Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 April 13b
From today's featured article
Al-Hafiz (c. 1075 – 1149) was the eleventh caliph of the Fatimids from 1132 until his death. He rose to power as regent after his cousin al-Amir was killed in 1130 leaving an infant son. The army seized power, imprisoning al-Hafiz, but he was freed a year later. In 1132, he proclaimed himself caliph and imam. Many Isma'ili followers abroad refused to recognize him as imam, breaking away as the Tayyibi sect. There were repeated uprisings even in Egypt, although his reign saw little foreign aggression. He tried to restrain his overmighty viziers, with mixed success. He was repeatedly forced to give way to the demands of various military factions, and although for the last decade of his reign he ruled without a vizier, he was ultimately unable to halt the evolution of the vizierate into a de facto sultanate, independent of the caliph. His successors would be reduced to puppets at the hands of powerful viziers, until the end of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that street artist TVBoy, known for his murals of footballers in Barcelona (example pictured), painted uplifting art in regions of Kyiv ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion?
- ... that Foster Loyer broke Michigan's high-school and Steph Curry's Davidson records for consecutive free throws?
- ... that the 2023 United Kingdom student protests were organised on TikTok and Snapchat?
- ... that at the age of 27 New Zealand entrepreneur Jamie Beaton had degrees from Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and Tsinghua University, and was working on his seventh degree, from Yale?
- ... that It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water explores the theme of water and was inspired by Phil Elverum's visits to the ocean?
- ... that in 1956 Green Bay Packers athletic trainer Bud Jorgensen became the first athletic trainer selected by the National Football League to treat players at a Pro Bowl?
- ... that the St. Raphael Provincial Park in Northern Ontario, Canada, is part of the 1,530 km2 (590 sq mi) St. Raphael Signature Site, which is recognized for its natural and recreational values?
- ... that in the 1970s, residents of the Belnord in New York City had to sneak in refrigerators at night?
In the news
.png)
- In the Myanmar civil war, the military junta's air force kills at least 130 civilians in Pazigyi.
- In golf, Jon Rahm (pictured) wins the Masters Tournament.
- Former U.S. president Donald Trump is arraigned on 34 charges of falsifying business records.
- Finland joins NATO as its 31st member.
- In the Andorran parliamentary election, the liberal coalition, led by Prime Minister Xavier Espot, wins an absolute majority of seats in the General Council.
On this day
April 13: Night of Decree (Shia Islam, 2023)
- 1742 – The first performance of Messiah, an oratorio by the British composer Handel, was held in Dublin.
- 1943 – The Neoclassical Jefferson Memorial (pictured) in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
- 1946 – Nakam, a Jewish organization seeking revenge for the Holocaust, attempted to poison thousands of SS prisoners at Langwasser internment camp, but did not kill anyone.
- 1953 – Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale was published as the first work to feature his British spy character James Bond.
- 2017 – War in Afghanistan: In an airstrike in Nangarhar Province, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb ever used in combat.
- Arthur Matthew Weld Downing (b. 1850)
- Joe Hewitt (b. 1901)
- Evelyne Daitz (b. 1936)
Today's featured picture
|
|
Spiti is a high-altitude cold desert in the Western Himalayas in India. "Spiti" means "the middle land", between Tibet and India. The region is above the tree line, with only shrubs and a few scattered stunted trees. In the upper valley, the braided Spiti River flows in narrow channels in a very wide river bed, as seen in this photograph, taken just above Kaza, the largest town in Spiti. In the lower valley, the river meanders through gorges 10 to 130 metres (33 to 427 ft) deep that it has cut in the sedimentary deposits. The Moravian geologist Ferdinand Stoliczka discovered a major geological formation near the village of Mud in the 1860s, and identified a number of layers or successions. The people of Spiti follow Tibetan Buddhism, and their culture is similar to those of neighbouring Tibet and Ladakh. The region is known for adventure tourism, trekking and mountaineering. Photograph credit: Timothy A. Gonsalves
Recently featured:
|
Other areas of Wikipedia
- Community portal – The central hub for editors, with resources, links, tasks, and announcements.
- Village pump – Forum for discussions about Wikipedia itself, including policies and technical issues.
- Site news – Sources of news about Wikipedia and the broader Wikimedia movement.
- Teahouse – Ask basic questions about using or editing Wikipedia.
- Help desk – Ask questions about using or editing Wikipedia.
- Reference desk – Ask research questions about encyclopedic topics.
- Content portals – A unique way to navigate the encyclopedia.
Wikipedia's sister projects
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
MediaWiki
Wiki software development -
Meta-Wiki
Wikimedia project coordination -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikispecies
Directory of species -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Wikipedia languages
This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.
-
1,000,000+ articles
-
250,000+ articles
-
50,000+ articles