Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 June 8

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Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!, BWV 172, is a 1714 church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, composed in Weimar for Pentecost Sunday. The title translates as "Ring out, you songs; sound, you strings!" It is an early work in a genre to which Bach later contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. Appointed Konzertmeister in the spring of 1714, he composed monthly church cantatas, most to texts by court poet Salomon Franck. The librettist reflects different aspects of the Holy Spirit, including a quotation from the prescribed Gospel reading and a stanza from Philipp Nicolai's 1599 hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" as the closing chorale. The work is in six movements, and scored for four vocal parts, three trumpets, timpani, oboe d'amore and a string orchestra. Bach specified an unusual repeat of the opening chorus after the sixth movement. He led the first performance in the court chapel (pictured in 1660) of the Weimar palace. Bach performed the cantata again several times during his tenure as Thomaskantor – director of church music – in Leipzig, indicating that he particularly valued this cantata. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Soraya Post (pictured) was the first Romani in Swedish history to top the ballot for a political party at the European Parliament elections in 2014?
... that the rusty silky oak had different everyday and taboo names in the local Dyirbal language?
... that Alajuela Province, Costa Rica, is home to gothic, neo-classical, art deco, and neo-colonial churches, including a church constructed with sheet metal?
... that David Ames auditioned for another Holby City character prior to winning the role of Dominic Copeland?
... that "I will sing with the spirit" was composed by John Rutter for the Royal School of Church Music?
... that Rudolf Nadolny, a German diplomat, replied that the conversation had just begun after Adolf Hitler declared it had finished?

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In the news

In horse racing, Australia wins the Epsom Derby and Tonalist wins the Belmont Stakes.
The European Central Bank cuts the main interest rate to 0.15% and sets the deposit rate at −0.10% in an attempt to stimulate the eurozone economy.
Irish police investigate a mass grave discovered at a former children's home in Tuam, Ireland.
Saudi Arabia announces 113 previously unreported cases of MERS and revises the outbreak death toll to 282.
King Juan Carlos I of Spain (pictured) announces his intention to abdicate.
A bombing at a football field in Mubi, Nigeria, kills at least 40 people.
Telangana officially becomes the 29th state of India.

Ongoing: Ukrainian conflict
Recent deaths: Svyatoslav Belza

On this day...

June 8: Pentecost (Christianity, 2014)

1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces defeated the Continental Army at the Battle of Trois-Rivières, the last major battle fought on Quebec soil that was part of the American colonists' invasion of Quebec.
1887 – German-American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his punch card calculator.
1950 – Thomas Blamey (pictured) became the only Australian to attain the rank of field marshal.
1972 – Vietnam War: Associated Press photographer Nick Ut took his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a naked nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down a road after being burned by napalm.
2008 – A Japanese man drove a truck into a crowd of pedestrians in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, then proceeded to stab at least 12 people before being apprehended.

More anniversaries: June 7 – June 8 – June 9

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Today's featured picture

Adansonia digitata is a sub-Saharan African species of baobab tree. The genus, scientifically known as Adansonia, consists of nine species native to Madagascar, Africa, Arabia and Australia, and can reach heights of 5 to 30 m (16 to 98 ft) with trunk diameters of 7 to 11 m (23 to 36 ft).

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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