Wikipedia:Today's featured list/September 2019

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September 2

Harlan Ellison in 1986
Harlan Ellison in 1986

The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short story if it is less than 7,500 words; awards are also given out for longer works in the categories of novel, novella, and novelette. Nebula Award nominees and winners are chosen by members of the SFWA, though the authors of the nominees do not need to be a member. During the 54 nomination years, 220 authors have had works nominated; 41 of these have won, including co-authors. One of these authors, Lisa Tuttle, refused her award, and in 1971 no winner was chosen. Harlan Ellison (pictured) won three times out of eight nominations, both the highest number of wins and the highest number of nominations of any author. Ten authors have won twice, with Karen Joy Fowler at seven and Gardner Dozois at six having the next highest nomination count after Ellison. The most recent winner of the award is Phenderson Djèlí Clark, who won for "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" in 2019. (Full list...)


September 6

Cyclone Gonu
Cyclone Gonu

Sixty known tropical cyclones have affected the Arabian Peninsula, a peninsula between the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The hurricanes primarily affected Yemen and Oman. Most of the tropical cyclones originated in the Arabian Sea, the portion of the Indian Ocean north of the equator and west of India. The remainder formed in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast. Collectively, the 60 storms have caused at least US$8.3 billion in damage and 1,693 deaths. The strongest and most damaging cyclone was Cyclone Gonu (pictured), which caused US$4 billion in damage and 50 fatalities when it struck Oman in 2007. Tropical cyclone damage in the Arabian Peninsula is chiefly due to flooding. (Full list...)


September 9

Nineteen specials of Casualty have been produced. Casualty is a British medical drama television series that premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 6 September 1986. It is the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world, as well as the most enduring medical drama broadcast on primetime television in the world. Its special episodes include the first webisode commissioned for a BBC continuing drama. Casualty filmed a sketch for charity telethon Children in Need in 2009, featuring charity mascot Pudsey Bear. In 2010, cast members on the show filmed a tribute to BBC soap opera EastEnders and Blue Peter presenter Joel Defries presented a segment of the show from the Casualty set. Webisodes have been created to explore characters in more detail. Other webisodes are designed to help progress storylines on the main show. (Full list...)


September 13

Pegwell Bay, part of Sandwich and Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve
Pegwell Bay, part of Sandwich and Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve

Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT) is a conservation charity in the United Kingdom that was founded in 1958, previously known as the Kent Trust for Nature Conservation. It aims to "work with people to restore, save and improve our natural spaces" and to "ensure that 30% of Kent and Medway – land and sea – is managed to create a healthy place for wildlife to flourish". KWT manages fifty-four nature reserves, of which twenty-four are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, two are National Nature Reserves (Sandwich and Pegwell Bay pictured), nine are Nature Conservation Review sites, seven are Special Areas of Conservation, three are Special Protection Areas, seven are Local Nature Reserves, one is a Geological Conservation Review site, thirteen are in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and one is a Scheduled Monument. (Full list...)


September 16

Bill Woodfull in 1934
Bill Woodfull

In cricket, the phrase "carrying the bat" refers to a situation in which an opening batsman remains not out at the end of an innings where all the 10 wickets have fallen; the other 10 players in the team have all been dismissed. It may also be used in situations where one or more of these players are unable to bat due to retiring out or causes like injury or illness, and the remaining players are dismissed. A rare feat, this has happened only 69 times in international cricket spanning all three formats—Tests, One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). In Tests, South African Bernard Tancred was the first cricketer to carry the bat; he made 26 runs in his team's total of 47 against England in 1889. In 1933, Bill Woodfull (pictured) of Australia set a new record by becoming the first player to perform this feat twice in Tests. Apart from Woodfull, five other cricketers have performed this feat more than once in their in Test careers. (Full list...)


September 20

Rihanna in 2011
Rihanna

Fourteen singles topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2011. The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Its data, published by Billboard magazine and compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, was based collectively on each single's weekly physical and digital sales, as well as airplay. In 2011, nine acts achieved their first US number-one single, either as a lead artist or a featured guest. Six collaboration singles topped the chart. Pop singers Adele, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Rihanna (pictured) each earned two number-one songs during the year. One of Adele's songs, "Rolling in the Deep", was the best-performing single of 2011, topping the Billboard Year-End Hot 100. She became the fourth solo female to have multiple songs spend at least five weeks each at number one in one calendar year. Rihanna's "We Found Love" was the longest-running single of the year, having topped the chart for eight consecutive weeks in 2011 and two additional weeks in 2012. (Full list...)


September 23

Vignoles Bridge
Vignoles Bridge

There are ten scheduled monuments in Coventry. In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a "nationally important" archaeological site or historic building that has been given protection against unauthorised change by being placed on a list (or "schedule") by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; English Heritage takes the leading role in identifying such sites. Monuments are defined in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and the National Heritage Act 1983. Coventry is an ancient city and a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. The city's history dates back to at least the 11th century (CE), and by the 14th century, it was a thriving centre of commerce. The oldest monuments in Coventry – Caludon Castle and St Mary's Priory and Cathedral – were built in the 11th century. Both are now ruins. Coventry's newest scheduled monument is Vignoles Bridge (pictured) – a single-span iron footbridge over the River Sherbourne, made in 1835 and moved to its current location in 1969. (Full list...)


September 27

Shruti Haasan
Shruti Haasan

Indian actress Shruti Haasan has worked in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil films. Haasan's first major appearance was in Soham Shah's Hindi film Luck (2009), in which she played a dual role of a woman avenging her twin sister's death. She played the female lead in the films Anaganaga O Dheerudu and 7aum Arivu; both were released in 2011 and together earned her the Best Female Debut – South at the 59th Filmfare Awards South ceremony. A turning point in Haasan's career came with Harish Shankar's commercially successful Telugu film Gabbar Singh (2012). The release was followed by a series of successful films such as Balupu (2013) and Yevadu (2014). She received her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for her performance in Race Gurram (2014). In 2015, Haasan played the female lead in five films: Gabbar Is Back and Welcome Back in Hindi, Srimanthudu in Telugu, and Puli and Vedalam in Tamil. (Full list...)


September 30

Allyson Felix in 2016
Five-time winner Allyson Felix

The Jesse Owens Award is an annual track and field award that is the highest accolade given out by USA Track & Field. As the country's highest award for the sport, it bears Jesse Owens's name in recognition of his significant career, which included four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. First awarded in 1981 to hurdler Edwin Moses, it was created to recognize the season's top American performer in track and field competitions. In 1996, the award was divided into two categories, with both a male and female winner. The 1996 winners, Michael Johnson and Gail Devers, each won two gold medals at that year's Olympics in Atlanta. The winners of the award are typically announced in late November or early December after the end of the outdoor track and field season. A number of athletes have received the award on more than one occasion: Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the first to do so with back-to-back wins in 1986 and 1987, while Carl Lewis won his second award in 1991. Sprinter Allyson Felix (pictured) has won the award on five occasions, more times than any other athlete. (Full list...)