Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 October 4

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Speculative reconstruction of a complete skull by Franz Weidenreich

Solo Man (Homo erectus soloensis) is the last known subspecies of Homo erectus, existing 117 to 108 thousand years ago along the Solo River in Java, Indonesia. First discovered in 1931, the subspecies was originally considered a direct ancestor of Aboriginal Australians, in accordance with historical race concepts. Solo Man probably has no living descendants, since the remains far predate modern human immigration into the area. The skull is elongated, and has inflated brows and cheekbones. Brain volume was large for the species, with some fossils indicating 1,013 to 1,251 cubic centimeters (61.8 to 76.3 cu in). The subspecies inhabited an open woodland environment much cooler than present-day Java, and probably went extinct with the replacement of this habitat by tropical rainforest. Solo Man manufactured simple stone tools, and possibly also made spears or harpoons from bones, daggers from stingray stingers, and bolas or hammerstones from andesite. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Bust of Sobekneferu

... that Sobekneferu (bust pictured) of Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty is the earliest undisputed female king to reign over ancient Egypt?
... that the 1918 book Iowa Authors and Their Works was an attempt to document all Iowa authors and their writing starting from 1880?
... that the name of the Squirrel Scouts section of the Scout Association in the United Kingdom was inspired in part by the thriving population of red squirrels on Brownsea Island, where Scouting began?
... that the pungent and bitter yet prized Musang King has been called the "Hermès of durian"?
... that Washington State Route 971 is the highest-numbered state highway in Washington?
... that the United Nations described Ben Enwonwu's sculpture Anyanwu as "symbolic of the rising sun" of the new nation of Nigeria?
... that an ʻape-leaf design decorates the exterior of the Mabel Smyth Memorial Building in Honolulu?
... that after they met, evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin described Thomas Parr as an "old, miserly squire"?

In the news

Fumio Kishida

Fumio Kishida (pictured) is elected to replace Yoshihide Suga as Prime Minister of Japan.
Expo 2020 opens in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In golf, the Ryder Cup concludes with the United States defeating Europe.
At the Tony Awards, The Inheritance wins Best Play and Moulin Rouge! wins Best Musical.
The Social Democratic Party wins the most seats in the German federal election.

On this day

October 4: Cinnamon Roll Day in Sweden and Finland

Painting of the Battle of the Narrow Seas by Andries van Eertvelt

1602 – Anglo-Spanish War: An English fleet intercepted and attacked six Spanish galleys in the Dover Straits (depicted).
1779 – American Revolution: James Wilson and his colleagues were forced to defend themselves after a mob, angered by his successful legal defense of 23 people from exile, converged on his house, resulting in six deaths.
1925 – Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji captured the city of Hama from the French Mandate of Syria.
1941 – Willie Gillis, one of Norman Rockwell's trademark characters, debuted on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
1958 – The current Constitution of France was signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.

Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton (d. 1581)
Joseph A. Lopez (b. 1779)
Henrietta Lacks (d. 1951)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

SaGa logo

The first entry in the SaGa series of role-playing video games premiered in Japan in 1989, and SaGa games have subsequently been localized for markets in North America and Europe across multiple video game consoles since the series debut on the Game Boy with The Final Fantasy Legend. The series is developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Square). The original Game Boy trilogy was released outside of Japan under the Final Fantasy brand as a marketing move but was otherwise unrelated to the franchise. Several titles remained exclusive to Japan in their original forms, only coming to other territories with ports or remakes on later platforms. New SaGa games were released for home and handheld consoles until Unlimited Saga in 2002, after which Square Enix only developed ports and remakes of already released SaGa games until SaGa: Scarlet Grace in 2016. Beginning in 2012 with Emperors SaGa, the series expanded onto mobile and web browsers. The series has reached cumulative sales and downloads of over ten million units worldwide as of 2020. The Romancing SaGa trilogy is the best-selling part of the series, with four million copies sold worldwide. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

The Yukon Delta is a river delta formed by the Yukon River as it drains into the Bering Sea. It is part of the larger Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, which includes the delta of the Kuskokwim River. The Yukon River rises in British Columbia, Canada, and flows through Yukon before entering the U.S. state of Alaska. This August 2017 satellite image of the Yukon Delta shows how the river branches into numerous distributary channels that meander through the low-lying terrain on their way to the sea. The sandy colour of these channels and the coastal water is indicative of the marine sediment the river carries to the sea at this time of year.Photograph credit: European Space Agency / [[Sentinel-2|Sentinel-2

Recently featured:

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.
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.