Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 December 15

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From today's featured article

Interstate 696 is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Michigan. Known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway in honor of the former head of the United Automobile Workers, it is a bypass route through the northern suburbs of Detroit in Oakland and Macomb counties. Its western terminus connects with I-96 and I-275 in Farmington Hills. It runs east through suburbs including Southfield, Royal Oak and Warren before merging on its east end into I-94 at St. Clair Shores. Planning for the freeway started in the 1950s, and construction on the first segment started in 1961. The western third of the freeway opened in 1963, and the eastern third was completed in January 1979. The central segment was the subject of controversy over its routing and the effect on local communities and the environment, delaying its completion until December 15, 1989. (This article is part of a featured topic: Interstate 96.)

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Did you know ...

Brownie Lake

... that Brownie Lake (pictured) is one of two lakes in Minneapolis in which the surface and bottom layers do not intermix?
... that before Minoru Yoneyama founded the sports-equipment company Yonex, he was a member of a Japanese suicide unit during World War II?
... that the Hong Kong biopic Lost in the Fumes was rated M18 in Singapore due to "political sensitivities" and screened only to members of the country's film society?
... that Nellie Two Bear Gates made beaded artwork that depicted Yanktonai Dakota history and culture?
... that the 2001 Major League Baseball contraction plan would have resulted in the elimination of two teams from MLB?
... that Bernd Loebe, who began his career as a music journalist, received the 2018 International Opera Award in the category of Leadership in Opera?
... that Qaleh Kharabeh, a fort on the Gorgan Plain in Iran, may have housed troops manning the defence of the Great Wall of Gorgan?
... that Chris Morocco has reverse-engineered dishes by Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, and Guy Fieri from taste, touch, and smell alone?

In the news

Boris Johnson

The Conservatives, led by Boris Johnson (pictured), win a majority of seats in the UK general election.
In a non-binding referendum, Bougainville votes for independence from Papua New Guinea.
In New Zealand, the Whakaari/White Island volcano erupts, leaving sixteen people dead, two missing, and twenty-nine others injured.
The World Anti-Doping Agency bans Russia from participating in major international sporting events for four years due to doping violations.

On this day

December 15: Zamenhof Day (Esperanto culture)

Gone with the Wind
film poster

1025 – Constantine VIII became sole Byzantine emperor, 63 years after being crowned co-emperor.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of St. Lucia, the Royal Navy prevented French Navy ships from reaching their garrison on Saint Lucia in the West Indies.
1939 – The American historical epic film Gone With the Wind (poster shown), adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name, premiered in Atlanta, Georgia.
1961 – Former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after being found guilty on fifteen criminal charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Izaak Walton (d. 1683) · J. Paul Getty (b. 1892) · Surya Bonaly (b. 1973)

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Today's featured picture

The marsh fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Commonly distributed in the Palearctic region, the marsh fritillary's common name is due to its habitat: marshy, damp wetlands and grasslands. The larval stage lasts seven to eight months and includes a period of hibernation over the winter. The larvae are dependent on the host plant, Succisa pratensis, not only for food but also for shelter during the hibernation stage. Females lay eggs in batches on the host plant and are, like other batch-layers, selective about location because offspring survivorship levels for batch-layers are highly dependent on location selection.

This picture shows the underside of a female marsh fritillary, photographed near the English village of Lydlinch, Dorset.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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