Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 June 13

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Today's featured article
The Ediacara biota consisted of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile organisms which lived during the Ediacaran Period (c. 635–542 Ma). Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The Ediacara biota radiated in an event called the Avalon Explosion, 575 million years ago, after the Earth had thawed from the Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation, and largely disappeared contemporaneous with the rapid appearance of biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most currently existing body-plans of animals first appeared only in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. For macroorganisms, the Cambrian biota completely replaced the organisms that populated the Ediacaran fossil record. (more...) Recently featured: Boeing 777 – Yorkshire captaincy affair of 1927 – Joey Santiago Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Fred Tenney (pictured) was described as "one of the best defensive first basemen of all time", while Fred Tenney only played six games at the position? ... that Roy Lichtenstein's Golf Ball paraphrases Piet Mondrian's pre-World War I black and white oval paintings such as Composition in Black and White? ... that diners eating at the Table Lumière in the three Michelin star restaurant Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester can select their own tableware? ... that despite finishing second in Tippeligaen with Molde FK in 2002, football coaches Kalle Björklund and Gunder Bengtsson were fired after six matches in 2003? ... that the West German Audio Book Library for the Blind made its first recordings at night, in a room covered with egg cartons? ... that the Sugababes song "Gotta Be You", according to band member Keisha Buchanan, is the first use of the crunk genre by a British band? ... that the use of bloke, a slang term for a man, has inspired "First Bloke", a male variant of "First Lady"? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
In ice hockey, the Los Angeles Kings defeat the New Jersey Devils to win the Stanley Cup (Conn Smythe Trophy awardee Jonathan Quick pictured). The United Nations evacuates non-essential staff from Burma's Rakhine State after riots kill at least seven people. In tennis, Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal win the women's and men's singles titles, respectively, at the French Open. Timothy Bradley defeats Manny Pacquiao to win the World Boxing Organization welterweight championship. At least 55 people are killed in a massacre in a village near Hama, Syria. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
June 13 1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in Lake Starnberg near Munich under mysterious circumstances. 1955 – Soviet geologists discovered the Mir mine (pictured), the first diamond mine in the USSR and the second largest excavated hole in the world, in Eastern Siberia. 1981 – English teenager Marcus Sarjeant fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony. 1996 – After an 81-day standoff sparked by their refusal to be evicted from their foreclosed property in Jordan, Montana, US, the Christian Patriot group Montana Freemen surrendered to the FBI. 2010 – The Japanese Hayabusa space mission became the first to return samples of an asteroid (25143 Itokawa) to Earth for analysis. More anniversaries: June 12 – June 13 – June 14 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now June 13, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (b. 1954) is the current Finance Minister of Nigeria. An economist who earned her degrees at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, she also served as a managing director of the World Bank, and Foreign Minister of Nigeria. She is credited with bringing increased transparency to her country's government, as well as helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating.

Photo: International Monetary Fund

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