Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 April 2

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From today's featured article

The Boat Races 2017 took place on 2 April. Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge along a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) tidal stretch of the River Thames in south-west London. For the second time in the history of the event, the men's, the women's and both reserves' races were all held on the Tideway on the same day. In the men's reserve race, Cambridge's Goldie were beaten by Oxford's Isis, and in the women's reserve race, Cambridge's Blondie defeated Oxford's Osiris. In the women's race, Cambridge won by a large margin following a disastrous start by the Oxford boat. This win, their second in ten years, took Cambridge's advantage in the overall standings to 42–30. The Oxford men's boat won their race after leading from the start, their fourth victory in five years, taking the overall record in the event to 82–80 in Cambridge's favour. The races were watched by around a quarter of a million spectators live, including, for the first time, on YouTube. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Moore home after the bombing

... that Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriette were the only married couple to be assassinated (bombed house pictured) during the civil rights movement era?
... that Ayaka Fukuhara decided to become a voice actress after listening to a radio drama adaptation of the manga series Hunter × Hunter?
... that a fan sued Major League Baseball for $10 million after he was filmed sleeping at a game and the announcers allegedly made unflattering comments about him?
... that the Easter hymn "Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag" (The glorious day has appeared) by Nikolaus Herman inspired other hymns and musical settings of the 20th century?
... that although Zhang Junsheng publicly feuded with Chris Patten, Hong Kong's last British governor, the latter offered his condolences when Zhang died recently?
... that the basket star Astrobrachion constrictum is always found living in association with a black coral such as Antipathes fiordensis?
... that Otar Taktakishvili's opera Mindia was based on Vazha-Pshavela's epic poem The Snake-eater and premiered in 1961, the centenary of the poet's birth?
... that Robert Howard Hodgkin was part of a "Quaker dynasty" that included a banker, a Marxist historian, a Nobel-winning chemist, a painter, another Nobel winner, and the namesake of Hodgkin's lymphoma?

In the news

Steve Smith

China's first space station, Tiangong-1, re-enters the atmosphere and crashes into the South Pacific Ocean.
Cricket Australia bans Steve Smith (pictured), David Warner and Cameron Bancroft from international and Australian domestic cricket for nine to twelve months over a ball-tampering scandal.
A fire at a police station in Valencia, Venezuela, kills at least 68 people.
Russia and over 20 countries expel each other's diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

On this day...

April 2:

Juan Ponce de León

1513 – Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León (pictured) sighted Florida, becoming the first European known to do so, purportedly while searching for the Fountain of Youth in the New World.
1863 – In Richmond, Virginia, U.S., about 5,000 people, mostly poor women, rioted in protest of the exorbitant price of bread.
1973 – The Liberal Movement broke away from the Liberal and Country League in South Australia.
1992 – Bosnian War: At least 48 civilians were killed in the town of Bijeljina.
2002 – Operation Defensive Shield: Approximately 200 Palestinian militants fled the advancing Israel Defense Forces into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, starting a month-long standoff.

Maria Sibylla Merian (b. 1647) · Clément Ader (b. 1841) · Ranjitsinhji (d. 1933)

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From today's featured list

Anthony Marx

The President of the New York Public Library serves as the chief executive officer of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and exercises general supervision over its affairs. The president is elected yearly by the New York Public Library Board of Trustees. John Bigelow served as the first president from the library's founding in 1895 to his death in 1911. The current president is Anthony Marx (pictured), who has served since taking office in 2011. Upon the urging of Bigelow, an executor of Samuel J. Tilden's will, the NYPL was formed when the Lenox and Astor libraries merged in 1895. Both the Astor and the Lenox maintained presidents for the duration of their existence. The three libraries have had a total of twenty presidents. Historically, presidents of the libraries have been both wealthy and prominent individuals. Additionally, several prominent lawyers served as President. It was customary for presidents to serve until their deaths until Morris Hadley resigned in 1958. Subsequently, all presidents have resigned before their deaths, with the exception of Timothy S. Healy. (Full list...)

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Eugen Sandow (1867–1925) was a pioneering German bodybuilder. Born in Königsberg, Prussia, he joined a circus to avoid military service. Fellow strongman Ludwig Durlacher urged Sandow to travel to London and take part in a strongman competition, which he handily won. Sandow rose rapidly to fame and was soon touring Europe and the United States, being featured in a short film series that depicted him flexing. After a bout of ill health, Sandow focused on opening public gyms, inventing or improving exercise equipment, and training would-be military recruits as well as King George V. Sandow is now known as the "father of modern bodybuilding".

Photograph: D. Bernard & Co; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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