Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 February 21

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) was the result of a collaboration between the African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X and the journalist Alex Haley. Haley based it on a series of interviews between 1963 and Malcolm X's assassination on February 21, 1965. It is a spiritual conversion narrative outlining Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. While Malcolm X and scholars contemporary to the book's publication regarded Haley as the book's ghostwriter, modern scholars regard him as an essential collaborator who subsumed his authorial voice to allow readers to feel as though Malcolm X were speaking directly to them. Haley also influenced some of Malcolm X's literary choices and Haley's proactive censorship of antisemitic material significantly influenced the ideological tone of the Autobiography, increasing its popularity although distorting Malcolm X's public persona. A New York Times reviewer described it as a "brilliant, painful, important book" and Time named it in 1998 as one of ten "required reading" nonfiction books. A screenplay adaptation provided the source material for Spike Lee's 1992 film Malcolm X. (Full article...)

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... that the 11th-century Codex Aureus of Echternach (example illustration pictured) is unusual in having several pages of illustrations for the parables of Jesus?
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... that one of the accused assassins of Turkish former government minister Gün Sazak later hijacked an airplane to Bulgaria with accomplices?
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In the news

At least 75 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.
An OHCHR panel releases a report on human rights violations in North Korea.
Renaud Lavillenie of France breaks Sergey Bubka's indoor world record in pole vaulting, with a mark of 6.16 metres.
Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam (pictured) announces the formation of a new government.
The genome of a 12,500-year-old Clovis culture infant is sequenced, clarifying the origin of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

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On this day...

February 21

1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, was granted resignation by Pope Innocent IV after having confessed to torture and forgery.
1804 – Built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, the first self-propelled steam locomotive first ran in Wales.
1828 – The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published.
1919 – Bavarian socialist Kurt Eisner (pictured), who had organized the German Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy and established Bavaria as a republic, was assassinated.
1952 – Protesters in Dhaka, East Pakistan, walked into military crossfire demanding the establishment of the Bengali language as an official language.

More anniversaries: February 20 – February 21 – February 22

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From today's featured list

The structure of the administrative and municipal divisions of the Republic of Adygea (flag pictured), a federal subject of Russia, is established and maintained by the Republic of Adygea itself. Changes to the administrative-territorial structure of the republic are authorized by the State Council. The republic's administrative divisions remain largely unchanged from the structure used during the Soviet era, with the notable exception of selsoviets—a low-level administrative unit type abolished after the new law on the administrative-territorial divisions had been adopted in May 2000. The republic's administrative-territorial divisions include seven administrative districts and two republican urban okrugs. Local self-governance is implemented on the republic's territory in accordance with federal law. The upper-level municipal divisions of the republic exist within the borders of its administrative-territorial divisions. (Full list...)

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The official logo of NROL-39, an American reconnaissance satellite launch for the National Reconnaissance Office and launched in 2013. This logo drew criticism following the ongoing surveillance disclosures; satirist Jon Stewart described it as the government "owning the fact that they are getting nefarious" with "a giant octopus sucking the face off North America". According to the NRO, the logo's "octopus [is] a versatile, adaptable, and highly intelligent creature" from which America's enemies cannot hide.

Patch: National Reconnaissance Office

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