Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 12

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Expansion of the Caliphate under the Rashiduns (brown) and the Umayyads (buff)

Mu'awiya I (c. 600 – 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, serving from 661 until his death. He acceded less than thirty years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death and shortly after the four Rashidun caliphs. He embraced Islam after Muhammad's conquest of Mecca in 630. Afterward, Mu'awiya became one of his scribes and, by the 640s, the governor of Syria. After Caliph Uthman was assassinated in 656, Mu'awiya opposed his successor, Ali. They fought to a stalemate during the First Muslim Civil War. When Ali was assassinated in 661, Mu'awiya compelled Ali's son Hasan to abdicate. As caliph, Mu'awiya relied on his Syrian supporters and conferred autonomy to the provinces. He fought the Byzantines throughout his reign, and renewed the Muslim conquests. His controversial appointment of his son Yazid I as successor introduced dynastic rule to Islamic politics. Mu'awiya is honored by Sunni Muslims as a companion of Muhammad, but reviled by Shia Muslims for opposing Ali. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Motoo Ōtaguro

... that music critic Motoo Ōtaguro (pictured) held private piano concerts in his own residence despite not being a professional musician?
... that Adam Kincaid of the National Republican Redistricting Trust defended lowered competition in US House elections, arguing that the changes would save the party money?
... that the National Democratic Redistricting Committee supported lawsuits in North Carolina and Ohio against alleged gerrymandering by Republicans?
... that the brutal torture and lynching of Luther Holbert in 1904 was not recognized in the National Memorial for Peace and Justice until 2018?
... that woody plant encroachment can harm the habitats of the cheetah, plains zebra and secretarybird?
... that actress Ethelyn Gibson was the first person to star in and produce a serial film that had sound?
... that the 2016 Jim Beam strike was the first labor strike in the company's history?
... that British Army brigadier Cyril Barclay certified that he was neither a polygamist nor an anarchist who wished to overthrow the United States government?

In the news

Sidney Poitier

An apartment fire in the Bronx, New York City, kills at least 17 people.
Sidney Poitier (pictured), the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, dies at the age of 94.
A series of massacres by bandits leave more than 200 people dead in Zamfara State, Nigeria.
Anti-government protests triggered by an increase in fuel prices result in at least 160 deaths and 9,900 arrests across Kazakhstan.

On this day

January 12

Mission Santa Clara

1554 – Bayinnaung, who later assembled the largest empire in the history of mainland Southeast Asia, was crowned king of the Burmese Toungoo dynasty.
1777 – Mission Santa Clara de Asís (pictured), a Spanish mission in California that formed the basis of both the city of Santa Clara and Santa Clara University, was established by the Franciscans.
1918 – An underground explosion at a coal mine in Staffordshire, England, killed 155 men and boys.
1964 – Rebels led by John Okello overthrew Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah, ending 200 years of Arab dominance in Zanzibar.
2010 – Iranian physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was assassinated while leaving home for the University of Tehran, where he was a professor.

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1519)
Étienne Lenoir (b. 1822)
Austin Chapman (d. 1926)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Safety Last!

Safety Last! is a 1923 American silent romantic-comedy film starring Harold Lloyd. It includes one of the most famous images from the silent-film era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles from the outside of a skyscraper above moving traffic. The film was highly successful and critically hailed, and it cemented Lloyd's status as a major figure in early motion pictures. In 1994, Safety Last! was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is one of many works from 1923 that notably entered the public domain in the United States in 2019, the first time any works had done so in 20 years.

Film credit: Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Teahouse – To ask your first basic questions about contributing to Wikipedia.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.