Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 August 21

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From today's featured article

Foxy Brown

"Candy" is a song by American rapper Foxy Brown (pictured) featuring Kelis, released by Def Jam on August 21, 2001, as the third single from her third studio album Broken Silence (2001). A dance-pop and R&B track, it was produced by the Neptunes duo Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, who co-wrote the song alongside Brown and Juan Manuel Cordova. Brown raps on the verses while Kelis, a frequent collaborator with the Neptunes, performs the hook. The lyrics are about cunnilingus. "Candy" received a positive response from critics upon release and in retrospective reviews. Music critics compared it to music by other artists, including Lil' Kim, while scholars analyzed its representation of black female sexuality. In the US, the song appeared on Billboard charts, reaching the top ten on the Hot Rap Songs chart. "Candy" appeared on several soundtracks in the early 2000s; it featured in the television series Dark Angel and the films Friday After Next and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. (Full article...)

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The Unisphere

... that the Unisphere (pictured) was designed based on a doodle on the back of an envelope?
... that plant biology professor Luca Comai independently developed glyphosate-resistant plants while working at Calgene and published his research before Monsanto researchers were able to?
... that Zollstock, a district of Cologne, takes its name from a local tollhouse?
... that Bridget Burgess's mother Sarah once changed all four tires during a pit stop by herself?
... that Zheng Kai first lost weight and then gained 20 kilograms (44 lb) for his role in Never Stop?
... that the composer Francis Burt, who came from London and settled in Vienna, was inspired by the drumming of the Nigerian Ibo people?
... that in 1952 meteorologist Harry Volkman delivered the first on-air tornado warning on Oklahoma City's WKY-TV, in defiance of a federal ban on the practice?
... that Pierre Kaufmann helped install the first radio telescope in Brazil, which was later destroyed by cows?

In the news

Taliban fighters in Kabul

Hakainde Hichilema is elected President of Zambia.
The Afghan government collapses as the capital city of Kabul falls to the Taliban offensive (fighters pictured).
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills more than 2,100 people.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report on the state of knowledge of climate change and its effects.

On this day

August 21: Raksha Bandhan (Hinduism, 2021)

Mona Lisa

1716 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Empire suddenly abandoned its siege of the city of Corfu, allowing the Republic of Venice to preserve its rule over the Ionian Islands.
1808 – Peninsular War: British–Portuguese forces put an end to the first French invasion of Portugal at the Battle of Vimeiro.
1911 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (pictured) was stolen from the Louvre by museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia and was not recovered until two years later.
1971 – Six people were killed during an escape attempt and riot at California's San Quentin State Prison; the subsequent trial of six inmates was the longest in state history at the time.
1986 – A limnic eruption of Lake Nyos in Cameroon released a cloud of carbon dioxide, suffocating 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock.

Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana (d. 1622)
Jules Michelet (b. 1798)
Stephen Hillenburg (b. 1961)

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Today's featured picture

The village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae, found in much of sub-Saharan Africa. This often abundant species occurs in a wide range of open or semi-open habitats, and frequently forms large, noisy colonies in towns, villages and hotel grounds. This male, of the subspecies P. c. bohndorffi, was photographed building a nest in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. Male birds make elaborate nests, each incorporating about 300 strips of palm or grass leaves that they have torn off the plant and transported individually. These are woven together to form roofed, dangling structures with the entrance at the bottom. The only involvement of the female is in the creation of the lining of the egg-laying cup.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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