Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 February 12

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From today's featured article

The "Streatham" portrait is an oil painting on panel from the 1590s believed to be a copy of a portrait of Lady Jane Grey dating to her lifetime (c. 1537–54). It shows a three-quarter-length depiction of a young woman in Tudor-period dress holding a prayer book, with the faded inscription "Lady Jayne" or "Lady Iayne" in the upper-left corner. Thought to have been completed as part of a set of paintings of Protestant martyrs, it is in poor condition and damaged, as if it has been attacked. By the early 20th century it was in the possession of a collector in Streatham, London. In December 2005 the portrait was examined by the art dealer Christopher Foley. He saw it as an accurate, though poorly executed, reproduction of a contemporary painting of Jane, had it verified, and on that basis negotiated its sale. The work was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in London for a rumoured £100,000, a sale of which the historian David Starkey was highly critical, challenging Foley's identifications. As of 2015 it is on display in Room 3 of the National Portrait Gallery. Although of historical interest, the painting is generally considered to be of poor artistic quality. (Full article...)

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In the news

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is imprisoned for five years after the country's Federal Court upholds his conviction for sodomy.
Sam Smith wins Record of the Year and Beck (pictured) wins Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Ivory Coast defeating Ghana in the final.
Boyhood wins three awards, including Best Film, at the British Academy Film Awards.
Paul Gauguin's When Will You Marry? sells for $300m (£197m), the highest known price ever paid for any painting.
Ross Ulbricht is found guilty of seven offenses related to the creation and running of the Silk Road website.

Ongoing: Boko Haram – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Billy Casper – Dean Smith – Charlie Sifford

On this day...

February 12: Red Hand Day

1818 – On the first anniversary of its victory in the Battle of Chacabuco, Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
1855 – Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the United States' first agricultural college.
1912 – Xinhai Revolution: Puyi, the last Emperor of China, abdicated under a deal brokered by military official and politician Yuan Shikai, formally replacing the Qing Dynasty with a new republic in China.
1947 – The Sikhote-Alin meteorite (fragment pictured), one of the largest iron meteorite impacts ever observed, fell in the Sikhote-Alin range in Siberia.
2009 – Just before it was scheduled to land at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a house in Clarence Center, New York, killing the house's occupant and all 49 people on board the aircraft.

More anniversaries: February 11 – February 12 – February 13

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It is now February 12, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) was the President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. This 1860 lithograph was completed during that year's presidential elections, in which Lincoln was the Republican candidate. Running against three other men while taking a moderate position regarding the practice of slavery, Lincoln swept the northern states and became president, but southern slave states declared their secession and formed the Confederacy. Over the remainder of his life President Lincoln used both military action and political means to reunite the nation and abolish slavery.

Lincoln has been consistently ranked as among the best American presidents, and his birthday on February 12 is a legal holiday in some states.

Lithograph: Thomas Hicks (artist), Leopold Grozelier (lithography); restoration: Adam Cuerden

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