Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 April 30

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From today's featured article

The St Cuthbert Gospel is an early 8th-century pocket Gospel book, written in Latin. The essentially undecorated text is the Gospel of John in Latin, written in a script that has been regarded as a model of elegant simplicity. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to survive, and both the 94 vellum folios and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book of its age. It is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The book takes its name from Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, North East England, in whose tomb it was placed. It was probably a gift from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, where it was written, intended for St Cuthbert's coffin within a few decades after this was placed behind the altar at Lindisfarne in 698. It presumably remained in the coffin through its long travels after 875, forced by Viking invasions, ending at Durham Cathedral. The book was found inside the coffin and removed in 1104. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England by Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541, the book passed to collectors, and is now owned by the British Library. (Full article...)

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Aphaenogaster dlusskyana

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... that the Swedish film The King of Ping Pong won the Grand Jury Prize for world cinema at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival?
... that Air India saw its bookings to America double after the US banned electronic equipment larger than a mobile phone from the passenger cabin for flights departing certain Middle Eastern airports?
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... that Makassarese warrior Karaeng Galesong helped Trunajaya conquer Surabaya and Gresik as a condition for marrying his niece?
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In the news

Mary Keitany and Daniel Wanjiru

China launches its first domestically built aircraft carrier.
In the London Marathon, Mary Keitany and Daniel Wanjiru (pictured) win the women's and men's races, respectively.
A Taliban attack on an Afghan National Army base kills 140 soldiers.
Turkey votes in a constitutional referendum in favour of replacing its parliamentary system of government with an executive presidency.
A suicide bombing of civilian evacuation buses near Aleppo, Syria, kills more than 120 people, including at least 80 children.

On this day...

April 30: National Persian Gulf Day in Iran; Consumer Protection Day in Thailand

American Falls

1557 – Arauco War: Spanish forces of the Governor Francisco de Villagra launched a surprise dawn attack against the Mapuche headed by their toqui Lautaro in what is now Chile.
1636 – Eighty Years' War: Dutch Republic forces recaptured a strategically important fort from Spain after a nine-month siege.
1883 – Governor of New York Grover Cleveland signed legislation that led to the creation of Niagara Falls State Park (American Falls pictured), the United States' first state park.
1963 – The Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews led to a bus boycott in Bristol, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
2009 – A Dutch man drove his car at high speed into a parade in an attempt to kill the Dutch royal family.

Dorival Caymmi (b. 1914) · Alben W. Barkley (d. 1956) · Kirsten Dunst (b. 1982)

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Today's featured picture

Franz Lehár (1870–1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer mainly known for his operettas, the most successful and best known being The Merry Widow. He also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems and marches.

Photograph: Bain News Service; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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