Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 May 23

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Anne Hathaway (born 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of multiple awards, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2015, and her films have earned more than $6.8 billion worldwide. She made her breakthrough in The Princess Diaries (2001). After roles in the 2005 dramas Havoc and Brokeback Mountain, she played an assistant to a fashion magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and a recovering alcoholic in Rachel Getting Married (2008). She starred in the romantic films Bride Wars (2009), Valentine's Day (2010), and Love & Other Drugs (2010), and in the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland (2010). In 2012, Hathaway starred as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises and as Fantine in the musical drama Les Misérables, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She played a scientist in Interstellar (2014), the owner of an online fashion site in the comedy The Intern (2015), and a haughty actress in the heist film Ocean's 8 (2018). (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Michael Boddenberg

... that Michael Boddenberg (pictured), the minister of finance of the German state of Hesse, once directed a school for butchers and bakers?
... that the pencil sketch for Little Girl Observing Lovers on a Train is in the private collection of George Lucas?
... that Alexander H. Flax, the future chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force, was part of a small team of engineers who developed the Piasecki HRP Rescuer, the first true twin-rotor helicopter?
... that many post-World War II anti-Jewish attacks in Slovakia were committed by former anti-Nazi partisans?
... that Carol Brightman first gained inspiration for her book Sweet Chaos from her younger sister, who worked as the Grateful Dead's lighting director and literary agent?
... that an incident in which a player clipped another's heel at the 2002 PDC World Darts Championship was the catalyst for the creation of the exclusion zone in darts?
... that 14 Wall Street in Manhattan was among the first skyscrapers to use a pyramidal roof?
... that Albert Camus's novel The Plague is based on an epidemic in Oran, Algeria, and examines how a government could turn tyrannical?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

The aircraft involved in the accident, in 2015

A Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft (pictured) crashes near Karachi, resulting in ninety-seven casualties.
Cyclone Amphan impacts eastern India and Bangladesh, killing over one hundred people and forcing the evacuation of more than four million others.
The Iranian Navy frigate Jamaran accidentally strikes the Iranian support vessel Konarak with a missile, killing nineteen sailors.

On this day

May 23

Thomas Cranmer

1430 – Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundian forces at the Siege of Compiègne.
1533 – Thomas Cranmer (portrait shown), Archbishop of Canterbury, annulled Henry VIII's marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, beginning a chain of events that would culminate in the English Reformation.
1934 – American criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by police on a desolate road near their hideout in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
2008 – The International Court of Justice awarded the Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore, resolving a 29-year-old territorial dispute in the Singapore Strait.

Ignaz Moscheles (b. 1794)
Margaret Fuller (b. 1810)
Heinrich Himmler (d. 1945)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Paulette del Baye (1877 – 23 May 1945) was a French actress, singer, dancer and vaudeville performer from Cuba. She performed at the Moulin Rouge, in various London shows including The Passing Show of 1918, and in five silent films, including the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Man with the Twisted Lip. In 1909, she was one of the "fair actresses" implicated in a plot to restore the French monarchy.

This portrait of del Baye, taken by French photographer Paul Boyer, was published in the March 1907 issue of the fashion magazine Les Modes.

Photograph credit: Paul Boyer; restored by Adam Cuerden

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.
Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
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.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.