Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 October 4

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome to Wikipedia,
5,254,736 articles in English

From today's featured article

Satellite image of Hurricane Iris on October 8, 2001

Hurricane Iris of 2001 was the most destructive tropical cyclone in Belize since Hurricane Hattie in 1961. Iris was the second-strongest storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, behind Hurricane Michelle. While passing south of the Dominican Republic, Iris dropped heavy rainfall that caused landslides, killing eight people. Later, the hurricane passed south of Jamaica, where it destroyed two houses. On reaching the western Caribbean Sea, it rapidly intensified to Category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson scale. A small hurricane with an eye of only 7 miles (11 km) in diameter, it reached peak winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) before making landfall in Belize. The storm killed 24 people there, including 20 who died when a scuba diving boat capsized near Big Creek. It also killed eight people and damaged about 2,500 homes in neighboring Guatemala, and later dropped heavy rainfall in southern Mexico, where two people died. Destruction in Belize totaled US$250 million. Because Iris was compact, the damage was confined to 72% of the houses in the Toledo district and 50% of the houses in the Stann Creek district. (Full article...)

Did you know...

Fossilised human footprints at Ciampate del Diavolo
Fossilised human footprints at Ciampate del Diavolo

In the news

Artist's rendering of the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe
Artist's rendering of Rosetta

On this day...

October 4: Feast day of St. Francis of Assisi (Catholicism)

InterCity 125 train
InterCity 125 train
More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Michael Mullen

Michael Mullen (b. 1946) is a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2007, to September 30, 2011, having previously served as the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations. He was only the third officer in the Navy's history to be appointed to four different four-star assignments. Mullen retired from the Navy after over 43 years of service, later serving as a visiting professor at Princeton University.

Photograph: United States Department of Defense

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.
  • Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
  • 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.

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects: