Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 March 29

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From today's featured article

Boise National Forest is a federally protected area of the U.S. state of Idaho in the national forest system. Created in 1908 from part of Sawtooth National Forest, it is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The Idaho Batholith underlies most of Boise National Forest, forming its Boise, Salmon River, and West mountain ranges; the forest reaches a maximum elevation of 9,730 feet (2,970 m) on Steel Mountain. Common land cover includes sagebrush steppe and spruce-fir forests. It contains 75 percent of the known populations of Sacajawea's bitterroot, a flowering plant endemic to Idaho. The Shoshone people occupied the forest before European settlers, and archeological sites have been found along rivers in the area. Trappers and fur traders of European descent arrived in the area in the early 1800s, starting with John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in 1811. The first settlers moved into the mountains in the 1860s after gold was discovered. The gold rush forced many of the Shoshone out and led to conflicts including the Bannock War in southern Idaho. Tungsten, silver, antimony, and gold were mined in the forest until the mid-twentieth century. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Priyanka Chopra

... that Priyanka Chopra (pictured) played twelve different characters, one from each zodiac sign, in the film What's Your Raashee?
... that Ron Hackenberger is selling his collection of 700 vehicles, including over 250 Studebakers?
... that the Sierra de las Quijadas National Park contains a Lagerstätte-type fossil site, particularly famous for its pterosaurs?
... that the publication of Earl Mazo's series of exposés on election fraud in the 1960 United States Presidential Election was stopped following the intervention of Richard Nixon?
... that the soprano Leonore Kirschstein appeared as Alice Ford, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Falstaff?
... that President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a congratulatory telegram upon the opening of the Bonfils Memorial Theatre in Denver?
... that Joaquín Vargas Gómez opened a restaurant in a retired North Star DC-4 parked near the Mexico City International Airport?
... that use of the code phrase "London Bridge is down" will signal the death of Queen Elizabeth II?

In the news

Carrie Lam

Carrie Lam (pictured) wins the Hong Kong Chief Executive election, becoming the territory's first female political leader.
Former Russian MP and government critic Denis Voronenkov is shot dead in Kiev.
The World Meteorological Organization adds twelve new cloud types to the International Cloud Atlas, the first update to the official cloud classification scheme since 1986.
A terror attack at the Palace of Westminster, London, results in five people dead and fifty others injured.

On this day...

March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic; Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)

Flag of the New People's Army

845 – Viking raiders possibly led by the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok captured Paris and held the city for a huge ransom.
1882 – The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, was founded by Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
1942 – Second World War: The British Royal Air Force completed a bombing raid of Lübeck, the first major success for RAF Bomber Command against a German city.
1969 – The New People's Army (original flag pictured), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was formed.
1975 – Jeff Beck released Blow by Blow, his most successful album in the U.S., reaching the top five and selling over one million copies.
1999 – The strongest earthquake to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than ninety years killed 103 people.

Cornelio Saavedra (d. 1829) · Emilia Baeyertz (b. 1842) · Sam Loxton (b. 1921)

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Today's featured picture

Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels or all tires, while maintaining control for the entirety of a corner. It is caused when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle, to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. As a motoring discipline, drifting competitions were first popularized in 1970s Japan. Today they are held worldwide and judged according to speed, angle, showmanship, and line taken through a corner or set of corners.

Photograph: Rowan Harrison

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