Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 February 17

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Today's featured article
Abbas Kiarostami (born 1940) is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker Trilogy (1987–94), Taste of Cherry (1997), and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). Kiarostami has worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer and has designed credit titles and publicity material. He is also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. Kiarostami is part of a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave, a Persian cinema movement that started in the late 1960s and includes pioneering directors such as Forough Farrokhzad, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bahram Beizai, and Parviz Kimiavi. These filmmakers share many common techniques including the use of poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling dealing with political and philosophical issues. Kiarostami has a reputation for using child protagonists, for documentary style narrative films, for stories that take place in rural villages, and for conversations that unfold inside cars, using stationary mounted cameras. (more...) Recently featured: Leopard 2E – Tom Driberg – Cattle Egret Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa, discoverer of the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica (pictured), was a son of Pyotr Kapitsa, a Nobel Physics laureate known for low temperature research? ... that the 1982 Apple II game Bolo was praised in 2010 for its "surprisingly nice AI enemies"? ... that Miikka Kiprusoff became the 27th goaltender in National Hockey League history to win 300 games, reaching the milestone on February 8, 2012? ... that Édouard Joseph Dantan was only 19 when he won a commission for a large religious mural? ... that Jon Hunter Spence, author of the 2003 book Becoming Jane Austen, was born in the U.S. state of Georgia but died an Australian citizen? ... that Polybius henslowii has more swimming legs than other swimming crabs? ... that the Missouri School for the Blind was the first school in the United States to adopt the Braille system? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
President of Germany Christian Wulff resigns, over allegation of accepting advantage during his tenure as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony. A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras, kills more than 350 inmates. Indonesian airline Lion Air orders 230 aircraft from Boeing in a US$22.4 billion deal, a commercial aviation record. In its maiden flight, ESA's Vega rocket successfully launches LARES and eight other satellites. Amid protests, the Greek Parliament passes austerity measures by the country's interim coalition government, led by Lucas Papademos (pictured). Adele wins six awards, including Record of the Year and Album of the Year, at the 54th Grammy Awards. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
February 17: Independence Day in Kosovo (2008) 1600 – Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, best-known as a proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe, was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition. 1859 – The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn Dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Vietnam. 1865 – American Civil War: The Union Army captured Columbia, South Carolina and began burning it to the ground. 1904 – Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan, generating negative reviews that forced him to rewrite the opera. 1913 – In the U.S. National Guard's 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, the Armory Show opened, introducing Americans to avant-garde and modern art. 2006 – A massive landslide (damage pictured) in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte killed over 1,000 people. More anniversaries: February 16 – February 17 – February 18 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now February 17, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

The Uluguru Mountains are a mountain range in eastern Tanzania, Africa, located 200 km (120 mi) inland from the Indian Ocean, and named after the Luguru tribe. The main portion is a ridge running roughly north–south and rising to 2,630 m (8,630 ft) altitude at its highest point.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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