Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 January 1

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From today's featured article
The Action of 1 January 1800 was a naval battle of the Quasi-War that took place off the coast of present-day Haiti, near the island of Gonâve in the Bight of Léogâne. The battle was fought between an American convoy consisting of four merchant vessels escorted by the United States naval schooner USS Experiment, and a squadron of armed barges manned by piratical Haitians known as picaroons. A French-aligned Haitian general, André Rigaud (pictured), had instructed his forces to attack all foreign shipping within their range of operations. Accordingly, once Experiment and her convoy of merchant ships neared Gonâve and were caught in a dead calm, the picaroons attacked them, capturing two of the American merchant ships before withdrawing. Experiment managed to save the other two ships in her convoy, and escorted them to a friendly port. On the American side, only the captain of the schooner Mary was killed. The picaroons took heavy losses during this engagement, but remained strong enough to continue wreaking havoc among American shipping in the region. Only after Rigaud was forced out of power by the forces of Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the 1791 Haitian Revolution, did the picaroon attacks cease. (Full article...) Recently featured: Terang Boelan – Muckaty Station – War against Nabis Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that the Galapagos Penguin (pictured) is outnumbered well over ten thousand to one by Macaroni Penguins? ... that some Hindus believe that the great ancestors of the world roam the universe as four naked five-year-old children? ... that the Spanish nobleman and soldier Luis Bravo de Acuña played a key role in improving the defences of Gibraltar in the 17th century? ... that despite the destruction of its forest habitat, the Angel's Chameleon has adapted to life near roads and villages? ... that "Pan-Arab heartthrob" Bashar al-Shatti from Star Academy writes religious music as well as television and cartoon scores? ... that voting in Marjeyoun-Hasbaya in the 1968 Lebanese general election was marred by heavy rains? ... that Jalsha Movies is a 24-hour Bengali movie channel of STAR India that started on 16 December 2012? ... that before it was moved to the opera house, the post office in Jamestown, Ohio, sometimes changed locations once per week? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Rwanda, and South Korea join the United Nations Security Council. China officially opens the world's longest high-speed rail route (train pictured), linking Beijing and Guangzhou. Egyptian voters approve a new constitution. A military aircraft crashes while descending toward Shymkent, Kazakhstan, killing all 27 people on board. The victim of a gang-rape in Delhi, which sparked widespread demonstrations across India, dies in Singapore. Park Geun-hye is elected President of South Korea, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Swiss bank UBS is fined US$1.5 billion for its role in the Libor scandal. Recent deaths: Rita Levi-Montalcini – William Rees-Mogg – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. Syrian civil war – Wikinews – More current events...
On this day...
January 1: New Year's Day (Gregorian calendar); Independence Day in Brunei (1984), Haiti (1804), Samoa (1962) and Sudan (1956) 1068 – Having been pardoned by the regent Eudokia Makrembolitissa for attempting to usurp the throne, Romanos IV Diogenes married her to become Byzantine emperor. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The town of Norfolk, Virginia, was destroyed by the combined actions of British and Whig forces. 1785 – The Times, the first newspaper of that name, began publication in London as The Daily Universal Register. 1928 – Personal secretary to Josef Stalin Boris Bazhanov crossed the border to Iran to defect from the Soviet Union. 1983 – The ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP, marking the beginning of the Internet (visualization of routing paths pictured) as we know it today. More anniversaries: December 31 – January 1 – January 2 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now January 1, 2013 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

Dilma Rousseff is the 36th and current President of Brazil, in office since 1 January 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office. Previously she was Chief of Staff to the President of Brazil, serving under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from 2005 to 2010. The daughter of a Bulgarian entrepreneur, she is an economist by training and co-founder of the Democratic Labour Party. She served as Da Silva's Minister of Energy and became Chief of Staff after José Dirceu's resignation amidst scandal. She was elected the presidency in a run-off election on 31 October 2010.

Photo: Agência Brasil

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