Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 July 12

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From today's featured article

Tricholoma pardinum is a gilled mushroom widely distributed across North America and Europe, as well as parts of Asia. It was first officially described by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801. The imposing fruit bodies (mushrooms) of T. pardinum appear in beech woodland in summer and autumn. The pale grey cap, up to 15 cm (6 in) in diameter, is covered with dark brownish to greyish scales. The gills are whitish, and are not attached to the stout white to pale grey-brown stalk. The spore print is white. One of the more toxic members of the genus Tricholoma, the species has been implicated in many episodes of mushroom poisoning, probably because it is a large, attractive mushroom with a pleasant smell and taste, and it bears a superficial resemblance to several edible species, like Tricholoma terreum. Ingesting T. pardinum—even in small quantities—results in a severe, persistent gastroenteritis caused by an unknown mycotoxin. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Khalili Imperial Garniture

... that on their display in Chicago in 1893, the vases of the Khalili Imperial Garniture (pictured) were described as "the largest examples of cloisonné enamel ever made"?
... that Ed Warren, the 35th and 41st mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was an actor and one of three Cheyenne mayors to have played on Broadway?
... that husband and wife Ralf and Kristin Bochröder both won their 1975 Berlin Marathon races, the only couple to have done so?
... that after years of fan lobbying, the director's cut of Zack Snyder's 2017 film Justice League will be released on HBO Max?
... that Maurício Camuto, the incoming bishop of Caxito in Angola, was the director of a commercial radio station that exposed human rights abuses in the country?
... that one private company, Lexipol, writes the policy manuals for 3,500 law and public service agencies in the U.S.?
... that a large, elderly, "decently behaved" Russian brown bear once lived in the Leeds suburb of Headingley?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Flooding of the Kuma River in Kyushu, Japan, on 4 July 2020

Floods on the Kuma River in Kyushu

A bus plunges into a reservoir in Anshun, China, killing 21 people and injuring 16.
Floods (pictured) in Kyushu, Japan, kill more than 60 people.
The Russian electorate votes to amend the Russian constitution.
European police agencies infiltrate EncroChat, an alleged criminal chat system, leading to the arrests of more than 800 people.

On this day

July 12

Saint Basil's Cathedral

1561 – Saint Basil's Cathedral (pictured), located in Red Square, Moscow, was consecrated.
1843 – According to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, he received a revelation recommending plural marriage.
1920 – The Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty was signed, with Soviet Russia agreeing to recognize an independent Lithuania.
1962 – The English rock band the Rolling Stones played their first concert, at the Marquee Club in London.
1986 – The Homosexual Law Reform Act became law in New Zealand, decriminalising consensual homosexual sex.

Charles Chalmot de Saint-Ruhe (d. 1691)
Sanjay Manjrekar (b. 1965)
Anne-Sophie Pic (b. 1969)

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Today's featured picture

Arii Matamoe is an oil painting on coarse cloth by the French artist Paul Gauguin. Created in 1892, during the painter's first visit to Tahiti, Gauguin described it to a correspondent as the severed head of a Pacific Islander, "nicely arranged on a white cushion, in a palace of my invention and guarded by women also of my invention". The painting may have been inspired by the death of Pōmare V, the last Tahitian king, but is not representative of common or contemporary Tahitian mourning rituals. It depicts a despairing nude woman crouching near the displayed head, while a figure outside seems to proclaim the man's death to other people further away. The Tahitian words "Arii Matamoe", inscribed in the upper left above the head, respectively mean 'noble' and 'sleeping eyes' (implying death). The painting is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Painting credit: Paul Gauguin

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