Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 18b

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Captain David Nelson, commissioned from the ranks in 1914

"Temporary gentlemen" is a colloquial term referring to male officers of the British Army who held temporary (or war-duration) commissions, particularly when such men came from outside the traditional officer class. Historically the officers of the British Army were drawn from the gentry and upper middle classes. The First World War required a rapid expansion of the officer corps and more than 200,000 additional officers were recruited, many on temporary commissions. Many of these were drawn from the lower middle and working classes. They came to be referred to as "temporary gentlemen" with the expectation that they would revert to their former social standing after the war. The term was revived in the Second World War, which saw a similar increase in the number of officers holding temporary commissions. The term continued to see use for officers commissioned from those conscripted for National Service, which lasted until 1963. (Full article...)

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Melville Fuller

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In the news

Flooding in Clausen, Luxembourg

Flooding (pictured) across western Europe leaves more than 180 people dead.
In South Africa, protests and subsequent unrest over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma result in 212 deaths and more than 2,500 arrests.
The Supreme Court of Nepal designates Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister.
There Is Such a People wins the most seats in the Bulgarian parliamentary election.

On this day

July 18: Tisha B'Av (Judaism, 2021)

Nadia Comăneci on the balance beam

1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, killed an estimated 200 people.
1841 – Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil, having reigned in minority since 1831, was acclaimed, crowned and consecrated.
1949 – Francisco Javier Arana, Chief of the Armed Forces of Guatemala, was killed in a shootout with supporters of President Juan José Arévalo.
1976 – At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci (pictured) became the first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics event.
1989 – American actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by Robert John Bardo, eventually prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California.

Lucy Smith Millikin (b. 1821)
Maria von Linden (b. 1869)
John Glenn (b. 1921)

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Today's featured picture

The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) is a large wading bird in the family Scolopacidae. Breeding takes place each summer in the Arctic, and the bird then makes a long-distance migration southwards to overwinter in more temperate areas, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. This photograph, taken in March, shows a bird in non-breeding plumage at Taren Point in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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