Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 April 5

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From today's featured article

Ernest Shackleton

The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition (1921–22) was Sir Ernest Shackleton's last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The venture, with vaguely defined geographic and scientific objectives, was financed by John Quiller Rowett, and is otherwise known as the Quest Expedition after its ship Quest, a converted Norwegian sealer. Shackleton had originally intended to go to the Arctic and explore the Beaufort Sea, but abandoned this plan when the Canadian government withheld financial support. Shortly after Quest's arrival at South Georgia, Shackleton died of a heart attack, aged 47. The expedition continued under the leadership of Frank Wild, with a three-month cruise to the eastern Antarctic, but the shortcomings of Quest as a polar vessel kept it from proceeding further than longitude 20°E, or from penetrating southward through the pack ice. After returning to South Georgia, Wild hoped for a second, more productive season in the ice, and took the ship to Cape Town for a refit, where he found a message from Rowett ordering them home. The expedition ended quietly, with limited achievements. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Schloss Bruchsal

... that the 18th-century Schloss Bruchsal (pictured) in southwest Germany contains an elaborate Baroque staircase that has been described as "ingenious and ravishing"?
... that the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, conferred its fellowship on Kanhu Charan Mohanty (1994) and Arjan Hasid (2013), and elected Ronald E. Asher (2007) as an honorary fellow?
... that the 16,030 acres (6,490 ha) of Federal land in New Mexico's Sabinoso Wilderness are inaccessible without trespassing, because they are entirely enclosed in privately-owned property?
... that Francis Poulenc composed his Violin Sonata at the insistence of violinist Ginette Neveu, and played the piano part when she premiered it?
... that two women captured in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 were rescued during the Abolition Riot of 1836?
... that Antoine-Jean Gros's painting Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau influenced the works of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix?
... that a lake larger than Lake Erie existed in the eastern Sahara less than 12,000 years ago?
... that suspected Mexican drug lord Rubén Oseguera González was released from prison three times in less than a year?

In the news

Tim Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee (pictured) wins the Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the protocols and algorithms that allow the Web to scale.
In the Syrian Civil War, a chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun kills at least 58 people and injures more than 300 others.
In college basketball, the South Carolina Gamecocks win the NCAA women's tournament and the North Carolina Tar Heels win the men's tournament.
A bombing in the Saint Petersburg Metro kills at least 14 people and injures more than 45 others.
The Boat Races conclude with Oxford winning the men's race and Cambridge winning the women's race.

On this day...

April 5: Rama Navami (Hinduism, 2017); Feast Day of Vincent Ferrer

Akashi Kaikyō Bridge

1081 – The Komnenian dynasty came to full power when Alexios I Komnenos was crowned Byzantine Emperor.
1614 – Native American Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia, and was christened Rebecca.
1936 – Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hit Tupelo, Mississippi, killing at least 216 people.
1998 – Japan's Akashi Kaikyō Bridge (pictured), linking Awaji Island and Kobe, opened to traffic, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world to date with a main span length of 1,991 metres (6,532 ft).
2009 – The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking concerns by other nations that it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet (b. 1769) · Marie-Rosalie Cadron-Jetté (d. 1864) · Stella Creasy (b. 1977)

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Today's featured picture

A feeding frenzy of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) at the pond of the Agdal Gardens in Marrakesh, Morocco. Feeding frenzies may occur when predators are overwhelmed by the amount of prey available, or as a result of competition for food.

Photograph: Luc Viatour

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