Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 September 3

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a passenger flight that was shot down by the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) on 3 September 1978, during the Rhodesian Bush War. The aircraft, a Vickers Viscount, was flying Air Rhodesia's scheduled service from Victoria Falls to the capital Salisbury, via the resort town of Kariba. Soon after its takeoff, ZIPRA guerrillas launched a Soviet-made Strela 2 surface-to-air missile at the plane. Attempting a belly landing in a cotton field west of Karoi, the plane hit an unseen ditch, cartwheeled, and exploded. Of the 52 passengers and four crew, 38 died in the crash. The insurgents then massacred 10 survivors with automatic gunfire. Joshua Nkomo, the ZIPRA leader, publicly claimed responsibility for the missile attack (but not for the massacre) on the BBC's Today programme the same evening, saying the aircraft had been used for military purposes. Most Rhodesians, black and white, saw the attack as an act of terrorism. Martial law and a fierce white Rhodesian backlash followed, even though few black Rhodesians supported the attack. Five months later, ZIPRA shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 827 in a similar incident. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know...

Bocca di Lupo

... that Bocca di Lupo (pictured) serves chocolate pudding with pig's blood?
... that golfer Thomas Detry broke the Challenge Tour record for largest winning margin with his 12-shot win at the 2016 Bridgestone Challenge?
... that an agreed peace between organised crime groups is known as Pax Mafiosa?
... that all the other doctors at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children resigned in protest after the appointment of Eliza Walker Dunbar?
... that after a mixed critical response to their previous album, Megadeth's 2016 Dystopia was well-received by most critics and charted at number 3 on the Billboard 200?
... that Rhode Island's William C. O'Neill Bike Path follows a route first proposed for use as a school children's rail line?
... that in 2010 and 2016, Rafael Yerena Zambrano was reelected unopposed as the secretary general of the Federation of Workers of Jalisco?
... that an MP crawled to save The Glad?

In the news

Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge under construction

Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan since 1991, dies in office at the age of 78.
Fossils from the Isua Greenstone Belt, Greenland, are found to be the world's oldest, having formed about 3.7 billion years ago.
Dilma Rousseff is removed from office as the President of Brazil by the Senate.
The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge (pictured under construction), the world's tallest suspension bridge, opens to traffic across the Bosphorus.
The United States expands the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, making it the world's largest marine protected area.

On this day...

September 3: Flag Day in Australia; Independence Day in Qatar (1971)

Richard the Lionheart

863 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The Byzantine Empire decisively defeated the Emirate of Melitene in the Battle of Lalakaon, beginning the era of Byzantine ascendancy.
1189 – Richard the Lionheart (pictured) was crowned King of England in Westminster.
1783 – The Peace of Paris formally ended the states of war between United States, France, Spain and Great Britain.
1941 – The Holocaust: SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch first used the pesticide Zyklon B to execute Soviet POWs en masse at Auschwitz; eventually it was used to kill about 1.2 million people.
1991 – A fire killed 25 people locked inside a burning chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, US.

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The Great Day of His Wrath is an 1851–1853 oil painting on canvas by the English painter John Martin. It has variously been described as showing the "destruction of Babylon and the material world by natural cataclysm" (as a response to the emerging industrial scene of London), "the collapse of Edinburgh in Scotland", and a portion of the Biblical Book of Revelation. The painting is held by Tate Britain in London.

Painting: John Martin

Recently featured:

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.