Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 February 8

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From today's featured article

"Interactions" (premiered March 8, 2008) is the second episode of the animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which is based on the comic book character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In the episode, Spider-Man confronts the supervillain Electro, who has been contaminated by genetically modified electric eels that were being investigated as a potential source of clean energy. "Interactions" was directed by Troy Adomitis and written by Kevin Hopps, who researched all the available comic books that featured Electro. Electro is drawn to match his comic book appearance, though designer Victor Cook emphasized the color green and removed the character's customary star-shaped mask. Voice actor Crispin Freeman sought to reflect the character's declining sanity in his vocal style. "Interactions" aired on the Kids WB! block of The CW network. Its 1.4/4 Nielsen rating was higher than that of the pilot, "Survival of the Fittest". The episode received mixed reviews; IGN commended the episode for "some notable moments" but found it inferior to the pilot episode. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Mahabaleshwar strawberries

... that the Mahabaleshwar strawberry (pictured) comprises about 85 percent of total strawberry production in India?
... that nurse and midwife Rosita Beatrice Missick-Butterfield was the first woman Speaker of the Legislative Council of the Turks and Caicos Islands?
... that in a recent opinion, United States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy questioned the propriety of solitary confinement?
... that Arthur John Matthews, president of the Tempe Normal School, wrote the education section of the Constitution of Arizona?
... that Meissen porcelain developed three osier patterns of relief decoration for plates in the 18th century?
... that Billie Maxwell was the first woman recorded in country music, and the first recorded musician from Arizona?
... that the overwater bungalows at Hotel Bora Bora were the first on that island, and set a precedent for future developers?
... that American football player Thomas Duarte was one of the rare high-profile college recruits to be of Asian descent?

In the news

Von Miller

In American football, the Denver Broncos defeat the Carolina Panthers to win Super Bowl 50 (MVP Von Miller pictured).
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Taiwan, killing at least thirty-seven people.
Daallo Airlines Flight 159 makes a successful emergency landing after an explosion on board kills one person and injures two.
The rapid spread of Zika fever in Latin America leads to the World Health Organization issuing a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Ongoing events:
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:

On this day...

February 8: Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia, and Losar in Bhutan and Tibet (2016); Shrove Monday (Western Christianity, 2016); Prešeren Day in Slovenia

Sandford Fleming

1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex led a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I.
1837 – Richard Mentor Johnson became the only person to be elected as Vice President of the United States by the Senate.
1879 – At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming (pictured) first proposed the adoption of worldwide standard time zones based on a single universal world time.
1968 – Local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of people who were protesting segregation, killing three and injuring twenty-seven others.
1979 – Denis Sassou Nguesso was chosen as the new President of the Republic of the Congo after Joachim Yhombi-Opango was forced from power.

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From today's featured list

1920 Akron Pros, the first APFA champions

National Football League (NFL) champions from 1920 to 1969 were determined by two different systems. The NFL was established on September 17, 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, which changed its name in 1922 to the NFL. From 1920 to 1931, the APFA/NFL determined its champion by overall win–loss record, with no playoff games; ties were not counted in the winning percentage total. The 1932 NFL season resulted in a tie for first place between the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans, and could not be resolved by the typical win–loss system. To settle the tie, a playoff game was held; Chicago won the game and the championship. The following year the NFL split into two divisions, and the winner of each division would play in the NFL Championship Game. The Green Bay Packers won the most NFL championships during the period, winning eleven of the fifty championships. The Packers were also the only team to win three straight championships, an achievement they accomplished twice: from 1929–31 and from 1965–67. (Full list...)

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Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction. Trained to be a lawyer, he left the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Photograph: Nadar; restoration: Jdcollins13, Centpacrr, and Quibik

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