Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 July 30

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From today's featured article

The human history of Chincoteague, an island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, begins with Native Americans gathering shellfish there. By one popular tale, chincoteague meant "Beautiful land across the water" in their tongue. European settlers began to use the island in the 17th century. It had few residents, and was used primarily for grazing livestock – probably the origin of the feral Chincoteague ponies, which used to roam in the wild. The local fishing and seafood resources began to be systematically exploited in the early 19th century, and oysters became a major industry after the Civil War. Chincoteague's relative isolation ended in 1876 when the railroad arrived at Franklin City, across Chincoteague Bay, and a steamboat service was introduced; a causeway completed in 1922 allowed automobiles to reach the island. The Chincoteague Fire Department was established in 1925 and took over the traditional pony penning to raise funds. The annual carnival, pony swim (pictured), and subsequent auction now attract tens of thousands of visitors. The island, which was publicized by the 1947 book Misty of Chincoteague that became a 1961 film, is a major tourist destination in the area. (Full article...)

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In the news

An international court orders Russia to repay US$50 billion to shareholders of the Yukos Oil Company for breaching the Energy Charter Treaty.
Fuad Masum is elected President of Iraq by the Iraqi parliament.
The Séléka and anti-balaka militias agree to a ceasefire in the Central African Republic civil war.
Air Algérie Flight 5017 (aircraft pictured), en route from Ouagadougou to Algiers, crashes in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.
TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crashes in the Penghu Islands of Taiwan, killing 48 people on board.
Joko Widodo is elected President of Indonesia.

Ongoing: Commonwealth Games – Gaza conflict – Ebola outbreak – Ukrainian unrest

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On this day...

July 30

634 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Byzantine forces under Theodore were defeated by the Rashidun Caliphate near Beit Shemesh in modern Israel.
1676 – Virginia colonist Nathaniel Bacon and his makeshift army issued a Declaration of the People of Virginia, instigating a rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
1811 – Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (pictured), an early leader of the Mexican War of Independence, was executed by Spanish authorities.
1930 – Uruguay defeated Argentina, 4–2, in front of their home crowd at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo to win the first Football World Cup.
2012 – The largest power outage in history occurred across 22 Indian states, affecting over 620 million people, or about 9% of the world's population.

More anniversaries: July 29 – July 30 – July 31

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Prasat Sikhoraphum is a 12th-century Khmer temple located between the cities of Surin and Sisaket in Thailand.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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