Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 March 1

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From today's featured article

The Old Church of St Nidan, Llanidan, is a medieval church in Anglesey, Wales. The first church on the site was established in the 7th century by St Nidan, the confessor of the monastery at Penmon, Anglesey; the oldest parts of the present structure date from the 14th century. In about 1500 a second nave was added, and an arcade (pictured) was built between the two naves. Between 1839 and 1843 a new church was built nearby, partly due to the cost of repairing St Nidan's. A sandstone chest containing bone fragments (which local tradition holds to be those of St Nidan) and a 13th-century font were relocated to the new church. Much of the old church was demolished, leaving part of the western end and the central arcade. It has been restored and is occasionally open to the public. The remaining parts of the church are a Grade II* listed building. In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales said that the church possessed a curious stone shaped like a thigh that would always return by the next day no matter how far away it was taken. A Norman earl, he said, had chained it to a large rock and thrown it into the sea, only for the stone to return to the church by the following morning. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that in 1788 a wa (pictured) arrived in Spanish Guam, stating they had always traded there but stopped after witnessing European cruelty?
... that Corrado Miraglia, who created the role of Ismaele in Verdi's opera Nabucco, became a soloist at the Milan Cathedral when he retired from the stage?
... that the main Michillinda Lodge building in Whitehall, Michigan, was 110 years old when it burned down in 2012?
... that immunologist Mary Loveless collected and prepared some 30,000 insects to use for her research into insect venom allergies?
... that when the Neutralists chose sides in the Laotian Civil War, the Patriotic Neutralists went to the communists?
... that in 2006 Verónica Cruz Sánchez became the first Mexican human rights activist to be awarded the Defender of Human Rights award from HRW?
... that Rihanna's song "Towards the Sun" was compared to her collaboration with Coldplay, "Princess of China"?
... that Brigadier General Alfred Judson Force Moody died of a heart attack shortly after arriving in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War?

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In the news

Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov (pictured) is assassinated in Moscow.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission votes to reclassify Internet broadband as a utility, enforcing net neutrality rules for the service.
Avijit Roy, a secularist activist and blogger, is murdered in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
British soldier Joshua Leakey is awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the war in Afghanistan.
A gunman kills eight people and commits suicide in the Czech town of Uherský Brod.
Birdman wins four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, at the Academy Awards.
In stock car racing, Joey Logano wins NASCAR's Daytona 500.

Ongoing: Boko Haram – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Leonard Nimoy

On this day...

March 1: Independence Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992); Victory at Adwa Day in Ethiopia (1896)

1565 – Rio de Janeiro (Christ the Redeemer statue pictured) was founded by the Portuguese as São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro.
1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
1872 – Yellowstone National Park, located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, the first national park in the world, was established.
1950 – In a trial lasting less than 90 minutes, German–British physicist Klaus Fuchs was convicted of violating the Official Secrets Act for supplying information from the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union.
1979 – Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

More anniversaries: February 28 – March 1 – March 2

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It is now March 1, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

A book used for cigarette smuggling, on display at the Main Custom Office in Munich, Germany. This practice generally involves the illicit transportation of cigarettes or cigars from one place to another with higher taxation on sale and consumption, and is thus a form of tax evasion.

Photograph: High Contrast

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