Wikipedia article of the day for July 20, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 20, 2021 is Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins.
The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins were issued by the United States Mint in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first crewed landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969, by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. There is a gold half eagle (five-dollar coin), two sizes of silver dollars, and a copper-nickel clad half dollar, all with the same design and curved, with the obverse concave and the reverse convex. The obverse shows a bootprint on the lunar surface, and the reverse (pictured), based on a well-known photo by Armstrong, depicts the visor of Aldrin's space suit, reflecting Armstrong, the U.S. flag and the Lunar Module Eagle. The depiction of Aldrin made him the seventh individual depicted on a U.S. coin to be alive at the time it was struck. The program was the most successful U.S. commemorative coin issue since the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame coins, with more than 600,000 Apollo 11 coins sold. The larger silver dollar won the Coin of the Year Award for 2019-dated issues.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 19, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 19, 2021 is Characters of Carnivàle.
The two central characters of Carnivàle, an HBO television series, were Ben Hawkins (actor pictured), a young man working in a traveling carnival; and Brother Justin Crowe, a Californian preacher. Most of the characters are introduced in Ben's story, though several others interact mainly with Brother Justin; some appear in mysterious dreams and visions connecting the slowly converging storylines. Show creator Daniel Knauf submitted elaborate character biographies, which were rewritten before the filming of the first season began and provided to the actors and production personnel. The original character backgrounds were summarized on HBO's website, and were provided in full to fans after the show's cancellation. Due to their nature, these sources contain information on the intended fate of the characters beyond the cancellation of Carnivàle after the second season. They do not offer canon information per se, but provide a frame for the characters' motivation throughout the series. (This article is part of a featured topic: Carnivàle.)

Wikipedia article of the day for July 18, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 18, 2021 is Temporary gentlemen.
"Temporary gentlemen" is a colloquial term referring to male officers of the British Army who held temporary (or war-duration) commissions, particularly when such men came from outside the traditional officer class. Historically the officers of the British Army were drawn from the gentry and upper middle classes. The First World War required a rapid expansion of the officer corps and more than 200,000 additional officers were recruited, many on temporary commissions. Many of these were drawn from the lower middle and working classes. They came to be referred to as "temporary gentlemen" with the expectation that they would revert to their former social standing after the war. The term was revived in the Second World War, which saw a similar increase in the number of officers holding temporary commissions. The term continued to see use for officers commissioned from those conscripted for National Service, which lasted until 1963.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 17, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 17, 2021 is Paper Mario.
Paper Mario is a video game spinoff series of the Mario franchise, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for its various video game consoles. The series began when Square took its Final Fantasy franchise to Sony's PlayStation console, leaving Nintendo without a role-playing game (RPG) for the Nintendo 64. The series follows Mario on various quests to defeat one or more antagonists (including Bowser) in worlds created with papercraft materials. The first game in the series, Paper Mario, was released in August 2000. The series has received praise for its writing, characters, and graphics, but garnered criticism for its transition from traditional role-playing to action-adventure, starting with Super Paper Mario for the Wii. The newest game in the series, The Origami King, was released on July 17, 2020.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 16, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 16, 2021 is Morningside Park (Manhattan).
Morningside Park is a 30-acre (12-hectare) public park in Upper Manhattan, New York City. The area, originally known as "Muscota" by the Lenape Native Americans, features a cliff that separates Morningside Heights (to the west) from Harlem. The city commissioned Central Park's designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to produce a design for the park, which they did in 1873. Jacob Wrey Mould was hired to design new plans in 1880, but little progress occurred until Olmsted and Vaux were asked to modify their plans following Mould's death in 1886. After the park was completed in 1895, three sculptures were installed: Lafayette and Washington, Carl Schurz Memorial, and Alfred Lincoln Seligman Fountain. Columbia University proposed constructing a gym in the park's southern end in the early 1960s, but abandoned the plan after students protested in 1968. The site of the unbuilt gym was turned into a waterfall and pond around 1990, and an arboretum was added in 1998.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 15, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 15, 2021 is General Motors companion make program.
In the late 1920s, American automaker General Motors (GM) introduced four brands to supplement its five existing brands of passenger cars. In descending order of price, these were LaSalle, to supplement Cadillac; Viking (example pictured), to supplement Oldsmobile; Marquette, to supplement Buick; and Pontiac, to supplement Oakland. The brands were introduced in an effort to fill gaps in GM's pricing ladder and produce cars that were cheaper to make for its existing divisions. The Great Depression resulted in the failure of most of these brands. Viking and Marquette were each discontinued within two years of their introductions, and LaSalle after slightly more than a decade. Pontiac had the opposite fate; it was Oakland that would be discontinued, while Pontiac would continue until 2010.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 14, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 14, 2021 is Squirm.
Squirm is a 1976 American horror film written and directed by Jeff Lieberman, starring Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R. A. Dow, Jean Sullivan, Peter MacLean, Fran Higgins and William Newman. The film takes place in the fictional town of Fly Creek, Georgia, which becomes infested with carnivorous worms due to a downed power line. Lieberman's script is based on a childhood incident in which his brother fed electricity into a patch of earth, causing earthworms to rise to the surface. Millions of worms were used over the five-week filming in Port Wentworth, Georgia; worms were brought in from Maine to augment local supplies. Makeup artist Rick Baker (pictured) provided the special effects, using prosthetic makeup. After American International Pictures picked up Squirm for distribution, it was edited to remove the more graphic scenes in a failed attempt to lower its "R" rating to "PG". The film was a commercial success, but had lukewarm reviews. It has since become a critical favorite and a cult classic.