Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 2015
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July 1
Jarome Iginla is a Canadian professional ice hockey player and an alternate captain for the Colorado Avalanche in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a longtime member and former captain of the Calgary Flames and also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins before joining the Avalanche in 2014. In 2001–02 he led the NHL in goals and points and won the Lester B. Pearson Award as its most valuable player as voted by the players. In 2003–04 Iginla led the league in goals for the second time and captained the Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals, leading the league in playoff scoring. A six-time NHL All-Star, he is the Flames' all-time leader in goals, points, and games played, and is second in assists to Al MacInnis. Iginla twice scored 50 goals in a season and is one of seven players in NHL history to score 30 goals in 11 consecutive seasons. He has scored 589 goals and 1,226 points in his career. Internationally, he represented Canada's championship teams at the 1996 World Junior and 1997 World Championships as well as the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. He is a two-time Olympic gold medal winner, including at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where he helped lead Canada to its first Olympic hockey championship in 50 years. (Full article...)
July 2
Air raids on Japan by the Allies in World War II caused extensive destruction and casualties; the most commonly cited estimates are 333,000 killed and 473,000 wounded. During the first years of the Pacific War, these attacks were limited to the Doolittle Raid in April 1942 and small-scale raids on military positions in the Kuril Islands starting in mid-1943. Strategic bombing raids began in June 1944 and were greatly expanded in November. The raids initially attempted to target industrial facilities, but from March 1945 onwards were generally directed against urban areas. Aircraft flying from aircraft carriers and the Ryukyu Islands also frequently struck targets in Japan during 1945 in preparation for an Allied invasion planned for October. In early August, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were struck and mostly destroyed by atomic bombs. Japan's military and civil defenses were not capable of protecting the country, and the Allied forces generally suffered few losses. The bombing campaign was one of the main factors in the Japanese government's decision to surrender in mid-August 1945. Nevertheless, there has been a long-running debate over the attacks on Japanese cities, and the decision to use atomic weapons has been particularly controversial. (Full article...)
July 3
Pinnipeds, including true seals, walruses, and sea lions and fur seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of semiaquatic marine mammals. There are 33 living species, and more than 50 extinct species have been described from fossils. They have streamlined bodies and four limbs that have evolved into flippers. Males typically mate with more than one female, and the females raise the pups, often born in the spring and summer months. Pinnipeds generally prefer colder waters and spend most of their time in the water, but come ashore to mate, give birth, molt or escape from predators such as sharks and killer whales. Humans have hunted seals since at least the Stone Age, and commercial sealing had a devastating effect on some species from the introduction of firearms through the 1960s. Populations have also been reduced or displaced by accidental trapping and marine pollution. All pinniped species are now afforded some protections under international law. (Full article...)
July 4
The United States Bicentennial coins are commemorative versions of the Washington quarter, Kennedy half dollar and Eisenhower dollar (pictured). They bear the double date 1776–1976, though some were struck in 1975 as well as 1976. The US Mint had opposed issuing commemorative coins since the 1950s, but beginning in 1971, members of Congress introduced bills authorizing coins to honor the Bicentennial. New legislation required the temporary redesign of the reverse of the quarter, half dollar and dollar; a nationwide competition yielded designs of a Colonial drummer for the quarter, Independence Hall for the half dollar, and the Liberty Bell superimposed against the moon for the dollar. The coins that circulated were in copper nickel, and so many were struck that they remain common today. Congress also mandated that 45,000,000 part-silver pieces be available for collectors; the Mint sold over half before withdrawing them from sale in 1986 and melting the remainder. (Full article...)
Part of the United States Bicentennial coinage featured topic.
July 5
Unas was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the ninth and last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He succeeded Djedkare Isesi, who might have been his father, and reigned for 15 to 30 years in the mid 24th century BC. During this time Egypt maintained trade relations with the Levantine coast and Nubia, and may have launched a military campaign in southern Canaan. A period of declining royal power and decentralization of administrative functions continued under him, ultimately contributing to the collapse of the Old Kingdom some 200 years later. Unas built a pyramid in Saqqara, the smallest of the royal pyramids completed during the Old Kingdom. The accompanying mortuary complex with its high and valley temples linked by a 750 m (2,460 ft) causeway was lavishly decorated with painted reliefs, whose quality and variety surpass the usual royal iconography. His burial chambers were the first with the Pyramid Texts carved and painted on the walls, meant to help the king reach the afterlife by identifying him with Ra and Osiris. (Full article...)
July 6
Sinistar: Unleashed is a 1999 action space shooter video game for Microsoft Windows. It was designed by Marc Michalik and Walter Wright and developed at GameFX, a small studio composed of former members of Looking Glass Studios. Originally titled Out of the Void, the project at first had no relationship to Sinistar, which was released by Williams in 1982. After licensing the franchise from Midway Games, GameFX developed the game as a sequel. The player's goal in both installments is to use starships, weapons and power-ups to destroy the Sinistar, a large bio-mechanical machine. Unlike its predecessor, the sequel has full three-dimensional graphics and gameplay. Sinistar: Unleashed got a mixed reception when released: some critics lauded its graphics and new features, and several journalists felt that it stayed true to the feel of the original game, but other critics faulted the boss characters and repetitiveness of the gameplay. (Full article...)
July 7
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Ringo Starr (born 1940) is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, and actor best known as the drummer for the Beatles. As a child he was twice afflicted by life-threatening illnesses requiring prolonged hospitalisations. He cofounded his first band in 1957, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, and then achieved moderate success with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He joined the Beatles in 1962, replacing Pete Best. He sang lead vocals for "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Yellow Submarine". Starr played key roles in the Beatles' films and appeared in numerous others. After the band's break-up in 1970, he released "It Don't Come Easy", "Photograph" and "Back Off Boogaloo", followed by the 1973 top ten album Ringo. He narrated the first two seasons of the children's television series Thomas & Friends. Since 1989, he has successfully toured with twelve variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In 2011 Rolling Stone readers named Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988 and for his solo career in 2015. (Full article...)
July 8
Radiocarbon dating is used to determine the age of carbon-bearing material by measuring its radiocarbon, the radioactive isotope carbon-14 (with six protons and eight neutrons). Invented by Willard Libby in the late 1940s, the method soon became a standard tool for archaeologists. Radiocarbon is constantly created in the atmosphere, when cosmic rays create free neutrons that hit nitrogen. Plants take in carbon, including radiocarbon, through photosynthesis, and after an animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment. Half of the radiocarbon decays every 5,730 years; the oldest dates that can be reliably measured by radiocarbon dating are around 50,000 years ago. The proportion of radiocarbon in the atmosphere was reduced starting in the late 19th century by fossil fuels, which contain little detectable radiocarbon, but nuclear weapons testing reversed that trend, almost doubling it by 1963. Accelerator mass spectrometry has become the method of choice for radiocarbon dating; it can be used with samples as small as plant grains. Libby received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1960. (Full article...)
July 9
The corn crake (Crex crex) is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa for the northern hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The male's call is a loud krek krek, from which the scientific name is derived. The breeding habitat is grassland, particularly hayfields; the female builds a nest of grass leaves in a hollow in the ground and lays 6–14 cream-coloured eggs that hatch in 19 or 20 days. The bird is in steep decline across much of its former breeding range because modern farming practices often destroy nests before breeding is finished. It is omnivorous but mainly feeds on invertebrates, the occasional small frog or mammal, and some seeds. Natural threats include feral and introduced mammals, large birds, and various parasites and diseases. Although numbers have declined steeply in western Europe, the bird is classed as a species of least concern because of its huge range and large populations in Russia, Kazakhstan and western China. (Full article...)
Part of the Crex featured topic.
July 10
Chelsea Bridge spans the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea. The first bridge on the site, Victoria Bridge, was proposed in the 1840s as part of the Battersea Park development of marshlands on the south bank. Work on the nearby Chelsea Embankment delayed the opening of this suspension bridge until 1857. Although well received architecturally, as a toll bridge it was unpopular and faced competition from the newly built Albert Bridge. It was acquired in 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which abolished the tolls. Victoria Bridge, narrow and structurally unsound, was renamed Chelsea Bridge to avoid embarrassment to the Royal Family if it collapsed. After population growth and the introduction of the automobile, the bridge was demolished, and replaced in 1937 by the current structure, the first self-anchored suspension bridge in Britain. During the early 1950s it became popular with motorcyclists, who staged regular races across it. The bridge is floodlit from below at night, when the towers and cables are illuminated by 936 feet (285 m) of light-emitting diodes. In 2008 it achieved Grade II listed status. (Full article...)
July 11
SMS Königsberg ("His Majesty's Ship Königsberg") was the lead ship of her class of light cruisers built by the German Imperial Navy. Named for the capital of East Prussia, she was laid down and launched in 1905 and completed the next year. The ship was armed with a main battery of ten 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns and had a top speed of 24.1 knots (44.6 km/h; 27.7 mph). Königsberg served with the High Seas Fleet's reconnaissance force, and frequently escorted Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht on visits to foreign countries. A planned two-year deployment to German East Africa was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. The cruiser attempted to raid British and French commercial traffic, but only destroyed one merchant ship during her career. In September 1914, she surprised and sank the British protected cruiser HMS Pegasus in the Battle of Zanzibar, then retreated into the Rufiji River to repair her engines. British cruisers located her and set up a blockade. On 11 July 1915, two monitors got close enough to cause severe damage, and her crew scuttled the ship. (Full article...)
July 12
The 1877 Wimbledon Championship, the world's first lawn tennis tournament, was held in Wimbledon, London, at the renamed All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. The club had introduced lawn tennis in 1875 to compensate for waning interest in croquet, and was organising a tennis tournament to raise money for lawn maintenance equipment. The tournament rules were derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club. The Gentlemen's Singles competition, the only event of the championship, was contested on grass courts by 22 players. The final was played on 19 July, in front of a crowd of about 200 people who paid an entry fee of one shilling. Spencer Gore, a 27-year-old rackets player, became the first Wimbledon champion by defeating William Marshall in three straight sets that lasted 48 minutes. He received 12 guineas in prize money and a silver challenge cup, donated by the sports magazine The Field. The tournament made a profit of £10. (Full article...)
July 13
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 American computer-animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (pictured), creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film and remains the most expensive film inspired by a video game of all time. Featuring the voices of Ming-Na Wen, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Ving Rhames, Peri Gilpin and Steve Buscemi, The Spirits Within follows scientists Aki Ross (Wen) and Doctor Sid (Sutherland) in their efforts to free a post-apocalyptic Earth from the Phantoms, a mysterious and deadly alien race. Square Pictures' staff of 200 rendered the film using some of the most advanced processing capabilities available at the time, taking about four years to complete it. The film debuted to mixed critical reception, but was widely praised for the realism of the computer-animated characters. It greatly exceeded its original budget, costing $137 million and recovering only $85 million at the box office. The film has been called a box office bomb and is blamed for the demise of Square Pictures. (Full article...)
July 14
Pluto is a dwarf planet orbiting the Sun, with about a sixth of the mass of the Moon and a third of its volume. Like other Kuiper belt objects, which are generally outside Neptune's orbit, Pluto is primarily rock and ice. It has an elongated and highly inclined orbit that takes it from 49 astronomical units (7.3 billion km) away from the Sun down to 30, closer than Neptune. Light from the Sun takes about 5.5 hours to reach it at its average distance. Since its discovery in 1930, it had been considered the ninth planet, but the International Astronomical Union came up with a new definition for planets in 2006 that excluded Pluto after many other similar icy objects were found, including Chiron and Eris. Pluto has five known moons: Charon (about half as wide as Pluto), Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. On 14 July 2015, a spacecraft is visiting the dwarf planet and its moons for the first time: the New Horizons probe is performing a flyby and attempting to take detailed measurements and images. NASA has invited the general public to suggest names for surface features that will be discovered on Pluto and Charon. (Full article...)
Part of the Dwarf planets featured topic.
July 15
Tropical Storm Brenda (tracking map pictured) was the second named storm of the 1960 Atlantic hurricane season. It developed in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico on July 28, and became a tropical storm after moving ashore over the Florida Peninsula. Accelerating northeast along the U.S. East Coast, it peaked north of Wilmington, North Carolina, as a moderate storm with winds of 60 mph (97 km/h). After crossing the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, it dissipated on July 31 over southern Canada. The storm inflicted moderate damage in Florida, the worst since Hurricane Easy of 1950, and dropped heavy rainfall as far north as New York City. Total damage was estimated at $5 million, and at least one traffic-related death was blamed on the cyclone. Brenda was the last tropical cyclone to hit the U.S. mainland before the devastating Hurricane Donna, which killed at least 364 people and caused close to a billion dollars in damage (in 1960 dollars). (Full article...)
July 16
Trinity was the code name given to the first test detonation of a nuclear weapon. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, took the name from a John Donne poem. It was conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project on the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in the Jornada del Muerto desert. The only structures originally in the vicinity were on the McDonald Ranch site, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. A base camp was constructed, and there were 425 people present on the weekend of the test. It used a Fat Man bomb of the same design as the one that would be detonated over Nagasaki. The complex implosion-type nuclear weapon required a major design effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory, and testing was required to allay fears that it would not work. Its detonation (shown on video) produced the explosive energy of about 20 kilotons of TNT (84 terajoules). The test site is now part of the White Sands Missile Range. It was declared a National Historic Landmark district in 1965, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. (Full article...)
July 17
The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902–04) established the first manned meteorological station in Antarctic territory, discovered new land east of the Weddell Sea, and returned with a trove of biological and geological specimens aboard the Scotia (pictured). It was led by William Speirs Bruce, then Britain's most experienced polar scientist, who had spent most of the 1890s on expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic regions. After his application to add a second ship to Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition had been dismissed as "mischievous rivalry" by the president of the Royal Geographical Society, he used private sponsors to fund an independent expedition. Bruce never received formal recognition from the British Government for his work, and never again led an Antarctic expedition, although he made regular Arctic trips. The expedition's members were denied the prestigious Polar Medal despite vigorous lobbying. His focus on serious scientific exploration rather than territorial discoveries was out of fashion with his times, and his achievements soon faded from public awareness, unlike those of the polar adventurers Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen. The expedition's Orcadas weather station has been in continuous operation since 1903 on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys. (Full article...)
July 18
Red Skelton (1913–1997) was an American entertainer known for his national radio and television acts. He began developing his comedic and pantomime skills at age 10 in a traveling medicine show. Over the next decade he worked on a showboat, in the burlesque circuit, and in vaudeville. In 1938 he became the host of radio's Avalon Time, and got his own radio show in 1941, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, which debuted many of his comedy characters. Though he regularly appeared on radio and film, Skelton was most eager to work in television. The Red Skelton Show premiered in 1951, and continued on a variety of networks and under several names until 1971. Afterwards, he focused on painting, and probably earned more from sales of lithographs of his works than from his entire television career. He received many accolades, including two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and induction into the Television and National Radio Halls of Fame. (Full article...)
July 19
The Coral Island (1858) is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck. A typical Robinsonade – a genre inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe – and one of the most popular of its type, the book first went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. Among the novel's major themes are 19th-century British imperialism in the South Pacific, the civilising effect of Christianity, and the importance of hierarchy and leadership. It was the inspiration for William Golding's dystopian novel Lord of the Flies (1954), which inverted the morality of The Coral Island. The novel was considered a classic for primary school children of the early 20th century in Britain, and in the United States it was a staple of suggested reading lists for high-school students. Modern critics consider The Coral Island to feature a dated imperialist view of the world. It was adapted into a four-part children's television drama broadcast by ITV in 2000. (Full article...)
July 20
Telopea oreades, commonly known as the Gippsland waratah, is a large shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae. Native to southeastern Australia, it is found in wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest on rich acidic soils high in organic matter. No subspecies are recognised, though an isolated population hybridises extensively with the Braidwood waratah (T. mongaensis). Reaching a height of up to 19 metres (65 ft), T. oreades grows with a single trunk and erect habit. It has dark green leaves with prominent veins that are 11–28 centimetres (4.3–11 in) long and 1.5–6 cm (0.6–2.4 in) wide. The red flower heads, or inflorescences, composed of up to 60 individual flowers, appear in late spring. In the garden, T. oreades grows in soils with good drainage and ample moisture in partly shaded or sunny positions. Several commercially available cultivars that are hybrid forms with T. speciosissima have been developed. The timber is hard and has been used for making furniture and tool handles. (Full article...)
July 21
The Basement Tapes (1975) is an album recorded by Bob Dylan and the Band (pictured), the sixteenth studio album for Dylan. After the Band (then known as the Hawks) backed Dylan during his world tour of 1965–66, four of them moved to be near Dylan in Woodstock, New York, to collaborate with him on music and film projects. They recorded more than 100 tracks together in 1967, including original compositions, contemporary covers and traditional material. The world tour had controversially mixed folk and rock; Dylan's new style moved away from rock, and from the urban sensibilities and extended narratives of his most recent albums, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. The new songs covered a range of genres, with lyrics expressing humor, alienation, betrayal, and a quest for salvation. Many of the songs circulated widely in unofficial form before the album's release, and for some critics, they mounted a major stylistic challenge to rock music in the late sixties. When released in 1975, the album included sixteen songs taped by Dylan and the Band in 1967 and eight songs recorded solely by the Band since then. Critically acclaimed upon release, The Basement Tapes reached number seven on the Billboard 200 album chart. (Full article...)
July 22
The 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The men were recruited mostly from Manhattan, but some came from New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Most were German immigrants, and many of the officers had served in the armies of Austria, Prussia, and other German states. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, they were initially assigned to the defense of Washington, D.C., with the Army of the Potomac, and later fought at the Battle of Cross Keys in the Shenandoah Valley. They found themselves in the thick of the fighting at Second Bull Run, and were routed by Confederate forces at Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg, they saw battle on two of the three days and took heavy losses. The regiment was then transferred to the west and participated in the Chattanooga campaign. They assisted in the Union victories at Wauhatchie and Missionary Ridge, and marched to relieve the siege of Knoxville. They spent the last year of the war on occupation duty in Tennessee and Georgia, before being disbanded in November 1865. (Full article...)
July 23
The Capcom Five is a set of five video games released between 2003 and 2005 by Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube, all overseen by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Nintendo and Capcom had enjoyed a close relationship during the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo eras, and the announcement of the five new games was initially seen as an important show of third-party developer support for the GameCube. P.N.03, a futuristic third-person shooter, Viewtiful Joe, a side-scrolling action-platformer, Dead Phoenix, a shoot 'em up, and Resident Evil 4, a survival horror third-person shooter, were developed by Capcom's Production Studio 4; Killer7, an action-adventure game with first-person shooter elements, was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. Viewtiful Joe and Killer7 sold modestly, the former in spite of critical acclaim and the latter owing to polarized reviews, but Killer7 gained a significant cult following, effectively launching the career of creator Suda51. Resident Evil 4 was the runaway success of the five, though its GameCube sales were undercut by the announcement of a Sony PlayStation 2 version, in an early sign of Nintendo's failure to attract and hold third-party support during the GameCube era. (Full article...)
July 24
Business M-28 is a 4.8-mile (7.7 km) state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan serving as a business route for U.S. Highway 41 and M-28. It runs through the downtown districts of the historic iron-mining communities Ishpeming and Negaunee. The trunkline was originally a section of these roads until a northerly bypass was built in 1937. M-35 also ran through downtown Negaunee along a section of the highway until the 1960s. A rerouting in 1999 moved the trunkline designation along Lakeshore Drive in Ishpeming, and a streetscape project rebuilt the road in Negaunee in 2005. In Negaunee, the highway passes Jackson Park, where iron ore was first discovered in what became the Marquette Iron Range. The nearby Jackson Mine was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Between 1850 and 1900, half the nation's supply of iron ore came from this region. (Full article...)
Part of the M-28 featured topic.
July 25
Elliott Fitch Shepard (1833–1893) was a New York lawyer, the owner of the Mail and Express newspaper, and a founder of three banks as well as the New York State Bar Association. He was born in Jamestown, New York, one of three sons of the president of a banknote-engraving company. During the American Civil War, Shepard earned the rank of colonel and was a Union Army recruiter. After attending the City University of New York, he practiced law for about 25 years. One of his residences, Woodlea, and the church he founded nearby, Scarborough Presbyterian, are contributing properties in the historic district of Scarborough-on-Hudson in the village of Briarcliff Manor. Woodlea, one of the largest privately owned houses in the United States at the time, is now part of Sleepy Hollow Country Club. Shepard was married to Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt, granddaughter of philanthropist, business magnate, and family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt. Deeply religious, Shepard became the controlling stockholder of the Fifth Avenue Stage Company so he could force it to close on Sundays. (Full article...)
July 26
The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season was the first since 1968 with no hurricanes of Category 2 or higher. The first storm of the season, Tropical Storm Andrea, developed on June 5, and the last, unnamed, dissipated on December 7. Humberto and Ingrid were the only two hurricanes, the lowest seasonal total since 1982. Andrea killed four people after making landfall in Florida and moving up the U.S. East Coast. In early July, Tropical Storm Chantal moved through the Leeward Islands, causing one fatality, but minimal damage overall. Tropical storms Dorian and Erin and Hurricane Humberto brought only squally weather to the Cape Verde Islands. Mexico, where Hurricane Ingrid, Tropical Depression Eight, and tropical storms Barry and Fernand all made landfall, was the hardest hit; Ingrid alone caused at least 23 deaths and $1.5 billion worth of damage. In early October, Tropical Storm Karen brought showers and gusty winds to the central U.S. Gulf Coast. All major forecasting agencies had predicted an above-average season, but an unexpected weakening of the Gulf Stream and other thermohaline currents prolonged the spring weather pattern over the Atlantic Ocean, suppressing tropical storm formation. (Full article...)
July 27
Myotis escalerai is a European bat, found in Spain (including the Balearic Islands), Portugal, and far southern France. Although the species was first named in 1904, it was included in the Natterer's bat species (Myotis nattereri) until molecular studies in 2006 proved that the two are distinct. Similar to M. nattereri, it is mostly gray with lighter underparts, and of medium size, less than 9.5 g (0.3 oz). It has a pointed muzzle, a pink face, and long ears. The bat is an agile flyer, with rapid wingbeats and broad wings, 245 to 300 mm (9.6 to 11.8 in). Females start to aggregate in late spring in maternity colonies in caves, mines, tree holes, bridges or houses. Hibernation colonies need constant temperatures between 0 and 5 °C (32 and 41 °F), and are usually found in caves or basements. The species was first seen in France in 2009, and it is classified as vulnerable in Portugal and Aragon. (Full article...)
July 28
Operation Camargue (1953) was one of the largest operations by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps and the Vietnamese National Army in the First Indochina War. French armored platoons, airborne units and troops, delivered by landing craft to the coast of modern-day central Vietnam, attempted to sweep forces of the communist Viet Minh from the critical Route One. On 28 July the first wave reached an inland canal without major incident, but French armored forces began to suffer a series of ambushes as they passed through small villages. Reinforced by paratroopers, the French and their Vietnamese allies tried to tighten a net around the defending Viet Minh guerillas, but most escaped, along with their arms caches. The French concluded that ensnaring operations were impossible in the dense jungle, which slowed down troops so that enemy forces could anticipate their movements, and they withdrew from the operation by late summer. Viet Minh Regiment 95 re-infiltrated Route One and resumed ambushes of French convoys, retrieving weapons caches missed by the French forces. The regiment continued to operate in the area as late as 1962, fighting the South Vietnamese Army. (Full article...)
July 29
Eusèbe Jaojoby (born 29 July 1955) is a composer and singer of salegy, a musical style of northwestern Madagascar. As one of the originators of salegy and its variants malessa and baoenjy, he is credited with transforming the genre from an obscure regional musical tradition into one of national and international popularity. In 1972 Jaojoby started performing with bands that were experimentally blending American soul and funk with northwestern Malagasy musical traditions. He produced four singles with The Players before the band broke up in 1979. He rose to national prominence with his 1988 hit "Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady", recorded his first full-length album in 1992, and went on to release eight more full-length albums and tour extensively along with his wife and adult children. He was Madagascar's Artist of the Year in 1998 and 1999 and the UN Population Fund's Goodwill Ambassador in 1999. (Full article...)
July 30
Cley Marshes is a nature reserve on the North Sea coast of England just outside the village of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk. A reserve since 1926, it is the oldest of the reserves belonging to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Cley Marshes protects an area of reed beds, freshwater marsh, pools and wet meadows, and has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the large flocks of birds it attracts. The reserve is important for some scarce breeding species, such as pied avocets on the islands, and western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings in the reeds, and is a major migration stopoff and wintering site. There are also several nationally or locally scarce invertebrates and plants specialised for this coastal habitat. The reserve has an environmentally friendly visitor centre and five bird hides, and attracts large numbers of visitors, contributing significantly to the economy of Cley village. Despite centuries of embanking to reclaim land and protect the village, the marshes have been flooded many times; the southward march of the coastal shingle bank and encroachment by the sea make it inevitable that the reserve will eventually be lost. (Full article...)
July 31
Airborne Interception radar, Mark IV, was the first successful air-to-air radar system, used in Britain's Bristol Beaufighter heavy fighters by early 1941 in the Second World War. Early development of the Mk. IV was prompted by a 1936 memo from the inventor Henry Tizard to Robert Watt, director of the radar research efforts, who agreed to allow physicist Taffy Bowen to form a team to study the problem of air interception. The team had a test bed system in flights later that year, but progress was delayed for four years by emergency relocations, three abandoned production designs, and Bowen's increasingly adversarial relationship with Watt's replacement, Albert Percival Rowe. The Mk. IV had many limitations, including displays that were difficult to interpret, a maximum range that decreased with the aircraft's altitude, and a minimum range that was barely close enough to allow the pilot to see the target. Nevertheless, the Mk. IV played a role in the Royal Air Force's increasingly effective response to The Blitz, the Luftwaffe's night bombing campaign. The Mk. VIII largely relegated the Mk. IV to second-line duties by 1943. (Full article...)