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Wikipedia:Today's featured list/February 2021

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

February 1

Ali Daei
Ali Daei

Ali Daei, a former Iranian professional association-football forward, scored 109 goals in 149 international appearances between 1993 and 2006. He is the all-time top international men's goalscorer. He made his debut for the Iran national football team in a match against Pakistan. His first international goal came in a 6–0 victory over Chinese Taipei on 25 June 1993 during qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. His final goal came in a 3–2 victory over Costa Rica match on 1 March 2006, and his final appearance for Iran was in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Angola on 21 June 2006 in the group stage. He has scored eight international hat-tricks; the first was on 10 June 1996 in an 8–0 win over Nepal at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, and the last was on 17 November 2004 against Laos in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match, which made him the first male player to score 100 goals in international football. (Full list...)


February 5

Houston toad
Houston toad

Seventy-two amphibian species are found in the American state of Texas, including forty-four species of frog and twenty-eight species of salamander. Four species are categorized as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature: the Barton Springs salamander, the Texas blind salamander, the black-spotted newt, and the Houston toad (example pictured). The varying geography of Texas, the second-largest state, provides a variety of habitats for amphibians. This vast contrast in biomes makes Texas home to a wide variety of herpetofauna. Its central position in the United States means that species found primarily in either the western or eastern reaches of the country often have their ranges meeting in the state. Additionally, its proximity to Mexico is such that many species found there and into Central America also range as far north as Texas. (Full list...)


February 8

A Good Scout by Norman Rockwell
A Good Scout by Norman Rockwell

Between 1925 and 1990, Boy Scout calendars featured a painting by illustrators Norman Rockwell (from 1925 to 1976) and Joseph Cesatari (from 1977 to 1990). Rockwell only failed to complete a painting for two years, 1928 and 1930; Cesatari completed a painting for every year. The illustrations show scouts of different kinds engaging in mostly outdoor activities. The idea for the calendar series was devised by an unknown staff member at Brown & Bigelow in 1923. Later that year, James E. West, Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), agreed to Brown & Bigelow's proposal for a 1925 calendar with repurposed art. The chosen painting, A Good Scout (pictured), was originally titled A Red Cross Man in the Making and depicts a scout bandaging the foot of a spaniel puppy under the eye of its mother. Between 1925 and 1976, Rockwell created 49 paintings for the BSA's Brown & Bigelow calendar. After Rockwell's retirement in 1976, the BSA asked Cesatari to take over the calendar series. (Full list...)


February 12

Pomona College's first graduating class, 1894
Pomona College's first graduating class, 1894

Many notable individuals have been affiliated with Pomona College, an elite private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, and the founding member of the Claremont Colleges. Pomona College was established in 1887 and currently enrolls approximately 1500 students. Notable alumni include anthropologist David Prescott Barrows, Chinese sociologist Chen Hansheng, anti–Japanese internment librarian Clara Breed, transgender activist Virginia Prince, Bengal cat creator Jean Mill, actor Richard Chamberlain, Russian Orthodox hieromonk Seraphim Rose, singer Kris Kristofferson, Light and Space artist James Turrell, NAACP chairperson Myrlie Evers-Williams, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, author Marianne Williamson, 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Jennifer Doudna, and U.S. senator Brian Schatz. Notable past and present faculty include kabuki expert Leonard Pronko, basketball coach Gregg Popovich, corporeal mime Thomas Leabhart, ethnomusicologist and Santería priestess Katherine Hagedorn, and novelist David Foster Wallace. The college's first president was hydroelectricity pioneer Cyrus G. Baldwin, and its current president is G. Gabrielle Starr. (Full list...)


February 15

Alicia Vikander
Alicia Vikander

Swedish actress Alicia Vikander's awards include an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Vikander earned those honours for her 2014 portrayal of Danish painter Gerda Wegener, the wife of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe. In 2011, Vikander received the Shooting Stars Award from the Berlin International Film Festival. Vikander starred as wartime nurse Vera Brittain in the 2014 drama Testament of Youth, for which she was nominated at the British Independent Film Awards. The following year Vikander appeared as an android in the psychological thriller Ex Machina, for which she received awards in the Best Supporting Actress category from the Chicago Film Critics Association, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Toronto Film Critics Association, and Vancouver Film Critics Circle. (Full list...)


February 19

Marcus Trescothick
Marcus Trescothick

The PCA Player of the Year is an annual cricket award, presented to the player adjudged to have been the best of the year in English county cricket. The award has been given since the 1970 season and the winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the players' trade union, the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA). With the exception of the first year, when a joint award was made, the award has been bestowed upon one individual each season. The winning player is awarded the Reg Hayter Cup, named after a sports journalist who was also a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, a Lord's Taverner, and a life member of Surrey County Cricket Club. The award was first presented in 1970, when Mike Procter of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Jack Bond of Lancashire County Cricket Club were joint winners. Seven players have won the award more than once, but only Sir Richard Hadlee and Marcus Trescothick (pictured) have been named Player of the Year on three occasions. On nineteen occasions, the PCA Player of the Year has also been named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for that season. (Full list...)


February 22

Kim Hee-chul
Kim Hee-chul

Kim Hee-chul made his acting debut as Baek Jin-woo in the second season of the teen drama Sharp (2005). A South Korean singer-songwriter, actor, television personality, and member of the K-pop boyband Super Junior, Kim has since acted in leading roles in Rainbow Romance (2005–2006) and Flower Grandpa Investigation Unit (2014). Kim's popularity skyrocketed after he was cast in the variety show Knowing Bros in 2015 alongside veteran host Kang Ho-dong and vocalist Min Kyung-hoon. His role in the show earned him his first Baeksang Arts Awards nomination in the Best Male Variety Performer category at the 56th ceremony. Kim has acted in several music videos, including in TraxX's "Let You Go" and Sistar's "Shady Girl", both of which were released in 2010, and directed a few others. (Full list...)


February 26

Sydenham Hill Wood
Sydenham Hill Wood

London Wildlife Trust, founded in 1981, is the local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature-conservation charity for its area. The trust aims to protect London's wildlife and wild spaces, and it manages over 40 nature reserves in Greater London. The trust's oldest reserves include Sydenham Hill Wood (pictured), which was managed by Southwark Wildlife Group before 1982 and was thus already a trust reserve at that date. The campaign to save Gunnersbury Triangle began that same year, succeeding in 1983 when a public inquiry ruled that the site could not be developed because of its value for nature. The trust has some 50 members of staff and 500 volunteers who work together on activities such as water management, chalk grassland restoration, helping people with special needs, and giving children an opportunity to go pond-dipping. (Full list...)