Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 February 28

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From today's featured article

Maya Angelou's books of poetry are widely admired best-sellers, though not as critically acclaimed as her seven autobiographies. Angelou (1928–2014), a prominent African-American writer, used everyday language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and sometimes shocking language to explore themes of love, loss, and struggle against oppression and hardship. Her poetry is not easily categorized, and has been compared with musical forms including the blues. She studied and began writing poetry at a young age, in part to cope with trauma, as she described in her first and best-known autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She became a poet after touring Europe in the cast of Porgy and Bess and performing calypso music in nightclubs in the 1950s. Her first volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1993, she recited one of her best-known poems, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President Bill Clinton's inauguration (pictured). Her poetry has not received as much critical attention as her prose; this has been attributed to her popular success and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a verbal, performed one. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the first British Army battalion to land in Portugal during the Peninsular War was led by William Gabriel Davy (pictured)?
... that Bangladesh officially rejected Israel's recognition of its sovereignty in 1972?
... that Urkhuz ibn Ulugh Tarkhan, the Abbasid governor of Tarsus, was deposed for embezzling the salaries of the garrison of Loulon, leading to its surrender to the Byzantine Empire?
... that production has begun on The Taliban Shuffle, a film based on the memoir by Kim Barker?
... that Ted Longshaw founded three governing bodies for radio-controlled car racing?
... that 22 million tons of coal have been mined in the vicinity of Black Creek?
... that Jacob Hiatt financed a chair in Judaic studies at the College of the Holy Cross and a chair in Christian studies at Brandeis University?
... that there is a rat tribe living under Beijing?

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In the news

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission votes to reclassify Internet broadband as a utility, enforcing net neutrality rules for the service.
British soldier Joshua Leakey (pictured) is awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the war in Afghanistan.
A gunman kills eight people and commits suicide in the Czech town of Uherský Brod.
Birdman wins four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, at the Academy Awards.
In stock car racing, Joey Logano wins NASCAR's Daytona 500.
Prokopis Pavlopoulos is elected President of Greece.

Ongoing: Boko Haram – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Leonard Nimoy – Clark Terry – Daniel Topolski

On this day...

February 28: Kalevala Day in Finland

202 BC – Rebel leader Liu Bang was enthroned as Emperor Gaozu of Han after overthrowing the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China.
1897 – Ranavalona III, the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of Madagascar, was deposed by a French military force.
1928 – Indian physicist C. V. Raman (pictured) and his colleagues discovered what is now called the Raman effect, for which he later became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
1975 – In London an underground train failed to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashed into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.
1985 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launched a mortar attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary station in Corry Square, Newry, Northern Ireland, killing nine.

More anniversaries: February 27 – February 28 – March 1

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It is now February 28, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

A Senegalese wrestling match between Mame Balla and Pape Mor Lô during the World African Wrestling world tour in Paris Bercy. This type of folk wrestling is traditionally practiced by the Serer people of Senegal and part of the larger West African form of traditional wrestling, the only such tradition to allow blows with the hands. In this form of wrestling, fighters attempt to throw their opponents to the ground by lifting them up and over, usually outside a given area.

Originating as a preparatory exercise among Serer warriors, this form of wrestling is known as njom in Serer; the term is from the Serer principle of Jom and means heart or honor. The sport is a national sport in Senegal and parts of The Gambia.

Photograph: Pierre-Yves Beaudouin

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