Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 11b

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From today's featured article

George Fan, designer

Plants vs. Zombies is a 2009 tower defense video game developed and published by PopCap Games. First released for Windows and Mac OS X, the game has since been ported to consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. In Plants vs. Zombies, the player takes the role of a homeowner in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. As a horde of zombies approaches along several parallel lanes, the player must defend the home by putting down plants, which fire projectiles at the zombies or otherwise detrimentally affect them. The game was designed by George Fan (pictured) as a sequel to Insaniquarium. Fan took inspiration from the games Magic: The Gathering and Warcraft III and the movie Swiss Family Robinson. The game was positively received by critics and was nominated for multiple awards. It quickly became the best-selling game developed by PopCap Games. Plants vs. Zombies was followed by a series of games after the acquisition of PopCap Games by Electronic Arts. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Enslaved people being thrown from a ship

... that in a court case, William Gregson was awarded £30 for every enslaved person that his crew had murdered in the Zong massacre?
... that the Microphones' 2003 album Mount Eerie uses different people and vocal styles to represent distinct, individual characters?
... that Abeer Odeh was the first woman to serve as Minister of National Economy in Palestine?
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... that Steve Bennett's write-in candidacy for election to the Ventura city council was endorsed by Patagonia, Inc.?
... that Harriet Tyce's novel Blood Orange became popular during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020?
... that photographing Elliot Page for the cover of Time "really meant the world" to Canadian photographer Wynne Neilly?
... that the style of the 9th-century Celtic Roscrea Brooch was influenced by the artworks of Viking invaders?

In the news

Dilip Kumar in 1946

Indian actor Dilip Kumar (pictured) dies at the age of 98.
In ice hockey, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals.
President of Haiti Jovenel Moïse is assassinated and interim prime minister Claude Joseph assumes leadership.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, Russia, killing all 28 people on board.

On this day

July 11

William Howard Taft

1405 – Admiral Zheng He's first expeditionary fleet of Chinese treasure ships departed Nanjing, beginning the Ming treasure voyages to the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons co-discovered the first of his 37 comets, more than any other person in history.
1921 – Former president William Howard Taft (pictured) was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States, making him the only person to date to have held both offices.
1991 – Shortly after taking off from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire and crashed, killing all 261 people on board.
2011 – An explosion at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base killed 13 people, including the head of the Cyprus Navy.

Nicole Oresme (d. 1382)
Thomas Bowdler (b. 1754)
Alessia Cara (b. 1996)

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Today's featured picture

Emily J. Harding (1850–1940) was a British artist, illustrator and suffragette, and a member of the Artists' Suffrage League. This poster, created by Harding around 1907 to 1918 in support of the suffrage movement in the United Kingdom, depicts a woman wearing an academic cap and gown standing inside a locked gate with a "convict" and a "lunatic", to illustrate the fact that none of the three had a vote for Parliament.

Poster credit: Emily J. Harding; restored by Adam Cuerden

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