Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 September 27

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From today's featured article

The spotted green pigeon is a species of pigeon that is most likely extinct. It was first mentioned and described in 1783 by John Latham, who claimed to have seen two specimens and a drawing depicting the bird. Today, the species is only known from a specimen kept in World Museum, Liverpool. Overlooked for much of the 20th century, it was only recognised as a valid extinct species by the IUCN Red List in 2008. In 2014 a genetic study confirmed it as a distinct species related to the Nicobar pigeon, and showed that the two were the closest relatives of the extinct dodo and Rodrigues solitaire. The remaining specimen is 32 cm (12.5 in) long, and has very dark, brownish plumage with a green gloss. The neck-feathers are elongated, and most of the feathers on the upperparts and wings have a yellowish spot on their tips. It has a black bill with a yellow tip, and the end of the tail has a pale band. It has relatively short legs and long wings. It may have been native to an island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean, and it has been suggested that a bird referred to in 1928 as titi by Tahitian islanders was this bird. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

The Elbphilharmonie

... that Kent Nagano commissioned Jörg Widmann's oratorio Arche for the opening celebrations of the Elbphilharmonie (pictured), and conducted 300 performers in the premiere?
... that Ada Bell Maescher produced Night Life in Hollywood as a propaganda film to depict Hollywood as a model city populated by home-loving people?
... that Titian intended his painting of the Pietà to hang over his grave, but it never did?
... that before working with Bob Crewe and Dusty Springfield, folk singer Norma Tanega performed at summer camps and a mental hospital?
... that Saunders' embiids live in silken tubes and camouflage their eggs, perhaps to prevent cannibalism?
... that Ursula K. Le Guin's 2006 novel Voices has been compared to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which also prominently features the destruction of books?
... that during the Rhine Campaign of 1796, the French troops were hampered by having to steal their supplies, which turned the local populations against them?
... that the 1992 New Delhi by-election included the candidacies of two Bollywood stars and a "Bandit Queen"?

In the news

German Chancellor
Angela Merkel

The CDU/CSU, led by Angela Merkel (pictured), wins the most seats in the German federal election.
The National Party, led by Bill English, wins the most seats in the New Zealand general election.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes central Mexico, killing more than three hundred people.
Hurricane Maria crosses the Antilles as a Category 5 hurricane, causing widespread destruction and at least 37 deaths.
In U.S. television, The Handmaid's Tale wins Best Drama and Veep wins Best Comedy at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

On this day...

September 27: World Tourism Day; Meskel in Eritrea and Ethiopia

The "Five-Star Red Flag" of China

1422 – The Treaty of Melno was signed, establishing the Prussian–Lithuanian border, which afterwards remained unchanged for about 500 years.
1875 – The Ellen Southard wrecked in a storm at Liverpool, England; the United States Congress subsequently awarded 27 gold Lifesaving Medals to the lifeboat men who rescued her crew.
1949 – Members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference unanimously selected Zeng Liansong's design for the flag of China (pictured).
1975 – Two members of ETA political-military and three of the Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front became the last people to be executed in Spain, having been sentenced to death for murders of policemen and civil guards.
2007 – NASA launched the Dawn probe, its first purely exploratory mission to use ion propulsion, from Cape Canaveral.

Thomas Nast (b. 1840) · Edgar Degas (d. 1917) · Avril Lavigne (b. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

Karang Bolong Beach is a white-sand beach on the island of Nusa Kambangan in Cilacap Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. Located on the eastern end of the island, inside a nature reserve, the beach is situated near an old Dutch fortress.

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

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