Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 December 31b

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From today's featured article

Turbinellus floccosus, the shaggy chanterelle, is a cantharelloid mushroom of the fungus family Gomphaceae native to Asia and North America. It was known as Gomphus floccosus until 2011, when it was found to be only distantly related to the genus's type species, G. clavatus, and transferred to Turbinellus. The orange-capped vase- or trumpet-shaped mushrooms may reach 30 cm (12 in) high and 30 cm (12 in) wide. The lower and outer surfaces are covered in wrinkles and ridges rather than gills or pores, and are pale buff or yellowish to whitish. T. floccosus forms symbiotic relationships with the roots of various conifers in woodlands across Eastern Asia, from North Korea to Pakistan, and in North America, more frequently in the west. The mild-tasting mushrooms are consumed locally in northeastern India, Nepal and Mexico, but can cause gastrointestinal symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Queen Kapiʻolani

... that Queen Kapiʻolani (pictured) founded the Kapiʻolani Maternity Home for the care of Hawaiian mothers and newborns, and a school for the daughters of leprosy patients?
... that André Couto, the winner of the 2000 Macau Grand Prix, is the first Macanese driver to win the race under Formula Three regulations?
... that neuroengineer Maryam Shanechi and her research team developed a method to determine a person's mood from their brain activity?
... that there were only 218 Washington College alumni from 1845 to 1903?
... that Irrfan Khan recommended Saba Qamar to the makers of the film Hindi Medium after watching her YouTube videos?
... that a cantata titled God is Now, based on the hymn "Gott ist gegenwärtig" and scored for choir, big band, organ, and live electronics, premiered on the 250th anniversary of the hymn writer's death?
... that Korean-Chinese missile expert Li Xianyu is the only female general in the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force?
... that after Mississippi radio station WKNZ relaunched as "Zoo 107", it sponsored a name-the-zebra contest at its namesake, the Hattiesburg Zoo?

In the news

Jamal Khashoggi

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentences five people to death for the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi (pictured).
In the Netherlands, the supreme court upholds a ruling that the government must meet established emissions reduction milestones, creating the first legal precedent on the impact of climate change on human rights.

On this day

December 31

Parliament Hill, Ottawa

1225 – Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the only empress regnant in Vietnam's history, married Trần Thái Tông to establish the Trần dynasty, with both the bride and groom seven years of age.
1857 – Queen Victoria selected Ottawa (Parliament Hill pictured), then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
1907 – New York City held its first annual ball drop event in Times Square as part of New Year's Eve celebrations.
1999 – Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal Zone from the United States, in accordance with the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties, concluding a 20-year transition period.

Ahmad Maymandi (d. 1032) · Henri Matisse (b. 1869) · Henry Gerber (d. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

Beech Grove I, by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918), is an oil-on-canvas painting dated 1902. It is part of a collection of about 300 paintings held by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden, Germany.

Klimt, one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement, is best known for his opulent, symbol-laden portraits of the Viennese bourgeoisie, but his landscapes represent an important aspect of his career. For many years he travelled each summer through the Austrian and Italian countryside, painting and sketching as he went. In this work, he captures shafts of light illuminating the bare trunks of young beech trees above a litter of leaves on the forest floor.

Painting credit: Gustav Klimt

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