Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 April 15

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From today's featured article

The sinking of the RMS Titanic in the early morning of 15 April 1912, four days into the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City, was one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history, killing more than 1,500 people. The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The ship had received six warnings of sea ice but was travelling at near maximum speed when the lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled the starboard (right) side and opened five of sixteen compartments to the sea. The disaster caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, and the unequal treatment of the three passenger classes during the evacuation. Inquiries recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations, leading to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (1914), which continues to govern maritime safety. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

30 Rockefeller Plaza,
within Rockefeller Center

... that the construction of Rockefeller Center (pictured) was the largest private development project ever undertaken for its time?
... that after World War II, filmmaker Miloš Havel, the uncle of Václav Havel, was cleared on charges related to collaboration with Nazi Germany due to lack of evidence?
... that evidence for speciation by reinforcement has been found across a wide range of organisms?
... that the Crawford family were pioneers of tourism in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and have numerous places named after them there?
... that 18-year-old Dominican Street Fighter V player Saul Leonardo Mena "MenaRD" Segundo is investing his winnings from the 2017 Capcom Cup in his local e-sports community?
... that the 1973 Internationales Sachsensymposion included the "theatrical" unveiling of the Sutton Hoo helmet replica?
... that Richard O. Culver, Jr., one of the founders of the U.S. Marine Corps Sniper School in Quantico, Virginia, was born on Alcatraz Island?
... that the figure of Jazz from the Transformers toyline Power of the Primes drew controversy because the text on its sticker, when translated from Cybertronian, spelled the acronym MAGA, associated with Donald Trump?

In the news

Augusta National Golf Club

The United States, United Kingdom and France strike multiple government targets in Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma.
At least 257 people are killed as an Algerian Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft crashes in Algeria.
In golf, Patrick Reed wins the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club (pictured) in the United States.
In the Hungarian parliamentary election, a coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wins its third consecutive supermajority in the Hungarian National Assembly.

On this day...

April 15: Day of the Sun in North Korea

"Ombra mai fù" performed by Enrico Caruso

1638 – A rebellion by Catholic Japanese peasants in Shimabara over increased taxes was put down by the Tokugawa shogunate, resulting in greater enforcement of the policy of national seclusion.
1738 – Serse (audio featured), an opera by Baroque composer George Frideric Handel loosely based on Xerxes I of Persia, premiered in London.
1936 – A group of Arabs in British Mandatory Palestine killed two Jews at a roadblock, an act widely viewed as the beginning of the violence within the Arab revolt.
1958 – On Walter O'Malley's initiative, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants played in the first Major League Baseball game on the U.S. West Coast.
1994 – At a GATT ministerial meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities signed an agreement to establish the World Trade Organization.

Guru Arjan (b. 1563) · Mikhail Lomonosov (d. 1765) · Emma Watson (b. 1990)

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Today's featured picture

The Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is a small passerine bird in the tit family. Easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size, the species is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and western Asia. It feeds primarily on insects and spiders, but may consume seeds and other vegetable-based foods outside of the breeding season.

Photograph: Francis Franklin

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