Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 July 2

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From today's featured article

Alec Douglas-Home (1903–95) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister from October 1963 to October 1964. His reputation rests more on the two periods when he served as the UK foreign minister than on his brief, uneventful premiership. As parliamentary aide to Neville Chamberlain, he witnessed Chamberlain's efforts to preserve peace before the Second World War. In 1951 he inherited the earldom of Home and became a member of the House of Lords. Under Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan he was appointed to posts including Leader of the House of Lords and Foreign Secretary. In October 1963 Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister. Home was controversially chosen to succeed him, renouncing his earldom and winning election to the House of Commons. He was criticised by the Labour Party as an out-of-touch aristocrat, and he came over stiffly in television interviews. After narrow defeat in the 1964 general election he resigned as party leader; he later served under Edward Heath as Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. After the defeat of the Heath government in 1974 he retired from front-line politics. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that one of the player objectives in the minimalist real-time strategy video game Rymdkapsel (pictured) is to have the workers research four TMA-1-style monoliths?

... that the rabbit flea is a vector for the virus that causes myxomatosis?

... that Monty Oum, the creator of Rooster Teeth Productions' upcoming series RWBY, was concerned that the show focused on female characters but was being developed by a mostly male crew?

... that the Lyon Armenian Genocide Memorial has been vandalized twice?

... that the first open heart surgery in Nigeria was performed by Fabian Udekwu, Sir Magdi Yacoub and others in 1974?

... that Chamossaire contested all three legs of the Triple Crown in 1945, winning the St. Leger Stakes in front of a crowd of 150,000?

... that Philadelphia Distilling has created a bitters using a recipe from the family of 18th-century botanist John Bartram and bark from a tree in his garden?

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In the news

Nineteen firefighters are killed battling a wildfire (pictured) in the U.S. state of Arizona.

Large protests against President Mohamed Morsi are held across Egypt.

Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

At least five planets, including three planets suspected of being habitable, are found orbiting the star Gliese 667 C.

Kevin Rudd wins leadership of the Australian Labor Party, ousting incumbent Julia Gillard and becoming Prime Minister of Australia.

DNA from a Middle Pleistocene horse is successfully sequenced, becoming the oldest genome ever sequenced.

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj is reelected as President of Mongolia.

The Cambodian Tailorbird, found in Phnom Penh, is identified as a new bird species.

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On this day...

July 2: Feast day of Martinian and Processus (Roman Catholic Church)

706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the final bodies in the Qianling Mausoleum, which remained unopened until the 1960s.

1890 – The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first United States government action to limit monopolies.

1917 – White residents of East St. Louis, Illinois, burned entire sections of the city and shot black inhabitants as they escaped the flames.

1950 – A mentally ill Buddhist monk set fire to the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji (restoration pictured), destroying what is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Japan.

1976 – More than a year after the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam officially united under communist rule to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

More anniversaries: July 1 – July 2 – July 3

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Today's featured picture

The Dog is a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya which is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. One of the Black Paintings which Goya painted directly onto the walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823, the work was transferred to canvas in 1874. Interpretations of the work vary greatly, such that art critic Robert Hughes said "We do not know what it means, but its pathos moves us on a level below narrative."

Painting: Francisco Goya

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