Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 March 10

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Today's featured article
The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) was a British railway company established in 1893 that bored an underground "tube" railway deep below the streets of London. Construction began in 1898, but was delayed by funding problems that included the collapse of its parent company through the massive fraud of its main shareholder Whitaker Wright. In 1902, the BS&WR came under the control of American financier Charles Yerkes who quickly raised the funds to enable the line to be completed. When opened on 10 March 1906, the BS&WR's line served nine stations and ran completely underground in a pair of tunnels for 5.81 kilometres (3.61 mi) between Baker Street and its southern terminus at Elephant and Castle. Extensions took the northern end of the line to the Great Western Railway's Paddington terminus by 1913 and to Watford by 1917, with services covering a total distance of 33.34 kilometres (20.72 mi). In 1933, the B&SWR and its parent company, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, were taken into public ownership and, today, the railway's tunnels and stations form the London Underground's Bakerloo line. (more...) Recently featured: 1910 London to Manchester air race – Martha Layne Collins – Cyclone Elita Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that thousands of former slaves, the Great Dismal Swamp maroons (pictured), settled in the marshlands of Virginia and North Carolina from the early 1700s to 1865? ... that, in 1978, Maryon Pittman Allen became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee? ... that John C. Osgood strongly opposed labor unions and tried welfare capitalism at his company town of Redstone, Colorado, to discourage his workers from forming unions and striking? ... that in 1873, J. J. Murphy proposed an inertial model of animal navigation in Nature, challenging Darwin's views? ... that Australian Stinger Isobel Bishop is left-handed and has a water polo scholarship from the South Australia Institute of Sport? ... that the mineral georgerobinsonite was first identified in 2009 from samples collected from a mine in Arizona in the 1940s? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
The United Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Dean Barrow (pictured), wins a narrow majority in the Belizean general election. Businessman Allen Stanford is convicted of running a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme. Avalanches in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province kill at least 50 people. Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia for a third term. Explosions at an arms dump in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, kill at least 250 people and injure more than 2,000 others. A tornado outbreak in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States causes at least 41 fatalities. Conflict in Syria – Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
March 10 1607 – Susenyos defeated the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia. 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." 1975 – Ho Chi Minh Campaign: North Vietnam began its final push for victory over South Vietnam with an attack on Ban Me Thuot. 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an observatory aboard a highly modified jet aircraft, discovered a faint planetary ring system (pictured) around Uranus. 2005 – Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, announced his resignation following widespread dissatisfaction with his leadership. 2008 – The New York Times revealed that Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer had patronized a prostitution service. More anniversaries: March 9 – March 10 – March 11 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now March 10, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

The Peacock butterfly (Inachis io) is a widespread butterfly species, found in Europe and temperate Asia, as far east as Japan. It has a wingspan of 50–55 mm (2.0–2.2 in). The base-colour of the wings is a rusty red, and at each wingtip it bears a distinctive eyespot, which has been much studied for its role as an anti-predator mechanism.

Photo: Korall

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