Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 February 12

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From today's featured article

Bill Russell (born 1934) is an American retired professional basketball player, widely considered one of the best in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. Playing center for the Boston Celtics, he was the centerpiece of their dynasty and his shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the team's success. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a twelve-time All-Star, he won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career, and jointly holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. He led the NBA in rebounds four times, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. Russell was the first African American player to achieve superstar status in the NBA and the first African American NBA coach. For his accomplishments in the Civil Rights Movement on and off the court, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Russell is a member of three basketball Halls of Fame (Naismith Memorial, National Collegiate, and FIBA) and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award is named in his honor. He also won a 1956 Olympics gold medal as captain of the U.S. national basketball team. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that speed skater Jonathan Garcia (pictured) qualified for his first Olympics, was disqualified, and qualified again in a different event, all within 48 hours?
... that the USAF's 1946 Project Thumper and Project Wizard were the first detailed studies of an anti-ballistic missile system, intended to attack a V-2-like missile?
... that the first arrest for courtsiding was at the 2013 Australian Open?
... that The Dream of Jacob, a composition by Krzysztof Penderecki based on the biblical account of Jacob's Ladder, was featured in the American horror movie The Shining?
... that Broadway actress Joan McCracken was one of the models for Truman Capote's fictional Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's?
... that at the 30th Paris Motor show in 1936, the Salmson S4-DA was exhibited without any body?
... that Arianna Huffington said she thought journalist Georgina Henry was a "kindred spirit"?

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In the news

At least 77 people are killed in a plane crash in Algeria.
The earliest human footprints outside Africa are discovered in the United Kingdom.
The Winter Olympics open (ceremony pictured) in Sochi, Russia.
In American football, the Seattle Seahawks defeat the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XLVIII.
Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman dies at the age of 46.
India's first monorail since independence, the Mumbai Monorail, is inaugurated.

Recent deaths: Shirley Temple – Stuart Hall – Ralph Kiner

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On this day...

February 12: Darwin Day; Red Hand Day

1818 – On the first anniversary of its victory in the Battle of Chacabuco, Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
1912 – Xinhai Revolution: Puyi, the last Emperor of China, abdicated under a deal brokered by military official and politician Yuan Shikai, formally replacing the Qing Dynasty with a new republic in China.
1947 – French designer Christian Dior unveiled a "New Look" (pictured) that revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.
1974 – Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested and subsequently deported from the Soviet Union for writing The Gulag Archipelago, an exposé of the Soviet forced labour camp system.
1994 – Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery of Norway.

More anniversaries: February 11 – February 12 – February 13

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Today's featured picture

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey is an 1833 painting by Paul Delaroche which was bequeathed to the National Gallery in London in 1902. It portrays, erroneously in some regards, the moments preceding the death of Lady Jane Grey, who served as de facto Queen of England for nine days in 1553 before relinquishing the throne to Mary Tudor; Queen Mary later charged Lady Jane Grey (among others) with high treason.

Painting: Paul Delaroche

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