Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 March 11

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Mildred H. McAfee

The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served in the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. In July 1942, the Naval Reserve was authorized to accept women as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective until six months after the war, which freed up many men for ship duty. Mildred H. McAfee (pictured), on leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of the WAVES. The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely supported in Congress or by the Navy, but it was supported by the Navy's Women's Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States. The WAVES were primarily white, but eventually included 72 African-American women. Serving at 900 stations in the United States and the territory of Hawaii, many of the women experienced workplace hostility, but almost all of them looked upon their service as beneficial. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Nao Tōyama

... that Nao Tōyama (pictured), whose solo singles have been used as theme songs for anime series on television and in film, was tone-deaf as a girl?
... that Eco-Link@BKE, the first ecological corridor of its kind in Southeast Asia, is intended to help conserve animals such as the banded leaf monkey and Sunda pangolin in Singapore?
... that Zuzana Marková's last-minute performance as Lucia di Lammermoor at Opéra de Marseille in 2014 was described as "dazzling" and praised for its depth of understanding?
... that Queens Botanical Garden in New York City was built on top of landfill atop a creek?
... that Qiu Dahong studied the force of sea waves?
... that the Indian organisation Poovulagin Nanbargal filed a case to prevent the commissioning of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant?
... that a small group of Holocaust survivors tried to kill six million Germans?
... that the burrow of the spoon worm Ochetostoma erythrogrammon may be shared by flatworms, scale worms, molluscs, pea crabs, snapping shrimps, and copepods?
... that for Pacific Islanders, the sudden arrival of a mass of men and machines during World War II resulted in lasting religious effects, such as cargo cults?
... that Mary Margaret Francis told Graham Lord that her husband, Dick Francis, "would like me to have all the credit" for his novels?

In the news

Ethiopian Airlines aircraft ET-AVJ in February 2019

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (aircraft pictured) crashes shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa for Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
A severe tornado outbreak hits the Southeastern United States, with one tornado causing 23 deaths in Alabama.
Heightened tensions remain between India and Pakistan after both countries conduct airstrikes.
Muhammadu Buhari is re-elected President of Nigeria.

On this day

March 11: Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2019)

Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield, after its rupture

1845 – Māori forces led by chiefs Te Ruki Kawiti and Hōne Heke destroyed the British settlement of Kororareka in New Zealand, beginning the Flagstaff War.
1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood killed at least 240 people and damaged more than 600 homes, after a crack in the Dale Dyke Dam (pictured) caused it to fail.
1941 – World War II: The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law, allowing the United States to supply the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war materiel.
1999 – Infosys became the first Indian-registered company to have its shares listed on NASDAQ.
2009 – A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.

Clemente Tabone (d. 1665) · Benjamin Tupper (b. 1738) · Didier Drogba (b. 1978)

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Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

Twenty-seven members of the British royal family have lived to the age of 80 years or older since the Acts of Union 1707 established the Kingdom of Great Britain. These British royal family members consist of two centenarians, eight nonagenarians, and seventeen octogenarians. Of the British royals who have lived to 80 years or longer, twenty have been women and seven have been men. Seventeen of the twenty-seven royals aged 80 or older have been members of the British royal family by blood and eleven have been members through marriage. Of the royals to reach the age of 80 or older, only Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, was a member of the British royal family by both blood and marriage. The longest-living member of the British royal family has been Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who lived 102 years and 309 days. Princess Alice became the oldest ever member of the royal family when she surpassed the age of 101 years and 238 days in 2003, the age at which Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother died in 2002. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. The story is a tragedy which revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's beautiful daughter Gilda.

This picture is Roberto Focosi's illustration to the variant first edition of Rigoletto's vocal score. It depicts the opera's Bella figlia dell'amore scene.

Artwork: Roberto Focosi; Lithograph: Francesco Corbetta; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

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