Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 October 12

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Today's featured article
Ruth Norman (1900–1993) was an American religious leader who co-founded the Unarius Academy of Science with her husband Ernest Norman. The couple discussed numerous details about their past lives and spiritual visits to other planets, forming a mythology from these accounts. Ernest died in 1971, prompting Ruth to serve as their group's leader and primary channeler. In early 1974, she predicted that a space fleet of benevolent extraterrestrials, the Space Brothers, would land on Earth later that year. After the extraterrestrials' non-appearance, Norman stated that trauma she had suffered in a past life had caused her to make an inaccurate prediction. Undaunted, she rented a building for Unarius' meetings and sought publicity for the movement, claiming to have united the Earth with an interplanetary confederation. She revised the Space Brothers' expected landing date several times, before finally settling on 2001. Despite predicting that she would live to see the extraterrestrials land, Norman died in 1993. Unarius continued to operate and celebrate her leadership after her death. (more...) Recently featured: Madagascar – Allegro – Tool Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Gibraltar F.C. (team in 1895 pictured) was one of the first civilian football clubs established in Gibraltar? ... that, during preparations for Operation Barras, soldiers trained on a scale model of the village they were to assault? ... that the 2011 Bengali film Abosheshey, about a son exploring his dead mother's life, was shot in Roopa Ganguly's own house, where she plays the role of the mother? ... that the inaugural Eclipse Stakes, at the time the largest prize in British horseracing, was won by the stallion Bendigo in 1886? ... that the female Tornier's forest toad is viviparous and has been known to carry 35 young at one time? ... that Alan Phillips wasn't allowed to compete in badminton for South Africa in the 1992 Olympics because he was too old at 36, but he played baseball in the 2000 Olympics at 44? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
The European Union is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Chinese author Mo Yan (pictured), famous for working in the style of writing known as hallucinatory realism, wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their studies of G protein-coupled receptors. John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. SpaceX launches the first commercially contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Syrian civil war – Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
October 12: Columbus celebrations in various countries in the Americas; Our Lady Aparecida's Day and Children's Day in Brazil; National Day in Equatorial Guinea (1968) and Spain (1492) 1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse became the first woman to make a parachute descent (artwork pictured), falling 900 m (3,000 ft) in a hot-air balloon gondola. 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States was first used in public schools to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. 1960 – Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was assassinated on live television by a man using a samurai sword. 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in a failed attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her cabinet. 1992 – A 5.8 M_B earthquake struck south of Cairo, Egypt, killing 545 people. More anniversaries: October 11 – October 12 – October 13 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now October 12, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

The giant Caribbean sea anemone (Condylactis gigantea) is a tropical species of sea anemone that is found in coral reefs, shallow ocean waters, in shore areas in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean. It grows to approximately 15 cm (6 in) high and 30 cm (12 in) wide, making the pedal disc diameter approximately 40 cm (16 in). Although it is primarily a sessile animal, it is quite a mobile species compared to other anemones, and capable of using its pedal disc to crawl slowly.

Photo: Nick Hobgood

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