Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 June 15

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From today's featured article

Amanita bisporigera is a fungus that produces a deadly poisonous mushroom commonly known as the destroying angel, a name it shares with three other lethal white Amanita species. It is found on the ground in mixed coniferous and deciduous forests of Eastern North America, and rarely in western North America and Colombia. It has a smooth white cap that can reach up to 10 cm (3.9 in) across with crowded white gills, and a stalk up to 14 cm (5.5 in) long with a delicate white skirt-like ring near the top. The bulbous base is covered with a membranous sac-like volva. First described in 1906, A. bisporigera typically bears two spores on the basidia, as the species name suggests. The mushroom produces amatoxins, which inhibit a vital enzyme when eaten, RNA polymerase II. The first symptoms of poisoning appear 6 to 24 hours after consumption, followed by a period of apparent improvement, then by progressive liver and kidney failure, and death after four days or more. The DNA of A. bisporigera has been partially sequenced, and the genes responsible for the production of amatoxins have been determined. (Full article...)

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David Nott

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In the news

Sidney Crosby

UEFA fines the Russian Football Union €150,000 and imposes a suspended disqualification on their team for violence at UEFA Euro 2016.
Microsoft announces its $26.2-billion acquisition of the professional networking site LinkedIn.
A shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, kills 49 people.
In ice hockey, the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the San Jose Sharks to win the Stanley Cup (MVP Sidney Crosby pictured).
Peruvians for Change candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is elected President of Peru.

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Recent deaths:
- Christina Grimmie
- Gordie Howe

On this day...

June 15: Flag Day in Denmark

"Sallie Gardner at a Gallop" (animated)

1215 – King John of England put his seal to Magna Carta.
1878 – Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops (animation pictured); the study became the basis of motion pictures.
1919 – After nearly 16 hours, the Vickers Vimy flown by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crash-landed in County Galway, Ireland, to complete the first non-stop transatlantic flight.
1954 – The Union of European Football Associations, the administrative and controlling body for European football, was founded in Basel, Switzerland.
1996 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings.

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Today's featured picture

The flying gurnard is a fish of tropical to warm temperate waters on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. When excited, it spreads its "wings", semi-transparent appendages tipped with a phosphorescent bright blue coloration which are used to frighten predators.

Photograph: Beckmannjan

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