Wikipedia:Main Page history/2024 August 10b

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Phoolan Devi (1963–2001) was an Indian dacoit (bandit) who later became a member of parliament (MP). She was a woman of the Mallah subcaste who grew up in poverty in the state of Uttar Pradesh. After marrying aged eleven and being sexually abused, she joined a gang of dacoits who robbed higher-caste villages and held up trains. When she became its leader, she evaded capture by the authorities, making her a heroine for the Other Backward Classes. She was charged in absentia for the 1981 Behmai massacre, in which twenty Thakur men were executed, allegedly on her command. Afterwards, calls to apprehend her were amplified. She surrendered two years later and spent eleven years in Gwalior prison awaiting trial. She was released in 1994 after the charges against her were set aside and she became an MP for the Samajwadi Party. Her global fame had grown after the release of the controversial film Bandit Queen, of which she did not approve. In 2001, she was assassinated outside her home in New Delhi. (Full article...)
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Ol' Rip the Horned Toad in his casket
Ol' Rip the Horned Toad in his casket

In the news

ATR 72-500 Voepass in August 2023
The ATR 72 involved in the crash

On this day

August 10: Qixi Festival in China (2024)

Painting of the insurrection of 10 August 1792
Painting of the insurrection of 10 August 1792
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Chestnut-headed bee-eater

The chestnut-headed bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti) is a bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae, which is distributed in an area ranging from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka across Southeast Asia to Indonesia. It is 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in) in overall length and weighs 26–33 g (0.92–1.16 oz), with the sexes being similar in appearance. It is a multi-coloured bird, with parts of the bird such as the forehead and nape being chestnut, and other parts being green, yellow, black and blue. It eats predominantly insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. This chestnut-headed bee-eater was photographed in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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