Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 May 19

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From today's featured article

Dungeons & Dragons is a studio album by American musical group Midnight Syndicate, released in 2003 by Entity Productions. The album is designed as a soundtrack for Wizards of the Coast's role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. After an initial meeting with Wizards of the Coast, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka of Midnight Syndicate produced tracks independently of one another, then jointly arranged the album and mastered the tracks. The fantasy album was a change in style from their earlier works, which had been almost entirely horror-based. Artwork in the album booklet came from sourcebooks for the game, including works from prominent game designers such as Skip Williams. The album was well received by music critics and the gaming community. Wizards of the Coast described the band's music as "the perfect accompaniment to role-playing game sessions", and acknowledged the album as the first official Dungeons & Dragons soundtrack. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Triangular corner flag

... that contrary to popular belief, the use of triangular corner flags in English football (pictured) is not a right reserved only for FA Cup winners?
... that Canadian naturalist R. D. Lawrence followed a cougar in the wild for nine months, and spent six months observing a beaver colony?
... that Manchester United are looking to match Arsenal's FA Cup winner's record in today's 2018 FA Cup Final against Chelsea?
... that the Hinners Organ Company pioneered production and pricing methods for pipe organs similar to those applied by Henry Ford to the automobile?
... that the footballer Albert Shepherd was the first player to score a penalty in an FA Cup final?
... that the Frederick W. Winters House is the only nationally designated historic property in Bellevue, Washington?
... that "Christ fuhr gen Himmel" (Christ rose to Heaven) is based on a medieval Leise and is sung by both Catholics and Protestants?
... that the least expensive law school in Texas bought the Dallas Municipal Building for $1?

In the news

The aircraft that crashed, in 2011

More than 100 people are killed when a passenger aircraft (pictured) crashes shortly after takeoff from Havana, Cuba.
Israeli troops kill more than 60 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, on the day the United States moves its embassy to Jerusalem.
In association football, the English Premier League concludes with Manchester City winning the title.
A series of bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia, kills at least 25 people.

On this day...

May 19: Pontian Greek Genocide Remembrance Day in Greece; Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey; Ho Chi Minh's birthday in Vietnam

John Franklin

715 – The papacy of Gregory II began; his conflict with Byzantine emperor Leo III eventually led to the establishment of the popes' temporal power.
1743 – French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin (pictured) and his ill-fated Arctic expedition departed from Greenhithe, England; 129 men would die on the expedition.
1997 – The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, which encompasses the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, was established as a result of grassroots efforts.
2015 – A corroded oil pipeline in Santa Barbara County, California, burst, spilling 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the U.S. West Coast.

Claude Vignon (b. 1593) · Mariam-uz-Zamani (d. 1623) · Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (d. 1994)

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Today's featured picture

Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife is a double portrait of the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier and his wife and collaborator Marie-Anne. Commissioned from the French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1788 for 7,000 livres, the portrait remained in the family until 1924, when it was acquired by John D. Rockefeller. Since 1977, it has been held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Painting: Jacques-Louis David

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