Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 18

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...)

S. lateriflorum flower heads

• ... that the blossoms of Symphyotrichum lateriflorum (examples pictured) have been used by the Meskwaki as a smudge "to cure a crazy person who has lost his mind"?
• ... that Lee Tze Chung, in a pro-China paper, criticized the government's response to the Tiananmen protests?
• ... that Piper Harron's 2016 mathematics doctoral thesis has been described as "feminist", "unique", "honest", "generous", and "refreshing"?
• ... that Annie Kanahele opposed the addition of diacritics to a reprint of the Bible in Hawaiian, arguing that the original exemplified the written Hawaiian language at the time of translation?
• ... that the province of Central Kalimantan was created after the Indonesian government was harried by the paramilitary organization Mandau Talawang Pancasila?
• ... that Obed Dickinson, an abolitionist pastor in Oregon in the mid-1800s, was pressured into resigning for advocating for racial equality?
• ... that the Campanha da Legalidade was a mobilization led by Governor Leonel Brizola to guarantee the inauguration of João Goulart as the 24th president of Brazil?
• ... that Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Covolan scored an equalising goal in injury time during the 2021 National League play-off Final?

Flooding in Valkenburg aan de Geul, Netherlands

• Severe floods (pictured) across western Europe leave more than 170 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.

July 18: Day of Arafah (Islam, 2021); 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.