George Gosse

George Gosse.
George Gosse (16 February 1912 – 31 December 1964) was an Australian recipient of the George Cross, the highest non-combat award for heroism or courage that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time. Gosse served in the Royal Australian Navy between 1926 and 1933, and in 1940 joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. He served in the UK before being sent to British India as a naval mine clearance specialist. Returning to the UK in late 1944, in April 1945 he was given command of a party responsible for mine clearance in the recently captured Bremen Harbour in Germany. He displayed courage in defusing three mines under very difficult conditions between 8 May and 19 May 1945, for which he was awarded the George Cross. After the war Gosse reached the rank of lieutenant commander, retiring in 1958. He died of a heart condition in 1964. His medal set is displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial.

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Immune system

Immune system.
The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism against disease. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters, distinguishing them from the organism's own healthy tissue. Many species have two major subsystems of the immune system. The innate immune system provides a preconfigured response to broad groups of situations and stimuli. The adaptive immune system provides a tailored response to each stimulus by learning to recognize molecules it has previously encountered. Both use molecules and cells to perform their functions. Humans have sophisticated defense mechanisms, including the ability to adapt to recognize pathogens more efficiently. Adaptive (or acquired) immunity creates an immunological memory leading to an enhanced response to subsequent encounters with that same pathogen. This process of acquired immunity is the basis of vaccination.

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Knap Hill

Knap Hill.
Knap Hill lies on the northern rim of the Vale of Pewsey, in northern Wiltshire, England, about a mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Alton Priors. At the top of the hill is a causewayed enclosure, a form of Neolithic earthwork that appeared in England from about 3700 BC onwards. These earthworks are characterised by the enclosure of an area with ditches that are interrupted by gaps, or causeways. It is not known what they were used for; they may have been settlements, or meeting places, or ritual sites of some kind. Knap Hill was the first causewayed enclosure to be excavated and identified. In 1908 and 1909 Benjamin and Maud Cunnington spent two summers investigating the site, and Maud Cunnington published two reports of their work, noting that there were several gaps in the ditch and bank surrounding the enclosure. The site has been scheduled as an ancient monument. About a thousand causewayed enclosures have now been found in Europe, including around seventy in Britain.

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Louie Nunn

Louie Nunn.
Louie Nunn (1924–2004) was the 52nd governor of Kentucky (1967–1971), the only Republican elected to that office between 1947 and 2003. The first Republican county judge in the history of Barren County, Kentucky, he ran for governor in 1963, but lost a close race to his Democratic opponent Ned Breathitt. In 1967, Nunn again ran for governor. After defeating Marlow Cook in the Republican gubernatorial primary, he eked out a victory over Democrat Henry Ward. Despite a Democratic majority in the General Assembly, Nunn was able to enact most of his priorities, including tax increases that funded improvements to the state park system and the construction of a statewide network of mental health centers. His administration was marred by race riots in Louisville and a violent protest against the Vietnam War at the University of Kentucky. Following his term as governor, he lost to Walter "Dee" Huddleston in the 1972 senatorial election, and to John Y. Brown Jr. for governor in 1979.

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INTERFET logistics

INTERFET logistics.
The logistical support of INTERFET (International Force East Timor), a multinational peacekeeping mission in 1999 and 2000, involved 11,693 personnel from 23 countries. Led by Australia, it was the largest deployment of Australian forces overseas since the Vietnam War. INTERFET deployed to East Timor in September 1999. A base was established in Darwin, with supplies, equipment, stores and personnel stockpiled or staged there. East Timor possessed only one deepwater port, Dili, with a limited quayside depth, and only three airfields (heliport pictured). Troops were initially landed with a minimum of vehicles and supplies. Effective logistical support enabled INTERFET to carry out its mission without severe limitations, although there were some shortages. Over 90 per cent of the cargo and most of the passengers travelled by sea. Eleven nations contributed transport aircraft, which flew 3,400 sorties, carried 9,500 tonnes of cargo and transported more than 30,000 passengers.

2017 EFL Trophy Final

2017 EFL Trophy Final.
The 2017 EFL Trophy Final was an association football match that was played on 2 April 2017 at Wembley Stadium, London, between League One teams Coventry City and Oxford United. The match decided the winner of the 2016–17 EFL Trophy, a 64-team knockout tournament comprising clubs from League One and League Two of the English Football League (EFL), as well as 16 Category One academy sides representing Premier League and Championship clubs. It was Coventry's first appearance in the final and the second for Oxford, who had been beaten by Barnsley in the previous season's match. The game was played in front of a crowd of 74,434, the highest attendance for the final since the opening of the new Wembley Stadium. Coventry won 2–1 to earn their first major trophy since their victory in the 1987 FA Cup Final. The win was a highlight for Coventry's supporters in what was otherwise a disappointing season, as they were relegated to League Two.

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Anbe Sivam

Anbe Sivam.
Anbe Sivam (Love is God) is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language comedy-drama film directed by Sundar C. and produced by K. Muralitharan, V. Swaminathan and G. Venugopal of Lakshmi Movie Makers. The film was written by Kamal Haasan (pictured), with dialogues provided by Madhan. Featuring Haasan, Madhavan and Kiran Rathod in the lead roles, the film tells the story of an unexpected journey from Bhubaneswar to Chennai. The musical score was composed by Vidyasagar. Arthur A. Wilson and M. Prabhaharan undertook responsibility for the film's cinematography and art direction, respectively. Produced on a budget of ₹120 million, Anbe Sivam's themes include communism, atheism, altruism and humanism. The film garnered positive reviews from critics, but underperformed at the box office. It is now regarded as a classic and a cult film in Tamil cinema. At the 51st Filmfare Awards South, it received a Special Jury Award. Madhavan was awarded Best Actor at the 2003 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.

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Cefnllys Castle

Cefnllys Castle.
Cefnllys Castle was a medieval spur castle sited on a ridge – possibly an earlier Iron Age hillfort – above the River Ithon in Radnorshire, Wales. The first masonry castle at the site was constructed around 1242 to control several routes through the Welsh Marches. Cefnllys became a source of friction between Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Roger Mortimer in the prelude to Edward I's conquest of Wales. The castle was captured and razed in 1262 by Llywelyn, during a war with Henry III of England, and Cefnllys featured prominently in the ensuing peace treaty. The construction of a new castle was a contributing factor to Llywelyn's refusal to swear fealty to Edward I in 1275, leading to war in 1276. The castle may have been sacked during the revolts of Madog ap Llywelyn (1294–1295) and Owain Glyndŵr (1400–1415), but it remained occupied until at least the mid-15th century. Both castles are now entirely ruinous and only traces remain.

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Wood stork

Wood stork.
The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large wading bird found in warmer parts of the Americas. North American birds may disperse to South America, where it is resident. Its bare head and neck are dark grey and the plumage is mostly white, with black on the tail and part of the wing. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile has a feathered head and a yellow, not black, bill. The wood stork nests colonially in wetlands, building its one-metre-diameter (3.3-foot) nest in trees; the breeding season starting when water levels drop. The clutch of three to five eggs is incubated for around 30 days, and the chicks fledge 60 to 65 days after hatching, although many die during their first two weeks. The chicks are fed fish while the adult also eats insects, frogs and crabs as available, foraging by touch in shallow water. The wood stork is classed as being of least concern by the IUCN although in the US it is threatened by predators and human activities. Habitat alteration has caused widespread declines.

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Meghan Trainor

Meghan Trainor.
Meghan Trainor (born December 22, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter and talent show judge. Her 2014 debut single "All About That Bass" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold 11 million copies worldwide. She won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Trainor has released three studio albums with Epic Records. In 2015, her pop and hip hop album, Title, included the top-10 singles "Lips Are Movin" and "Like I'm Gonna Lose You". It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. The single "No" led her R&B album Thank You (2016); both the song and the album reached number three on the respective charts. Trainor has had voice roles in the animated films Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) and Playmobil: The Movie (2019), and has served as a judge on the television talent shows The Four: Battle for Stardom (2018) and The Voice UK (2020). She has won four ASCAP Pop Music Awards and two Billboard Music Awards. (This article is part of a featured topic: Overview of Meghan Trainor.)

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Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
Sergo Ordzhonikidze (1886–1937) was a Bolshevik and Soviet politician from Georgia. Joining the Bolsheviks at a young age, he became an important figure and was arrested repeatedly. After the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, he oversaw the invasions of Azerbaijan, of Armenia, and of Georgia. He backed their union into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1922, one of the original Soviet republics, and served as its first secretary until 1926. He then oversaw Soviet economic production and led a massive overhaul; he implemented five-year plans, helped create the Stakhanovite movement and was named to the Politburo. He was reluctant to join the campaign against so-called wreckers and saboteurs in the early 1930s, causing friction with Joseph Stalin. Before a meeting where he was expected to denounce workers, Ordzhonikidze shot himself. He was posthumously honoured, and several towns and cities in the Soviet Union were named after him.

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Oxenfree

Oxenfree.
Oxenfree is a supernatural-mystery graphic adventure game. Developed and published by Night School Studio, it was released for Windows, OS X, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Linux in 2016 and iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch in 2017. Players assume the role of teenager Alex on a weekend trip to a local island. Alex and her friends must unravel the island's secrets after supernatural events occur. The developers designed Oxenfree as a story-driven game without cutscenes; players choose dialogue via a "walk and talk" mechanic. Oxenfree's audiovisual presentation marries dark, organic, and analog elements with bright, geometric, and digital ones. The release was accompanied by development documentaries, an alternate reality game, and a collector's edition. Oxenfree received generally positive reviews; critics praised the presentation and characters, although some reviewers were left wanting more. The game was nominated for "Best Narrative" at The Game Awards 2016.

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Achelousaurus

Achelousaurus.
Achelousaurus was a ceratopsid dinosaur that lived about 74.2 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. The first fossils of the genus were collected from the Two Medicine Formation in the U.S. state of Montana in 1987. Mainly known from skull material, Achelousaurus was about 6 m (20 ft) long, with a weight of about 3 tonnes (3.3 short tons). It had a large head with a hooked beak, and a bony neck-frill with a pair of long, curved spikes. In the places where other centrosaurines often had horns, Achelousaurus had bosses (roundish protuberances) above the eyes and on the snout that may have been used in fights and for display. It has been suggested that Achelousaurus was a transitional form between Einiosaurus (which had spikes but no bosses) and Pachyrhinosaurus (which had larger bosses), though this is debated. As a ceratopsian, Achelousaurus would have been a herbivore. It appears to have had a high metabolic rate, though lower than that of modern mammals and birds.

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Mount Takahe

Mount Takahe.
Mount Takahe is a 3,460-metre-high (11,350 ft) snow-covered shield volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the Amundsen Sea. It is about 30 kilometres (20 mi) wide with parasitic vents and a caldera up to 8 kilometres (5 mi) wide. Most of the volcano was formed by trachytic lava flows. It reached its present height about 200,000 years ago. Snow, ice, and glaciers cover most of Mount Takahe. With a volume of 780 km3 (200 cu mi), it is a massive volcano; the parts of the edifice that are buried underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are probably even larger. It is part of the West Antarctic Rift System along with eighteen other known volcanoes. A major eruption took place around 17,700 years ago, possibly forming an ozone hole over Antarctica. The last eruption occurred about 7,600 years ago; there is no present-day activity. The name of the volcano refers to the takahē, a flightless bird from New Zealand.

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Interstate 296

Interstate 296.
Interstate 296 (I-296) is a part of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that runs for 3.43 miles (5.52 km) parallel to the Grand River on the west bank, entirely within the Grand Rapids area. Its termini are I-196 near downtown Grand Rapids and I-96 on the north side of Grand Rapids in Walker. For most of its length, the Interstate runs concurrently with US Highway 131, which continues as a freeway built to Interstate Highway standards north and south of the shorter I-296. The highway was first proposed in the late 1950s and opened in December 1962. The Michigan Department of Transportation has since eliminated all signage for I-296 and removed the designation from their official state map, leaving it unsigned, but I-296 is still listed on the Interstate Highway System route log maintained by the Federal Highway Administration.

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Banksia serrata

Banksia serrata.
Banksia serrata, the old man banksia, is a species of woody shrub or tree in the family Proteaceae. It is found from Queensland to Victoria, commonly growing as a gnarled tree up to 16 m (50 ft) in height, though it can be much smaller in more exposed areas. It has wrinkled grey bark and shiny dark green serrated leaves. The large yellow or greyish-yellow flower spikes turn grey as they age, and pollinated flowers develop into large, grey, woody seed pods. This Banksia species is one of four collected by Joseph Banks in 1770, and one of four published in 1782 as part of Carl Linnaeus the Younger's original description of the genus. Throughout its range, it grows exclusively in sandy soils, and is usually the dominant plant where it grows in scrubland or low woodland. B. serrata is pollinated by and provides food for a wide array of vertebrate and invertebrate animals in the autumn and winter months. It is a common plant of parks and gardens.

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The Emperor's New School

The Emperor's New School.
The Emperor's New School is an American animated television series created by Mark Dindal that aired on Disney Channel for two seasons between January 2006 and November 2008. Based on the 2000 film The Emperor's New Groove, the series centers on Kuzco, who must graduate from Kuzco Academy to become emperor of the Inca Empire, with the help of the villager Pacha and fellow student Malina. The series combines physical comedy with a self-aware tone. J. P. Manoux replaced David Spade as the voice actor for Kuzco. New School used traditional 2D animation to preserve elements of the film's distinctive art style. The high-school setting provided storylines based on the everyday challenges of adolescence. New School received mixed reviews from critics; several praised the voice acting of Eartha Kitt (pictured) but others found the characters unlikable. The series was also criticized for its minimal educational value and frequent displays of socially aggressive behavior.

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1982 Formula One World Championship

1982 Formula One World Championship.
The 1982 Formula One World Championship featured sixteen rounds from January to September, spanning the 36th season of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula One motor racing. Keke Rosberg (pictured) won the Drivers' Championship, becoming the second driver to achieve the feat after winning only one race in the season. The year was marked by several incidents and tragedies: a drivers' strike at the first race in South Africa, a partial race boycott as part of the ongoing FISA–FOCA war at the San Marino Grand Prix, as well as the death of two drivers. Gilles Villeneuve died during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, and Riccardo Paletti at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix. Didier Pironi, while leading the championship, crashed during qualifying for the German Grand Prix, forcing him to retire from the sport. Nevertheless, Scuderia Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship after replacing Villeneuve with Patrick Tambay and Pironi with 1978 World Champion Mario Andretti.

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Complete blood count

Complete blood count.
A complete blood count (CBC) is a set of medical laboratory tests that provide information about the cells in a person's blood. The CBC indicates the counts of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, the concentration of hemoglobin, and the hematocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells). The CBC is often carried out as part of a medical assessment, and can be used to monitor health or diagnose diseases. The results are interpreted by comparing them to reference ranges, which vary with gender and age. A landmark in the automation of blood cell counts was the Coulter principle (1953), which uses electrical impedance measurements to count blood cells and measure their sizes. This technology remains in use in many automated analyzers. Further research in the 1970s involved the use of optical measurements to count and identify cells, which enabled the automation of the white blood cell differential.

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London Beer Flood

London Beer Flood.
The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery (pictured) on 17 October 1814. When one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst, the pressure destroyed another vessel, and between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons (580,000–1,470,000 l; 154,000–388,000 US gal) of beer were released. The resulting wave of porter destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum-dwellings. Eight people were killed. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict that they had lost their lives "casually, accidentally and by misfortune". The brewery was nearly bankrupted by the event; it avoided collapse after a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer. After the accident the brewing industry gradually stopped using large wooden vats, replacing them with lined concrete vessels. The brewery moved in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre is now where the brewery used to stand.

Death of Cleopatra

Death of Cleopatra.
The death of Cleopatra, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, occurred in 30 BC in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old. According to Greek and Roman historians, she poisoned herself using either an ointment or a sharp implement such as a hairpin. Modern scholars debate the validity of these accounts, and of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death. Cleopatra's death effectively ended the final war of the Roman Republic between triumvirs Octavian (Augustus) and Mark Antony, in which she aligned herself with Antony, father to three of her children. Her suicide circumvented the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who in 27 BC became Rome's first emperor. Cleopatra's death marked the end of the Hellenistic period and Ptolemaic rule of Egypt, as well as the beginning of Roman Egypt. The death has been depicted in various works of art throughout history. (This article is part of a featured topic: Cleopatra.)

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Alister Murdoch

Alister Murdoch.
Alister Murdoch (9 December 1912 – 29 November 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Joining the Air Force in 1930, Murdoch trained as a seaplane pilot, and went on an Antarctic rescue mission in 1935. During World War II, he commanded No. 221 Squadron RAF in Europe and the Middle East, and later occupied senior positions on the staff of RAAF formations in the South West Pacific. His post-war appointments included Commandant of RAAF College from 1952 to 1953, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Training Command from 1953 to 1955, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1958 to 1959, AOC Operational Command from 1962 to 1965, and finally Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1965 to 1969, when he retired. His term as CAS coincided with increased Australian participation in the Vietnam War, and he came into conflict with Australian Army commanders over the employment of helicopters in battle.

Cyclone Chapala

Cyclone Chapala.
Cyclone Chapala was a powerful tropical cyclone that hit Yemen and brushed Somalia in November 2015. The third named storm of the 2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, it developed as a depression on 28 October off western India, and strengthened a day later into a cyclonic storm. On 30 October, the India Meteorological Department estimated Chapala's peak three-minute sustained winds at 215 km/h (130 mph). The Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated one-minute sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph), making Chapala one of the strongest cyclones on record in the Arabian Sea. Chapala skirted the Yemeni island of Socotra on 1 November, becoming the first hurricane-force storm there since 1922. Upon entering the Gulf of Aden on 2 November, it became the strongest known cyclone in that body of water. After brushing Somalia, the storm made landfall on 3 November, near Mukalla, Yemen, as a very severe cyclonic storm. It was the strongest storm on record to strike Yemen, where eight people died.

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Blank Space

Blank Space.
"Blank Space" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (pictured) for her fifth studio album, 1989. The song was released to US radio stations as the second single from 1989 on November 10, 2014, by Republic Records in partnership with Swift's label at the time, Big Machine. Swift co-wrote the song with its producers Max Martin and Shellback. "Blank Space" spent seven weeks at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, and has been certified eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Contemporary critics praised the song's production and Swift's songwriting, and some picked it as 1989's highlight. The song earned three nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards, including in two general categories—Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Cover versions of the song in various genres have been performed by I Prevail, Ryan Adams, and other rock musicians.

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1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)

1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia).
The 1st Cavalry Division was a horsed cavalry formation of the Royal Yugoslav Army that formed part of the Yugoslav 1st Army Group during the German-led Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Along with the rest of the Yugoslav Army, the 1st Cavalry Division began mobilising on 3 April 1941. Three days later the Germans commenced operations against the Yugoslav frontiers (map of operations pictured). By the end of the following day, the division's cavalry brigade headquarters and all of the division's cavalry regiments had been detached for duty with other formations. The divisional-level units remained in the vicinity of Zagreb until 10 April, when they were ordered to establish a defensive line southeast of Zagreb along the Sava river, with infantry and artillery support. The division had only begun to deploy for this task when the German 14th Panzer Division captured Zagreb. The divisional headquarters and all attached units surrendered.

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Pyramid of Neferirkare

Pyramid of Neferirkare.
The Pyramid of Neferirkare was built for the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai in the 25th century BC. It was the tallest structure on the highest site at the Abusir necropolis and still towers above it today. The Fifth Dynasty marked the end of the great pyramid constructions during the Old Kingdom. Pyramids of the era were smaller and had intricate relief decoration. Neferirkare's pyramid was originally built as a step pyramid, a design antiquated after the Third Dynasty (26th or 27th century BC). Alterations were intended to convert it into a true pyramid, but the pharaoh's death left the project to his successors. Completed in haste, Neferirkare's monument lacked a valley temple and pyramid town. Instead, there was a small settlement of mudbrick houses where cult priests could conduct their daily activities. The Abusir papyri were discovered in the temple of Neferirkare in 1893.

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Battle of Pontvallain

Battle of Pontvallain.
The Battle of Pontvallain, part of the Hundred Years' War, took place in north-west France on 4 December 1370. A French army under Bertrand du Guesclin heavily defeated an English force which had broken away from an army commanded by Robert Knolles. The French numbered 5,200 men, and the English force was approximately the same size. The English had plundered and burnt their way across northern France from Calais to Paris. With winter coming, the English commanders fell out and divided their army. The battle consisted of two separate engagements: one at Pontvallain where, after a forced march which continued overnight, Guesclin surprised a major part of the English force, and wiped it out. In a coordinated attack, Guesclin's subordinate, Louis de Sancerre, caught a smaller English force the same day, at the nearby town of Vaas, also wiping it out. The French harried the surviving Englishmen into the following year, recapturing much lost territory.

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The Princesse de Broglie

The Princesse de Broglie.
The Princesse de Broglie is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Completed between 1851 and 1853, it shows Pauline de Broglie, who adopted the courtesy title princesse, and married Albert de Broglie, the 28th prime minister of France. She was aged 28 at the time of its completion. Although highly intelligent and widely known for her beauty, Pauline suffered from profound shyness, and the painting captures her melancholia. She contracted tuberculosis and died in 1860 aged 35. The painting is considered one of the artist's finest later-period female portraits, along with those of Comtesse d'Haussonville, of Baronne de Rothschild and of Madame Moitessier. As with many of Ingres's female portraits, details of costume and setting are rendered with a chilly precision while her body seems to lack a solid bone structure. The portrait is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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Alpine newt

Alpine newt.
The alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) is a species of newt native to continental Europe and introduced to Great Britain and New Zealand. Adults measure 7–12 cm (2.8–4.7 in) and are usually dark grey to blue on the back and sides, with an orange belly and throat. The alpine newt occurs at high altitude as well as in the forested lowlands, and migrates to water for breeding. Males are conspicuously coloured during breeding season, and court females with a ritualised display. The aquatic larvae grow up to 5 cm (2.0 in) in around three months, and most metamorphose into terrestrial juvenile efts, which mature into adults at around three years. Larvae and adults feed mainly on diverse invertebrates and themselves fall prey to dragonfly larvae, large beetles, fish, snakes, birds or mammals. Although still relatively common, alpine newt populations are decreasing. The main threats are habitat destruction, pollution and the introduction of fish such as trout into breeding sites.

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Jack Crawford (cricketer)

Jack Crawford (cricketer).
Jack Crawford (1 December 1886 – 2 May 1963) was an English first-class cricketer who played mainly for Surrey County Cricket Club and for South Australia. An amateur, he played as an all-rounder. Unusually for a first-class cricketer, Crawford wore spectacles while playing. He played Test cricket before he was 21 years old for England, and successfully toured Australia with the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1907–08. He played only 12 matches for England, although critics believed he had a great future in the sport and was a potential future England captain. After a dispute with Surrey cricketing authorities, he moved to Australia, but after another dispute, moved to New Zealand to play for Otago, though that relationship also ended badly. After service in the First World War, he returned to England and played a handful of games between 1919 and 1921. Although he continued to play cricket at a lower level, the remainder of Crawford's life passed in relative obscurity.

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Landis's Missouri Battery

Landis's Missouri Battery.
Landis's Missouri Battery was an artillery battery that served in the Confederate States Army during the early stages of the American Civil War. The battery was formed in late 1861 and early 1862, and was crewed by a maximum of 62 men. It fielded two 12-pounder Napoleon cannons (example pictured) and two 24-pounder howitzers. The battery saw limited action at the Battle of Iuka before providing artillery support at the Second Battle of Corinth, both in 1862. It formed part of Confederate defenses at the battles of Port Gibson and Champion Hill in May 1863. The unit may have suffered the capture of two cannons during the Battle of Big Black River Bridge. Landis's Battery next saw action during the Siege of Vicksburg, but was captured when the Confederate garrison there surrendered on July 4. Although the surviving men of the battery were exchanged, the battery was not reorganized; instead, it was absorbed into Guibor's Missouri Battery along with Wade's Missouri Battery.

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Okęcie Airport incident

Okęcie Airport incident.
The Okęcie Airport incident was a dispute between the players and staff of the Poland national football team on 29 November 1980, climaxing at Okęcie Airport (pictured). It occurred at a time when civil resistance was intensifying in communist Poland and led to the suspension of several prominent players and the resignation of the team manager, Ryszard Kulesza. Kulesza had initially angered the team by deciding to prevent a hung-over player, Józef Młynarczyk, from flying with the team, but eventually relented. Polish media attacked the rebellious players over the following days. Another player, Stanisław Terlecki, defied the communist authorities by arranging for the players to meet Pope John Paul II. The Polish Football Association sent Terlecki and others home and imposed various bans. Kulesza resigned in protest over the harshness of the sanctions imposed on the players. Most of the banned players were reinstated within a year, but Terlecki never played for Poland again.

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Hurricane Lane (2018)

Hurricane Lane (2018).
Hurricane Lane was a tropical cyclone that brought torrential rainfall and strong winds to Hawaii during late August 2018. The storm was the wettest on record in Hawaii, with peak rainfall accumulations of 58 inches (1,473 mm) along the eastern slopes of Mauna Loa. Lane was the first of three Category 5 hurricanes of the record-breaking 2018 Pacific hurricane season, and the season's twelfth named storm, sixth hurricane, and fourth major hurricane. It became a Category 4 hurricane on August 18 and reached Category 5 status on August 22 to the south of Hawaii with sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) and a barometric pressure of 926 mbar (hPa; 27.34 inHg). The hurricane then turned north and slowed, battering the Hawaiian Islands from August 22 to 26 with heavy rain that caused flash flooding and mudslides. Across the Big Island, 159 structures were damaged or destroyed. One person died on Kauai. (This article is part of a featured topic: Category 5 Pacific hurricanes.)

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Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a 1993 American biographical drama film directed and co-written by Rob Cohen, and starring Jason Scott Lee (pictured), Lauren Holly, Nancy Kwan and Robert Wagner. The film follows the life of Bruce Lee (Jason) from his relocation to the United States from Hong Kong to his career as a martial arts teacher, and then television and film actor. It also focuses on the relationship between Bruce and his wife Linda Lee (Holly), and the racism to which Bruce was subjected. Rather than making a traditional biographical film, Cohen decided to include elements of mysticism and to dramatise fight scenes to give it the same tone as the films in which Bruce starred. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story received positive reviews, with Jason widely praised for his performance. The film's commercial success, exceeding box office averages for biographical films, was attributed to its romantic themes and its appeal to people outside the traditional kung fu film audience.

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Western yellow robin

Western yellow robin.
The western yellow robin (Eopsaltria griseogularis) is a species of bird in the Australasian robin family Petroicidae. Described by John Gould in 1838, the western yellow robin and its Australian relatives are not closely related to either the European or American robins, but appear to be an early offshoot of the Passerida group of songbirds. Ranging between 13.5 and 15.5 cm (5 1⁄4 and 6 in) long, both sexes have grey upperparts and a grey breast and head, broken by whitish streaks near the bill and below the eye, with a conspicuous yellow belly. The species inhabits open eucalypt forest, woodland and scrub, generally favouring habitats with significant understory. Its range comprises the Southwest of Western Australia, the state's southern coastline, and the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Predominantly insectivorous, the western yellow robin pounces on prey from a low branch, or forages on the ground. The species has declined in parts of its range, but is not threatened.

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Marwan I

Marwan I.
Marwan I (c. 625 – 685) was the fourth Umayyad caliph, ruling for less than a year in 684–685. He was the secretary of his cousin Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). During the rebel siege of Uthman's house, Marwan was wounded and the caliph was slain. Marwan considered Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, a companion of the prophet Muhammad, culpable in the death of Uthman, and killed him in the Battle of the Camel in 656. Marwan later served as governor of Medina under his distant kinsman Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate. After the reigns of Yazid I (r. 680–683) and Mu'awiya II (r. 683–684), the tribal nobility of Syria, led by Ibn Bahdal of the Banu Kalb, elected Marwan caliph. He reasserted Umayyad rule over Egypt, Palestine and northern Syria, and dispatched an expedition to reconquer Iraq, but died while it was underway. His son Abd al-Malik was his designated successor, and the Umayyads continued to rule until 750.

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A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding

A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding.
"A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding" is the seventh episode of the second season of the American television comedy-drama Ugly Betty and the series's 30th episode overall. It was written by Silvio Horta and Marco Pennette, and directed by James Hayman. The episode was originally broadcast on ABC in the United States on November 8, 2007. Ugly Betty centers on Betty Suarez's job at the fashion magazine MODE, and in this episode MODE's creative director Wilhelmina Slater attempts to marry the magazine's publisher Bradford Meade. Victoria Beckham (pictured) guest-stars as herself in the episode, appearing as Wilhelmina's maid of honor who steals attention from the wedding. Vanessa Williams's ex-husband Rick Fox appears as Wilhelmina's bodyguard and lover. Vera Wang makes a cameo appearance, and designed Wilhelmina's wedding dress and Beckham's bridesmaid dress. The episode received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and an NAACP Image Award.

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French battleship Iéna

French battleship Iéna.
Iéna was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale). Laid down at Brest in January 1898, the vessel was launched on 1 September and completed on 14 April 1902. The ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and remained there for the duration of her career. Iéna frequently served as a flagship, participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres and made many visits to French ports in the Mediterranean. On 4 March 1907, while docked for repairs in Toulon, the battleship was badly damaged and 120 people were killed by a magazine explosion that was probably caused by the decomposition of old propellant, known as Poudre B. Multiple investigations were launched and the ensuing scandal forced the naval minister to resign. While repairs were possible, Iéna was not considered worth the expense. The salvaged hulk was used as a gunnery target in 1909 before it was sold for scrap in 1912.

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James Humphreys (pornographer)

James Humphreys (pornographer).
James Humphreys (1930–2003) was an English businessman and criminal who owned a chain of adult book shops and strip clubs in London in the 1960s and 1970s. In March 1958 he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment after using explosives to open a safe and steal £8,260 in money and postal orders. On his release he opened a strip club in Soho (pictured in 2008), the centre of London's sex industry. When Humphreys expanded his business and opened sex shops and book shops selling obscene material, he could only operate by paying large bribes to policemen, particularly those from the Obscene Publications Branch of the Metropolitan Police. In the late 1970s his diaries detailing his meetings with police officers and the bribes he paid were used as evidence against twelve policemen imprisoned for corruption. The character Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1996 BBC television series Our Friends in the North, was based on Humphreys.

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Super Mario World

Super Mario World.
Super Mario World is a 1990 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The story follows Mario's quest to save Princess Toadstool from the series antagonist Bowser and his minions. The gameplay is similar to that of earlier Super Mario games: players control Mario or his brother Luigi through a series of levels in which the goal is to reach the flagpole at the end. Super Mario World introduced Yoshi, a dinosaur character. Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development developed the game, led by director Takashi Tezuka and producer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto (pictured). It is the first Mario game for the SNES and was designed to make the most of the console's technical features. Super Mario World is often considered one of the greatest video games of all time. It sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling SNES game. It also led to a highly acclaimed prequel, Yoshi's Island, released in 1995.

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Sahure

Sahure.
Sahure was an pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, who reigned for about 12 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. He was probably the son of his predecessor Userkaf with Queen Neferhetepes II, and was in turn succeeded by his son Neferirkare Kakai. Sahure's reign marked the political and cultural high point of the Fifth Dynasty. He launched naval expeditions to modern-day Lebanon to procure cedar trees, slaves and exotic items. His expedition to the land of Punt brought back large quantities of myrrh, malachite and electrum. A relief in his mortuary temple shows him celebrating the success of this venture by tending a myrrh tree. Sahure sent expeditions to the turquoise and copper mines in Sinai and ordered military campaigns that captured livestock from Libyan chieftains in the Western Desert. His pyramid in Abusir is smaller than those of the preceding Fourth Dynasty, but his mortuary temple is more elaborate.

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The Boat Race 2019

The Boat Race 2019.
The Boat Race 2019 took place on 7 April 2019. Held annually, The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge along a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) tidal stretch of the River Thames in south-west London. For the fourth time in the history of the event, the men's, the women's and both reserves' races were all held on the Tideway on the same day. Cambridge won the women's and men's races, increasing their lead in the overall record to 44–30 for the women and 84–80 for the men. In the women's reserve race, Cambridge's Blondie defeated Oxford's Osiris, their fourth consecutive victory. The men's reserve race was won by Cambridge's Goldie, who defeated Oxford's Isis. The races were watched by thousands of spectators lining the banks of the Thames, and broadcast live in the United Kingdom on the BBC. They were also live-streamed on YouTube, and by media organisations in Germany, South Africa and China, and around the world.

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Thomas White (Australian politician)

Thomas White (Australian politician).
Thomas White (1888–1957) was an Australian politician and First World War pilot. In 1915, he was among the first Australian Flying Corps members to see action when he was deployed to the Middle East with the Mesopotamian Half Flight. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and twice mentioned in despatches for his war service. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1929. He served as Minister for Trade and Customs in Joseph Lyons's United Australia Party government from 1933 to 1938, but resigned when he was excluded from Lyons's inner cabinet. After service in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War, he returned to parliament in 1945 as a member of the newly formed Liberal Party. From 1949 to 1951, he was Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation in Robert Menzies's government. He was Australia's high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1951 to 1956, and was knighted in 1952.

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Sovereign (British coin)

Sovereign (British coin).
The sovereign is a legal-tender gold coin of the United Kingdom with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Struck from 1817 until the present time, it was originally a circulating coin accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. In most recent years, it has borne the well-known design of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse (pictured), created by Benedetto Pistrucci. Issued as part of the Great Recoinage of 1816, it not only became a popular circulating coin, but was used internationally, trusted as a coin containing a known quantity of gold. From the 1850s until 1932, the sovereign was also struck at colonial mints. With the start of the First World War in 1914, the sovereign vanished from circulation in Britain, replaced by paper money, and it did not return afterwards. In addition to its bullion use, it has been struck since 1979 for collectors.

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Jane Grigson

Jane Grigson.
Jane Grigson (13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for The Observer and wrote numerous books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes. In 1966 she was awarded the John Florio Prize for Italian translation. Her 1967 book Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery was well received and, after a recommendation by the food writer Elizabeth David, Grigson gained her position at The Observer. Her books English Food (1974), Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (1978) and Jane Grigson's Fruit Book (1982) won Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards. She was a political lobbyist, campaigning against battery farming and for animal welfare, food provenance and smallholders. Her writing put food into its social and historical context, drawing on poetry, novels and the cookery writers of the Industrial Revolution era, including Hannah Glasse, Elizabeth Raffald, Maria Rundell and Eliza Acton. Through her writing she changed the eating habits of the British, making many forgotten dishes popular once again.

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2019 Tour Championship

2019 Tour Championship.
The 2019 Tour Championship was a professional snooker ranking tournament, held from 19 to 24 March 2019 in Llandudno, Wales. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the 18th ranking event of the 2018–19 season. The top eight players based on the single-year ranking list took part in a single elimination tournament. Each match was played over a minimum of two sessions, the final as a best-of-25-frames match over two days. In a repeat of the Players Championship final two weeks prior, Ronnie O'Sullivan (pictured) met Neil Robertson in the final. O'Sullivan won the match 13–11 to claim his 36th ranking title, equalling Stephen Hendry's record of ranking event wins. This was O'Sullivan's third ranking title win of the season. On winning the tournament, O'Sullivan returned to the world number one position for the first time since May 2010, and became the oldest world number one since Ray Reardon in 1983.

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Project Excalibur

Project Excalibur.
Project Excalibur was an American Cold War–era research program to develop nuclear-device-powered, space-based X-ray lasers as a ballistic missile defense. X-ray lasers were conceived in the 1970s by George Chapline Jr. (pictured with George Maenchen) and further developed by Peter L. Hagelstein, both working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Edward Teller. After a promising test, Teller discussed the proposal in 1981 with US president Ronald Reagan, who in 1983 incorporated it in his Strategic Defense Initiative. Further underground nuclear tests suggested progress was being made. Reagan refused to abandon the technology at the 1986 Reykjavík Summit arms-control talks, even after a critical test demonstrated it was not working as expected. Researchers at Livermore and Los Alamos began to raise concerns about test results, and the infighting became public. In 1988 the program budget was cut dramatically, after additional problems were revealed.

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Edward Thomas Daniell

Edward Thomas Daniell.
Edward Thomas Daniell was an English artist known for etchings and Middle Eastern landscape paintings. Taught by John Crome and Joseph Stannard, he is associated with the Norwich School of painters, who were mainly inspired by the Norfolk countryside. After graduating in classics at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1828, he was ordained as a curate in 1832 and appointed to a curacy in London in 1834. He became a patron of the arts, and a friend of the artist John Linnell. In 1840, after resigning his curacy and leaving for the Middle East, he encountered the archaeological expedition of Charles Fellows in Lycia, and joined as their illustrator. He contracted malaria and died from a second attack of the disease. He normally used a small number of colours for his watercolour paintings; his distinctive style was influenced in part by Crome, J. M. W. Turner and John Sell Cotman. As an etcher he anticipated the modern revival of etching that began in the 1850s.

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St. Croix macaw

St. Croix macaw.
The St. Croix macaw (Ara autocthones) is an extinct species of macaw whose remains have been found on the Caribbean islands of St. Croix and Puerto Rico. It was a medium-sized macaw of unknown coloration, slightly larger than the extinct Cuban macaw. It was described in 1937 based on a tibiotarsus leg bone (pictured) unearthed from a kitchen midden at a pre-Columbian site on St. Croix. A second specimen consisting of various bones from a similar site on Puerto Rico was described in 2008, and a coracoid from Montserrat may belong to this or another extinct species of macaw. The St. Croix macaw is one of 13 extinct macaw species that have been proposed to have lived on the Caribbean islands. Macaws were frequently transported for long distances by humans in both prehistoric and historic times, so it is impossible to know whether species only known from bones or written accounts were native or imported species.

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Fabian Ware

Fabian Ware.
Sir Fabian Ware (1869–1949) was a British journalist and the founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. He travelled to the Transvaal Colony where he became Director of Education in 1903. Two years later he became editor of The Morning Post. He expanded the paper but was forced to retire in 1911. When the First World War started, Ware was appointed commander of a mobile ambulance unit and began marking and recording the graves of those killed. In 1916 the Department of Graves Registration and Enquiries was created with Ware at its head. On 21 May 1917 the IWGC was founded; Ware served as its vice-chairman. He ended the war as a major-general, having been mentioned in despatches twice. Post-war, Ware was heavily involved in the IWGC's function. When the Second World War broke out, he continued to serve as vice-chairman of the IWGC and was re-appointed director-general of Graves Registration and Enquiries.