Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 May 14

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From today's featured article

A propaganda poster calling on Australians to avenge the sinking of AHS Centaur

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia, on 14 May 1943, killing the majority of those on board. She had been launched in 1924 as a combination passenger liner/freighter, operating between Western Australia and Singapore. Following her early-1943 conversion to a hospital ship, Centaur served as a medical transport between New Guinea and Australia. Before dawn on 14 May 1943, while on her second voyage, Centaur was torpedoed. Of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard, 268 died, including 11 of the 12 nurses. The 64 survivors were not discovered until 36 hours later. The incident resulted in public outrage, as attacking a hospital ship was considered a war crime under the 1907 Hague Convention. It was not until the 1970s that the identity of the attacking submarine, I-177, became public. The reason for the attack is unknown, although there are claims that the ship may have been in breach of the international conventions that should have protected her. The wreck was found in 2009, although the incorrect identification of another wreck as Centaur stood from 1995 to 2003. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that a silver bowl (pictured) from the 4th-century Carthage Treasure shows chased and hammered pastoral scenes in relief around the edge?
... that the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported a resolution to the full Senate in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide?
... that the Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein factory was the largest manufacturing company in Poland before being destroyed by the Germans during World War II?
... that the United States Agency for International Development covertly developed ZunZuneo, the "Cuban Twitter", allegedly as a means of fomenting dissent similar to that of the Arab Spring?
... that the upcoming television series, Agent Carter, was inspired by a short film, also titled Agent Carter?
... that Serbian Orthodox monk Jovan Maleševac collaborated in 1561 with the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar to print religious books in Cyrillic?
... that most cases of fusion of the labia minora do not require treatment since they resolve naturally?

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In the news

Conchita Wurst with the Eurovision Song Contest trophy

An explosion at an underground coal mine in Turkey kills more than 200 miners.
The ruling African National Congress wins a majority in the South African general election.
"Rise Like a Phoenix" by Austrian singer Conchita Wurst (pictured) wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
Syrian government forces capture the city of Homs after three years of siege and a ceasefire agreement allowing rebel withdrawal.
The Constitutional Court of Thailand rules that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra abused her power and removes her from office.
Mark Selby defeats Ronnie O'Sullivan to win the World Snooker Championship.

Ongoing: Ukrainian unrest – Chibok kidnapping
Recent deaths: Reg Gasnier – Farley Mowat – Maria Lassnig

On this day...

May 14: Pesach Sheni (Judaism, 2014); Feast day of Saint Matthias and Saint Mo Chutu (Roman Catholicism)

1264 – Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle of Lewes and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
1607 – An expedition led by Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher Newport, and John Smith established Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
1796 – English physician Edward Jenner (pictured) began testing cowpox as a vaccine against smallpox.
1913 – The New York State Legislature accepted the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which at one point was the world's wealthiest charitable foundation.
1948 – David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at the present-day Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, officially establishing a new Jewish state in parts of the former British Mandate of Palestine.

More anniversaries: May 13 – May 14 – May 15

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A chart showing the inheritance of an autosomal recessive gene, including the distinction between offspring that carry the gene but are or are not affected by it.

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