Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 March 11

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From today's featured article

David Bowie (born 1947) is an English musician. After "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart in 1969, he re-emerged during the glam rock era with "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. The soul-inspired sound was a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then recorded the critically acclaimed "Berlin Trilogy" of albums with Brian Eno, all of which reached the UK top five. After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones in the early 1980s with "Ashes to Ashes", its parent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), "Under Pressure" (a collaboration with Queen) and Let's Dance, which yielded several hit singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles. He has not toured since the 2003–04 Reality Tour and has not performed live since 2006. Throughout his career, he has sold an estimated 140 million albums. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 23rd on their list of the best singers of all time. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that the edible mushroom Boletus badius (pictured) turns blue when cut or bruised?

... that Sir William Drury's name appears in the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?

... that the Hope City technology park being built in Ghana is expected to include Africa's tallest building?

... that Maria Ozawa had to film Kidnapping Miyabi in Japan following protests preventing her from coming to Indonesia?

... that the publication of Daniel Defoe's political pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters led to his arrest on the charge of seditious libel?

... that Kate Nash paid for her 2013 album Girl Talk through crowd funding?

... that Pope Anastasius II was sent to the sixth circle of hell as a result of mistaken identity?

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In the news

Syrian rebels capture ar-Raqqah, making it the first major city to come under rebel control during the Syrian civil war.

A newly discovered Y-chromosome haplogroup is thought to push back the time of Y-chromosomal Adam to 338,000 years ago.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (pictured) dies at the age of 58.

A standoff in Lahad Datu between the Malaysian Armed Forces and a group claiming to represent the Sultanate of Sulu escalates into a military conflict in eastern Sabah.

Al-Qaeda confirms that one of its commanders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was killed in the Northern Mali conflict.

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On this day...

March 11: Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2013); Independence Day in Lithuania (1990)

222 – Disgusted with Roman emperor Elagabalus's disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos, the Praetorian Guard assassinated him and his mother Julia Soaemias, mutilated their bodies, and threw them in the Tiber River.

1848 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin became the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.

1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 struck the northeastern United States, producing snowdrifts in excess of 50 ft (15 m) and confining some people to their houses for up to a week.

1941 – World War II: The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law, allowing the United States to supply the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material.

2011 – A massive earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan (tsunami damage pictured) and triggered a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

More anniversaries: March 10 – March 11 – March 12

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From today's featured list

A black-and-white photograph of a man with a beard and short hair looking at the viewer and wearing a button-up jacket displaying four medals

Ninety-four Canadians, or people closely associated with Canada, have been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest war honour of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, for extraordinary valour and devotion to duty while facing a hostile force. The first Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross was Alexander Roberts Dunn for his actions at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War in 1854. Seventy-one Victoria Crosses were awarded to Canadians for their actions in the First World War and sixteen medals were awarded during the Second World War. William Hall (pictured), a Nova Scotian, was the first black recipient of the Victoria Cross. The last living Canadian recipient, "Smokey" Smith, died in August 2005. The Victoria Cross was last awarded to a Canadian in 1945. Canadians have not been eligible for the British Victoria Cross since 1993, when it was replaced by a new Canadian Victoria Cross, which has yet to be awarded. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Chestnut-headed Bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti) is a bird found in South and Southeast Asia. Averaging 18–20 centimetres (7.1–7.9 in) in length, the bird prefers eating insects such as bees.

Photo: JJ Harrison

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