Main Page

Neil Hamilton Fairley (1891–1966) was an Australian physician and soldier who was instrumental in saving thousands of Allied lives from malaria and other diseases. A graduate of the University of Melbourne, Fairley joined the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1915. In the inter-war period he became renowned as an expert on tropical medicine. Fairley returned to the Australian Army during the Second World War as Director of Medicine. He played an important role in the planning for the Battle of Greece, convincing the British Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Archibald Wavell, to alter his campaign plan to reduce the danger from malaria. In South West Pacific Area, Fairley became responsible for coordinating the activities of all allied forces in the fight against malaria and other tropical diseases. After the war Fairley returned to London where he became a Consulting Physician to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Wellcome Professor of Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. A serious illness in 1948 forced him to resign his professorship, but he retained his practice and membership of numerous committees, becoming an "elder statesman" of tropical medicine. (more...)

Recently featured: Trade dollar – Somerset – Walter Bache

From Wikipedia's newest content:

• ... that the only extant octagonal pagoda in Japan (pictured) is located at Anraku-ji?
• ... that, according to tradition, Stephen Collins Foster was inspired to write the ballad My Old Kentucky Home after a visit to Federal Hill, the mansion of Kentucky Senator John Rowan?
• ... that HMCS Galt, a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Canadian Navy, escorted trade convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic?
• ... that a small fetus is preserved in the holotype fossil of the extinct stingray Asterotrygon?
• ... that enrollment at the University of Louisiana at Monroe grew nearly fivefold between 1958 and 1976 during the tenure of its president, George T. Walker?
• ... that some ant species on Sebuku island may be descended from survivors of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa?
• ... that on 20 June 2011, the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec announced they were joining forces for Operation Anti-Security?
  
  Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

• At least 17 people are killed and 141 others injured in three coordinated bomb blasts in Mumbai.
• Following political pressure amid an ongoing phone hacking controversy, News Corporation abandons its bid for full ownership of BSkyB.
• Ahmed Wali Karzai (pictured), Afghan politician and half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, is assassinated.
• Twelve people, including the head of the Cyprus Navy, are killed in an explosion at a naval base, the worst peacetime military accident in the history of Cyprus.
• The sinking of cruise ship Bulgaria on the Volga River in Tatarstan, Russia, leaves 129 people dead or missing.
• The World Netball Championships conclude with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.
  Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...

July 15: Festino of Saint Rosalia in Palermo, Italy; Chūgen/Bon Festival in Japan

• 1799 – French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone (pictured) in the Egyptian port city of Rashid.
• 1910 – In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gave a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
• 1959 – Five hundred thousand American steelworkers went on strike, closing nearly every steel mill in the country.
• 1966 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam began Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
• 1983 – Armenian militant organization ASALA bombed the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide.

More anniversaries: July 14 – July 15 – July 16