Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 December 7

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Today's featured article
USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Commissioned in 1916, the ship remained stateside during World War I. In 1919 the vessel represented American interests in the Mediterranean during the Greco-Turkish War. Several years later, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was assigned to it for the rest of her career. Arizona spent most of her time between the wars training, including participation in the annual Fleet Problems, and aided survivors of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. In 1940, she joined the Pacific Fleet in its new base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to deter the Japanese Empire. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Arizona was bombed, exploded and sunk, killing 1,177 officers and crewmen. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan. Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona was not repaired. Her wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, and is the final resting place for the remains of most of those who died. They are commemorated by the USS Arizona Memorial which straddles her hull. (more...) Recently featured: McDonnell XF-85 Goblin – Adenanthos obovatus – Saturn Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that cliffs on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall are a breeding site for the rare Cornish Chough (pictured)? ... that Indian cricketer Ibrahim Khaleel recently set a record for the number of wicket-keeper dismissals in a first-class match, taking 14 of his team's 20 wickets? ... that the progressive feminist magazine On The Issues has also published articles about animal rights? ... that Section 20A of South Africa's Sexual Offences Act, which prohibited all sexual acts between men at a party, defined "party" as "any occasion where more than two persons are present"? ... that William Hazlitt was an influential Irish Unitarian minister who defended American prisoners of war from abuse at the hands of their British captors? ... that the Arab governor of Safed offered money to persuade rabbi Joseph Saragossi not to leave the town? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Dmitry Medvedev After 541 days of negotiations, a new Belgian government is sworn in, with Elio Di Rupo as prime minister. United Russia, with incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev (pictured) at the top of the party list, wins a majority of seats in the Russian legislative election. The first summit of CELAC, a bloc of Latin American and Caribbean nations, takes place in Caracas, Venezuela. The United Kingdom expels all Iranian diplomats from the country following an attack on its embassy in Tehran. Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Côte d'Ivoire, is extradited to the International Criminal Court to face trial over his role in the Second Ivorian Civil War. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
December 7: Día de las Velitas in Colombia; Armed Forces Flag Day in India 43 BC – Cicero, widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, was assassinated. 1724 – In Toruń, Royal Prussia, Polish authorities executed the city's mayor and nine other Lutheran officials following tensions between Protestants and Catholics. 1815 – Michel Ney, Marshal of France, was executed by a firing squad near Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg for supporting Napoleon. 1972 – The crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft took the photograph "The Blue Marble" (pictured), the first clear image of an illuminated face of Earth, on their way to the Moon. 2007 – A crane barge that had broken free from a tugboat crashed into an oil tanker near Daesan, South Korea, causing the country's worst-ever oil spill. More anniversaries: December 6 – December 7 – December 8 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now December 7, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A man harvests seaweed growing on a rope, on the small island of Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia. Wooden posts demarcate the bay into rectangular plots that are owned by different families. Seaweed farming is a fairly simple process: Attached plants are placed in the sea and allowed to grow naturally, with little human intervention.

Photo: Jean-Marie Hullot

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