Wikiwand Today

Your daily knowledge snacks, directly from Wikipedia

Latest News

Climate change protesters in Sydney, Australia

Global climate change strikes take place in 150 countries (protesters in Sydney pictured) as part of the Fridays for Future protests.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup concludes, with Spain defeating Argentina in the final.
In Gaelic football, the All-Ireland Championship concludes, with Dublin defeating Kerry in the final.
Drone attacks on two major oil facilities force Saudi Arabia to cut more than half of its oil production.

Today in History

September 21: International Day of Peace

1745 – Jacobite risings: Jacobite troops led by Charles Edward Stuart defeated the Hanoverians in Prestonpans, Scotland.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Fire of New York (depiction shown) broke out during the British occupation of New York City, destroying up to 1,000 buildings.
1939 – Romanian prime minister Armand Călinescu was assassinated in Bucharest by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.
1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 landed in the Indian Ocean, becoming the first spacecraft to safely return to Earth after circling the Moon.
1999 – A 7.7 M_w earthquake struck Jiji, Taiwan, killing 2,415 people, injuring more than 11,000 others and causing about NT$300 billion (US$10 billion) in damage across the island.

Andrew II of Hungary (d. 1235) · Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg (b. 1706) · Florence Griffith Joyner (d. 1998)

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Did You Know?

... that jackfruits and chili peppers (pictured) are among the many crops planted in Indonesian home gardens?
... that in his novel A Time of Terror, Douglas Morey Ford imagined anarchists attempting to overthrow the British government?
... that despite its large screen size, the Samsung Galaxy A90 5G can be operated with one hand?
... that it has been claimed that the Crawley Edge Boatshed is the most photographed travel attraction in Perth, Western Australia, ahead of Elizabeth Quay, Cathedral Square, and the Swan Bells?
... that the 1985 World Snooker Championship holds the record for the highest-rated post-midnight broadcast in the United Kingdom?
... that when Yu Dunkang was denounced as a "rightist" and banished from academia for twenty years, he found solace in the early Chinese philosophy of Xuanxue?
... that the Ba Congress failed to prevent the Allies of World War II from breaking off contact with Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement?
... that Scyller Borglum and a deceased candidate both won the same election?

Today's Featured Article

Herbig–Haro objects are bright nebular patches formed when narrow jets of partially ionized gas ejected from newborn stars collide with clouds of gas and dust. Often aligned with a star's rotational axis, they are commonly found in star-forming regions. Most of them lie within a few light-years of the source. They are transient phenomena, lasting around a few tens of thousands of years. They can change visibly over just a few years, as they move rapidly away from their parent star. First observed in the late 19th century by Sherburne Wesley Burnham, Herbig–Haro objects were not recognized as distinct from other emission nebulas until the 1940s. The first astronomers to study them in detail were George Herbig and Guillermo Haro, who independently recognized that the objects were by-products of the star formation process. Although the objects emit visible wavelengths, many are hidden by dust and gas, and can only be detected at infrared wavelengths. (Full article...)

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Today's Featured Picture

Dried bark strips, bark powder and dried flowers of the small tree Cinnamomum verum. Native to Sri Lanka, C. verum, also known as true cinnamon, is an evergreen of the family Lauraceae. The tree's inner bark is used to make the spice cinnamon, although most of the world's supply comes from several other Cinnamomum species. Sri Lanka produces 80 to 90 per cent of C. verum cinnamon; the tree is also cultivated commercially in the Seychelles and Madagascar.

Photograph credit: Simon A. Eugster