Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 February 2

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From today's featured article

Woolpit village sign depicting the two green children

The green children of Woolpit is the name given to two children who reportedly appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England, some time in the 12th century. They were of generally normal appearance except for the green colour of their skin. They spoke in an unknown language, and the only food they would eat at first was green beans. Eventually they lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after baptism. After learning English, the girl explained that they had come from an underground world whose inhabitants are green. The only near-contemporary accounts are contained in Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicum Anglicanum and William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum, written in about 1189 and 1220 respectively. Between then and their rediscovery in the mid-19th century, the green children seem to surface only in Bishop Francis Godwin's fantastical The Man in the Moone. The story also provided the inspiration for The Green Child, the only novel written by the English anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read. The main explanations of the story are that it is a typical folk tale describing an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of another world, or it is a garbled account of a historical event. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

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In the news

An explosion at the Pemex Executive Tower (pictured) in Mexico City kills at least 33 people and injures more than 100.

Queen Beatrix announces that she will abdicate the Dutch throne at the end of April.

In tennis, Victoria Azarenka wins the Women's Singles and Novak Djokovic wins the Men's Singles at the Australian Open.

The World Men's Handball Championship concludes with Spain defeating Denmark in the final.

More than 230 people are killed and over 160 others are injured in a nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Brazil.

Miloš Zeman is elected President of the Czech Republic.

Recent deaths: Ed Koch – Patty Andrews – Pham Duy

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On this day...

February 2: Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States

1207 – Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire.

1848 – The Mexican–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave 1.36 million square kilometres (530,000 sq mi) of Mexican territory known as the Mexican Cession to the United States in exchange for US$15 million.

1920 – The signing of the Treaty of Tartu ended the Estonian War of Independence, with Russia agreeing to recognize the independence of Estonia and renounce in perpetuity all rights to that territory.

1982 – The Syrian army bombarded the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing about 7,000–25,000 people.

2009 – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe devalued the Zimbabwean dollar (banknote pictured) for the third and final time, making Z$1 trillion now only Z$1 of the new currency.

More anniversaries: February 1 – February 2 – February 3

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It is now February 2, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

American ventriloquist and stand-up comedian Jeff Dunham with his puppet "Achmed the Dead Terrorist". Dunham, whose puppets Time magazine has described as "politically incorrect, gratuitously insulting and ill tempered", uses Achmed to satirize terrorists.

Photograph: Richard Mclaren

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