Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 August 7

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Henry IV (11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105. After his father's death in 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped him in 1062 and administered Germany until he came of age in 1065. Ignoring the ideas of the Gregorian Reform, Henry insisted on the royal prerogative to appoint bishops in his German and Italian realms. The Investiture Controversy culminated when Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Henry in response to Henry's attempt to dethrone him. Henry carried out his penitential Walk to Canossa in 1077 and Gregory absolved him. Henry's German opponents ignored this absolution and elected an anti-king. Most German and northern Italian bishops remained loyal to Henry and elected the antipope, Clement III, who crowned Henry emperor in Rome in 1084. His son, Henry V, forced him to abdicate on 31 December 1105. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Jochen Schmidt

... that Jochen Schmidt (pictured), a dance critic for the FAZ for 30 years, wrote a book about Pina Bausch and her Wuppertal dance theatre?
... that the Merchant was the first iron-hulled merchant ship built on the Great Lakes?
... that Olympic baseball player Édgar Arredondo set a record for the youngest debut in the Mexican League?
... that in exchange for building its New York City headquarters, Goldman Sachs received $1.65 billion in bonds and $115 million in tax breaks?
... that the video game Omori came out in December 2020, instead of its initial projected release date of May 2015?
... that historian Norman K. Risjord worked in counter-intelligence in Berlin before he obtained his PhD and pursued a career in American history?
... that in Inferno, an opera by Lucia Ronchetti premiered in 2021 at the Oper Frankfurt, the main character Dante has a speaking voice and an inner voice of four male singers?
... that the Tampa Bay area of Florida is known as the "capital of death metal" due to the number of bands within the Florida death metal scene which hail from there?

In the news

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya

Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya (pictured) travels to Poland on a humanitarian visa after attempts by the Belarus Olympic Committee to repatriate her against her will.
In Olympic athletics, Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas breaks a 26-year-old world record in the women's triple jump, and world records are set in men's and women's 400 metres hurdles by Norwegian Karsten Warholm and American Sydney McLaughlin.
Wildfires in southern Turkey kill at least eight people and injure more than 800 others.

On this day

August 7: Assyrian Martyrs Day (1933)

Le Griffon

1679 – Le Griffon (depicted), a barque built by René-Robert de La Salle, began its journey to be the first sailing ship to navigate the upper Great Lakes.
1794 – U.S. president George Washington invoked the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.
1946 – The Soviet Union informed Turkey that the way in which the latter was handling the Turkish Straits no longer represented the security interests of its fellow Black Sea nations, escalating the Turkish Straits crisis.
2008 – Fighting between the Georgian and South Ossetian separatist forces escalated to the six-day Russo-Georgian War.

Joseph Marie Jacquard (d. 1834)
Jöns Jacob Berzelius (d. 1848)
Billy T. James (d. 1991)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Heinrich C. Berann (1915–1999) was an Austrian painter and cartographer. He achieved world fame with his panoramic maps that combined modern cartography with classical painting. Towards the end of his life, he created four panoramic posters of national parks which were published by the U.S. National Park Service. This 1994 panorama shows Denali National Park and Preserve in central Alaska, with Denali, the highest mountain on the continent, and the glaciers on its southern flanks.

Painting credit: Heinrich C. Berann

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.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.