Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 May 12

Superliner I Sightseer lounge

The Superliner is a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used by Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier in the United States. The design was based on Budd's Hi-Level vehicles, employed by the Santa Fe Railway on its El Capitan trains. Pullman-Standard built 284 cars, known as Superliner I (lounge pictured), from 1975 to 1981; Bombardier Transportation built 195, known as Superliner II, from 1991 to 1996. Car types include coaches, dining cars, lounges, and sleeping cars. Most passenger spaces are on the upper level, which features a row of windows on both sides. Boarding is on the lower level; passengers climb up a center stairwell to access the upper level. The first Superliner I cars entered service in February 1979, with deliveries continuing through 1981. Amtrak assigned the cars to both long-distance and short-distance trains in the Western United States. The first permanent assignment, in October 1979, was to the Chicago–Seattle Empire Builder. (Full article...)

Rip Rapson

• ... that Rip Rapson (pictured), CEO of The Kresge Foundation, helped organize the "grand bargain" to rescue Detroit from bankruptcy and save the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts from liquidation?
• ... that the leech Limnatis nilotica can affect humans and livestock, entering hosts through the mouth, nose, or other orifices?
• ... that the Ming dynasty poet Chen Zilong edited a book on agriculture that was the "first compilation of statecraft writing" in China?
• ... that the American-led coalition has partially withdrawn troops from Iraq because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country?
• ... that the 2017 romantic thriller You Go to My Head does not use any artificial lighting?
• ... that with her victory at the 2001 Women's World Snooker Championship, Lisa Quick became the first person to win world titles in both pool and snooker?
• ... that New York City was divided into wards between 1683 and 1938?
• ... that "Spam" played a key part in the design of the urinals on the Royal Navy's Swiftsure-class submarines?

Wide-field image of HR 6819

• A gas leak in Andhra Pradesh, India, kills thirteen people and injures over a thousand others.
• Astronomers announce the discovery of the first black hole located in a star system visible to the naked eye (pictured).
• In the Philippines, the leading television network ABS-CBN is ordered to stop broadcasting by the National Telecommunications Commission.

May 12: Lag BaOmer (Judaism, 2020)

Semyon Timoshenko

• 907 – Zhu Wen forced Emperor Ai to abdicate, ending the Tang dynasty after nearly three centuries of ruling China.
• 1846 – The Donner Party, an American pioneer group which became known for resorting to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Sierra Nevadas, left Independence, Missouri, for California.
• 1942 – World War II: Soviet forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko (pictured) launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine, but were encircled and destroyed by German troops two weeks later.
• 1982 – Juan María Fernández y Krohn attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II with a bayonet in Fátima, Portugal.
• 1998 – Four students were shot and killed by Indonesian soldiers at Trisakti University in Jakarta, which led to widespread riots and eventually the resignation of President Suharto nine days later.