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Wikipedia:Today's featured list/June 2019

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June 3

John Newbery
John Newbery

The Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. Named for John Newbery (pictured), an 18th-century English publisher of juvenile books, the winner of the Newbery is selected at the ALA's Midwinter Conference by a fifteen-person committee. The physical bronze medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and is given to the winning author at the next ALA annual conference. Besides the Newbery Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to leading contenders, called Newbery Honors or Newbery Honor Books; until 1971, these books were called runners-up. To be eligible, a book must be written by a United States citizen or resident and must be published first or simultaneously in the United States in English during the preceding year. Six authors have won two Newbery Medals each. As of 2019, the most recent winner is Meg Medina for Merci Suárez Changes Gears. (Full list...)


June 7

Welcome sign at Gulf Islands National Seashore
Welcome sign at Gulf Islands National Seashore

The United States has ten protected areas known as national seashores and three known as national lakeshores, which are public lands operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National seashores and lakeshores are coastal areas federally designated by Congress as being of natural and recreational significance as a preserved area. All of the national lakeshores are on Lakes Michigan and Superior, whereas nine of the ten national seashores are on the Atlantic Ocean, including two on the Gulf of Mexico. National seashores are located in ten states and national lakeshores are in two other states. Florida, North Carolina and Michigan each have two. The largest national seashore or lakeshore is Gulf Islands (sign pictured), at over 137,000 acres (550 km2); the smallest is Fire Island, at 19,579 acres (79.23 km2). (Full list...)


June 10

Denzel Washington

American actor Denzel Washington made his feature film debut in Carbon Copy (1981). In 1982, Washington made his first appearance in the medical drama St. Elsewhere as Dr. Philip Chandler. The role proved to be the breakthrough in his career. In 1987, he played Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid activist in the Richard Attenborough-directed drama Cry Freedom, for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later, Washington won the award for playing Trip, a former slave-turned-soldier in the Civil War film Glory (1989). Washington received the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival for playing the eponymous civil rights activist in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, as well as his second Silver Bear for Best Actor, for playing wrongly-convicted boxer Rubin Carter in the biographical film The Hurricane (1999). For his next role as corrupt cop Detective Alonzo Harris in the crime thriller Training Day (2001), Washington received the Academy Award for Best Actor. (Full list...)


June 14

Amit Shah in 2015
Amit Shah

The President of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the highest authority within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of two major parties in the Indian political system, along with the Indian National Congress. The president fills a number of roles, including chairing meetings of the party's national executive and appointing the presidents of party subsidiaries, such as its youth wing and farmer's wing. As of 2018, it is the country's largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies. Any candidate for the BJP presidency needs to have been a member of the party for at least 15 years. After the party's foundation in 1980, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became its first president. He later became the Prime Minister of India, the only BJP president to serve in that position to date. In 1986, Lal Krishna Advani was sworn in as the party president and has been the longest serving president over three different periods. A total of ten people have served as the president of the BJP, including Rajnath Singh, who has served two terms. Amit Shah (pictured) became the party president on 9 July 2014 and is the incumbent. (Full list...)


June 17

Girls' Generation
Girls' Generation

In 2011, 44 albums reached number one on the weekly version of the Gaon Album Chart, a South Korean record chart that ranks the best-selling albums and EPs in South Korea. It is part of the Gaon Music Chart, which launched in February 2010. The data are compiled by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Music Content Industry Association, based upon weekly and monthly physical album sales by six major South Korean distributors. Girls' Generation (pictured), Big Bang and JYJ topped the chart with three different albums each, more than any other act. CNBLUE, Kim Hyun-joong and Super Junior each had two number one albums on the chart. The longest run at number one on the weekly chart was four weeks, by Girls' Generation's The Boys and Super Junior's Mr. Simple. On the monthly chart, TVXQ and Big Bang had the most number-one albums, with two each. Overall, Girls' Generation's The Boys was the Gaon Album Chart's best selling album of 2011. (Full list...)


June 21

1874 Queen's Park team
1874 Queen's Park team

A number of Scottish clubs have entered the FA Cup, a knockout competition in English association football. The first Scottish club to enter was Queen's Park (1874 team pictured), who accepted an invitation to take part in the very first competition after a number of the clubs which had originally entered withdrew. Because of a combination of byes and the withdrawal of opponents, "Queen's" reached the semi-finals without playing a match, but after holding Wanderers to a draw the Scottish club was forced to withdraw as the funds could not be raised to return for a replay. In 1883, Queen's reached the final, scoring resounding wins over Crewe Alexandra (10–0) and Manchester F.C. (15–0) en route, only to be defeated by Blackburn Rovers. A year later Queens met Blackburn Rovers in the final once again, with the English team again emerging victorious. The 1885–86 competition saw the first participation by other Scottish clubs. In 1887, the Scottish Football Association banned its members from taking any further part in the FA Cup. No more Scottish clubs participated until Gretna F.C. entered the competition in the 1980s. (Full list...)


June 24

K. G. Ramanathan
K. G. Ramanathan

There were 133 recipients of the Padma Bhushan from 1980 to 1989. The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order", without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex. The recipients receive a Sanad, a certificate signed by the President of India and a circular-shaped medallion with no monetary association. Only one award was conferred in 1980, which was later followed by nine in 1981, fifteen in 1982, seventeen in both 1983 and 1984, twenty-one in 1985, fourteen in 1986, twelve in 1987, thirteen in 1988 and fourteen in 1989. The Padma Bhushan was also conferred upon ten foreign recipients in the 1980s – four from the United Kingdom, three from the United States and one each from Denmark, France and Japan. Individuals from nine different fields were awarded, which include twenty-eight from literature and education (1983 recipient K. G. Ramanathan pictured), twenty-five from the civil services and twenty-three artists. (This list is part of a featured topic: Padma Bhushan.)


June 28

Trần Anh Hùng
Trần Anh Hùng

Vietnam has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1993. The award is presented annually by the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The Scent of Green Papaya, directed by Trần Anh Hùng (pictured), was Vietnam's first submission for the 1993 awards. It is the only Vietnamese film to secure a nomination and was the first nomination received by a Southeast Asian country in the category. The Scent of Green Papaya and the three subsequent Vietnamese submissions – Hồ Quang Minh's Gone, Gone Forever Gone (1996), Tony Bui's Three Seasons (1999) and Hùng's Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000) – were directed by overseas Vietnamese directors and chosen without any support councils, deriving solely from the directors' relationship with foreign partners. The Buffalo Boy was the first selection by Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information, following an invitation to participate in 2006. (Full list...)