Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 September 19

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From today's featured article

The Battle of Dürenstein (11 November 1805) was an engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition, fought in the Wachau Valley of the Danube, 73 kilometers (45 mi) upstream from Vienna, Austria. A combined force of Russian and Austrian troops trapped a French division commanded by Théodore Maxime Gazan, part of the VIII Corps under Édouard Mortier. Pursuing the Austrian retreat from Bavaria, Mortier had overextended his three divisions. Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, commander of the Coalition force, enticed Mortier to send Gazan's division into a trap, and the French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. The battle extended well into the night. Both sides had losses of around 4,000 wounded or dead, and both claimed victory. Austria lost Johann Heinrich von Schmitt, one of its most capable chiefs of staff. After the Russo-Austrian defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz three weeks later, Austria withdrew from the war. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Sammy Davis Jr. and his mother

... that after performing at Atlantic City's 500 Club, Sammy Davis Jr. often visited his mother (pictured together) at Grace's Little Belmont, where she was a barmaid?
... that Red Army Major General Fyodor Korol had been an officer in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I?
... that the 2016 hurricane Hermine was the first to make landfall in Florida since Hurricane Wilma in 2005?
... that Eastern Region, Nigeria, spent up to one-third of the government budget on education in the 1950s and 1960s?
... that alt-right media hub The Right Stuff has a core principle of ethnic nationalism?
... that Virginia E. Haines was appointed to the Ocean County, New Jersey, board of chosen freeholders in January 2016, only the second woman to serve since the governing body was formed in 1850?
... that the margin of victory in the women's triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics was approximately 15 centimetres (6 in)?
... that Romanian literary scholar Bonifaciu Florescu had the reputation of an unrepentant bohemian and allegedly slept on a pile of hay?

In the news

Typhoon Meranti

Typhoon Meranti (pictured) affects China, Taiwan and the Philippines, causing at least 30 deaths.
The Chess Olympiad concludes with the United States winning the open event and China the women's event.
The wreck of HMS Terror, last seen in 1845 while on Franklin's lost expedition, is found off the south-west coast of King William Island, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Passenger services begin on the 54-kilometre (34 mi) Moscow Central Circle rail line.
North Korea conducts its fifth and largest nuclear test to date.
NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, a probe sent to return samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu.

On this day...

September 19: Respect for the Aged Day in Japan (2016); Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983); International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Kate Sheppard

634 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid captured Damascus from the Byzantine Empire.
1676 – During Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon burned the colonial capital of Jamestown to the ground.
1893 – New Zealand became the first country to introduce universal suffrage, following the women's suffrage movement led by Kate Sheppard (pictured).
1991 – Ötzi, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC, was discovered by two German tourists.
2006 – The Royal Thai Army overthrew the elected government of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was in New York City for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

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From today's featured list

Miami-Dade Transit Metrorail system map

Miami-Dade Transit operates 42 metro stations, with 23 in the Metrorail rapid transit system throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, and 21 in the Metromover people mover system within Greater Downtown Miami. The Miami-Dade Transit network consists of two elevated Metrorail lines (Green Line and Orange Line) and three elevated Metromover lines (Brickell Loop, Inner Loop, and Omni Loop). In the first quarter of 2016, the system served 111,800 passengers per weekday, with 76,400 passengers riding the Metrorail and 35,400 the Metromover. The initial 21-mile (34 km) Metrorail line opened in three segments. Service began on May 20, 1984 with the opening of the first 11-mile (18 km) segment, featuring 10 stations from Dadeland South station in Kendall to Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre station in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami. Metromover service began on April 17, 1986, with the opening of the initial 1.9-mile (3.1 km) loop through the Miami Central Business District. (Full list...)

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Sunita Williams (b. 1965) is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer of Indian-Slovenian descent. Born in Euclid, Ohio, Williams joined the Navy in 1987 and was designated a naval aviator two years later. Before being selected for astronaut training in 1998, she was deployed to the Gulf War and in hurricane relief efforts. Williams was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and Expedition 15. In 2012, she served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then commander of Expedition 33. Since 2015 she has been involved in the Commercial Crew Development program. Williams holds the records for total spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes).

Photograph: NASA

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