Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 March 27b

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From today's featured article

Sennacherib was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 BC to his death in 681 BC. He is one of the most famous Assyrian kings for his role in the Old Testament of the Bible, which describes his campaign in the Levant. The Levantine War of 701 BC broke out after several Assyrian vassals in the region rebelled, including the Kingdom of Judah under King Hezekiah. The Assyrians invaded Judea, and besieged Jerusalem. Sennacherib faced considerable difficulty in controlling Babylonia and destroyed the city of Babylon in 689 BC. He transferred the capital of Assyria to Nineveh, launching one of the most ambitious building projects in ancient history. He expanded the city and constructed great city walls, numerous temples and a royal garden. Sennacherib was murdered by his eldest son, who had been disinherited and hoped to seize power for himself. A younger son, Esarhaddon, raised an army, seized Nineveh, and installed himself as king as intended by Sennacherib. (Full article...)

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In the news

Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal

The cargo ship Ever Given runs aground and blocks the Suez Canal (satellite image shown), resulting in a traffic jam of more than 300 vessels.
A fire at the Rohingya refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, kills at least 15 people and injures hundreds of others.
In Australia, floods in New South Wales force the evacuation of more than 18,000 people.
Samia Suluhu Hassan becomes the first female president of Tanzania, following the death of John Magufuli at the age of 61.

On this day

March 27: Earth Hour (20:30 local time in various areas, 2021); Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918)

Goliad Executions by Norman Mills Price

1836 – At least 425 Texian prisoners of war were executed in the Goliad massacre (depicted), under orders from Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1941 – World War II: A group of Serbian-nationalist officers of the Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force carried out a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.
1981 – The Solidarity movement in Poland staged a warning strike, the largest in the history of the Eastern Bloc, in which at least 12 million Poles walked off their jobs for four hours.
2002 – A suicide bomber killed about 30 Israeli civilians and injured about 140 others in Netanya, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist military incursion into the West Bank, two days later.

Domenico Lalli (b. 1679)
Alexander Vostokov (b. 1781)
Mother Angelica (d. 2016)

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Today's featured picture

Chromostereopsis is a visual illusion in which the impression of depth is conveyed in two-dimensional color images. This 1564 stained-glass window, in the Bielsko-Biała Museum and Castle in Poland, exhibits this effect, with contrasting depth perception in the red and blue areas. The window, an example of Standesscheibe, depicts the coat of arms of Unterwalden, a canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

Lithograph credit: Stadler and Pattinot, after Vasily Ignatius; restored by Adam Cuerden

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