Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 February 4

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From today's featured article

Control is the third studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson (pictured in 2008) and was released on February 4, 1986. Her collaborations with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. The album's lyrics reflect a series of changes in her life, including the annulment of her marriage to R&B singer James DeBarge and severing her business affairs from her father and manager Joseph and the rest of the Jackson family. The album has been praised by critics as both an artistic feat and as a personal testament of self-actualization. Control is widely regarded as the breakthrough album of Jackson's career. It became her first album to top the Billboard 200 and five of its commercial singles, including "What Have You Done for Me Lately", peaked within the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. The album received several accolades, including a nomination for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and has sold over fourteen million copies worldwide. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that fruit of the Simon plum (pictured) looks like a tomato?
... that Iranian writer Ahmad Kamyabi Mask was named Chevalier of the Order of Academic Palms for his contribution to French literature?
... that Philadelphia Phillies player César Hernández was signed to a contract at the age of 16?
... that the Staffordshire County League (South) was originally formed as the Walsall & District Junior League after a meeting of football club representatives at the People's Coffee House in Walsall?
... that the 17-point April 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament championship game first half performance by Spike Albrecht was featured in The New York Times 2013 Year in review?
... that the Island of Lake Billy Chinook contains one of the United States' last remaining undisturbed communities of two native vegetation types?
... that 22 people were killed in 1972 when a Canadair Sabre crashed into an ice cream parlour in Sacramento?

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In the news

In American football, the Seattle Seahawks defeat the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XLVIII.
Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (pictured) dies at the age of 46.
India's first monorail, the Mumbai Monorail, is inaugurated.
Scientists announce a new technique for creating stem cells.
Amidst ongoing anti-government riots, Ukrainian prime minister Mykola Azarov resigns.
At the 56th Grammy Awards, French group Daft Punk wins four awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.
In tennis, the Australian Open concludes with Stanislas Wawrinka winning the men's singles and Li Na winning the women's singles.

Recent deaths: Maximilian Schell – Arthur Rankin, Jr. – Pete Seeger

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On this day...

February 4: Liberation Movement Day in Angola (1961); Independence Day in Sri Lanka (1948)

211 – Roman emperor Septimius Severus (bust pictured) died of illness while on a military campaign in Eboracum (modern York, England).
1859 – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt.
1974 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a motor coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members, killing twelve and wounding fifty more.
1992 – Venezuelan Army Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez failed in his attempt to overthrow the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez.
2004 – Four Harvard University students launched the popular social networking website Facebook from their dorm room.

More anniversaries: February 3 – February 4 – February 5

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It is now February 4, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Velodona togata is the only species in the octopus genus Velodona; the genus and species names come from the large membranes that connect its arms. It was first described by Carl Chun in his book Die Cephalopoden (from which this illustration is taken) in 1915. A second subspecies was described by Guy Coburn Robson in 1924.

Illustration: Ewald Rübsamen

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