Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 August 14

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The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman is the 22nd album by the American rock group Sparks, released on August 14, 2009. The duo's first work in the radio musical or pop opera genre, the album is built around an imaginary visit to Hollywood by Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in the mid-1950s. Its storyline focuses on the divides between European and American culture, between art and commerce. Unlike other Sparks albums, the work is conceived as a single piece, to be listened to as a whole, rather than a collection of stand-alone songs. The work was commissioned by Sveriges Radio Radioteatern, the radio drama department of Sweden's national radio broadcaster. First released in the Swedish broadcast version in August 2009, with an English-language version following in November 2009, it features a cast of Swedish and American actors and a variety of musical styles ranging from opera to vaudeville and pop. The album's recording was a collaborative effort, with music and English vocals recorded by Sparks in the United States, and Swedish vocals recorded by Sveriges Radio in Stockholm. (Full article...)

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Stafanie Taylor

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... that siblings Miguel Ángel and Alma Lilia Luna Munguía were slated to compete against each other for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies until the former was murdered in his campaign office?
... that the 1992 essay collection Black Dixie has been called "an excellent example of African-American history, of urban history, and of collaborative effort"?
... that Green Bay Packers rookie linebacker Kyler Fackrell took a year off after high school and painted houses for a living instead of playing college football?
... that the New York City Subway stations of Flushing–Main Street and Norwood–205th Street both have provisions for unbuilt subway extensions?
... that Alice of Champagne claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem, because its infant king, Conrad, had failed to take possession of it within a year and a day after the death of his mother?
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In the news

Greenland shark

The Syrian Democratic Forces capture the city of Manbij from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Scientists identify the Greenland shark (pictured) as the world's longest-living vertebrate.
At least 90 people are killed by police during protests against human rights abuses and corruption in Ethiopia.
More than 70 people are killed in a suicide bombing and shooting in Quetta, Pakistan.
Landslides caused by Hurricane Earl kill at least 52 people across Mexico.

On this day...

August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)

Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt

1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling it from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
1901 – Gustave Whitehead allegedly made a successful powered flight of his Number 21 aircraft in Fairfield, Connecticut, US; if true, this predates the Wright brothers by two years.
1941 – After a secret meeting off the Canadian coast, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (both pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post-World War II world despite the fact that the United States had yet to enter the war.
1973 – The current Constitution of Pakistan came into effect.
1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou was shot to death by Turkish forces while trying to remove a Turkish flag from a flagpole in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.

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Today's featured picture

An assignat banknote, issued in 1792, with a face value of 400 livres. An early French banknote first issued in 1789, during the French Revolution, the assignat was backed by the value of seized properties. Amidst widespread counterfeiting, limited use, and opposition from counter-revolutionaries, the assignat devalued quickly and was replaced by the mandat in 1796.

Banknote: République Française; image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution)

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