Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 April 21

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome to Wikipedia,
5,388,993 articles in English

From today's featured article

The ship, pre-World War I

SMS Kaiser Barbarossa (His Majesty's Ship Emperor Barbarossa) was a German pre-dreadnought battleship of the Kaiser Friedrich III class. Built at Schichau in Danzig under Kaiser Wilhelm II's program of naval expansion, the battleship was laid down in 1898, launched on 21 April 1900, and commissioned the next year at a cost of 20,301,000 Marks. Armed with a main battery of four 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns in two twin gun turrets, the ship had an active career in the Imperial Navy, apart from two lengthy stays in dry dock, until being decommissioned in 1909. Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, she and her sister ships were mobilized as coastal defense ships and assigned to the North and Baltic seas, but saw no combat during the war. They were withdrawn from active duty the next year and relegated to secondary duties. Kaiser Barbarossa was decommissioned after the war and broken up in 1919 and 1920. (Full article...)

Part of the Battleships of Germany series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

Did you know...

Lorna Hodgkinson
Lorna Hodgkinson

In the news

Sergio García in 2008
Sergio García

On this day...

April 21

Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred von Richthofen

Max Weber (b. 1864) · John Maynard Keynes (d. 1946) · Dorothy Eady (d. 1981)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

The chapters of the Japanese manga Gantz are written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku, and have been published in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Young Jump since its 32nd issue, published in 2000. The plot follows a teenager named Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato, who die in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous game in which they, and several other recently deceased people, are forced to hunt down and kill aliens. Gantz is divided into three main story arcs, referred to as "phases". After the completion of Phase 1, the author put the series on hiatus for a short time to work on Phase 2, which is also known as "Catastrophe". Phase 1 consists of the first 237 chapters. On November 22, 2006, the first chapter of Phase 2, chapter 238, was released. As of chapter 303, the series was put in hiatus once again in order to let Oku prepare in the making of the final arc of the series. The series continued serialization in October 2009. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Dome of the Fatima Masumeh Shrine

The Fatima Masumeh Shrine is a tomb in Qom, Iran. It holds the remains of Fatima Masumeh, the sister of the eighth Twelver Imam 'Ali al-Rida and the daughter of the seventh Imam Musa al-Kadhim. The tomb is considered one of the most significant Shi'a shrines in Iran, with thousands of pilgrims traveling to Qom to honor Fatima Masumeh and ask her for blessings.

Pictured here is the golden dome above the mausoleum.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

Other areas of Wikipedia

  • Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
  • Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
  • Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
  • Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
  • Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects: