Iran, dozens of protesters are killed and the government restricts access to the internet.
Cyclone Bulbul hits the Indian and Bangladeshi coasts of the Bay of Bengal, killing at least 24 people.
After weeks of protests over alleged electoral fraud, Bolivian president Evo Morales and other high-ranking politicians are forced to resign, and opposition senator Jeanine Áñez becomes interim president.

On this day

November 24: Feast of Christ the King (Catholicism, 2019)

The Death of Leszek the White
by Jan Matejko, 1880

1227 – Leszek the White, High Duke of Poland, was assassinated (depiction shown) during a meeting of Piast dukes.
1832 – South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring that the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were null and void in the state, beginning the Nullification Crisis.
1950 – The "Great Appalachian Storm", a large extratropical cyclone, struck the east coast of the United States before moving northeast.
1976 – A magnitude 7.3 M_s earthquake struck eastern Turkey, destroying 80 per cent of the buildings in the area, with at least 4,000 casualties.
2016 – The Colombian government signed a revised peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, temporarily bringing an end to the ongoing civil war.

Pietro Torrigiano (b. 1472) · Junípero Serra (b. 1713) · Freddie Mercury (d. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and humiliation used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance. The victim would be stripped naked, or stripped to the waist. Hot wood tar was then either poured or painted onto the person while they were immobilized. The victim then either had feathers thrown on them or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar. The image of a tarred-and-feathered outlaw remains a metaphor for severe public criticism.

This picture shows German-American farmer John Meints, of Luverne, Minnesota, who was tarred and feathered in August 1918 for allegedly not supporting war bond drives during World War I. The photograph is in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Opencooper

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