User:Allard

Hello and a warm welcome to all my fellow Wikipedians. How nice of you to drop in to see who I am!

Morning>

Wikipedia & me:[edit]

How I discovered Wikipedia, I do not remember. But from being a reader I slowly became a contributor. Although I don't work that much on Wikipedia I do see myself as a Wikipedian. I don't go searching on Wikipedia what I can edit next, I edit what I find and want to do. This means I add and mainly improve a lot of small things and only rarely I make large edits.

My work:[edit]

My list of contributions

Articles I've started on Wikipedia:

Images I made for Wikipedia:

Article guide:[edit]

A list of articles worth looking at, if one can find them:

And there's always the Random article

And to all citizens of the European Union, please read this: Oneseat.eu

News[edit]

Keir Starmer

The New Popular Front wins the most seats in the National Assembly in the French legislative election but does not achieve a majority.
The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election and Keir Starmer (pictured) becomes prime minister.
Hurricane Beryl, the earliest-recorded Category 5 Atlantic hurricane in a calendar year, leaves at least 12 people dead in the Caribbean and Venezuela.
In the Netherlands, a new cabinet is sworn in, with Dick Schoof serving as the prime minister.

Selected anniversaries[edit]

July 8: Islamic New Year (2024, 1446 AH)

John Clarke

1663 – Baptist minister John Clarke (pictured) was granted the Rhode Island Royal Charter, described as the "grandest instrument of human liberty ever constructed".
1874 – Members of the North-West Mounted Police at Fort Dufferin began their March West, their first journey to the Canadian Prairies.
1947 – Following reports of the capture of a "flying disc" by U.S. Army Air Forces personnel near Roswell, New Mexico, the military stated that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
1966 – King Mwambutsa IV of Burundi was deposed in a coup d'état by his son, Prince Charles Ndizi.
2014 – German citizen Lars Mittank disappeared from Varna Airport, Bulgaria; his last known movements were widely watched on YouTube.

Ælfwynn (d. 983)
Giorgio Pullicino (b. 1779)
Yarden Gerbi (b. 1989)
Tom Veryzer (d. 2014)

More anniversaries:

Did you know...[edit]

Isle of Dogs Pumping Station

... that the Isle of Dogs Pumping Station (pictured) was nicknamed the Temple of Storms?
... that 16th-century chroniclers thought María Pacheco, a leader of the Revolt of the Comuneros, was a witch?
... that some critics described the fourth season of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as comic relief from the activities of the Trump administration?
... that in order to re-marry, Zhou Wennan had to request Mao Zedong's permission?
... that schoolchildren in the town of Kirkby were paid 25 pence an hour to help build Kirkby Ski Slope, even though the slope never opened?
... that Lois E. Trott ran the first lodging house for homeless girls in America, providing shelter and support for over 1,000 girls annually, all without receiving any payment?
... that Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography described its subject as a "liar", and yet, one reviewer felt that the author's "studiously neutral position ends up sounding like an apologia for Kosinski"?
... that "Chihiro" by Billie Eilish was titled in reference to the main character of Spirited Away?
... that the DJ NewJeansNim has been credited with reviving interest in Buddhism among South Korean youths?

Today's featured article[edit]

Peter Weller in 2016

RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit in the near future, it centers on police officer Alex Murphy, played by Peter Weller (pictured), who is murdered by a gang of criminals and revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products as a cyborg. The director emphasized violence throughout the film, making it so outlandish that it became comical. RoboCop was a financial success upon its release in July 1987, earning $53.4 million. Reviewers praised it as a clever action film with deeper philosophical messages and satire, but were conflicted about the violence. The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing. RoboCop has been critically reevaluated since its release and hailed as one of the best films of the 1980s for its depiction of a cyborg coming to terms with the lingering fragments of its humanity. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Picture of the day

Celestine is a mineral consisting of strontium sulfate (Sr S O₄). It is named for its occasional delicate blue color. Celestine and the carbonate mineral strontianite are the principal sources of the element strontium, commonly used in fireworks and in various metal alloys. The mineral occurs as crystals, and also in compact massive, and fibrous forms. It is found worldwide, mostly found in sedimentary rocks, usually in small quantities. Pale blue crystal specimens, as shown in this photograph, are found in Madagascar.Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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