Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 March 4

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From today's featured article

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008) was a South African singer, actor, and civil rights activist. She was a vocal opponent of apartheid and white-minority government, in South Africa and elsewhere. Associated with genres including afropop, jazz, and world music, she began singing professionally in the 1950s. She had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa (1959), which led to performances in Venice, London, and New York City. Makeba moved to the United States, where her career flourished, and released several albums and songs, including the hit "Pata Pata" (1967). She and Harry Belafonte received a Grammy Award for their 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. Her 1968 marriage to Stokely Carmichael of the Black Panther Party was not well received in the US, and she moved to Guinea, where she wrote and performed music more explicitly critical of apartheid. Nicknamed Mama Africa, she was one of the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. Her music, in Nelson Mandela's words, "inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Bianjing Drum Tower

... that the Bianjing Drum Tower (pictured) in Shangguan, Shanxi, boasts a 1.9-metre (6 ft 3 in)-tall stone lantern carved into the shape of Mount Wutai?
... that Susan Goldberg was the first woman editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine?
... that the Gilwell Oak was named the United Kingdom's "Tree of the Year" for 2017?
... that a modern bus station was built to resemble the former Brockton train station, designed by Bradford Gilbert?
... that a Columbine cup was a masterpiece resembling the shape of a cluster of doves?
... that four-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Champion Bull Rider J.W. Harris suffered five concussions in 2008?
... that Der Gemischte Chor Zürich sang the premiere of Nänie in 1881, conducted by its composer Johannes Brahms, and the premiere of a commission by Edward Rushton in 2013 for the choir's 150th anniversary?
... that a last-second, game-winning touchdown by the Minnesota Vikings was dubbed the Minneapolis Miracle?

In the news

Billy Graham

Attacks at multiple locations in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, leave at least 28 people dead and 50 others injured.
At least 31 people are killed and about 300 others are injured by an earthquake in Papua New Guinea.
American evangelical preacher Billy Graham (pictured) dies at the age of 99.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri wins five awards, including Best Film, at the British Academy Film Awards.
Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Zagros Mountains, killing all 65 people on board.

On this day...

March 4

Engelbert Dollfuss

306 – Roman Herculian guard Adrian of Nicomedia, who had converted to Christianity after being impressed with the faith of Christians that he had been torturing, was martyred.
1804 – Irish convicts who were involved at the Battle of Vinegar Hill during the 1798 Irish Rebellion began an uprising against British colonial authorities in New South Wales, Australia.
1918 – The first known case of the so-called Spanish flu was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas.
1933 – All three presidents of the Austrian National Council resigned, and Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (pictured) later used that pretext to create an authoritarian government.
2012 – A series of blasts occurred at an arms dump in Brazzaville, Congo, killing at least 250 people, injuring 2,300 others, and leaving more than 13,800 people homeless.

Hindal Mirza (b. 1519) · Mariano Moreno (d. 1811) · Harold Barrowclough (d. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

Iris Pruysen, an athlete with an artificial leg, competes in the long jump at the 2014 Athletics Paralympic Meeting in Stade Sébastien Charléty, Paris, France.

Disabled sports, also known as parasports, are sports played by persons with a permanent or temporary disability, be it physical or intellectual. Many disabled sports are based on existing able bodied sports, modified to meet the needs of persons with a disability. However, several sports have been specifically created for persons with a disability.

Photograph: Pierre-Yves Beaudouin

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