Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 11

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From today's featured article

The Coffin Stone visible underneath another slab

The Coffin Stone is a large sarsen stone at the foot of Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Now lying prone on the ground, the stone is a rectangular slab that measures 4.42 metres (14 ft 6 in) in length. Another large slab now rests on it, and two smaller stones are nearby. The megalith lies on the eastern side of the River Medway, not far from the chambered long barrows of Little Kit's Coty House and Kit's Coty House constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Britain's Early Neolithic period, and various archaeologists have argued that the stone may have formed part of one such structure. An archaeological excavation of the site led by Paul Garwood in 2008 and 2009 found that the Coffin Stone was only placed in its present location in the 15th or 16th centuries. The archaeologists found no evidence of a chambered long barrow at the site. In the 1830s it was reported that local farmers found human bones near the stone. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Mary Helen Johnston

... that Mary Helen Johnston (pictured) was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal before being selected as an astronaut, but has never gone into space?
... that the nucleoid keeps the bulk of a bacterium's DNA both compact and well organized?
... that a pub on Wincheap in Canterbury is believed to be the oldest continuously trading in the city?
... that O salutaris hostia (O saving victim), a setting of a Eucharistic hymn for mixed choir by Vytautas Miškinis, was performed in Brussels when Lithuania held the EU Council presidency?
... that professor Neil Ferguson and his team believe that significantly more people in China have been infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus than has been reported?
... that trailers for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End were shown before select screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?
... that a course in Spanish North American history that Nettie Lee Benson took at the University of Texas inspired her lifelong interest in teaching and building libraries for Latin American studies?
... that asphaltite powers Şırnak Silopi?

In the news

Alyssa Healy

The Italian government implements a national quarantine in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Global stock markets suffer their largest fall since the Great Recession.
In cricket, the Women's T20 World Cup concludes with Australia defeating India in the final (player of the match Alyssa Healy pictured).
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara win the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

On this day

March 11

Fresco of the eruption of Mount Etna by Giacinto Platania

1669 – Mount Etna in Sicily began erupting (depicted), eventually producing the largest lava flow in the volcano's history, and damaging Catania and other towns.
1708 – Queen Anne withheld royal assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, in the most recent occasion where a British monarch vetoed an act of Parliament.
1845 – Māori forces, led by chiefs Te Ruki Kawiti and Hōne Heke, attacked the British settlement of Kororāreka, New Zealand, beginning the Flagstaff War.
1993 – The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno as the country's first female attorney general.
2010 – During the inauguration of Chilean president Sebastián Piñera, an earthquake registering 6.9 M_W struck the O'Higgins Region near the city of Pichilemu, causing widespread damage.

Mary of Woodstock (b. 1278) · Anna Bochkoltz (b. 1815) · Anastasios Charalambis (d. 1949)

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Today's featured picture

The Royal Falkland Islands Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the Falkland Islands. This picture shows the force's headquarters, located in Stanley on the island of East Falkland. First constructed in 1873, the building was built of stone by the detachment of Royal Marines that were stationed in the colony at that time, and has had several wooden extensions added over the years. It was severely damaged by a British missile strike during the Falklands War in 1982. The building was completely refurbished in 2008, with the prison building on the left opened by the Princess Royal in the following year.

Photograph credit: Andrew Shiva

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