Wikipedia:Today's featured list/March 2022


March 4

Articles by American writer John Neal were published in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals and are part of his bibliography. Neal was the United States' first art critic, author of the first history of American literature, the first American to be published in any British literary magazine, and one of the first male advocates of women's rights and feminist causes in the United States. As an early and outspoken theater critic, he drafted a future for American drama that was only partially realized sixty years later. His critiques of literature helped launch the careers of many well-known American authors and his essays on art were recognized as "prophetic". One of the leading critics of his time, his writing also addressed gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, architecture, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance. Literary historian Fred Lewis Pattee found that "his critical judgments have held. Where he condemned, time has almost without exception condemned also." (Full list...)


March 7

Iowa State Capitol
Iowa State Capitol

The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug and established in 1986 through the support of General Foods, the prize is envisioned and promoted as the Nobel or the highest honors in the field of food and agriculture. It is now administered by the World Food Prize Foundation with support from numerous sponsors. Since 1987, the prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply, such as animal science, aquaculture, soil science, water conservation, nutrition, health, plant science, seed science, plant pathology, and crop protection. Laureates are honored and officially awarded their prize in Des Moines, Iowa, in an award ceremony held at the Iowa State Capitol (pictured). Laureates are presented with a diploma, a commemorative sculpture designed by Saul Bass and a monetary award of $250,000. (Full list...)


March 11

Lana Turner as Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice
Lana Turner as Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice

The filmography of American actress Lana Turner includes more than fifty films during her career, which spanned four decades. Discovered in 1937 at age 16, she signed a contract with Warner Bros. but soon transferred to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Turner's role as a femme fatale (pictured) in the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) advanced her career significantly and established her as a dramatic actress. In addition to her film roles, Turner frequently appeared on radio programs throughout the 1940s, including Suspense and The Orson Welles Almanac. In 1952, she co-starred in the drama The Bad and the Beautiful opposite Kirk Douglas, portraying an alcoholic actress. In 1957, she took a leading role portraying Constance MacKenzie in 20th Century Fox's Peyton Place, a film adaptation of the Grace Metalious novel of the same name. The film was a major box office success, and Turner earned her first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance. (Full list...)


March 14

Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society of London for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". It was established in 1885 after the transfer of the International Darwin Memorial Fund to the Royal Society. The Darwin Medal commemorates the work of English biologist Charles Darwin (pictured). The medal was first awarded in 1890 to Alfred Russel Wallace. It has been awarded over 60 times. It is currently awarded along with a grant of £2,000. From 1890 till 2018, it was awarded biennially. Since then, it is awarded annually. The diameter of the medal is 2+14 inch (5.7 cm). Made of silver, the obverse has Darwin's portrait, while the reverse has a wreath of plants with Darwin's name in Latin, "Carolus Darwin". It is surrounded by the years of his birth and death in Roman numerals. All citizens who have been residents of either the United Kingdom, Commonwealth of Nations, or the Republic of Ireland for more than three years are eligible for the medal. (Full list...)


March 18

American musician Alison Krauss has received 59 awards from 105 nominations, including twenty-seven Grammy Award wins, the most by a female artist and third-most by any artist. She has also won fourteen International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, nine Country Music Association Awards, two Gospel Music Association Awards, two CMT Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and one Canadian Country Music Award. She has released sixteen studio albums – seven with the band Union Station and nine without them – and five compilation albums. Country Music Television ranked Krauss twelfth on their list of "40 Greatest Women of Country Music" in 2002. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented her with a special musical achievement honor in 2005. (Full list...)


March 21

Skyline of Moncton
Skyline of Moncton

The 104 municipalities in New Brunswick cover only 10.9 per cent of the province's land mass but are home to 69.5 per cent of its population. New Brunswick is the eighth-most populous Canadian province, with 775,610 residents as of the 2021 census, and the third-smallest province by land area, at 71,248.50 km2 (27,509.20 sq mi). Municipalities in New Brunswick may be incorporated under the Municipalities Act of 1973 as a city, town, village, regional municipality, or rural community. In 1785, Saint John became the first community in what would eventually become Canada to be incorporated as a city. Moncton (pictured) is New Brunswick's largest municipality by population, with 79,470 residents, and Saint John is the largest urban municipality by land area, at 315.59 km2 (121.85 sq mi). (Full list...)


March 25

Geoff Thomas
Geoff Thomas

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. The award is given "for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity", and the winner is selected by BBC Sport. The award is named after the BBC sports presenter Helen Rollason, who died in August 1999 at the age of 43 after suffering from cancer. After her diagnosis, she helped raise more than £5 million to set up a cancer wing at the North Middlesex Hospital, where she received most of her treatment. The inaugural recipient of the award was horse trainer Jenny Pitman, in 1999. Several recipients have not played a sport professionally. Michael Watson, who won the award in 2003, had a career in boxing but was paralysed and almost killed in a title bout with Chris Eubank. He won the award for completing the London Marathon, an accomplishment that took him six days. Former footballer Geoff Thomas (pictured) won the award in 2005; he raised money by cycling the 2,200 miles (3,500 km) of the 2005 Tour de France course in the same number of days as the professionals completed it. (This list is part of a featured topic: BBC Sports Personality of the Year.)


March 28

Halle Berry
Halle Berry

The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2001 and took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Laura Ziskin and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the fourth time. A Beautiful Mind won four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Denzel Washington and Halle Berry (pictured) won lead acting honors, with the latter becoming the first African-American to win the award for Best Actress. The telecast garnered nearly 42 million viewers in the United States. (Full list...)