Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 January 4

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From today's featured article

"Weight Gain 4000" is the second episode of the American animated television series South Park. In the episode, South Park residents excitedly prepare for a visit by celebrity Kathie Lee Gifford, whom teacher Mr. Garrison plans to assassinate because of a childhood grudge, and Cartman becomes extremely obese after buying a bodybuilding supplement called Weight Gain 4000. The episode was written and directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (pictured). After the pilot episode drew poor test audience results, Comedy Central requested a further script, and "Weight Gain 4000" helped the network decide to pick up the show. It was the first South Park episode created completely using computers rather than construction paper. Although some reviewers criticized the episode for its profanity and other material deemed offensive, others felt "Weight Gain 4000" was a significant improvement over the pilot, particularly for its satirical element regarding American consumerism. The show's portrayal of Kathie Lee Gifford was the first time a celebrity was spoofed in South Park. Cartman's line "Beefcake" became one of the most popular catchphrases from the series. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that after the Titanic sank, Sophie Radford de Meissner (pictured), a former lady-in-waiting in the Russian court, requested an audience with the U.S. President to deliver a message from one of the victims?
... that the UK series The Taste marks Nigella Lawson's return to Channel 4 after 10 years?
... that the creation of the Warsaw Gay Movement was a counter-reaction of Polish gays against Operation Hyacinth?
... that Lancelot de Carle, an eyewitness to the trial and execution of Anne Boleyn, wrote a poem detailing her life and the circumstances surrounding her death?
... that an article in Reader's Digest about the health effects of tobacco led to an advertisement disputing the science?
... that a speech delivered by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was sampled and used by American singer Beyoncé Knowles in a song called "Flawless"?
... that footballer Ian Bennyworth paid his own transfer fee to move from Nuneaton Borough to Scarborough?

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In the news

Latvia becomes the 18th EU member state to adopt the euro.
More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On its maiden flight, a Russian Soyuz-2-1v rocket launches Aist 1 and two radar calibration satellites.
Two suicide bombings kill more than 30 people in Volgograd, Russia (Volgograd-1 railway station pictured).
Amidst fears of civil war, the United Nations Security Council agrees to send more UNMISS soldiers to South Sudan.
Pioneering British computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing, convicted in 1952 of gross indecency for homosexual activity, is granted a posthumous royal pardon.

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On this day...

January 4: Perihelion of the Earth (11:59 UTC, 2014); Independence Day in Burma (1948)

1698 – Most of London's Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of the English monarchs dating from 1530, was destroyed by fire.
1884 – The Fabian Society, an intellectual movement whose purpose is to advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist methods rather than revolutionary means, was founded in London.
1970 – A magnitude 7.5 M_sd earthquake struck Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people and spurring the creation of the nation's largest earthquake monitoring system.
1974 – Harry Schwarz and Mangosuthu Buthelezi signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, the first declaration by black and white South African leaders to commit to non-violence and a non-discriminatory society.
2004 – Spirit (artist's impression pictured), the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC.

More anniversaries: January 3 – January 4 – January 5

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Today's featured picture

The Ardabil Carpet in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England, is a Persian carpet completed during the reign of Tahmasp I (mid 16th century). Acquired by the museum in the 1890s, the carpet, which has 26 million knots, was "in tatters" and was restored by sacrificing a similar rug.

Carpet: Maqsud of Kashan; photograph: Victoria & Albert Museum

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