Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 April 5

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Today's featured article

The "Black Chanterelle" mushroom, Polyozellus multiplex

Polyozellus is a fungal genus in the family Thelephoraceae, a grouping of mushrooms known collectively as the leathery earthfans. A monotypic genus, it contains the single species Polyozellus multiplex, first described in 1899. The distinctive fruit body of this species comprises blue- to purple-colored clusters of vase- or spoon-shaped caps with veiny wrinkles on the undersurface that run down the length of the stem. Polyozellus has had a varied taxonomic history and has been reclassified several times at both the family and genus level. The range of Polyozellus includes North America and eastern Asia, where P. multiplex may be found growing on the ground in coniferous forests, usually under spruce and fir trees. It is an edible species, and has been harvested for commercial purposes. Polyozellus multiplex contains the bioactive compound polyozellin, shown to have various physiological properties, including suppressive effects on stomach cancer. (more...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

A stone slab showing soldiers marching with spears and shields

  • ... that the Stele of the Vultures (fragment pictured) celebrates a victory of Eannatum of Lagash (2460 BC) over Umma in southern Mesopotamia?
  • ... that a girls' school that was burned in 1863 during the Union Army occupation of Triune, Tennessee, in the American Civil War was not replaced until 30 years later?
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  • ... that the printing house of Anton Wilhelm Brøgger, in Oslo, Norway, was carried on by his descendants until 1981, almost 100 years after Brøgger's death?
  • ... that the emblem of Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus was designed for British airborne forces during the Second World War?
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  • In the news

  • Two suicide bombings at a Sufi shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan, leave 50 people dead and 120 wounded.
  • The Cricket World Cup concludes with India defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
  • Japan's MEXT announces that it found evidence of match fixing in the Japanese Sumo Association.
  • Arturo Chávez (pictured) resigns as Mexico's Attorney General amid the ongoing Drug War.
  • At least fourteen people are killed in an attack by demonstrators on a UN compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.
  • Mayotte officially becomes France's 101st department, as approved by 95% of the population in a 2009 referendum.
  • On this day...

    April 5: Qingming Festival in the Chinese calendar; Hansik in South Korea; Feast Day of Vincent Ferrer

    Margaret of Parma

  • 1566 – A covenant of nobles in the Habsburg Netherlands presented Governor Margaret of Parma (pictured) a petition to suspend the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands.
  • 1722Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen became the first European to land on Easter Island.
  • 1847Britain's first civic public park, Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England, opened.
  • 1998Japan's Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, linking Awaji Island and Kobe, opened to traffic, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world to date with a main span length of 1,991 metres (6,532 ft).
  • 2009 – The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking concerns by other nations that it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.
  • More anniversaries: April 4April 5April 6

    Today's featured picture

    Hōryū-ji

    Yumedono ("Hall of Dreams"), a building in the Hōryū-ji Buddhist temple complex in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The hall, which was built in 739, acquired its common name in the Heian period, in keeping with a legend that says a Buddha arrived as Prince Shōtoku, who had originally commissioned the temple, and meditated in a hall that existed there.

    Photo: Frank J. Gualtieri, Jr.

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