Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 April 8

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From today's featured article

Fanny Bullock Workman (1859–1925) was an American geographer, cartographer, explorer, travel writer, and mountaineer, notably in the Himalaya. She was one of the first female professional mountaineers; she not only explored but also wrote about her adventures. She set several women's altitude records, published eight travel books with her husband, and championed women's rights and women's suffrage. Educated in the finest schools available to women, she was introduced to climbing in New Hampshire. She married William Hunter Workman, and traveled the world with him. The couple had two children, but left them in schools and with nurses. Workman saw herself as a New Woman who could equal any man. The Workmans wrote books about each trip and Workman frequently commented on the state of the lives of women that she saw. They explored several glaciers and conquered several mountains of the Himalaya, eventually reaching 23,000 feet (7,000 m), a women's altitude record at the time. Workman became the first woman to lecture at the Sorbonne and the second to speak at the Royal Geographical Society. She received many medals of honor and was recognized as one of the foremost climbers of her day. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that eating the smooth toadfish (pictured) can be fatal?
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... that contralto Jenny Twitchell Kempton sang in the first performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah in Boston?
... that the June 1914 attack against the Ottoman Greeks of Phocaea, Turkey, as part of the Ottoman policy of ethnic cleansing, closely resembled similar operations against Armenians?
... that automotive design critic Robert Cumberford called the Jaguar XKE "the ultimate automotive expression of phalliform perfection?"
... that when the marble plaques on the floor of Büyük Hamam, a Turkish bath in Nicosia, were disassembled, one of them was revealed to be a medieval tombstone?
... that having created the Nike-X anti-ballistic missile program, Robert McNamara tried to delay its construction after learning it could leave 60 million Americans dead?

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In the news

In basketball, the Duke Blue Devils defeat the Wisconsin Badgers to win the NCAA Men's Championship (MOP Tyus Jones pictured).
A preliminary deal is reached between Iran and six other countries regarding Iran's nuclear program.
Al-Shabaab gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing more than 140 people.
Russian fishing trawler Dalniy Vostok sinks, killing at least 56 people.
Muhammadu Buhari is elected President of Nigeria.
Islam Karimov is re-elected President of Uzbekistan.
In cricket, the World Cup concludes with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.

Ongoing: Yemeni crisis – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Elmer Lach – Robert H. Schuller – Manoel de Oliveira

On this day...

April 8

1341 – Italian scholar and poet Petrarch took the title poet laureate at a ceremony in Rome.
1740 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Royal Navy captured the Spanish ship of the line Princesa and mustered her into British service.
1820 – A Greek peasant discovered a statue of a woman with its arms missing—the Venus de Milo (pictured)—on the Aegean island of Milos.
1968 – BOAC Flight 712 suffered an engine fire shortly after take-off from London Heathrow Airport, leading to deaths of five people on board, including flight attendant Barbara Jane Harrison, who was later awarded a posthumous George Cross for her heroism during the accident.
2013 – Two Sunni Muslim Islamic extremist groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Al-Nusra Front, merged to become the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS.

More anniversaries: April 7 – April 8 – April 9

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It is now April 8, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

A view of Jaffa, including the bell tower of St. Peter's Church and the minaret of Al-Bahr Mosque, from the Tel Aviv Promenade. An ancient port city in what is now southern Tel Aviv-Yafo, Jaffa is mentioned in the Bible several times in association with the stories of Solomon, Jonah, and Saint Peter. The town was captured by various groups over several millennia, including Arabs, Crusaders, Egyptians, the Ottoman Empire, the French, and British. During the British Mandate tensions arose between the mostly-Jewish population of Tel Aviv and the mostly-Muslim population of Jaffa, and conflict broke out in the late 1940s when the port town was to be included in the new Israeli state. In 1950, Jaffa was merged into Tel Aviv.

Photograph: Andrew Shiva

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