Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 April 21

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From today's featured article

The Seated Liberty dollar was a dollar coin designed by Mint Chief Engraver Christian Gobrecht and struck by the United States Mint from 1840 to 1873. The coin's reverse features a heraldic eagle first seen on coins in 1807, based on a design by late Mint Chief Engraver John Reich; the coin's obverse is based on the Gobrecht dollar. "In God We Trust" was added to the dollar in 1866 following its introduction to other US coins earlier in the decade. In the final years of the series, there was more silver produced in the US, and mintages increased. These were the last dollar coins before the Coinage Act of 1873 temporarily ended their production for American commerce and authorized the trade dollar for use in foreign commerce. Representatives of silver interests were unhappy when the metal's price dropped again in the mid-1870s; they advocated the resumption of the free coinage of silver into legal tender. After passage of the Bland-Allison Act in 1878, silver dollar production resumed with the Morgan dollar. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that during Operation Iraqi Freedom, U.S. soldiers such as William F. Mullen III (pictured) worked with the local population in Falluja, al-Anbar, to resist insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda?
... that Photos for OS X replaced two programs, iPhoto and Aperture?
... that the book Three Came Home was made into a film featuring Claudette Colbert?
... that Six Springs Creek was once described as "a catch basin for runoffs from a car wash, laundromat and malfunctioning septic tanks", but has since been designated a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery?
... that the original Boston Expressionists were known as "the bad boys of Boston"?
... that edible seaweed, royal jelly, and stinky tofu are all examples of specialty foods?
... that a Roman Catholic church in Abucay, Bataan, housed one of the earliest printing presses in the Philippines?

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In the news

More than 1,100 people are feared dead after multiple ships carrying migrants capsize off Libya in separate incidents.
Nokia agrees to buy telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion (US$16.6 billion).
Stone tools found at Lomekwi 3 are dated to 3.3 million years ago, which, if confirmed, would represent the oldest known stone tools.
Günter Grass (pictured), Nobel laureate and author of The Tin Drum and Dog Years, dies at the age of 87.

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On this day...

April 21

900 – A debt was pardoned by the Datu of Tondo on the island of Luzon, as inscribed on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known written document found in the Philippines.
1782 – A city pillar was erected on Rattanakosin Island, located on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, an act considered the founding of the city of Bangkok.
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen (pictured), known as the "Red Baron", was shot down and killed near Vaux-sur-Somme in France, after a career as the most successful fighter pilot of World War I with 80 confirmed air combat victories.
1960 – Brasília, a planned city primarily designed by architect and urban planner Lúcio Costa, was officially inaugurated, replacing Rio de Janeiro as the capital of Brazil.
1975 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned as President of South Vietnam, and was replaced by Trần Văn Hương, as communist forces closed in on victory.

More anniversaries: April 20 – April 21 – April 22

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Today's featured picture

A 14-frame clip showing the atmosphere of Jupiter as viewed from the NASA probe Cassini. Taken over a span of 24 Jupiter rotations between October 31 and November 9, 2000, this clip shows various patterns of motion across the planet. The Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise, and the uneven distribution of its high haze is obvious. To the east (right) of the Red Spot, oval storms, like ball bearings, roll over and pass each other. East-west bands adjacent to each other move at different rates. Strings of small storms rotate around northern-hemisphere ovals. The large grayish-blue "hot spots" at the northern edge of the white Equatorial Zone change over time as they proceed eastward across the planet. Ovals in the north rotate counter to those in the south. Small, very bright features appear quickly and randomly in turbulent regions, possibly lightning storms. The smallest visible features at the equator are about 600 km (370 miles) across.

Animation: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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