Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 April 14

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome to Wikipedia,
4,492,204 articles in English

From today's featured article

Franklin Peale

Franklin Peale (1795–1870) was an employee and officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the son of painter Charles Willson Peale, and was born in the museum of curiosities that his father ran in Philadelphia. For the most part, Franklin Peale's education was informal, though he took some classes at the University of Pennsylvania. He became adept in machine making. In 1820, he became an assistant to his father at the museum, and managed it after Charles Peale's death in 1827. In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint of the United States, and was sent for two years to Europe to study and report back on coining techniques. He returned with plans for improvement, and designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States, installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint that year, and Chief Coiner three years later upon the retirement of the incumbent, Adam Eckfeldt, who continued in his work without pay. Eckfeldt's labor allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint property. This sideline eventually caused Peale's downfall: conflicts with Engraver James B. Longacre and Melter and Refiner Richard Sears McCulloh led to Peale being accused of misconduct, and he was dismissed by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. In retirement, Peale continued his involvement in and leadership of many civic organizations; he died in 1870. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Pavle Đurišić – Triangulum and Triangulum Australe – Frank Berryman

Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

Colross in Alexandria, Virginia, photographed in 1916

In the news

Recent deaths: Jim Flaherty A. N. R. Robinson The Ultimate Warrior

On this day...

April 14: Fast of the Firstborn begins at dawn and Passover begins at sunset (Judaism, 2014); Cambodian New Year, Tamil New Year, and other New Year festivals in Asia (2014); Day of the Georgian language in Georgia (1978)

Gnassingbé Eyadéma

More anniversaries: April 13 April 14 April 15

It is now April 14, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

From today's featured list

A blue rectangle with a white line drawing of a sphere inside divided longitudinally and latitudinally and emblazoned with the letters "ISO" in white

ISO 3166-1 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It defines three sets of country codes: alpha-2, defining two-letter country codes; alpha-3, defining three-letter country codes; and numeric, defining three-digit country codes. The alphabetic country codes were first included in ISO 3166 in 1974, and the numeric country codes were first included in 1981. The country codes have been published as ISO 3166-1 since 1997, when ISO 3166 was expanded into three parts, with ISO 3166-2 defining codes for subdivisions and ISO 3166-3 defining codes for former countries. As a widely used international standard, ISO 3166-1 is implemented in other standards and used by international organizations to allow facilitation of the exchange of goods and information. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Roadkill

Roadkill occurs when an animal or animals are struck and killed by motor vehicles, something which happens millions of times a year worldwide. Some species numbers are significantly affected by roadkill: it is estimated to be responsible for 50% of deaths of Florida panthers, for instance. In this case, a deer was killed on the Okatie Highway (Route 170) alongside the Chechesee River, South Carolina, USA; in the US there are roughly 250,000 deer-vehicle collisions yearly, leading to about 200 human deaths and over $1 billion in property damage.

Photograph: John O'Neill

Other areas of Wikipedia

  • Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
  • Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
  • Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
  • Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
  • Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects: