Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 March 21

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From today's featured article

The Final Cut is the twelfth studio album by the English progressive rock group Pink Floyd, first released on 21 March 1983 by Harvest Records in the UK. It was the band's last studio album to include founding member Roger Waters, who received sole credit for writing and composition. It is also the only Pink Floyd album to which keyboardist Richard Wright did not contribute. Waters originally planned The Final Cut as a soundtrack album for the 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall, but with the onset of the Falklands War, he rewrote it as a concept album and dedicated it to his father, who died during the Second World War. Waters sang most of the lyrics and designed the packaging to reflect the album's anti-war theme. The Final Cut was recorded from July to December 1982 in eight British studios, but the album's production was dominated by interpersonal conflict, and Waters left the band in 1985. Although it reached the top of the UK Albums Chart, the album received mixed reviews. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

King Hussein after checking an abandoned Israeli tank

... that during the Battle of Karameh, the Israeli Army aborted a plan to retrieve two of its tanks (pictured) that were left behind in Jordan?
... that the STELLA programming language has been used to model Prince Hamlet's thirst for revenge in Shakespeare's Hamlet?
... that Phebe Hemphill's sculptures, including the one of Gettysburg, appear on several United States Mint state quarters?
... that the blue duiker marks its territory by the secretions of glands near its eyes?
... that Františka Plamínková's activism started when she spoke out about an Austro-Hungarian law that forbade female teachers from marrying and required them to be celibate?
... that the Annapurna Upanishad states a Yogi with self-knowledge beholds all living beings as his own self, fears no one, and treats people's possessions as meaningless?
... that in addition to collecting and curating thousands of volumes for the Maine Women Writers Collection, Dorothy M. Healy raised thousands of turkeys on her farm?
... that the best-selling flavor of Japanese Kit Kats in 2010 was soy sauce?

In the news

Flydubai Boeing 737-800 involved in the crash

A suicide bombing in Istanbul kills 5 people and injures 36 others, six days after the Ankara bombing killed 37 people.
Flydubai Flight 981 (aircraft pictured) crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don Airport, Russia, killing all 62 people on board.
Salah Abdeslam is arrested in Molenbeek, Belgium, in connection with the November 2015 Paris attacks.
Marcel Hirscher and Lara Gut win the overall titles in the Alpine Skiing World Cup.
Andrew Wiles wins the Abel Prize for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

Ongoing events:
- Zika virus outbreak
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:

On this day...

March 21: Naw-Rúz (Bahá'í calendar); Independence Day in Namibia (1990)

Phra Phrom statue, Erawan Shrine

630 – Byzantine emperor Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem.
1800 – After being elected as a compromise candidate after several months of stalemate, Pope Pius VII was crowned in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
1871 – Founder of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck was proclaimed as its first chancellor.
1946 – The Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League signed Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the league since 1933.
2006 – A man using a hammer smashed the statue of Phra Phrom (pictured) in the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders.

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From today's featured list

Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953)

Audrey Hepburn's film career began with her debut as a flight stewardess in the 1948 Dutch film Dutch in Seven Lessons. Hepburn then performed on the British stage as a chorus girl in the musicals High Button Shoes (1948) and Sauce Tartare (1949). Two years later she made her Broadway debut as the titular character in the play Gigi. Hepburn's Hollywood debut as a runaway princess in William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953) opposite Gregory Peck made her a star. For her performance she received the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. Her other film roles included her appearance as café society girl Holly Golightly in the romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and a part in the suspense thriller Wait Until Dark (1967) which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Hepburn was ranked as the third greatest screen legend in American cinema by the American Film Institute. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A juvenile common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) in Laem Pak Bia, Petchaburi, Thailand. This Palearctic wader breeds across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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