Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 February 17

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Alleged portrait of Standish

Myles Standish (c. 1584 – 1656) was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for the Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of the colony from its inception. On February 17, 1621, the colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. He served as an agent of Plymouth Colony in England, and as assistant governor and treasurer of the colony. He was also one of the first settlers and founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. As a military leader, Standish favored preemptive action, sometimes angering Native Americans and disturbing more moderate members of the colony. By the 1640s, he relinquished his role as an active soldier and settled into a quieter life on his Duxbury farm. Several towns and military installations have been named for Standish, and monuments have been built in his memory. The popularity of the fictionalized book The Courtship of Miles Standish by H.W. Longfellow helped to cement the Pilgrim story in US culture. (Full article...)

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Teresia Sampsonia, Lady Shirley
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Browsing

Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore (or, more narrowly defined, a folivore) feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of high growing, generally woody, plants such as shrubs. In this photograph, a chital (Axis axis) is attempting to browse at Nagarhole National Park.

Photograph: Yathin S Krishnappa

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