Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 May 31

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From today's featured article

Image from 1636 depicting the Cotswold Games

The Cotswold Olimpick Games is an annual public celebration of games and sports held near Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds of England. They probably began in 1612, and have continued on and off since (1636 depiction shown). They were started by a local lawyer, Robert Dover, with the approval of King James. Events included horse-racing, coursing with hounds, running, dancing, sledgehammer throwing, fighting with swords, and wrestling. By the time of James's death in 1625, many Puritan landowners had forbidden their workers to attend, and the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 brought the Games to an end. Revived after the Restoration of 1660, they gradually degenerated into a drunk and disorderly country festival. They ended again in 1852, when the common land on which they had been staged was partitioned and enclosed. Since 1966 the Games have been held each year on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday. Events have included the tug of war, gymkhana, shin-kicking, dwile flonking, motor cycle scrambling, judo, piano smashing, and morris dancing. The British Olympic Association has recognised the Cotswold Olimpick Games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that the mushroom Buchwaldoboletus lignicola (pictured) is parasitic on another fungus – Phaeolus schweinitzii?

... that Elena Piskun won two gold medals at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships?

... that the lime trees of Duncliffe Wood are reputedly among the oldest living things in the county of Dorset?

... that Aram Yerganian assassinated the former Prime Minister of Azerbaijan for his alleged role in massacres against Armenians?

... that Gurlen is a major centre for cotton production in Uzbekistan?

... that Jack Manning played for four different football clubs during their debut seasons in the Football League?

... that the Singaporean Satay Club re-sold leftover sticks of satay?

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In the news

A man in white racing uniform and baseball cap

Aurornis xui is described as the most basal species of Avialae, potentially unseating Archaeopteryx as the oldest known bird.

Digital currency service Liberty Reserve is shut down and charged with facilitating US$6 billion of illegal financial transactions.

In auto racing, Nico Rosberg (pictured) wins the Monaco Grand Prix and Tony Kanaan wins the Indianapolis 500.

In road cycling, Italian Vincenzo Nibali wins the Giro d'Italia.

In Twenty20 cricket, the Mumbai Indians defeat the Chennai Super Kings to win the Indian Premier League.

Blue Is the Warmest Colour, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, wins the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Recent deaths: Rituparno Ghosh

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On this day...

May 31: World No Tobacco Day; Feast of the Visitation (Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism)

1223 – Mongol invasions: Mongol forces defeated a combined army of Kiev, Galich, and the Cumans at the Kalchik River in present-day Ukraine.

1669 – Citing poor eyesight, English naval administrator and Member of Parliament Samuel Pepys (pictured) recorded his last entry in his diary, one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period.

1935 – A 7.7 M_w earthquake struck Balochistan in the British Raj, now part of Pakistan, killing anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people.

1981 – An organized mob of police and government-sponsored paramilitias began burning the public library in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, destroying over 97,000 items in one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the 20th century.

2009 – American physician George Tiller who was nationally known for being one of the few doctors in the United States to perform late-term abortions, was shot and killed by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist.

More anniversaries: May 30 – May 31 – June 1

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It is now May 31, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

The Deutsche Bank Twin Towers is a twin tower skyscraper complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which serves as the headquarters of Deutsche Bank. Each rising to 155 metres (509 ft) in height, the towers began construction in 1979.

Photo: Jürgen Matern

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