Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 May 5

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From today's featured article

The Capon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge is a historic bridge across the Cacapon River in Capon Lake, West Virginia. The bridge's Whipple truss technology was developed by civil engineer Squire Whipple in 1847, and modified by J. W. Murphy in 1859 to include pinned eyebar connections. The bridge is West Virginia's oldest remaining Whipple truss bridge and its oldest intact metal truss bridge. The structure was originally built in a different location in 1874 as part of a larger two-span bridge conveying the Northwestern Turnpike across the South Branch Potomac River near Romney. When a new bridge was constructed at this site in 1937, the old bridge was dismantled and relocated to the current site in Capon Lake in southeastern Hampshire County to carry Capon Springs Road between West Virginia Route 259 and Capon Springs. The bridge was dedicated on August 20, 1938. In 1991 a new bridge was completed to the south, and the existing bridge was preserved in place by the West Virginia Division of Highways, due to its rarity, age, and engineering significance. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Side door at Wimpole Hall, by James Gibbs

... that the Gibbs surround (pictured) is named after the architect James Gibbs, though he did not invent this style of framing a door or window?
... that the customary salutation used in letters from one president to another is "My Great and Good Friend"?
... that Susan Rice was the first woman to head a British clearing bank?
... that with his victory in the 2006 Bank of America 500, Kasey Kahne became the eighth driver to win both annual Sprint Cup Series points races at Lowe's Motor Speedway?
... that Klaus Uwe Ludwig played the complete organ works by Bach and Reger at the Lutherkirche in Wiesbaden?
... that the U.S. Supreme Court recently held in Heffernan v. City of Paterson that a public employer violates the First Amendment even when it mistakenly disciplines an employee for political activity?
... that Gilbert Whitley thought Toxotes lorentzi was more primitive than other archerfish because it lacks the distinctive side markings characteristic of its genus?
... that Guinness World Records recognizes Justin Bieber's "Baby" as the most disliked YouTube video?

In the news

Evacuation of Fort McMurray

A wildfire (evacuation pictured) displaces 88,000 people and destroys more than 1,600 buildings in Fort McMurray, Canada.
In association football, Leicester City win the English Premier League for the first time.
Mark Selby defeats Ding Junhui to win the World Snooker Championship.
The Kenyan government burns the largest-ever pile of ivory to combat illegal ivory trade.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is re-elected President of Equatorial Guinea.
An EC225LP Super Puma crashes near Bergen, Norway, killing all 13 on board.

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On this day...

May 5: Feast of St George (Palestinians); Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; Yom HaShoah in Israel (2016); Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and the United States; National Day of Prayer in the United States (2016)

Issue of Pravda

553 – The Second Council of Constantinople, considered by many Christian churches to have been the fifth Christian Ecumenical Council, began to discuss the topics of Nestorianism and Origenism, among others.
1809 – Mary Dixon Kies became the first American woman to receive a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
1912 – The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda (issue pictured) was first published in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1980 – The British Special Air Service stormed the Iranian Embassy in London, six days after Iranian Arab separatists had seized it.
1991 – Rioting broke out in Washington, D.C., after a rookie police officer shot a Salvadorean man in the chest.

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Today's featured picture

The white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus) is a small passerine bird of the family Muscicapidae. Native to densely vegetated habitats in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, its popularity as a cage-bird and songster has led to it being introduced elsewhere. The species feeds on insects in the wild, but in captivity may be fed a diet of boiled, dried legumes with egg yolk and raw meat.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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