Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 November 25

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From today's featured article

Biscayne National Park is a U.S. National Park in southern Florida, south of Miami, that preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs (pictured). Ninety-five percent of the park is water, accessible only by boat. It covers 172,971 acres (69,999 ha) and includes Elliott Key, the first of the true Florida Keys. The park protects four ecosystems (mangrove swamp, shallow waters, coral limestone keys and the Florida Reef), providing a nursery for larval and juvenile fish, molluscs and crustaceans, and nesting grounds for endangered sea turtles. Sixteen endangered species including Schaus' swallowtail butterflies, smalltooth sawfish, manatees, and green and hawksbill sea turtles may be observed in the park. The people of the Glades culture inhabited the region about 10,000 years ago before rising sea levels filled the bay. The Tequesta people occupied the area from about 4,000 BC to the 16th century, when the Spanish took possession of Florida. Following the Cuban Revolution, Elliott Key was used as a training ground for infiltrators into Castro's Cuba by the CIA and Cuban exile groups. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the National Museum of the Philippines declared San Juan Bautista Parish Church (pictured) one of two National Cultural Treasures in the Bicol region?
... that Eystein Olafsson, King of Dublin, was "deceitfully" killed by Halfdan Ragnarsson, King of Jórvík?
... that the main star of the Theta Coronae Borealis system spins at 393 kilometres (244 mi) per second at its equator?
... that the concrete Robespierre Monument collapsed four days after its erection in Moscow in 1918?
... that Confucius thought so highly of his disciple Nangong Kuo that he gave the student his niece in marriage?
... that reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel won the Grammy, Latin Grammy, and Lo Nuestro Award for Urban Album of the Year for their album Los Extraterrestres?
... that the vicinity of Devil Hole Run has been described as "Hell-like" and "sinister"?

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In the news

Magnus Carlsen (pictured) defeats Viswanathan Anand to retain the World Chess Championship title.
In motor racing, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula One championship.
Opposition candidate Klaus Iohannis is elected President of Romania.
The 9th G-20 summit concludes in Brisbane, following discussions focusing primarily on economic issues.
With world leaders from 21 Pacific Rim countries attending, the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting concludes in Beijing.
The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Pat Quinn – Viktor Tikhonov – Mike Nichols

On this day...

November 25: Teachers' Day in Indonesia; Evacuation Day in New York (1783)

1034 – After Malcolm II of Scotland died at Glamis, Duncan, the son of his second daughter, instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter, inherited the throne to become the King of Scots.
1795 – Stanisław August Poniatowski (pictured), the last King of Poland, was forced to abdicate after the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1863 – American Civil War: Confederate forces were defeated at the Battle of Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, opening the door to the Union's invasion of the Deep South.
1952 – Agatha Christie's mystery play The Mousetrap, the play with the longest initial run in history, opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London.
1960 – The Mirabal sisters, who opposed the dictatorship of military strongman Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, were beaten and strangled to death.

More anniversaries: November 24 – November 25 – November 26

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It is now November 25, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

An Iranian astrolabe, handmade from brass by Jacopo Koushan in 2013. Astrolabes are elaborate inclinometers used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers from classical antiquity, through the Islamic Golden Age and European Middle Ages, until the Renaissance. These could be used for a variety of purposes, including predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars; determining local time given local latitude; surveying; triangulation; calculating the qibla; and finding the times for salat.

Photograph: Masoud Safarniya

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