Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 March 30

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Today's featured article
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons is a 1960s British science-fiction television series created by Gerry Anderson (pictured) and produced by Century 21 Productions for Associated Television. In keeping with Anderson's earlier productions such as Thunderbirds, it mixes marionette puppet characters and scale-model special effects in a filming technique dubbed "Supermarionation". The plot of the 32-episode series, set in 2068, centres on an interplanetary war between Earth and a race of Martians known as the Mysterons. Captain Scarlet, top agent of Spectrum, an international security organisation, acquires "retro-metabolism" (a Mysteron healing power that enables him to recover from normally fatal injuries), making him Earth's "indestructible" ultimate weapon against the threat from Mars. Reception to the series has acknowledged a "dark" tone and a large amount of depicted violence, although the programme has a target audience of children. A computer-animated reboot series, Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, commenced broadcast in 2005. (more...) Recently featured: Battle of Towton – Rhodocene – Drapier's Letters Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest articles: ... that the Italian wine grape Fiano (pictured) was likely grown in Roman times and is still being used for winemaking today? ... that the untitled masonry statues located in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, had bronze "masks" added to them because of vandalism? ... that although true bugs eat aphids, they help the aphids by eating another predator, young lacewings? ... that in the rare 1984 video game Gremlins, the player must either prevent the furry Mogwai from eating the hamburgers at the bottom of the screen, or shoot them after they transform into gremlins? ... that Émile Durkheim, one of the fathers of sociology, intended The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) to be a manifesto of this discipline? ... that Labweh, a village in Lebanon, has springs and a river named after it that flow northwards to form the Orontes River? ... that remains of the recently described saber-toothed anomodont Tiarajudens were uncovered from a location in Brazil that was first found using Google Earth? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
An explosion at a munitions factory in Khanfar, Yemen, kills 150 people. Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura (pictured) is awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Geraldine Ferraro, the first female major party vice presidential candidate in the United States, dies at the age of 75. More than 250,000 people march through London to protest against government spending cuts. Archaeologists in Texas find evidence suggesting that human settlement may have occurred in the Americas 2,500 years earlier than previously thought. In Canada, a federal election is scheduled after the Conservative minority government loses a vote of non-confidence. Earthquake in Japan · Middle East and North Africa protests Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
March 30: Land Day for Palestinians 1282 – Sicilians began to rebel against the rule of the Angevin King Charles I of Naples, starting the War of the Sicilian Vespers. 1822 – The United States merged East Florida and West Florida to create the Florida Territory. 1940 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Wang Jingwei (pictured) was officially installed by Japan as head of a puppet state in China. 1972 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces began the Easter Offensive in an attempt to gain as much territory and destroy as many units of the South Vietnamese Army as possible. 1981 – Trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, obsessed fan John Hinckley, Jr. shot and wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. More anniversaries: March 29 – March 30 – March 31 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now March 30, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A pair of men's sandals, an open type of outdoor footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps or thongs passing over the instep and generally, but not always, around the ankle, leaving most or all of the foot exposed. People may choose to wear sandals for several reasons, including comfort in warm weather and as a fashion choice.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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