Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 September 3

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From today's featured article

Percy Chapman (3 September 1900 – 16 September 1961) captained the England cricket team between 1926 and 1931. Representing the Cambridge cricket team in 1920, he once scored centuries against Oxford and in the Gentlemen v Players match within the space of a week. Chapman made his Test debut in 1924, although he had yet to play County Cricket. A left-handed batsman, he went on to play 26 Test matches for England. After he took over from Arthur Carr as captain in 1926, England defeated Australia for the first time since 1912. He achieved victory in his first nine matches in charge but lost two and drew six of his remaining games. An amateur cricketer, Chapman played first-class cricket for Kent, eventually as captain. He had a respectable batting record, could score runs quickly, and was popular with spectators. Contemporaries rated him highly as a fielder. Although opinions were divided on his tactical ability as a captain, he was seen as an inspirational leader. Chapman's success gave him access to fashionable society for a time, but in the 1930s, his health and cricketing form declined. For the rest of his life, he suffered from alcoholism. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Manon Antoniazzi

... that Manon Antoniazzi (pictured) gave Welsh lessons to Prince William, the son of the Prince of Wales?
... that scrap metal from the demolition of the Capitol Hill station was sold to fund meals for the homeless?
... that Kofi Dzamesi, the Minister for Chieftancy and Religious Affairs in Ghana, survived an assassination attempt in 2008?
... that Brahms composed the first of Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano more than 20 years after the second?
... that the ciliate Zoothamnium niveum is so densely covered by symbiotic microbes that it appears white to the naked eye?
... that Michael M. York and Jeffrey A. Marx received death threats for their 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning series exposing improper cash payoffs to Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players?
... that the Casualty episode "Exile" was filmed entirely in Bucharest?
... that an Edmonton man who unknowingly bought a $1.2 million artwork stolen six years ago today, kept it in his bedroom next to Star Wars figures and stuffed animals?

In the news

Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and Raila Odinga

The Supreme Court of Kenya rules that the country's presidential election (candidates pictured) was conducted improperly, nullifying its results and ordering a new election within 60 days.
In boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Conor McGregor.
The Women's Rugby World Cup concludes with New Zealand defeating England in the final.
Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas, causing severe flooding and at least 48 fatalities.
At least 36 people are killed in riots in Northern India after Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is convicted of rape.

On this day...

September 3: Independence Day in Qatar (1971)

Malcolm Campbell

36 BC – Sicilian revolt: A victory by the fleet of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa over that of Sextus Pompeius in the Battle of Naulochus ended Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The British Army and their Hessian allies defeated an American militia in the Battle of Cooch's Bridge.
1935 – On the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, British racing motorist Malcolm Campbell (pictured) became the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph (480 km/h).
1942 – The Holocaust: In possibly the first Jewish ghetto uprising, residents of the Łachwa Ghetto in occupied Poland, informed of the upcoming "liquidation" of the ghetto, unsuccessfully fought against their Nazi captors.
2001 – The Troubles: Protestant loyalists began picketing a Catholic primary school for girls in the Protestant portion of Ardoyne, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Edward Coke (d. 1634) · Prudence Crandall (b. 1803) · Tereska Torrès (b. 1920)

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Today's featured picture

Hafnium is a chemical element with the symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray, tetravalent transition metal, hafnium chemically resembles zirconium and is found in many zirconium minerals. Its existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, though it was not identified until 1923, making it the penultimate stable element to be discovered. Hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered.

Photograph: Heinrich Pniok

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