Wikipedia article of the day for May 27, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 27, 2021 is 2007 Coca-Cola 600.
The 2007 Coca-Cola 600 was the twelfth stock car race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the 48th iteration of the event in the U.S. It was held on May 27, 2007, before a crowd of 175,000 in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway (pictured), now called Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races. The 400-lap race on the speedway's standard 1.5-mile (2.4 km) track covers the longest distance of any event on the NASCAR calendar. The 2007 race was won by Casey Mears of the Hendrick Motorsports team, who started from 16th position. J. J. Yeley finished second and Kyle Petty came in third. There were thirteen cautions and 29 lead changes among fifteen drivers during the race. Kurt Busch held the lead for 107 laps, longer than any other driver. The 2007 race is Mears's only win in the Nextel Cup Series, now known as the NASCAR Cup Series.

Wikipedia article of the day for May 26, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 26, 2021 is Yazid I.
Yazid I (c. 646 – 683) was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from April 680 until his death. His appointment, the first hereditary succession to the caliphate in Islamic history, was opposed by several Muslim grandees from Medina, including Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali. Husayn refused to recognize Yazid following his accession and left for Kufa in Iraq to lead a revolt, but was killed in the Battle of Karbala. To suppress the subsequent rebellion in Arabia, Yazid sent an army that captured and sacked Medina. Next, Mecca was besieged for several weeks until the army withdrew as a result of Yazid's death. The caliphate fell into a decade-long civil war known as the Second Fitna, ending with the establishment of the Marwanid dynasty. Yazid is considered an illegitimate ruler and a tyrant by many Muslims. Modern historians consider him a capable ruler, albeit less successful than his father Mu'awiya I, whose style of governance he continued.

Wikipedia article of the day for May 25, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 25, 2021 is Operation Rösselsprung (1944).
Operation Rösselsprung was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps on the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. Launched on 25 May 1944, the operation was aimed at the Partisan leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito (pictured) and his headquarters. It is associated with the Seventh Enemy Offensive. The operation involved direct action via an airborne assault by the 500th SS Parachute Battalion and a planned subsequent link-up with ground forces, including Home Guard forces of the Independent State of Croatia and collaborationist Chetniks. Tito, his principal staff and Allied military personnel escaped. The operation failed due to fierce Partisan resistance, the failure of the various German intelligence agencies to share the limited intelligence available on Tito's exact location, and the lack of contingency planning by the commander of the German airborne force.

Wikipedia article of the day for May 24, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 24, 2021 is Final Fantasy IX.
Final Fantasy IX is a 2000 role-playing video game developed and published by Squaresoft for the PlayStation video game console. It is the ninth game in the main Final Fantasy series. Players follow the bandit Zidane Tribal, who kidnaps Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII of Alexandria as part of a gambit by the neighboring nation of Lindblum. The game was developed alongside Final Fantasy VIII. Envisioned by developers as a retrospective for the series, it departed from the futuristic settings of Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VIII by returning to the medieval style of the earlier installments. Final Fantasy IX was released to critical acclaim and is often considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Final Fantasy IX was commercially successful, selling more than 5.5 million copies on PlayStation by March 2016. Ports featuring minor gameplay and graphical enhancements were released for various other platforms in the late 2010s. (This article is part of a featured topic: Final Fantasy series.)

Wikipedia article of the day for May 23, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 23, 2021 is Western Chalukya literature in Kannada.
A large body of Western Chalukya literature in the Kannada language was produced during the empire's reign (973–1200) in present-day India (map pictured). Kannada literature from this period, usually considered Old Kannada, constituted the bulk of the Chalukya court's textual production and pertained mostly to the socio-religious development of the Jain faith, with some of that of the Shaiva faith. Important literary contributions in the Kannada language came not only from court poets, noblemen, royalty, ascetics and saints who wrote in the marga (mainstream) style, but also from commoners and artisans, including cobblers, weavers, cowherds and shepherds who wrote in the desi (folk) style. These poets revolutionised Kannada literature, rejecting traditional themes that eulogised kings and noblemen, and writing didactic poems that were closer to the spoken and sung form of the language. In addition to hundreds of male poets, over thirty female poets have been recorded.

Wikipedia article of the day for May 22, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 22, 2021 is Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&M), often considered the dawn of modern transport, took place on 15 September 1830. Eight trains set out from Liverpool to Manchester carrying dignitaries including the Duke of Wellington, then prime minister. At Parkside the trains stopped to take on water, and former cabinet minister William Huskisson alighted and was struck by a locomotive, suffering fatal injuries. As a large crowd waiting to meet the trains in Manchester was becoming unruly, Wellington decided that the event should continue. On arrival in Manchester a hostile crowd pelted Wellington with vegetables and he ordered the trains return to Liverpool. Faults meant only three of the locomotives were still functional; the party eventually returned six and a half hours late. The accidents led to significant coverage of the opening, raising the profile of the new technology, and within a month schemes were announced to connect the industrial centres of England.

Wikipedia article of the day for May 21, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for May 21, 2021 is George Vincent (painter).
George Vincent (1796 – c. 1832) was an English landscape artist who produced watercolours, etchings and oil paintings. He is considered to be one of the most talented of the Norwich School of painters, a group of artists inspired by the Norfolk countryside. Vincent's work was founded on the Dutch school of landscape painting and the style of John Crome, also of the Norwich School. The son of a weaver, Vincent was apprenticed to Crome. Vincent exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. From 1811 until 1831 he showed at the Norwich Society of Artists, exhibiting over 100 pictures of Norfolk landscapes and marine works. By 1818 he had relocated to London, yet struggled financially. He was imprisoned for debt from 1824 to 1827. After 1831, Vincent disappeared and was never found. The art historian Herbert Cundall wrote in the 1920s that had Vincent "not given way to intemperate habits he would probably have ranked amongst the foremost of British landscape painters".