Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 February 25

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From today's featured article

Kasey Kahne

The 2006 Bank of America 500 was the 31st stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fifth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 14, 2006, before a crowd of 175,000 in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The 334-lap race was won by Kasey Kahne (pictured) of the Evernham Motorsports team, who started from second position. Jimmie Johnson finished second and Jeff Burton was third. There were 10 cautions and 34 lead changes. The victory was Kahne's sixth of the season, and the seventh since his NASCAR debut in 2004. After the race Burton maintained his lead in the Drivers' Championship, which increased to 45 points over his nearest rival Matt Kenseth. Kahne's victory moved him from ninth to eighth, while Jeff Gordon dropped to tenth. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship with five races left in the season. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Huer's Hut

... that a lookout known as a huer would be posted to the Huer's Hut (pictured) in Newquay, Cornwall, to watch for the arrival of pilchards?
... that in 1965, U.S. civil rights activist John Hulett became one of the first two black voters in Lowndes County, Alabama, in more than six decades?
... that Werner Herzog, who plays The Client in The Mandalorian, has called the show's producers "cowards" for considering the use of computer-generated imagery for "Baby Yoda"?
... that Irish republican activist Michael Davitt hated the British empire, but actually liked English people?
... that in his 1831 chorale cantata Verleih uns Frieden, Mendelssohn set Luther's German prayer for peace to a new melody?
... that British screenwriter Gaby Chiappe has worked with the Rape Crisis centre in Leeds to develop a storyline about rape?
... that New York City's Downtown Athletic Club, for white-collar workers of Lower Manhattan, did not accept female members for 51 years?
... that cricketer Atharva Ankolekar's father placed a cricket bat near his crib on the day he was born?

In the news

Katherine Johnson

American former film producer Harvey Weinstein is convicted of two felony sex crimes.
Shootings in Hanau, Germany, leave eleven people dead and five others wounded.
The Irish general election concludes with no party holding a majority of seats in Dáil Éireann.
South Korean film Parasite wins four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bong Joon-ho.

On this day

February 25: Shrove Tuesday (Western Christianity, 2020); Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia (1921); National Day in Kuwait (1961)

Hiram Rhodes Revels

628 – Khosrow II, the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, was overthrown by his son Kavad II.
1870 – Mississippi senator Hiram Rhodes Revels (pictured) became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress.
1956 – In a speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the personality cult and dictatorship of his predecessor Joseph Stalin.
1986 – Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda were ousted from power by the non-violent People Power Revolution, with Corazon Aquino succeeding as president.
1992 – Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian armed forces killed at least 161 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

John Wood, the Younger (b. 1728) · Mary Locke Petermann (b. 1908) · Hans Raj Khanna (d. 2008)

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Today's featured picture

The Bucentaur was the state barge of the doge of Venice. Several vessels were built for this purpose over the years, and this one, the most magnificent, made its maiden voyage on Ascension Day, 1729. A two-deck floating palace some 35 m (115 ft) long, its main salon had a seating capacity of 90; the doge's throne was in the stern, and the prow bore a figurehead representing Justice with sword and scales. When Napoleon ordered the destruction of the ship in 1798 to symbolize his victory in conquering the Venetian Republic, the vessel burned for three days, and French soldiers used 400 mules to carry away the gold.

This picture is an oil-on-canvas painting by Italian artist Canaletto, showing the Bucentaur on the Venetian Lagoon with various other vessels, returning to the pier following the Marriage of the Sea ceremony on Ascension Day. St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace are visible in the background. The work is now in the collection of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Painting credit: Canaletto

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