Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 March 3

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From today's featured article

The three-cent nickel was designed by the US Mint's Chief Engraver James B. Longacre and struck by the mint from 1865 to 1889. When precious metal coinage was hoarded during the economic turmoil of the American Civil War, including the silver three-cent piece, and even the copper-nickel cent was commanding a premium, Congress issued paper money in denominations as small as three cents, but these small slips of paper became ragged and dirty. After the issue of a lighter bronze cent and a two-cent piece in 1864, there were proposals for a three-cent piece in copper-nickel. The advocates were led by Pennsylvania industrialist Joseph Wharton, who then controlled the domestic supply of nickel ore. On the last day of the congressional session, March 3, 1865, a bill for a three-cent piece in copper-nickel alloy was introduced in Congress, passed by both houses without debate, and was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. Although initially popular, the three-cent nickel piece became less so with the introduction in 1866 of the five-cent nickel, a larger, more convenient coin, with a value better fitting the decimal system. After 1870, most years saw low annual mintages for the three-cent nickel, and in 1890 Congress abolished it. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

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... that S.O.A.P. encouraged their fans to come up with a backronym for their name, though they were unimpressed by the "countless unsavoury submissions"?

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In the news

Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov (pictured) is murdered in Moscow.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission votes to reclassify Internet broadband as a utility, enforcing net neutrality rules for the service.
Avijit Roy, a secularist activist and blogger, is murdered in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
British soldier Joshua Leakey is awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the war in Afghanistan.
A gunman kills eight people and commits suicide in the Czech town of Uherský Brod.
Birdman wins four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, at the Academy Awards.

Ongoing: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Minnie Miñoso – Leonard Nimoy

On this day...

March 3: Liberation Day in Bulgaria (1878); Hinamatsuri in Japan

1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England.
1861 – The Emancipation Manifesto of Tsar Alexander II (pictured) was proclaimed, abolishing serfdom in Imperial Russia.
1875 – The first indoor game of ice hockey was played at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal by James Creighton and McGill University students.
1915 – The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA, was founded.
1945 – A former Armia Krajowa unit massacred at least 150 Ukrainian civilians in Pawłokoma, Poland.
2012 – Two passenger trains collided head-on near the town of Szczekociny in Poland, resulting in 16 deaths and 58 injuries.

More anniversaries: March 2 – March 3 – March 4

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It is now March 3, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

The Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913, held in Washington, D.C., was a suffragist parade organized by Alice Paul for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. On March 3, 1913, the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, thousands of suffragists marched down Pennsylvania Avenue "in a spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded". The march and the attention it attracted were important in advancing women's suffrage in the United States.

Illustration: Benjamin Moran Dale; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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