User:Highfields/MP

05:00, Thursday, 20 August 2026

Featured Article

Pat O'Keeffe (1883–1960) was a British professional boxer who twice held the British middleweight title. Born in Bromley-by-Bow to Irish parents, he turned professional in 1902 and won the middleweight championship of England in 1906. Between 1907 and 1910, he fought across the United States and Australia, drawing with Billy Papke in Philadelphia and touring with the world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns, whom he seconded against Jack Johnson. In 1914, O'Keeffe challenged Georges Carpentier in a bout billed as the European heavyweight championship and was knocked out in two rounds. During World War I, O'Keeffe served with the 1st Surrey Rifles, combining recruiting with physical training. In January 1918, in his last fight, he beat Bandsman Blake at the National Sporting Club during a German air raid on London to win the Lonsdale Belt outright. O'Keeffe later worked as a publican and helped found the British Boxing Board of Control. (Full article...)

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In The News

Earthquake damage in East Manggarai, Indonesia

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake (damage pictured) strikes off the coast of Flores, Indonesia, causing at least 70 deaths.
Former premier of China Zhu Rongji dies at the age of 97.
A solar eclipse causes totality from Siberia to Iberia.
A ferry capsizes on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, leaving at least 94 people dead.

Picture Of The Day

Calumma fallax, also known as the deceptive chameleon, is a species of chameleon endemic to eastern Madagascar. It is a medium-sized species, with males measuring 43 to 51 mm (1.7 to 2.0 in) and females 41 to 51 mm (1.6 to 2.0 in) in snout–vent length. First described by François Mocquard in 1900, it was transferred to the genus Calumma in 1986. Its population size and trend are unknown, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies it as data deficient. Its habitat is affected by slash-and-burn agriculture, bushfires and logging. This C. fallax chameleon was photographed on a branch in Ranomafana National Park in southeastern Madagascar.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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On This Day

August 20

Bus on the O-Bahn Busway

1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: A Spanish Bourbon army commanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg.
1920 – The American Professional Football Conference, a predecessor of the National Football League, was established in Canton, Ohio.
1988 – More than 150,000 acres (610 km²) were burned on the worst day of the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
1989 – The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was finished, completing at the time the world's longest and fastest guided busway, with buses (example pictured) travelling 12 km (7.5 mi) at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).
2018 – Silent Sam, a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was toppled by protestors.

George Tucker (b. 1775)
Ron Paul (b. 1935)
Mika Yamamoto (d. 2012)
B. K. S. Iyengar (d. 2014)

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Featured List

"Sweet Home Chicago" performed at the White House with Barack Obama joining B. B. King on the chorus

Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues standards come from different eras and styles, including ragtime-vaudeville, Delta blues, country blues, and urban blues from Chicago and the West Coast. Many blues standards were first recorded in the pre-World War II acoustic blues era, before music publications tracked the sales of blues records. Many popular renditions, as reflected in the record charts, are more modern versions featuring electric instruments. For example, Robert Johnson and Tampa Red, who were the first to record the most blues standards on the list at four each, performed them as solo or duo acoustic performances. B. B. King (pictured – second from right) and Muddy Waters used electric blues-ensemble arrangements. (Full list...)

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Did You Know?

Qeren Naftali fortress

... that a Jewish ritual bath at the Qeren Naftali fortress (pictured) was later filled with non-kosher animal bones by a non-Jewish garrison?
... that the painter Abdullah Suriosubroto was adopted by a National Hero of Indonesia?
... that the slice-of-life manga Jimoto Saiko! focuses on poverty, instead of the genre's usual focus on happy lives?
... that Alice Childress's play Wedding Band was based on a true story told by her grandmother?
... that Frank Kauer related to his Hollyoaks character because he experienced "the challenges growing up mixed race brought"?
... that the 1945 Zhijiang surrender ceremony marked the beginning of China's acceptance of Japan's surrender in World War II?
... that Faiza Ali, now New York City's commissioner of immigrant affairs, has said she first became an activist due to experiencing Islamophobia after 9/11?
... that a Rayman Legends Retold producer compared the moment two studios discovered that both wanted to make a Rayman game to the Spider-Man pointing meme?
... that a novelist and her son wrote a biography on another novelist and her sons?