Featured articles

24 featured articles were promoted.

• Air Chief Marshal Donald Hardman ( nominated by Ian Rose) was a senior  Royal Air Force commander. He began his flying career as a  fighter pilot in World War I, achieving nine victories to become an  ace. During World War II, Hardman held senior staff and operational posts. He was  Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) of the  Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) from 1952 to 1954, after which he served as a member of the British  Air Council until retiring in 1958. Hardman joined the  Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He flew  Sopwith Dolphins with  No. 19 Squadron, earning the  Distinguished Flying Cross for his fighting skills. Between the wars he served with  No. 31 Squadron in India and  No. 216 Squadron in Egypt. A  wing commander at the outbreak of World War II, Hardman was attached to the  Air Ministry for several years before being posted in 1944 to  South East Asia, where he commanded No. 232 (Transport) Group during the  Burma campaign. He was appointed an  Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1940 and a  Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1945, and was also  mentioned in despatches. Finishing the war an  air commodore, Hardman served successively as Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, Commandant of  RAF Staff College, Bracknell, and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of  Home Command, prior to becoming RAAF CAS in January 1952. He was appointed a  Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath the same year. As CAS he was responsible for reorganising the RAAF's  geographically based command-and-control system into a functional structure. Returning to Britain, he became  Air Member for Supply and Organisation in May 1954, and was promoted to  air chief marshal the following year. He was raised to  Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in January 1958, shortly before his retirement.
• The Walt Disney World Railroad ( nominated by Jackdude101) is a 3-foot (914 mm)  narrow-gauge  heritage railroad and attraction located within the  Magic Kingdom theme park of  Walt Disney World in  Bay Lake, Florida, United States. Its route is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length and encircles most of the park, with  train stations in three different park areas. The rail line, constructed by WED Enterprises, operates with four historic steam locomotives originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. It takes about 20 minutes for each train to complete a round trip on the WDWRR's  main line. On a typical day, the railroad has two trains in operation; on busy days, it has three trains. Since its opening on October 1, 1971, the railroad has become one of the world's most popular steam-powered railroads, with about 3.7 million passengers a year.
• Banksia serrata ( nominated by Gderrin & Cas Liber) is a species of woody  shrub or tree of the genus  Banksia in the family  Proteaceae.  Native to the east coast of Australia, it is found from  Queensland to  Victoria with outlying populations on  Tasmania and  Flinders Island. Commonly growing as a gnarled tree up to 16 m (50 ft) in height, it can be much smaller in more exposed areas. This Banksia species has wrinkled grey bark, shiny dark green serrated leaves and large yellow or greyish-yellow flower spikes appearing over summer. The flower spikes, or  inflorescences, turn grey as they age and pollinated flowers develop into large, grey, woody seed pods called  follicles. B. serrata is one of the four original Banksia species collected by  Sir Joseph Banks in 1770, and one of four species published in 1782 as part of  Carolus Linnaeus the Younger's original description of the genus.
• The pigeon guillemot ( nominated by RileyBugz & Sabine's Sunbird) is a species of bird in the  auk family,  Alcidae. Though it has five subspecies; all subspecies, when in  breeding plumage, are dark brown with a black iridescent sheen, with a distinctive wing patch broken by a brown-black wedge. Its  non-breeding plumage has a mottled grey and black  upperparts and white  underparts. The long bill is black, as are the claws. The legs, feet, and inside of the mouth are red. It closely resembles the  black guillemot, which is slightly smaller and lacks the dark wing wedge present in the pigeon guillemot. Combined, the two form a  superspecies. This  seabird is found on North Pacific coastal waters, from  Siberia through  California to  Alaska. The pigeon guillemot breeds and sometimes roosts on rocky shores, cliffs, and islands close to shallow water. In the winter, some birds move slightly south in the northern-most part of their range in response to advancing ice and  migrate slightly north in the southern part of their range, generally preferring more sheltered areas. This species feeds on small fish and marine invertebrates, mostly near the sea floor, that it catches by pursuit diving. Pigeon guillemots are  monogamous breeders, nesting in small colonies close to the shore. They defend small territories around a nesting cavity, in which they lay one or two eggs. Both parents  incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. After leaving the nest the young bird is completely independent of its parents. Several birds and other animals prey on the eggs and chicks. The pigeon guillemot is considered to be a  least concern species by the  International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Threats to this bird include climate change, introduced mammalian predators, and oil spills.
• The Blue Flame (play) ( nominated by RL0919) is a four-act  play written by George V. Hobart and  John Willard, who revised an earlier version by Leta Vance Nicholson. In 1920, producer  Albert H. Woods staged the play on  Broadway and on tour across the United States. Ruth Gordon, the main character, is a religious young woman who dies and is revived by her scientist fiancé as a soulless  femme fatale. She seduces several men and involves them in crimes, including drug use and murder. In the final act, her death and resurrection are revealed to be a  dream. The production starred  Theda Bara, a popular  silent film actress who was known for playing similar roles in movies. Critics panned the play, ridiculing the plot, dialog, and Bara's acting. Theater historian  Ward Morehouse called it "one of the worst plays ever written". Bara's movie fame drew large crowds to theaters, and the play was a commercial success, breaking attendance records at some venues. Ruth Gordon was Bara's only Broadway role, and The Blue Flame was one of her last professional acting projects.
• True Detective (season 1) ( nominated by Mike Christie & DAP), an American  anthology  crime drama television series created by  Nic Pizzolatto, premiered on January 12, 2014, on the premium cable network  HBO. The principal cast consisted of  Matthew McConaughey,  Woody Harrelson,  Michelle Monaghan,  Michael Potts, and  Tory Kittles. The season comprised eight episodes, and its initial airing concluded on March 9, 2014. As an anthology, each True Detective season has its own self-contained story, following a disparate set of characters in various settings. Constructed as a  nonlinear narrative, season one focuses on  Louisiana State Police homicide detectives  Rustin "Rust" Cohle (McConaughey) and Martin "Marty" Hart (Harrelson), who investigated the murder of prostitute Dora Lange in 1995. Seventeen years later, they must revisit the investigation, along with several other unsolved crimes. True Detective's first season explores themes of  philosophical pessimism, masculinity, and Christianity; critics have analyzed the show's portrayal of women, its  auteurist sensibility, and the influence of  comics and  weird  horror fiction on its narrative. The series received positive reviews from critics and was cited as one of the strongest dramas of the 2014 television season. It was a candidate for numerous television awards, including a  Primetime Emmy Award nomination for  Outstanding Drama Series and a  Golden Globe Award for  Best Miniseries or Television Film, and won several other honors for writing, cinematography, direction, and acting.
• SMS Deutschland (1904) ( nominated by Parsecboy) was the first of five  Deutschland-class  pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German  Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). The ship was armed with a main battery of four  28 cm (11 in) guns in two twin turrets. She was built at the  Germaniawerft shipyard in  Kiel, where she was  launched in November 1904. She was commissioned on 3 August 1906, a few months ahead of  HMS Dreadnought. The latter, armed with ten large-caliber guns, was the first of a revolutionary new standard of  "all-big-gun" battleships that rendered Deutschland and the rest of her class obsolete. Deutschland served as the  flagship of the  High Seas Fleet until 1913, when she was transferred to the  II Battle Squadron. With the outbreak of  World War I in July 1914, she and her sister ships were tasked with defending the mouth of the  Elbe and the  German Bight from possible British incursions. Deutschland and the other ships of the II Battle Squadron participated in most of the large-scale fleet operations in the first two years of the war, culminating in the  Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. Late on the first day of the battle, Deutschland and the other pre-dreadnoughts briefly engaged several British  battlecruisers before retreating. After the battle, Deutschland and her three surviving sisters were assigned to coastal defense duties. By 1917, they had been withdrawn from combat service completely, disarmed, and tasked with auxiliary roles. Deutschland was used as a  barracks ship in  Wilhelmshaven until the end of the war. She was struck from the naval register on 25 January 1920, sold to ship breakers that year, and  broken up for scrap by 1922.
• In the Battle of Leuthen, ( nominated by auntieruth) fought on 5 December 1757,  Frederick the Great's  Prussian army used  maneuver and  terrain to decisively defeat a much larger Austrian force commanded by  Prince Charles of Lorraine and  Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, thus ensuring  Prussian control of  Silesia during the  Third Silesian War (part of the  Seven Years' War). The battle was fought at the  Silesian town of  Leuthen. By exploiting the training of his troops and his superior knowledge of the terrain, Frederick created a diversion at one end of the battlefield, and moved most of his small army behind a series of low hillocks. The surprise attack in the  oblique order on the unsuspecting Austrian flank baffled Prince Charles; the Prince took several hours to realize that the main action was to his left, and not to his right. Within seven hours, the Prussians destroyed the Austrian force, erasing any advantage the Austrians had gained throughout the summer and fall of campaigning. Within 48 hours, Frederick had laid  siege to Breslau, which resulted in that city's surrender on 19–20 December. Leuthen was the last battle at which Prince Charles commanded the Austrian Army, before his sister-in-law, Empress  Maria Theresa, appointed him as governor of the  Habsburg Netherlands and placed Leopold Joseph von Daun in command of the army. The battle also established beyond doubt Frederick's military reputation in European circles. After  Rossbach (5 November), the French had refused to participate further in Austria's war with Prussia; after Leuthen (5 December), Austria could not.
• Benedetto Pistrucci ( nominated by Wehwalt) was an Italian  gem-engraver,  medallist and coin engraver, probably best known for his  Saint George and the Dragon design for the  British sovereign coin. Pistrucci was commissioned by the British government to create the large  Waterloo Medal, a project which took him thirty years to complete. Talented but temperamental, Pistrucci refused to copy the work of other artists. When in 1823  George IV demanded that an unflattering portrait of him on the coinage be changed with a new likeness to be based on the work of  Francis Chantrey, Pistrucci refused and was nearly sacked. The Mint did not dismiss him, lest the money already spent on the Waterloo Medal be wasted. Pistrucci kept his place with the Mint for the rest of his life, eventually completing the Waterloo Medal in 1849, though because of its great size it could not be struck. After Pistrucci's death, the George and Dragon design was restored to the sovereign coin, and is still used today.
• Mercy Point ( nominated by Aoba47) was an American  science fiction  medical drama that aired for one season on  United Paramount Network (UPN) from October 6, 1998, to July 15, 1999. With an  ensemble cast led by:  Joe Morton,  Maria del Mar,  Alexandra Wilson,  Brian McNamara,  Salli Richardson, Julia Pennington, Gay Thomas,  Jordan Lund, and  Joe Spano, the series takes place in a 23rd-century hospital space station located in deep space and revolves around its doctors and nurses. Initially focused on ethical and medical cases, the storylines gradually shifted toward focusing on the characters' personal relationships to better fit UPN's primarily teen demographic.
• The Kaiman-class ( nominated by Peacemaker67) were high-seas  torpedo boats built for the  Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1904 and 1910. A total of 24 boats were built by three shipbuilding companies.  Yarrow Shipbuilders built the  lead ship,  Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino of  Trieste built 13 boats, and  Ganz & Danubius constructed the remaining 10 boats at their shipyards at  Fiume. The class was considered to be a very successful design, and all boats saw extensive active service during  World War I, undertaking a range of tasks, including escort duties,  shore bombardments and  minesweeping. All survived, although several were damaged by  naval mines and collisions. One was torpedoed and badly damaged by a French  submarine, and two sank an Italian submarine. All the boats were transferred to the  Allies and scrapped at the end of the war, except for four that were allocated to the  navy of the newly created  Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. These were discarded and broken up between 1928 and 1930..
• The Getaway (1972 film) ( nominated by Bluesphere) is a 1972 American  neo-noir  crime film directed by  Sam Peckinpah. The screenplay by  Walter Hill is based on the  eponymous 1958 novel by  Jim Thompson. The film follows imprisoned mastermind robber Carter "Doc" McCoy (McQueen), whose wife Carol (MacGraw) conspires for his release on the condition they rob a bank in  Texas. A double-cross follows the crime and the McCoys are forced to flee for  Mexico with the police and criminals in hot pursuit. Principal photography commenced on February 7, 1972, on location in Texas. It was scored by Quincy Jones, who was later nominated for a  Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The Getaway was released on December 13, 1972. A box office hit earning over $36 million, it was the second highest-grossing film of the year, and was also one of the most financially successful productions of Peckinpah's and McQueen's careers. Upon release it got a negative reception, with  Vincent Canby of  The New York Times and  Roger Ebert of the  Chicago Sun-Times both giving the film indifferent reviews. Canby described it as "aimless", while Ebert complained that the story was contrived, calling it "a big, glossy, impersonal mechanical toy". Nevertheless, the film was well received in retrospective reviews and was among the  heist films considered the best. In 1994, a  remake was released to generally negative reviews, directed by  Roger Donaldson and starring  Alec Baldwin and  Kim Basinger.
• Alan Bush ( nominated by Brianboulton) was a British composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and political activist. A committed  communist, his uncompromising political beliefs were often reflected in his music. He composed prolifically across a range of genres, but struggled through his lifetime for recognition from the British musical establishment, which largely ignored his works. A two-year period in Berlin in 1929–31 cemented Bush's political convictions and moved him from the mainstream  Labour Party to the  Communist Party of Great Britain which he joined in 1935. He wrote several large-scale works in the 1930s, and was heavily involved with workers' choirs for whom he composed pageants, choruses and songs. His pro- Soviet stance led to a temporary ban on his music by the  BBC in the early years of the  Second World War, and his refusal to modify his position in the postwar  Cold War era led to a more prolonged semi-ostracism of his music. As a result, the four major operas he wrote between 1950 and 1970 were all premiered in  East Germany. In his prewar works, Bush's style retained what commentators have described as an essential Englishness, but was also influenced by the avant-garde European idioms of the inter-war years. During and after the war he began to simplify this style, in line with his Marxist-inspired belief that music should be accessible to the mass of the people. Despite the difficulties he encountered in getting his works performed in the West he continued to compose until well into his eighties. He taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music for more than 50 years, published two books, was the founder and long-time president of the Workers' Music Association, and served as chairman and later vice-president of the Composers' Guild. His contribution to musical life was slowly recognised, in the form of doctorates from two universities and numerous tribute concerts towards the end of his life. He died aged 94 in 1995.
• A Wizard of Earthsea ( nominated by Vanamonde) is a  young adult  fantasy novel written by the American author  Ursula K. Le Guin, first published by the  small press Parnassus in 1968. Regarded as a classic of fantasy and children's literature, the novel has been widely influential within the genre of fantasy. Set in the fictional  archipelago of  Earthsea, the story centers around a young  mage named  Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. The book has often been described as a  Bildungsroman or coming of age story, as it explores Ged's process of learning to cope with power and come to terms with death. The novel also carries  Taoist themes about a fundamental balance in the universe of Earthsea, which wizards are supposed to maintain, closely tied to the idea that language and names have power to affect the material world and alter this balance. Although the structure of the story is similar to that of a traditional epic, critics have also described it as subverting this genre in many ways, such as by making the protagonist  dark-skinned, in comparison to more typical  white-skinned heroes. A Wizard of Earthsea received highly positive reviews, initially as a work for children, and later among a general audience as well. It won the  Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in 1969 and was one of the final recipients of the  Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1979.
• Hurricane Andrew ( nominated by 12george1) (1992) was an Atlantic  hurricane, the most destructive one ever in  Florida. Named as a  tropical storm on August 17, it hit the northwestern  Bahamas six days later at  Category 5 strength, leaving 1,700 people homeless, killing four, and disrupting the transport, communications, water, sanitation, agriculture, and fishing sectors. It  struck Florida on August 24 with sustained wind speeds as high as 165 mph (270 km/h). In the city of  Homestead in  Miami-Dade County, it stripped many homes of all but their concrete foundations. Statewide, Andrew destroyed or damaged over 164,000 homes, killed 44 people, and left a record  $25 billion in damage. A facility housing  Burmese pythons was destroyed,  releasing them into the Everglades, where they now number up to 300,000. The hurricane destroyed oil platforms in the  Gulf of Mexico before hitting  Louisiana, where it downed 80% of the trees in the  Atchafalaya River Basin, devastated agriculture, and caused 17 deaths. The storm spawned at least 28 tornadoes along the Gulf Coast, mostly in  Alabama,  Georgia, and  Mississippi. In total, Andrew caused $26.5 billion in damage and left 65 people dead.
• The rainbow pitta ( nominated by Sabine's Sunbird) is a small  passerine bird in the  pitta  family  Pittidae,  endemic to northern Australia. The species is most closely related to the  superb pitta of  Manus Island. A colourful bird, it has a velvet-black head with chestnut stripes above the eyes, olive-green upper parts, black underparts, a bright red belly and an olive-green tail. An Australian  endemic, the rainbow pitta lives in the  monsoon forests, as well as some drier  eucalypt forests. It is a secretive and shy bird. The diet consists mainly of insects,  arthropods and small vertebrates. Pairs defend territories and breed during the rainy season, as this time of year provides the most food for nestlings. The female lays three to four eggs with blotches inside its large domed nest. Both parents defend the nest, incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. Although the species has a small global range it is locally common and the  International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of  least concern.
• The black-throated loon ( nominated by RileyBugz) is a  migratory aquatic bird found in the Northern Hemisphere, primarily breeding in freshwater lakes in northern Europe and Asia. It winters along sheltered, ice-free coasts of the north-east Atlantic Ocean and the eastern and western Pacific Ocean. The black-throated loon measures about 70 cm (28 in) in length and can weigh anywhere from 1.3 to 3.4 kilograms (2.9 to 7.5 lb). The timing of the breeding season is variable; in the southern part of its range, this loon starts breeding in April, whereas in the northern portion, it waits until after the spring thaw. It builds an oval-shaped nest that measures about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) across, either near the breeding lake or on vegetation emerging from it. The black-throated loon usually lays a clutch of two, rarely one or three, brown-green eggs with dark splotches. Eventually, the chick hatches, and is fed a diet of small fish and invertebrates. This contrasts with the mostly fish diet of the adult. To catch this food, it forages by itself or in pairs, very rarely foraging in groups. It dives from the water, going no deeper than 5 metres (16 ft). Most dives are successful. Overall, the population of this loon is declining, although the  International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) still rates it as  least concern, because the population decline is not rapid enough. The black-throated loon is protected under both the  Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the  Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds.
• The 1998 NFC Championship Game ( nominated by Helltopay-27) was a  National Football League (NFL) game played on January 17, 1999, to determine the  National Football Conference (NFC)  champion for the  1998 NFL season. The  visiting Atlanta Falcons defeated the heavily favored  Minnesota Vikings 30–27 in  sudden death  overtime to win their first conference championship and advance to the franchise's first  Super Bowl appearance. As a result of their loss, the Vikings were eliminated from the playoffs and became the first team in the  history of the NFL to compile a  regular season record of 15–1 and not win the Super Bowl.
• Louise Bryant ( nominated by Finetooth) was an American  feminist,  political activist, and  journalist best known for her sympathetic coverage of Russia and the  Bolsheviks during the  Russian Revolution. Bryant, who married writer  John Reed, her second husband, in 1916, wrote about Russian leaders such as  Katherine Breshkovsky,  Maria Spiridonova,  Alexander Kerensky,  Vladimir Lenin, and  Leon Trotsky. Her news stories, distributed by  Hearst during and after her trips to  Petrograd and Moscow, appeared in newspapers across the United States and Canada in the years immediately following  World War I. A collection of articles from her first trip was published in book form as Six Red Months in Russia in 1918. During the next year, she defended the revolution in testimony before the  Overman Committee, a  Senate subcommittee established to investigate Bolshevik influence in the United States. Later in 1919, she undertook a nationwide speaking tour to encourage public support of the Bolsheviks and to denounce  armed U.S. intervention in Russia.
• John C. Breckinridge ( nominated by Display name 99) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He represented  Kentucky in both houses of  Congress and became the  14th and youngest-ever  Vice President of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He served in the  U.S. Senate during the outbreak of the  American Civil War, but was expelled after joining the  Confederate Army. He was appointed  Confederate Secretary of War in 1865.
• The Canadian Indian residential school system ( nominated by Dnllnd) was a network of  boarding schools for  Indigenous peoples.The network was funded by the Canadian government's  Department of Indian Affairs and administered by  Christian churches. The school system was created for the purpose of removing children from the influence of their own culture and  assimilating them into the dominant Canadian culture. Over the course of the system's more than hundred year existence, about 30%, or roughly 150,000, of Indigenous children were placed in residential schools nationally. At least 6,000 of these students are estimated to have died while residents. The residential school system harmed Indigenous children significantly by  removing them from their families, depriving them of their  ancestral languages, exposing many of them to  physical and  sexual abuse, and forcibly  enfranchising them. Disconnected from their families and culture and forced to speak  English or  French, students who attended the residential school system often graduated unable to fit into either their communities or Canadian society. It ultimately proved successful in disrupting the transmission of Indigenous practices and beliefs across generations. The legacy of the system has been linked to an increased prevalence of  post-traumatic stress, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide, which persist within Indigenous communities. On June 11, 2008,  Prime Minister  Stephen Harper offered a public apology on behalf of the  Government of Canada and the leaders of  the other federal parties in the  Canadian House of Commons.
• The Beringian wolf ( nominated by William Harris) is an extinct type of wolf that lived during the  Ice Age. It inhabited what is now modern-day  Alaska, the  Yukon, and northern  Wyoming. The Beringian wolf is an  ecomorph of the  gray wolf. It has been determined that these wolves are morphologically distinct from modern North American wolves and genetically  basal to most modern and extinct wolves. The Beringian wolf has not been assigned a subspecies classification and its relationship with the European  cave wolf (Canis lupus spelaeus) is not clear. The Beringian wolf was similar in size to the modern  Yukon wolf but more robust and with stronger jaws and teeth, a broader  palate, and larger  carnassial teeth relative to its skull size. The unique adaptation of the skull and dentition of the Beringian wolf allowed it to produce relatively large bite forces, grapple with large struggling prey, and therefore to predate and scavenge on  Pleistocene megafauna. The Beringian wolf preyed most often on horse and steppe bison, and also on caribou, mammoth, and woodland musk ox. At the close of the Ice Age, with the loss of cold and dry conditions and the extinction of much of its prey, the Beringian wolf became extinct. The extinction of its prey has been attributed to the impact of climate change, competition with other species, including humans, or a combination of both factors. In 2016 a study showed that some of the wolves now living in remote corners of China and Mongolia share a common maternal ancestor with one 28,000-year-old eastern Beringian wolf specimen.
• The black stork ( nominated by Cas Liber & Adityavagarwal) is a large bird in the  stork family Ciconiidae. Measuring on average 95 to 100 cm (37 to 39 in) from beak tip to end of tail with a 145-to-155 cm (57-to-61 in) wingspan, the adult black stork has mainly black  plumage, with white underparts, long red legs and a long pointed red beak. A widespread, but uncommon, species, it breeds in scattered locations across Europe (predominantly in Spain, and central and eastern parts), and Asia to the Pacific Ocean. It is a long-distance  migrant, with European populations wintering in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian populations in the  Indian subcontinent. When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing the  Mediterranean Sea and detours via the  Levant in the east or the  Strait of Gibraltar in the west. An isolated, non-migratory, population occurs in Southern Africa.
• Steve Biko ( nominated by Midnightblueowl & Vanamonde) was a South African  Xhosa  anti-apartheid activist. Fighting  racial segregation and  white-minority rule in South Africa, Biko was at the forefront of the grassroots  Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. Frustrated by the domination of white  liberals in the anti-apartheid movement, he became a leading figure in the creation of the  South African Students' Organisation in 1968. An  African nationalist and  African socialist, he was influenced by  Frantz Fanon and the African-American  Black Power movement. He promoted its slogan " black is beautiful", believing that black people needed to rid themselves of any sense of racial inferiority. In 1972, he helped found the  Black People's Convention to spread these ideas among the wider population. Though the government  banned Biko in 1973, he remained politically active. He was arrested in August 1977 and severely beaten by state security officers, resulting in his death. One of the earliest icons of the movement against apartheid, Biko is regarded as a political  martyr.

Featured lists

14 featured lists were promoted this week.

• The FA Community Shield ( nominated by Bloom6132) is an annual  association football match organised by  the Football Association and presently contested between the champions of the  Premier League and the winners of the  FA Cup. In the event where a club achieves the  domestic double, it will go on to face the league runners-up instead. The  match is played every August as the "traditional curtain-raiser" to the new  English domestic football season. Since 1974, all but seven of the matches have been held at either the  original or  new Wembley stadiums.  Stamford Bridge, which was where the  inaugural Charity Shield was played in 1908, has hosted the second-most finals with 11. Manchester United holds the record for the most victories, winning the competition 21 times since its inception. They also hold the distinction of having the most appearances (30) and most losses (9). Although the Shield has had its share of historical moments – from  Eric Cantona's first career  hat-trick in 1992, to Manchester United's first loss of 1999 ending a streak of 33 consecutive games without a defeat – it has been dismissed as a ceremonial friendly that is not on par with other domestic honours in terms of prestige.
• Nani filmography ( nominated by Pavanjandhyala) Nani is an Indian film actor and producer who works predominantly in  Telugu cinema and appears in a few  Tamil-language films. He made his acting debut in Ashta Chamma. After Ashta Chamma's commercial success, Nani played the lead roles in three Telugu films in the next two years:  Ride (2009),  Snehituda... (2009) and  Bheemili Kabaddi Jattu (2010). In 2011, Nani collaborated with  B. V. Nandini Reddy on the romantic comedy Ala Modalaindi. The same year, he made his Tamil cinema debut with Anjana Ali Khan's  Veppam. The following year, Nani collaborated with  S. S. Rajamouli and  Gautham Menon on the Telugu-Tamil bilingual  Eega and the romance film  Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu respectively. The former earned Nani an award in the Best Hero category at the  2013 Toronto After Dark Film Festival. He received the  Nandi Award for Best Actor for his performance in Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu. Nani ventured into film production in 2013 as a co-producer for the film  D for Dopidi. He faced three box office failures in the upcoming years. Nani termed it a "low phase" in his career and worked on the "planning of films and the timing of their release". He then played the lead role in  Nag Ashwin's  Yevade Subramanyam (2015). Nani later starred in a comedy film  Bhale Bhale Magadivoy (2015). It was the actor's first  blockbuster success, and earned him the  Critics Award for Best Actor - South at the  63rd Filmfare Awards South ceremony. With his subsequent releases, the profitable ventures  Krishna Gaadi Veera Prema Gaadha (2015) and  Gentleman (2015), he gained stardom in Telugu cinema. Nani later played the lead in the commercially successful Telugu films  Majnu (2016),  Nenu Local (2017) and  Ninnu Kori (2017).
• The Australian Cricket Hall of Fame ( nominated by The Rambling Man & Mattinbgn) is a part of the  Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum in the  National Sports Museum at the  Melbourne Cricket Ground. This  hall of fame commemorates the greatest  Australian cricketers of all time, as the "selection philosophy for the hall of fame focuses on the players' status as sporting legends in addition to their outstanding statistical records". Inductees must be retired from international cricket for at least five years. The Australian Cricket Hall of Fame was an idea conceived by the  Melbourne Cricket Club to honour Australia's legendary cricketers. It was opened on 6 December 1996 by the then  Prime Minister,  John Howard. The hall of fame opened with ten inaugural members, and has since grown to encompass 46 individuals.
• The  2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season ( nominated by Iune) was a below-average  tropical cyclone season which featured the highest number of deaths since the  2010 season. Despite inactivity in the  Bay of Bengal caused by the  ongoing  El Niño, the season produced an above-average number of tropical cyclones in the  Arabian Sea. The first storm of the season,  Ashobaa, formed on 7 June, while the final storm of the season,  Megh, ultimately dissipated on 10 November. A total of twelve  depressions were recorded, of which nine intensified into deep depressions. Of these nine, a total of four further strengthened into cyclonic storms, while two attained their peaks as extremely severe cyclonic storms.
• Holby City is a British  medical drama television series that has been broadcast on  BBC One since 12 January 1999. The series was created by  Tony McHale and  Mal Young as a  spin-off from the BBC medical drama  Casualty, which is set in the  emergency department of the fictional  Holby City Hospital, based in the equally fictitious town of  Holby. Young wanted to explore what happened to patients treated in Casualty once they were taken away to the hospital's surgical wards. He opined that Casualty limited itself to "accident of the week" storylines, while Holby City allowed the possibility of storylines about long-term care, rather than immediate life-and-death decisions. Holby City has earned various awards and nominations ( nominated by Soaper1234) , with the nominations in categories ranging from Best Drama to its writing and editing work to the cast's acting performance.
• Quantico is an American  drama  thriller series that premiered on September 27, 2015 on  American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Created by  Joshua Safran who also serves as an executive producer, along with  Mark Gordon, Robert Sertner and Nicholas Pepper. The series follows a group of young  FBI recruits, or New Agent Trainees (NATs); each has a specific reason for joining the  FBI Academy in  Quantico, Virginia. As of May 15, 2017,  44 episodes of Quantico ( nominated by Krish!) have aired, concluding the second season. On May 15, 2017, ABC renewed the series for a third season, consisting of 13 episodes.
• American singer and songwriter  Madonna has recorded songs for a total of twenty-one albums ( nominated by IB & Calvin999) (comprising of thirteen  studio albums, three  compilation albums, three  soundtrack albums and two  remix albums). She has provided background vocals for songs recorded by other artists, as well as featured on duets.
• The Charmed  literary  franchise is a series of novels and short stories based on the  eponymous television show, which aired from 1998 to 2006. The franchise consists of forty-four novels and eleven short stories ( nominated by Aoba47) released in two  anthologies, with ten  guide books. Scholarly essay collections on the show were also published.
• The Glossary of bird terms ( nominated by Fuhghettaboutit) a glossary of common English language terms used in the description of  birds—warm-blooded vertebrates of the  class Aves, characterized by  feathers, the ability to  fly in all but the approximately 60 extant species of  flightless birds, toothless,  beaked  jaws, the  laying of  hard-shelled eggs, a high  metabolic rate, a four-chambered  heart and a strong yet lightweight  skeleton. Among other details such as size, proportions and shape, terms defining bird features developed and are used to describe features unique to the class—especially evolutionary adaptations that developed to aid  flight. There are thousands of terms that are unique to the study of birds. The glossary makes no attempt to cover them all, concentrating on terms that might be found across descriptions of multiple bird species by bird enthusiasts and  ornithologists. Though words that are not unique to birds are also covered, such as " back" or " belly", they are defined in relation to other unique features of external  bird anatomy, sometimes called " topography". As a rule, the glossary does not contain individual entries on any of the approximately 9,700 recognized living individual bird species of the world.
• American band  Ivy has released a total of 31 albums, EP's, singles, and music videos. ( nominated by Carbrera) They are comprised of six  studio albums, one  extended play (EP), fifteen  singles, one  promotional single, and eight  music videos.
• Vishwaroopam is a 2013 Indian  spy  thriller film directed by  Kamal Haasan. Vishwaroopam was made on a budget of  ₹950 million, and grossed ₹2.2 billion overall. The film won 11 awards from 34 nominations ( nominated by Ssven2); its direction, performances of the cast members, music, cinematography, editing, art direction and choreography have received the most attention from award groups. At the  60th National Film Awards, Vishwaroopam won the  Best Choreography and  Best Production Design. It received three nominations:  Best Film,  Best Director and  Best Actor at the  61st Filmfare Awards South, winning none. The film won three awards from sixteen nominations at the  8th Vijay Awards, including  Best Film (Kamal, S. Chandrahaasan, Potluri),  Best Supporting Actress (Jeremiah), and  Best Villain (Bose); Kamal won the  Best Actor and  Favourite Director, while Ilayaraaja and Taweepasas received the award for  Best Art Director. Vishwaroopam received seven nominations at the  3rd South Indian International Movie Awards. Among other wins, the film received four  Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards and two awards at the  Jagran Film Festival.
• American singer  Ariana Grande's discography ( nominated by U990467) has spanned sixty-nine items, made up of three  studio albums, one  remix album, two  extended plays (EPs), thirty-three  singles (including nine as a featured artist), five  promotional singles and twenty-four  music videos.
• The International Dublin Literary Award ( nominated by The Rambling Man) is an international  literary award presented each year for a novel written in English or translated into English. It aims to promote excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, Ireland. At  €100,000, the award is one of the  richest literary prizes in the world. If the winning book is a translation (as it has been nine times), the prize is divided between the writer and the translator, with the writer receiving €75,000 and the translator €25,000. The first award was made in 1996 to  David Malouf for his English language novel  Remembering Babylon. Nominations are submitted by  public libraries worldwide – over 400 library systems in 177 countries worldwide are invited to nominate books each year – from which the shortlist and the eventual winner are selected by an international panel of judges (which changes each year). The most recent winner of the award is  José Eduardo Agualusa for  A General Theory of Oblivion.
• The  Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a  media franchise and  shared  fictional universe that is the setting of  superhero  television series based on characters that appear in  Marvel Comics publications. To date, over 200 actors and actresses ( nominated by Favre1fan93) have appeared in the MCU.