Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 October 3

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From today's featured article

USS Lexington (CV-2) was an early aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into an aircraft carrier during construction to comply with the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Lexington was at sea when the Pacific War began in 1941, ferrying fighter aircraft to Midway Island. She was sent to the Coral Sea in February 1942 to block any Japanese advances into the area. Together with the carrier Yorktown, she successfully attacked Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March. Lexington rendezvoused with Yorktown in the Coral Sea in early May. A few days later the Japanese began Operation MO, the invasion of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and the two American carriers attempted to stop the invasion. Aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown succeeded in badly damaging the carrier Shōkaku, but Japanese aircraft crippled Lexington. Vapors from leaking aviation gasoline tanks sparked a series of explosions and fires that could not be controlled, and the carrier had to be scuttled by an American destroyer during the evening of 8 May to prevent her capture. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that during World War II, HMCS Midland and HMCS New Westminster (pictured) escorted supply convoys on the "Triangle Run", the route between New York, Boston and St. John's?
... that the 3 October Festival in Leiden, Netherlands, features a free meal of herring and white bread handed out in the Weigh House?
... that historian Stanley Mordaunt Leathes and physiologist John Beresford Leathes were the sons of Hebrew scholar Stanley Leathes?
... that combining computer animation with live action, Adhisaya Ulagam 3D was the first 3D Indian film that featured dinosaurs?
... that when Edinburgh Trams commence service in May 2014, it will have been fifty-eight years since the closure of Edinburgh's previous tramway?
... that drivers crashing in Motocross Mania 3 sound like crushed water bottles?

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In the news

The U.S. federal government shuts down non-essential services after it is unable to pass a budget measure.
Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (pictured) of Kenya wins the Berlin Marathon in a world record time of 2:03:23.
Over fifty students are massacred by members of Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Gujba, Nigeria.
Dozens of people are killed in protests against a fuel price hike in Sudan.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change publishes the first part of its Fifth Assessment Report.

Recent deaths: Tom Clancy

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On this day...

October 3: National Day in Iraq (1932); National Foundation Day in South Korea

1918 – World War I: Following his armed forces' defeat to the Allied Powers, Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I abdicated in favor of his son Boris III (pictured).
1935 – Italian forces under General Emilio De Bono invaded Abyssinia during the opening stages of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
1963 – Oswaldo López Arellano replaced Honduran President Ramón Villeda Morales in a violent coup and initiated two decades of military rule.
1993 – American armed forces attempted to capture officials of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organization at the Battle of Mogadishu.
2003 – Roy Horn of the American entertainment duo of Siegfried & Roy was mauled by a tiger during a performance at The Mirage hotel and casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

More anniversaries: October 2 – October 3 – October 4

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Today's featured picture

Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1587–1645) was a Spanish royal favourite of Philip IV and minister. As prime minister from 1621 to 1643, he over-exerted Spain in foreign affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policies of committing Spain to recapture Holland led to his major involvement in the Thirty Years War. This portrait was completed in 1634, with its composition referring to Olivares' military leadership in the service of King Philip.

Painting: Diego Velázquez

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