Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 September 4

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From today's featured article

Gold dinar likely depicting Abd al-Malik

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (c. 646 – 705) was the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death. At his accession, Umayyad authority in the Caliphate had been restricted to Syria and Egypt as a result of the second Muslim civil war. Abd al-Malik reunited the Caliphate after defeating the Zubayrids at the Battle of Maskin in Iraq in 691 and the siege of Mecca in 692. The wars with Byzantium recommenced, resulting in Umayyad advances into Anatolia and Armenia and the recapture of Kairouan, which led to the conquests of Northwest Africa and most of the Iberian Peninsula during the reign of his son and successor, al-Walid I. Abd al-Malik founded the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the earliest archaeologically attested religious monument built by a Muslim ruler. He introduced a single Islamic currency and established Arabic as the language of the bureaucracy, replacing Greek in Syria and Persian in Iraq. His centralized government became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Malan Bridge

... that according to legend, Malan Bridge (pictured) was built by two mythical princesses who mixed egg shells with clay to create a bridge stronger than steel?
... that Aaron Pike has competed in wheelchair racing at three Summer Paralympics, and in both biathlon and cross-country skiing at two Winter Paralympics?
... that the opening of Geistliches Lied by Johannes Brahms possibly references Clara Schumann's fantasy of playing her husband's music on the organ?
... that Horace Harral engraved "one of the most famous photographs of the nineteenth century", a portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, for publication in the Illustrated Times?
... that the Rhodesia Information Centre spread propaganda about Rhodesia in Australia?
... that bishop Nikolaj Velimirović called Sevastijan Dabović the greatest Serbian missionary of modern times?
... that the counting-out rhyme "One potato, two potato" is more than 135 years old?
... that thousands of people who fled Burundi have taken refuge in Rwanda's Mahama Refugee Camp, but only one has competed in the Paralympics?

In the news

Flooding in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania

Hurricane Ida results in more than 60 deaths and causes flooding (pictured) in the Gulf Coast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, leading to widespread power outages.
Amid evacuations from Afghanistan, a suicide bombing kills at least 182 people at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The Summer Paralympics open in Tokyo, Japan.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob is appointed as prime minister by the King of Malaysia.

On this day

September 4

Damage from the Canterbury earthquake in Christchurch

476 – Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus, marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
1839 – First Opium War: British vessels opened fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community on the Kowloon Peninsula.
1912 – The Albanian revolt ended when the Ottoman government agreed to meet most of the rebels' demands.
1957 – Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African-American students from attending Little Rock Central High School.
2010 – A 7.1 M_w earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island (damage pictured), causing up to NZ$40 billion in damages.

Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon (d. 1458)
Bert Olmstead (b. 1926)
Beyoncé (b. 1981)

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Today's featured picture

Pauline Adams (1874–1957) was an Irish-American suffragist. On 4 September 1917, she and twelve other activists were arrested for attempting to "flaunt their banners" in front of President Woodrow Wilson's reviewing stand before a Selective Service parade in Washington, D.C., and they chose prison rather than paying a 25-dollar fine. This photograph depicts Adams seated at a table, wearing prison uniform and holding a cup in her raised right hand. The image was published in the newspaper The Suffragist in 1919.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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