Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 May 2

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Today's featured article
Brabham was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by driver Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four drivers' and two constructors' world championships in its 30-year Formula One history. Jack Brabham's 1966 drivers' championship remains the only victory by a car bearing the driver's own name. In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams, and had built more than 500 cars by 1970. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three and competed in the Indianapolis 500. British businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham between 1972 and 1988. Under his ownership, Brabham introduced innovations such as the "fan car", in-race refuelling, carbon brakes, and hydropneumatic suspension, and was the first team to win a drivers' championship with a turbocharged car. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988. Its final owner was the Middlebridge Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to meet loan repayments. In 2009 an unsuccessful attempt was made by a German organisation to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name. (more...) Recently featured: Millennium Park – Fossa – Navenby Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest articles: ... that early Western Australian settler George Layman Sr. was speared to death by a Wardandi elder at Wonnerup House (pictured) in 1841? ... the government of the Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic was headed by Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov, Vladimir Lenin's brother? ... that democracy activist Htay Kywe was described as Burma's "most-wanted man" following his leadership role in the 2007 anti-government protests? ... that Heart Peaks in northern British Columbia, Canada, is the third largest volcano in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province? ... that 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winner Paige St. John is married to John Wark, a former Pulitzer Prize finalist? ... that the past captains of the Indian cricket team were honoured during the 1997 Pepsi Independence Cup, which was organised to celebrate India's 50th anniversary of independence? ... that size matters when the jumping spider Phidippus clarus selects mates? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
U.S. President Barack Obama announces that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The memory unit of the flight data recorder from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic in 2009, is recovered from the ocean floor. Pope John Paul II is beatified at a ceremony in Vatican City. Libyan officials report that Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in a NATO airstrike in Tripoli. The wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Kate Middleton takes place in London. Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan wins the men's event at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow, setting record scores for the long and short programs. More than 330 people are killed in the Southern United States in the deadliest tornado outbreak since 1936. Syrian unrest – Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
May 2: Yom HaShoah (Israel and Judaism, 2011); Teachers' Day in Iran; Flag Day in Poland 1611 – Robert Barker, the King's Printer, made the first printing of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible (title page pictured). 1757 – Konbaung forces captured the city of Pegu, Burma, to end the Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War. 1866 – Chincha Islands War: Both Spanish and Peruvian forces claimed victory in the Battle of Callao. 1952 – The world's first ever jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet 1, made its first commercial flight, from London to Johannesburg. 1995 – Croatian War of Independence: Serb forces began firing rockets on the Croatian capital of Zagreb, killing 7 and injuring at least 175 others. 2003 – A mob of Indian Muslims killed eight Hindu Arayan fishermen in Kerala, India. More anniversaries: May 1 – May 2 – May 3 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now May 2, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

"An Available Candidate: The One Qualification for a Whig President"—an editorial cartoon about the 1848 U.S. presidential election, showing a military man representing either Zachary Taylor or Winfield Scott, both of whom were generals in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War, atop a pile of skulls. The Whig Party only operated for about 20 years, but during their brief existence, they could boast a number of political luminaries such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln, and would see three of their members become President of the United States (not including Lincoln, who was elected as a Republican).

Image: Nathaniel Currier; Restoration: Lise Broer

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