Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 September 12

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The Middle Ages of European history lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the subsequent formation of new kingdoms by barbarian invaders. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, established an empire covering much of Western Europe; the Carolingian Empire endured until the 9th century. During the High Middle Ages, which began after AD 1000, the population of Europe increased as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and crop yields to increase. Western European Christians attempted to regain control of the Holy Land in the Crusades. Intellectual life was marked by scholasticism and the founding of universities. The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, the paintings of Giotto, the poetry of Dante and Chaucer, the travels of Marco Polo, and the architecture of Gothic cathedrals are among the outstanding achievements of this period. The Late Middle Ages was marked by famine, plague, and war; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, leading to the early modern period. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that in the early 19th century, the reclamation of Lille Vildmose (pictured) was the impetus needed to establish a peat industry?
... that Dr. Joseph DeLee revived William S. Kroger as a newborn, and later supervised Kroger's residency training as an obstetrician-gynecologist?
... that the white-tailed jackrabbit can run at up to 55 kilometres per hour (34 mph) and leap up to 5 metres (16 ft)?
... that a website dedicated to the wedding of Grey's Anatomy's two lead characters was launched to promote the show's 100th episode?
... that the Baron of Karytaina, Geoffrey of Briel, was held to be best knight in the Principality of Achaea, and maintained a school where he trained young Greeks as knights?
... that in a cricket match between smokers and non-smokers, the best bowler for the non-smokers was awarded 200 cigars?

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In the news

More than one million Catalans form a human chain (pictured) in support of the independence of Catalonia.
The 125th session of the International Olympic Committee awards the 2020 Summer Olympics to Tokyo and elects Thomas Bach as its president.
A center-right coalition led by the Conservative Party wins a majority in the Norwegian parliamentary election.
The painting Sunset at Montmajour is shown to be a lost work of Vincent van Gogh.
In tennis, Serena Williams wins the women's singles and Rafael Nadal wins the men's singles at the US Open.

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On this day...

September 12: National Day in Cape Verde

1309 – Reconquista: Forces of the Kingdom of Castile captured Gibraltar from the Emirate of Granada, although they would lose control of it 24 years later.
1848 – Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new constitution.
1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leó Szilárd (pictured) conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.
1942 – A U-boat sank RMS Laconia with a torpedo off the coast of West Africa and attempted to rescue the passengers, which included some 80 civilians, 160 Polish and 268 British soldiers and about 1800 Italian POWs.
1983 – The clandestine group Boricua Popular Army staged a bank robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, US, making off with $7 million in the largest cash theft in U.S. history at the time.

More anniversaries: September 11 – September 12 – September 13

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Today's featured picture

SN 1006 was a supernova that was widely seen on Earth beginning in the year 1006. It occurred 7,200 light years away. It was, in terms of apparent magnitude, the brightest stellar event in recorded history. The supernova's remnant, pictured here, was not identified until 1965.

Photo: NASA

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