Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 March 8

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Today's featured article
Martha Layne Collins (born 1936) is a businesswoman and politician from Kentucky who was the state's 56th governor from 1983 to 1987. Prior to her election as governor, she was the 48th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, serving under John Y. Brown, Jr. She is the only woman to have been governor of Kentucky, and her election made her the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the U.S. at the time. She was considered as a possible running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election, but Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro instead. Her administration had two primary focuses: education and economic development. She secured an increase in education funding during a special legislative session in 1985 and successfully used economic incentives to bring a Toyota manufacturing plant to Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1986. After her term as governor, she became president of Saint Catharine College near Springfield, Kentucky. Her husband's conviction on charges of influence-peddling in 1993 damaged her hopes for a return to political life. She is currently an executive scholar in residence at Georgetown College. (more...) Recently featured: Cyclone Elita – Banksia cuneata – Battle of Barrosa Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that in 1925, Esther Hill (pictured) became the first woman to be registered as an architect in Canada? ... that Clare Smyth was the first British woman to hold three Michelin stars when she became head chef of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2007? ... that the first indoor St. Louis Auto Show was held in the Willys-Overland Building in 1917? ... that Maria Pinto designed the purple sheath dress Michelle Obama wore to give her husband "the fist bump heard 'round the world"? ... that the Antarctic sponge Homaxinella balfourensis prevents ice crystals from forming in its cells by the use of peptides with antifreeze properties? ... that the lesbian German writer Christa Reinig stated in a poem, "Sometimes the gay shirt is closer to me than the feminist skirt"? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Vladimir Putin Businessman Allen Stanford is convicted of running a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme. Vladimir Putin (pictured) is elected President of Russia for a third term. A series of explosions at an arms dump in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, kills at least 246 people and injures hundreds more. A train crash near Szczekociny, Poland, kills 16 people. A tornado outbreak in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States causes at least 39 fatalities. BP agrees to pay US$7.8 billion to plaintiffs affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Conflict in Syria – Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
March 8: International Women's Day; Mother's Day in various countries; Purim ends at sundown (Judaism, 2012) 1576 – A letter to King Philip II of Spain contained the first European mention of the Mayan ruins of Copán (pictured) in modern Honduras. 1658 – After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars, the King of Denmark–Norway was forced to give up nearly half his Danish territory to Sweden to save the rest. 1736 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, was crowned Shah of Iran. 1924 – Three violent explosions at a coal mine near Castle Gate, Utah, US, killed all 171 miners working there. 1978 – BBC Radio 4 transmitted the first episode of English author and dramatist Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a television series, and other media formats. More anniversaries: March 7 – March 8 – March 9 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now March 8, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A human eye displaying partial heterochromia iridum, where part of one iris is a different color from its remainder. Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin. Shown here is an example of central heterochromia, where there are two colors in the same iris.

Photo: Adam Cuerden

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