Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 March 30

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Wormshill is a small village and civil parish within the Borough of Maidstone, Kent, England. It lies on an exposed high point of the North Downs, 8 miles (13 km) east of Maidstone and within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Archaeological and toponymic evidence of Wormshill's existence predates its appearance in the Domesday survey of 1086. Its name derived from the Anglo-Saxon god Wōden and means "Woden's Hill". The village contains a number of heritage-listed buildings, which include a Norman church (St Giles, Wormshill, pictured), a public house and one of the oldest surviving post office buildings in the United Kingdom. The Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway runs between two small stations in nearby woodland. The fields and woodland surrounding Wormshill have changed little in the past 500 years, and the village itself remains rural with a low population density compared to the national average. Because of restrictions on development, building in the village has been scant since the 1960s and 1970s. The population of 200 is a mixture of agricultural workers employed by local farms and professionals who commute to nearby towns. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the Bremen Cotton Exchange building has glass mosaics (example pictured) created by Puhl & Wagner?
... that a drifter asking, "There's the makers, the takers, and the fakers. Which will you be?" triggered George Herms to pursue life as an artist?
... that serial killer Dennis Nilsen attempted to murder a student he met at The Salisbury, London, and went on to murder another 14 young men?
... that soprano Norma Sharp performed Mozart's Countess at her debut at La Scala and the voice of the forest bird in Bayreuth?
... that the bootleg recording The Troggs Tapes revitalised The Troggs' career, and influenced This Is Spinal Tap?
... that Johnny Broderick, a New York City detective for 24 years, inspired the Broadway expression "to broderick", meaning "to knock out with one blow"?

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In the news

The North Atlantic Council appoints Jens Stoltenberg (pictured) as the new Secretary General of NATO.
Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest-serving death row inmate, is freed and granted a retrial after 48 years in jail.
The World Health Organization announces the eradication of poliomyelitis in the South-East Asia Region, comprising eleven countries.
In sumo, Mongolian wrestler Kakuryū Rikisaburō is promoted to yokozuna, becoming the 71st person to earn the title.
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban wins the Pritzker Prize.
Malaysia Airlines announces that Flight 370, which went missing on 8 March, crashed in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors.

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On this day...

March 30: Laetare Sunday/Mothering Sunday (Western Christianity, 2014); Land Day (Palestinians)

1282 – Sicilians began to rebel against the rule of the Angevin King Charles I of Naples, starting the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
1867 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward (pictured) negotiated the purchase of Alaska for US$7.2 million from Russia.
1899 – A committee of the German Society of Chemistry invited other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to form the International Committee on Atomic Weights.
1964 – Jeopardy!, the popular American game show created by Merv Griffin, made its debut on the NBC television network.
2009 – Twelve gunmen attacked the Manawan Police Training School in Lahore, Pakistan, and held it for several hours before security forces could retake it.

More anniversaries: March 29 – March 30 – March 31

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Today's featured picture

Princess Ida is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, the piece involves Prince Hilarion and his two friends sneaking into a women's college, disguised as women, to woo Princess Ida, to whom he was wed in infancy. Ida, a feminist, has rejected all mankind, and when Hilarion's identity is accidentally revealed, a battle of the sexes ensues.

This illustration is from the 1909 printing of Savoy Operas, an illustrated compilation of four of the Gilbert and Sullivan works. This illustration presents the stage direction "Enter Princess, reading."

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Illustration: William Russell Flint; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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