Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 2024

Today's featured article archive

June 1

Palace with northern courtyard

Ludwigsburg Palace is a 452-room palace complex of 18 buildings in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest palatial estate in the country and has been called the "Versailles of Swabia". Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, began construction of the palace in 1704. The son of his successor, Charles Eugene, completed it and refurbished parts in the Rococo style, especially its theatre. Charles Eugene abandoned the palace in 1775, and it began a decline until the future Duke, and then King, Frederick moved in in 1795. As King, Frederick, and his Queen, Charlotte, renovated the entirety of the palace in the Neoclassical style. The palace was opened to the public in 1918. It underwent periods of restoration, including for its tricentenary in 2004. It has hosted the Ludwigsburg Festival annually since 1947. The palace is surrounded by gardens named Blooming Baroque (Blühendes Barock), laid out in 1954 as they might have appeared in 1800. (Full article...)

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June 2

Hall's A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

John Richard Clark Hall (1855 – 1931) was a British scholar of Old English, and a barrister. Hall's A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (shown) became a widely used work upon its 1894 publication, and after multiple revisions remains in print as of 2021. His 1901 prose translation of Beowulf was still the canonical introduction to the poem into the 1960s; some later editions included a prefatory essay by J. R. R. Tolkien. Hall's other work on Beowulf included a metrical translation in 1914, and the translation and collection of Knut Stjerna's Swedish papers on the poem into the 1912 work Essays on Questions Connected with the Old English Poem of Beowulf. In the final decade of his life, Hall's writings took to a Christian theme. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge published two of his works in this time: Herbert Tingle, and Especially his Boyhood, and Birth-Control and Self-Control. Hall worked as a clerk at the Local Government Board in Whitehall, becoming principal clerk in 1898. (Full article...)

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June 3

James and Margaret Reed of the Donner Party

The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train, but became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains in November 1846. Running out of food, some resorted to cannibalism to survive. The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party had been slowed by following a new route called the Hastings Cutoff, which crossed the Rocky Mountains' Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah. They lost many cattle and wagons in the rugged terrain, and divisions formed within the group. Their food supplies ran low after they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall high in the mountains. In mid-December some of the group set out on foot and were able to obtain help. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California. Historians have described the episode as one of the most spectacular tragedies in California history. (Full article...)

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June 4

550 Madison Avenue is a postmodern skyscraper on Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets in New York City. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee with associate architect Simmons Architects, the building was completed in 1984. It is a 647-foot-tall (197-meter), 37-story office tower with a facade made of pink granite. It was originally the headquarters of AT&T Corp., which relocated from 195 Broadway, the company's previous headquarters. Following the breakup of the Bell System in 1982, AT&T spun off subsidiary corporations and never occupied the entire building as it had originally intended. The building later became the American headquarters of Sony. An annex to the west was demolished and replaced in the early 2020s. Opinion of the building has been mixed ever since its design was first announced in March 1978. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building's exterior as a landmark in 2018.(Full article...)

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June 5

The double sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom with a nominal value of two pounds sterling (£2). It features the reigning monarch on its obverse and, most often, Benedetto Pistrucci's depiction of Saint George and the Dragon (shown) on the reverse. It was rarely issued in the first century and a half after its debut in 1820, usually in a new monarch's coronation year or to mark the institution of a new coinage portrait of the monarch. In addition to the usual coinage in Britain, specimens were struck at Australia's Sydney Mint in 1887 and 1902. Most often struck as a proof coin. the double sovereign has been issued for circulation in only four years, and few examples worn from commercial use are known. It is now a collector and bullion coin, and has been struck by the Royal Mint most years since 1980. In some years, it has not been issued and the Royal Mint instead placed gold versions of the commemorative £2 piece in the annual gold proof sets. (Full article...)

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June 6

The featured article for this day has not yet been chosen. The final selection is made by the TFA coordinators (Wehwalt, Dank and Gog the Mild).