Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 June 23

In London's Great Stink of 1858, the smell from untreated human waste and industrial effluent being pumped onto the banks of the River Thames was exacerbated by the low levels of the river in the hot summer weather. The cause was the inadequate and archaic sewerage system, which poured waste into the river. Victorian doctors still believed in the miasma theory, that smell transmitted contagious diseases, rather than microorganisms; three outbreaks of cholera prior to the Great Stink were blamed on the ongoing problems with the river. Local and national administrators who had been looking at possible solutions accepted a proposal from the civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette (pictured) to move the effluent eastwards along a series of interconnecting sewers that sloped towards outfalls beyond the metropolitan area. Pumping stations were built to lift the sewage from lower levels into higher pipes, and two of the more ornate buildings, Abbey Mills in Stratford and Crossness on the Erith Marshes, are listed for protection by English Heritage. Bazalgette's plan introduced three embankments to London in which the sewers ran—the Victoria, Chelsea and Albert Embankments. The work ensured that sewage was no longer dumped onto the shores of the Thames and brought an end to the cholera outbreaks. Although Bazalgette planned for the sewers to support a city of 4.5 million, the system still operates into the 21st century, servicing a city that has grown to over 8 million. (Full article...)

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• ... that Afternoon Tea (pictured), a children's book by John George Sowerby and Henry Hetherington Emmerson , was considered by Kate Greenaway to be "blatant piracy" of her book Under the Window ?
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• ... that the lead actress in Kim Hyung-jun's music video "oH! aH!" from My Girl has been referred to as "Idol Killer" for working with various idol-singers?
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• ... that highlights from the history of hadrosaur research include the first dinosaur fossils to be mounted in a museum, the colossal Shantungosaurus , and Maiasaura nesting grounds in Montana?
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• A heat wave in Pakistan kills more than 350 people.
• Pope Francis (pictured) releases the encyclical Laudato si' , in which he calls for action on environmental degradation and climate change.
• Nine people, including a state senator, are killed in a mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
• In basketball, the Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the NBA Finals .
• In ice hockey, the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup .
• Flooding in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, kills at least nineteen people and releases zoo animals into the streets.
• In motorsport, Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico Hülkenberg, driving a Porsche 919 Hybrid, win the 24 Hours of Le Mans .

• Ongoing events :
  • FIFA Women's World Cup
• Recent deaths :
  • James Horner
  • Ron Clarke

June 23 : Victory Day in Estonia; Jāņi in Latvia; Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg

• 1280 – Reconquista: Troops of the Emirate of Granada defeated those of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of León in the Battle of Moclín .
• 1858 – Edgardo Mortara , a six-year-old Jewish boy, was seized by papal authorities and taken to be raised as a Roman Catholic, sparking an international controversy.
• 1894 – Led by French historian Pierre de Coubertin (pictured), an international congress at the Sorbonne in Paris founded the International Olympic Committee to reinstate the ancient Olympic Games.
• 1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to prohibit gender discrimination in any educational program receiving federal funds, which allowed for huge growth in women's sports for student athletes.
• 1985 – A bomb attributed to the Sikh separatist group Babbar Khalsa destroyed Air India Flight 182 above the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 on board.

• More anniversaries:
  • June 22
  • June 23
  • June 24