Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 8

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

The Missouri Centennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1921. It was designed by Robert Ingersoll Aitken. The U.S. state of Missouri wanted a commemorative coin to mark its centennial that year. Authorizing legislation passed through Congress without opposition, and was signed on March 4, 1921, by President Warren G. Harding on his inauguration day. The federal Commission of Fine Arts hired Aitken to design the coin, which depicted Daniel Boone on both sides. The reverse design, showing Boone with a Native American, was likely intended to symbolize the displacement of the Indians by white settlers. To increase sales, a portion of the issue was produced with the mark "2★4", symbolic of Missouri being the 24th state. Although admired for the design, the coins did not sell as well as hoped, and almost 60 percent were returned to the Philadelphia Mint for melting. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Providence and Worcester Railroad train

... that the Providence and Worcester Railroad (train pictured) became independent in 1973 after 85 years of being leased?
... that coir is saving the Great North Bog?
... that Steve Hamas played in the National Football League and later beat two former boxing champions in the ring?
... that fiction about journeys to the Moon has been written since at least the second century?
... that Makoto Soejima is the only International Mathematical Olympiad gold medalist with a perfect score to have won both the Google Code Jam and the Facebook Hacker Cup?
... that The Massachusetts Gazette was one of the few Loyalist newspapers commissioned by the British ministry for its support prior to the American Revolution?
... that The Travelers were made to represent emigrants who have left a part of themselves behind?
... that before being electrocuted for his crime, Julius Morgan said that the whisky made him do it?

In the news

Sidney Poitier

Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier (pictured) dies at the age of 94.
Kazakhstan's government resigns amid protests against a sharp increase in fuel prices.
Peter Wright wins the PDC World Darts Championship.
American actress and comedian Betty White dies at the age of 99.

On this day

January 8

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

1198 – Lotario de Conti was elected as Pope Innocent III; he later worked to restore papal power in Rome.
1889 – American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data.
1936 – Reza Shah issued the Kashf-e hijab decree in Iran, ordering police to physically remove hijabs from any women in public.
1972 – Following Pakistan's defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Bangladeshi politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (pictured) from prison in response to international pressure.
1991 – Jeremy Wade Delle committed suicide in his high-school class in Richardson, Texas, inspiring the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy".

Nicholas Biddle (b. 1786)
Mór Kóczán (b. 1885)
T. J. Hamblin (d. 2012)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

The polychrome wooden vault and bimah of the Gwoździec Synagogue, painstakingly reconstructed in 2014, is the centerpiece of the permanent exhibition at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. The original synagogue, built in ca. 1640 in what is now the Ukrainian town of Hvizdets, was burnt down in 1941 by Nazi German forces.

Photograph credit: Magdalena Starowieyska, Dariusz Golik

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Teahouse – To ask your first basic questions about contributing to Wikipedia.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.