Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 February 11

From today's featured article

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) was an American scientist who made important theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in transforming physical chemistry into a rigorous deductive science. Together with James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, he created statistical mechanics (a term that he coined), explaining the laws of thermodynamics as consequences of the statistical properties of large ensembles of particles. Gibbs also worked on the application of Maxwell's equations to problems in physical optics. He invented modern vector calculus, independently of Oliver Heaviside's similar work. In 1863, Yale awarded Gibbs the first American doctorate in engineering. He was a professor of mathematical physics at Yale from 1871 until his death. Working in relative isolation, he became the earliest theoretical scientist in the United States to earn an international reputation, and in 1901 he was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London. He was praised by Albert Einstein as "the greatest mind in American history". (Full article...)

Carlisle Civic Centre amid floodwater

... that Storm Eva exacerbated the 2015–16 Great Britain and Ireland floods (pictured), which also broke the United Kingdom's 24-hour rainfall record?
... that rebel leader Spiro Crne was forced to leave Serbia after Ottoman diplomatic intervention?
... that the ancient Nyāya Sūtras text of Hindu philosophy is a discourse on knowledge and logic which was studied by scholars of Buddhism in the 2nd century CE?
... that The New York Times described the book Psychic Blues as "a compelling look at the disputed territory where entertainment meets religion"?
... that the Stone Hall in Nashville was once a private house of the Cantrell family but is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
... that the decline of Angkor marked the beginning of the Middle Khmer period, during which the language's number of vowels was doubled in a few centuries?
... that opera singer Virgilio Lazzari was a leading bass with the Chicago Civic Opera from 1918–32 and the Metropolitan Opera from 1933–50?
... that the black hamlet is an egg trader?

Von Miller

Ten people are killed in a head-on collision between two passenger trains near Bad Aibling, Germany.
In American football, the Denver Broncos defeat the Carolina Panthers to win Super Bowl 50 (MVP Von Miller pictured).
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Taiwan, killing more than fifty people.
Daallo Airlines Flight 159 makes a successful emergency landing after an explosion on board kills one person and injures two.
The rapid spread of Zika fever in Latin America leads to the World Health Organization issuing a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

February 11: Victory of the Revolution in Iran (1979); National Foundation Day in Japan

Nelson Mandela

660 BC – According to tradition, Emperor Jimmu founded Japan and established his capital in Yamato.
1858 – Fourteen-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous reported the first of eighteen Marian apparitions in Lourdes, France, resulting in the town becoming a major site for pilgrimages by Catholics.
1929 – To help settle the "Roman Question", Italy and the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church signed the Lateran Treaty to establish Vatican City as an independent sovereign enclave within Italy.
1979 – The Pahlavi dynasty of Iran effectively collapsed when the military declared itself "neutral" after rebel troops overwhelmed forces loyal to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in armed street fighting.
1990 – Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela (pictured), a political prisoner for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, South Africa.

Phalanta phalantha is a sun-loving butterfly of the Nymphalid family. It is found in Subsaharan Africa and southern Asia (including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Burma).

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