Featured content
Five years of work leads to 63-article featured topic
_-_March_17,_1924.jpg)
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 27 October 2013 through 2 November 2013.
Featured articles
Eleven featured articles were promoted this week.
- Operation Tungsten (nom) by Nick-D. This Second World War air raid targeted the German battleship Tirpitz, a sister ship of the infamous Bismarck, due to the Allies' fear that the warship would put to sea and sink or disrupt vital supply convoys to the Soviet Union.
- European Storm Petrel (nom) by Jimfbleak. Nominated with a frightful poem by Jimfbleak, this bird breeds on islands off the coast of Europe that do have predatory land mammals, like rats or cats. Strangely, the article notes that the bird's "presence in rough weather at sea has led to various mariners' superstitions, and, by analogy, to its use as a symbol by revolutionary and anarchist groups."
- Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano (nom) by Sturmvogel 66. This Second World War ship was converted into an aircraft carrier from Japan's massive Yamato class design. The ship, which remained the largest warship ever built until the US launched its first supercarrier in 1954, was sunk by submarine-launched torpedoes on its first voyage, a consequence of poor design and untrained seamen.
- Constance Stokes (nom) by Hamiltonstone. This Australian painter was active for a large portion of her 84–85 year life, receiving high praise from critics at the time but getting little recognition from present-day critics until a 2009 book.
- Menominee Tribe v. United States (nom) by GregJackP. This American Supreme Court case resulted from Congress' then-policy of terminating Native Americans' special relationship with the US government. However, the bill abolishing the Menominee Tribe's rights did not mention their hunting and fishing rights, which led the Court to rule that the tribe kept those for itself—despite the federal government not recognizing it as a separate entity.
- Volubilis (nom) by Prioryman. This Roman town began as a Carthaginian settlement before being taken over by Mauritania. It fell to the Roman Empire in the first century CE and was significantly expanded before the empire's decline led to its loss in 285 CE. Although it was inhabited for several more centuries, the town remained remarkably intact, leading to its status today as "an exceptionally well preserved example of a large Roman colonial town on the fringes of the Empire".
- Jefferson Davis (nom) by Omnedon. The first and final president of the Confederate States of America—the rebel nation-state created during the American Civil War—was elected by a constitutional convention to the position in 1861. He served in this capacity until the war's end, whereupon he was imprisoned for two years. In modern times, his reputation has been restored in part by his 1881 memoir.
- 2011 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final (nom) by Skotywa. This 2011 association football match was the closing game in the named tournament, which is odd in that it is open to both professional and amateur teams in the United States. This year's game featured two teams from the professional Major League Soccer; the winner, Seattle, became the first team since 1968 to win three straight Lamar Hunt tournaments.
- Albert Ball (nom) by Georgejdorner and Ian Rose. This British First World War fighter pilot racked up 44 aerial kills, making him the UK's leading ace at the time of his death in 1917. When the famous Red Baron heard of Ball's death, he is said to have remarked that he was "by far the best English flying man".
- Twenty-cent piece (United States coin) (nom) by Wehwalt. An oddball coin, the US twenty-cent piece was struck for only three years, two of those being exclusively for collectors. Its downfall, as explained by the nominator, laid in its similarities to the twenty-five cent quarter: "the twenty-cent piece was one of those mistakes that Congress and the Mint just didn't learn from. Not only did they make it too similar in size to the quarter, they used the same design for one side!"
- Choiseul Pigeon (nom) by FunkMonk. This pigeon most likely lived on just a sole island in the Solomon Islands, and its last known sighting (unconfirmed) was in the 1940s. Like many island species, it was killed off with the introduction of feral cats to the environment.
Featured lists
Three featured lists were promoted this week.
- List of international cricket five-wicket hauls by Bob Willis (nom) by Lugnuts and Zia Khan. This list covers the English fast bowler Bob Willis' five-wicket hauls, which are held in high regard by cricket historians and fans. Willis managed to do this sixteen times in his thirteen-year career.
- Yugoslav order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia (nom) by Peacemaker67. This list of Yugoslavia's operational military formations at the beginning of Nazi Germany's invasion of that country in 1941 includes some 33 divisions and 10 independent brigades, even though only seven divisions and six smaller formations were available due to the country's "tentative and incomplete mobilization."
- List of battleships of Italy (nom) by Parsecboy. Italy constructed several classes of battleships during the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, first as a counter to the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and later to oppose the French Navy.
Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Common Redshank (nom, related article) created by Andreas Trepte and nominated by Nikhil. This extremely common bird is a resident of European coastlines, the Mediterranean in winter and as far north as the United Kingdom. It is also present as far east as South Asia.
- Omni Shoreham Hotel (nom, related article) created by Jürgen Matern and nominated by Tomer T. This Washington, D.C. four-star hotel was built in 1930. Its illustrious history includes more than a half-century of presidential inaugural balls, numerous entertainers, and a haunted room.
- Praia da Nazaré (nom, related article) created and nominated by Alvesgaspar. This image was taken on a winter morning just a few short weeks before a man surfed the world's highest waves at the lighthouse on the left side of the image.
- Stu-mick-o-súcks (Buffalo Bull's Back Fat) (nom, related article) created by George Catlin and nominated by MatGTAM. This Native American war chief was depicted in this painting in 1832. According to the nomination, this "historically and culturally important painting...shows traditional Blackfoot clothing/apparel such as the beaded buckskin shirt, hair roach, eagle feather, face paint, and beaded pipe. "
Featured topics
Three featured topics were promoted this week.
- Battlecruisers of the world (nom) written by many editors and nominated by Sturmvogel 66. What is now Wikipedia's largest featured topic (clocking in at 63 total articles) is the product of five years of work by members of Operation Majestic Titan. It covers all of the world's battlecruisers that served in a navy or reached a reasonable stage of planning before being canceled. The United Kingdom built by far the most examples of this type of ship, with Imperial Germany's fleet during the First World War coming in a distant second. Another point of note includes Russia's multiple attempts to build battlecruisers, though none ever came into service. No ships of this type are extant in the world today. This topic is part of a larger effort to raise all of the articles related to battleships and battlecruisers to featured status (see previous Signpost coverage).
- Lexington-class battlecruiser & aircraft carrier (nom) nominated by Sturmvogel 66. This topic covers the United States' Lexington-class aircraft carriers. The class was originally conceived as a group of six battlecruisers—fast, heavily armed, and weakly armored capital ships—but the end of the First World War and a naval-limiting treaty led to four being scrapped while under construction and two being converted into aircraft carriers, both of which served in the Second World War.
- Category 5 Pacific hurricanes (Good topic nom) nominated by Miss Madeline. This new featured topic covering a number of Category 5 hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean went back to featured status when an article listed in the topic, Hurricane Patsy (1959) was merged with 1959 Pacific hurricane season, thus increasing the proportion of featured articles. This topic was first promoted to a Good Topic in 2008.
Discuss this story
Jefferson Davis