Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 May 12

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From today's featured article

Lady Grange (1679–1745) was the wife of James Erskine, Lord Grange, a Scottish lawyer with Jacobite sympathies. After 25 years of marriage and nine children, the Granges separated acrimoniously. When Lady Grange produced letters that she claimed were evidence of his treasonable plottings against the Hanoverian government in London, her husband had her kidnapped from her home in Edinburgh on the night of 22 January 1732. She was incarcerated in various remote locations on the western seaboard of Scotland, including the Monach Isles, Skye and the distant islands of St Kilda. Lady Grange's father was convicted of murder when she was about 10 years old and she is known to have had a violent temper; initially her absence seems to have caused little comment. No action was ever taken on her behalf by any of her children, the eldest of whom would have been in their early twenties when she was abducted. News of her plight eventually reached Edinburgh however, and an unsuccessful rescue attempt was undertaken by her lawyer, Thomas Hope of Rankeillor. She died in captivity, after being effectively imprisoned for 13 years. Her life has been remembered in poetry, prose and a play. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that St. Michael's Cathedral (pictured) in Sitka, Alaska, was pillaged by forces under Major General Jefferson C. Davis in 1867?

... that Sandy MacGregor considered himself to be the first western soldier in the Vietnam War to explore the Cu Chi tunnels?

... that Patty Duke and Meredith Baxter portray a longstanding lesbian couple on Glee's fourth season finale, roles that are set to recur in the fifth season?

... that engines made by William Roberts & Co of Nelson are still steamed regularly?

... that the Wheeler No. 1 Oil Well in Drumright, Oklahoma was still producing after 100 years?

... that Hindi film actress Smita Patil's father Shivajirao Girdhar Patil is a social activist and politician and was presented with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India this year?

... that the émigré Russian publication Fashist falsely claimed to have a vast network of "fascist correspondents" inside the Soviet Union?

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Fashion accessory – Little John – Space Age

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In the news

At least 42 people are killed by a pair of car bombs in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party begins to leave Turkey following a ceasefire agreement.

Roberto Azevêdo (pictured) is announced as the next Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

Alex Ferguson, winner of 13 English Premier League titles as manager of Manchester United, announces his retirement.

At least 23 people are killed when a tanker truck crashes and explodes outside Mexico City.

The Barisan Nasional wins a majority in the Malaysian general election.

Recent deaths: Bryan Forbes – Ray Harryhausen – Giulio Andreotti

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On this day...

May 12: International Nurses Day; Mother's Day in several countries (2013); National Famine Commemoration Day in Ireland (2013)

1551 – The National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.

1846 – Led by George Donner, the American pioneer group known as the Donner Party, which would become known for resorting to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Sierra Nevadas, left Independence, Missouri, for California.

1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3 (replica pictured), the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, to an audience of scientists in Berlin.

1955 – The Allied occupation of Austria came to an end, with the nation regaining its independence ten years after the end of World War II.

1975 – The Cambodian navy seized the American container ship SS Mayaguez in recognized international waters, but claimed as territorial waters by Cambodia.

2008 – An earthquake measuring about 8.0 M_s struck the Sichuan province of China, killing at least 69,000 people, injuring at least 374,000, and leaving at least 4.8 million others homeless.

More anniversaries: May 11 – May 12 – May 13

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It is now May 12, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Southern Lake in Parque del Este, a recreational park in Caracas, Venezuela. The park was designed by Roberto Burle Marx and opened in 1961. It has had various official names since then. In 2010, it was visited by an average of 270,000 people every month.

Photo: Paolo Costa Baldi

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