Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 February 18

L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppaea) is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi (pictured), with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. It was first performed during the 1643 carnival season in Venice. One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, achieves her ambition to be crowned empress. The opera was revived in 1651, but was then neglected until the score was rediscovered in 1888. Since the 1960s, the work has been performed and recorded many times. The original manuscript of the score does not exist; two surviving copies from the 1650s differ significantly. How much of the music is actually Monteverdi's is disputed. Details of the original cast are largely speculative, and there is no record of the opera's initial public reception. Despite these uncertainties, it is generally accepted as part of the Monteverdi operatic canon, his last and perhaps his greatest work. Written when the genre of opera was only a few decades old, the music for L'incoronazione di Poppea has been praised for its originality and melody, and it helped to redefine the boundaries of theatrical music. (Full article...)

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• ... that former college basketball player Fred Slaughter was called "the dean of black sports attorneys" by The New York Times?
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• Renaud Lavillenie of France breaks Sergey Bubka's indoor world record in pole vaulting, with a mark of 6.16 metres (20 ft 2 ¹⁄₂ in).
• Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam (pictured) announces the formation of a new government.
• The genome of a 12,500-year-old Clovis culture infant is sequenced, clarifying the origin of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
• At least 76 people are killed when a military plane crashes in Algeria.
• In a national referendum, Swiss voters approve re-imposing quotas on immigration from European Union countries.

Recent deaths: Tom Finney – Sid Caesar – Stuart Hall

February 18: Independence Day in The Gambia (1965)

• 1766 – A mutiny by captive Malagasy began at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
• 1878 – Competition between two merchants in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, US, turned into a range war when a member of one faction was murdered by the other.
• 1957 – Kenyan independence leader Dedan Kimathi (statue pictured), who spearheaded the Mau Mau Uprising, was executed by British authorities, who saw him as a terrorist.
• 1970 – An American jury acquitted the "Chicago Seven" of conspiracy and inciting riots stemming from protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
• 2007 – Terrorist bombs exploded on the Samjhauta Express train in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.

More anniversaries: February 17 – February 18 – February 19

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Diaethria clymena is a species of butterfly found in Central and South America; this specimen was photographed in the Andes. The species' wingspan averages 30–40 millimetres (1.2–1.6 in) and the wings are easily recognizable for their distinct pattern, shaped like the number 88.

Photo: Paolo Costa Baldi