Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 February 19

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From today's featured article

The Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail is a 3.22-mile (5.18 km) rail trail in the United States between the village of Walden in the town of Montgomery and the hamlet of Wallkill in the town of Shawangunk. Montgomery is in Orange County and Shawangunk is in Ulster County in upstate New York. The trail, like the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail to the north, is part of the former Wallkill Valley Railroad's rail corridor. The land was purchased by the towns of Montgomery and Shawangunk in 1985 and converted to a public trail. The portion in Shawangunk was formally opened in 1993 and named after former town supervisor Jesse McHugh. Plans to pave the trail between Walden and Wallkill had been discussed since 2001 until it was finally paved in 2008 and 2009. The trail includes an unofficial, unimproved section to the north of Wallkill, and is bounded by the routes NY 52 and NY 208. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the Castaing machine (pictured), a seventeenth-century device created by Jean Castaing, was said to be capable of applying edge lettering to 20,000 coins daily?
... that Ladislaus III of Hungary reigned less than a year and died before his sixth birthday?
... that "Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud", written by Paul Gerhardt after the Thirty Years War, was translated as "Go Forth, My Heart, and Seek Delight"?
... that Watering Run caused the only recorded flooding due to a major storm in any developed part of Wright Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania?
... that Serbian writer Oskar Davičo received the literary NIN Award a record three times?
... that Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn argues that at the core of Meiklejohn's efforts is "the paradox of Socratic teaching"?
... that auctioneer Theodor Fischer was described as "the focal point in all looted art transactions" in World War Two–era Switzerland?
... that the album From the Ages is over an hour long and was recorded in just two days?

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In the news

An accident at a Mardi Gras parade in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, kills at least sixteen people.
Egypt strikes ISIS targets in Libya after a video is released showing the beheading of twenty-one Egyptian Copts.
Taxi, by Iranian director Jafar Panahi (pictured), wins the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The attempted rape and subsequent murder of a student on a bus spark protests across Turkey.
Two people are killed in shootings at a free-speech seminar and at a synagogue service in Copenhagen.

Ongoing: Boko Haram – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Philip Levine – Louis Jourdan

On this day...

February 19: Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia, and Losar in Bhutan and Tibet (2015)

1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
1807 – Former U.S. Vice-President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason after having raised a private army to allegedly create an independent nation in Spanish Texas.
1910 – The football stadium Old Trafford in Greater Manchester, England, hosted its first match between Manchester United and Liverpool.
1965 – Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm attempted a coup against the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh.
1986 – The first module of the Soviet space station Mir (pictured) was launched, establishing the first long-term research station in space.

More anniversaries: February 18 – February 19 – February 20

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It is now February 19, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

R. V. C. Bodley (1892–1970) was a British Army officer, author and journalist. After studying at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in 1911 Bodley was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps and subsequently served with them during the First World War. After witnessing the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, he grew disillusioned with the military and went to live in the Sahara as a nomad for seven years. During the 1930s he was one of few Westerners allowed access to Japan's South Pacific Mandates. These experiences formed the basis of several books, including Algeria from Within (1927) and Wind in the Sahara (1944).

Photograph: Unknown; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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