Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 February 14

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From today's featured article

Bismarck was the first of two Bismarck-class battleships built for the German Kriegsmarine. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind German unification in 1871, the ship was launched on 14 February 1939 and commissioned in August 1940. Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz were the largest battleships ever built by Germany, and two of the largest built by any European power. Bismarck conducted only one offensive operation, in May 1941. The ship, along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, was to raid Allied shipping from North America to Great Britain. The two ships were detected several times off Scandinavia, and British naval units were deployed to block them. At the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Bismarck destroyed the battlecruiser HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, and forced the battleship HMS Prince of Wales to retreat. After two days of relentless pursuit by the Royal Navy, she was attacked by torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and her steering gear was rendered inoperable. In her final battle the following morning, Bismarck was neutralised by a sustained bombardment, was scuttled by her crew, and sank with heavy loss of life. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Archbishop Egbert of Trier (pictured) commissioned and carried a staff-reliquary containing what was said to be the staff of Saint Peter?
... that composer James Horner intended his musical score for the drama film A Beautiful Mind to resemble the effect generated by a kaleidoscope?
... that in 1935 the segregated Richmond Academy of Arts produced a one-man show of carvings by African-American sculptor Leslie Garland Bolling?
... that a cash prize Ryan Larkin won at the Melbourne International Film Festival for the animated film Street Musique was used to support young artists in Montreal?
... that Woodrow Wilson convinced Charles Henry Smyth, Jr., to leave Hamilton College for Princeton University?
... that Rembangan is best known for its view, but is also famous for its dragonfruit?

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In the news

The genome of a 12,500-year-old Clovis culture infant is sequenced, clarifying the origin of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
At least 76 people are killed when a military plane crashes in Algeria.
In a national referendum, Swiss voters approve re-imposing quotas on immigration from European Union countries.
The earliest human footprints outside Africa are discovered in the United Kingdom.
The Winter Olympics open (ceremony pictured) in Sochi, Russia.
In American football, the Seattle Seahawks defeat the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XLVIII.

Recent deaths: Sid Caesar – Shirley Temple – Stuart Hall

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On this day...

February 14: Valentine's Day; Feast of St. Brigit of Kildare (Eastern Christianity)

1876 – Inventor Alexander Graham Bell and electrical engineer Elisha Gray each filed a patent for the telephone, starting a controversy about who invented it first.
1924 – The Computing Tabulating Recording Company renamed itself to International Business Machines, one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
1961 – Lawrencium, the metallic radioactive synthetic element with atomic number 103, was first made at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
1989 – A fatwa was issued for the execution of Salman Rushdie (pictured) for authoring The Satanic Verses, a novel Islamic fundamentalists considered blasphemous.
2005 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated when explosives were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel in Beirut, sparking the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon.

More anniversaries: February 13 – February 14 – February 15

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It is now February 14, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

From today's featured list

A black-and-white photograph of three men playing musical instruments (a saxophone, a guitar, and a drum kit), the drummer in the background

One hundred and thirty-seven singles have sold over one million copies in the UK. Such singles were formerly classified as "platinum records", although the platinum sales threshold was reduced in 1989 due to declining sales. Despite this, the seven-figure mark has retained its importance and the Official Charts Company and Music Week regularly announce when a single reaches this threshold. Since the introduction of music downloads in 2004, nineteen singles released in the prior century have passed the one million sales, and a total of twenty-one records released this century have become million-sellers. "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets (pictured) was the first single in the UK to sell more than one million copies. The most recently released and classified is "Let Her Go" by Passenger. The best-selling record is Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997", a re-write of the Marilyn Monroe tribute released in 1973. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Beata Beatrix, an 1870 oil on canvas painting depicting Beatrice Portinari (1266–90), subject of Dante Alighieri's La Vita Nuova, at the moment of her death; Dante claims to have met her only twice, on occasions separated by nine years, but was so affected by the meetings that he carried his love for her throughout his life.

The artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, includes a red dove as the messenger of love in this work and modeled Beatrice after his deceased wife and frequent model, Elizabeth Siddal (1829–62).

Painting: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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