Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 May 14

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From today's featured article

The 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (founded May 1944) was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi Party that served alongside the German armed forces during World War II. Composed of Muslim Albanians with mostly German and ethnic German Yugoslav officers and non-commissioned officers, it was named for medieval Albanian lord George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, who had defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire. The division committed numerous atrocities in predominantly Serb areas, and rounded up Jews in Pristina for deportation to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 14 May 1944. Its only significant military actions took place during a German anti-Partisan offensive in the German occupied territory of Montenegro in June and July. It was then deployed as a guard force in Kosovo, where it was quickly overrun by the Partisans. Reinforced by German Kriegsmarine (navy) personnel and with less than 500 Albanians remaining in its ranks, it was disbanded on 1 November 1944. Divisional commander SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS August Schmidhuber was later found guilty of war crimes by a Belgrade court and executed in 1947. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

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... that Mary Tannahill was not only a painter, but also made woodcuts, batik, and embroidery?
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... that Kileak: The DNA Imperative was a European and North American launch title for the PlayStation console?
... that the jurist and satirist Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer wrote the lyrics of a hymn which Bach used to conclude his Ascension Oratorio?
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... that Basarab I of Wallachia was addressed as a "devout Catholic prince" in a papal letter and mentioned as a "perfidious schismatic" in a Hungarian chronicle?
... that the Milifandom of fans of the politician Ed Miliband has been compared to the fans of Justin Bieber and One Direction?

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In the news

At least forty-five people are killed in a gun attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan.
Verizon agrees to purchase AOL for US$4.4 billion.
An Amtrak train derails in Philadelphia, killing seven people and injuring more than two hundred.
A 7.3-magnitude aftershock of the recent earthquake in Nepal kills more than seventy people and injures more than two thousand.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (pictured) is sentenced to three years in prison for corruption.
The World Health Organization declares Liberia Ebola-free.
A prison break in Iraq results in more than fifty prisoners escaping, as well as the deaths of an estimated fifty prisoners and twelve police officers.
Scientists announce the discovery of Lokiarchaeota, a transitional form between Archaea and Eukaryotes.

Ongoing: Saudi-led intervention in Yemen
Recent deaths: Kenan Evren

On this day...

May 14: Feast day of Saint Matthias and Saint Mo Chutu (Roman Catholicism)

1264 – Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle of Lewes and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort (statue pictured) the de facto ruler of England.
1787 – Delegates from the thirteen U.S. states convened the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the intention of revising the Articles of Confederation.
1931 – Five people were killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers opened fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
1940 – World War II: The bulk of Dutch forces surrendered to the Wehrmacht, ending the Battle of the Netherlands.
1961 – In Anniston, Alabama, US, a mob of Ku Klux Klansmen attacked the buses of the Freedom Riders, who were riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local segregation laws.

More anniversaries: May 13 – May 14 – May 15

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It is now May 14, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

A diagram of the bones of the human arm, including the pectoral girdle, upper arm, forearm, wrist, and hand. Humans have 32 bones in each arm (including the shoulder), most of them in the hand and wrist.

Diagram: LadyofHats

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