Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 April 7

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From today's featured article

Canis Minor is a small constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included as an asterism, or pattern, of two stars in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for "smaller dog" (1801 illustration shown) in contrast to Canis Major, the "larger dog". Canis Minor contains only two stars brighter than fourth magnitude, Procyon and Gomeisa. Procyon is the seventh-brightest star in the night sky, as well as one of the closest. A yellow-white main sequence star, it has a white dwarf companion. Gomeisa is a blue-white main sequence star. Luyten's Star is a ninth-magnitude red dwarf and the Solar System's next closest stellar neighbour in the constellation after Procyon. The fourth-magnitude HD 66141, which has evolved into an orange giant towards the end of its life cycle, was discovered to have a planet in 2012. Known as Thor's Helmet or the Duck Nebula, NGC 2359 is a tenth-magnitude nebula surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star. There are two faint deep sky objects within the constellation's borders. The 11 Canis-Minorids are a meteor shower that can be seen in early December. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII of England, bought a belt that had touched the Girdle of Thomas (legend illustrated) to help her pregnancy?

... that paintings by Finnish artist Ilona Harima were influenced by the cultures of India and Tibet but she never visited either country?

... that the 1963 Alabama Crimson Tide football team defeated Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion Ole Miss in a Sugar Bowl that featured two SEC teams?

... that the octagonal tower of St Luke's Church, Hodnet, is the only tower of its type in Shropshire?

... that the Syrian village of Marj al-Sultan, near Damascus, served as a major transit point for Circassian migrants heading south to the Golan Heights and Transjordan?

... that the Minotaur-class cruisers of 1906 have been described by naval historian R. A. Burt as "cruiser editions of the Lord Nelson-class battleship"?

... that due to their success in the caviar industry, the Russian Armenian Mailov brothers were known as the "Kings of fish roe"?

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In the news

More than 70 people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India.

American Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert (pictured in 1970) dies at age 70.

More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Amid rising tensions, North Korea closes off entry to the Kaesŏng Industrial Region and restarts a plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon.

The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to limit the international trade of weapons.

India's Supreme Court denies patent protection for a modified version of the cancer drug imatinib.

Recent deaths: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

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On this day...

April 7: World Health Day

1788 – American pioneers established the town of Marietta (in modern Ohio), the first permanent American settlement outside the original Thirteen Colonies.

1862 – American Civil War: Union forces defeated Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh, the bloodiest battle in U.S. history at the time, in Hardin County, Tennessee.

1948 – The United Nations established the World Health Organization to act as a coordinating authority on international public health.

1955 – Aware that he was slowing down both physically and mentally in his old age, Winston Churchill (pictured) retired as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

2010 - Thousands rioted in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek resulting in the collapse of the Kurmanbek Bakiyev government.

More anniversaries: April 6 – April 7 – April 8

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Today's featured picture

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is an 1818 painting by Caspar David Friedrich, a German Romantic. It has been read as a metaphor for the uncertainty of the future.

Painting: Caspar David Friedrich

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