Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 May 1

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

The Standing Liberty quarter was a 25-cent coin struck by the United States Mint from 1916 to 1930. It succeeded the Barber quarter, which had been minted since 1892. Featuring the goddess of Liberty on one side and an eagle in flight on the other, the coin was designed by sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil. In 1915, he submitted a design that showed Liberty on guard against attacks. The Mint required modifications, and his revised version included dolphins to represent the oceans. In late 1916, Mint officials made major changes, but MacNeil was allowed to create a new design, which included a chain mail vest covering Liberty's formerly bare breast. In circulation, the coin's date wore away quickly, and Mint engravers modified the design to address the issue in 1925. The Standing Liberty quarter was discontinued in 1931, a year in which no quarters were struck. The Washington quarter was introduced the next year to celebrate the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know...

Electric bath

... that a luminous discharge could be seen around a person taking an electric bath (pictured)?
... that National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds was inspired by Queen Latifah to begin writing poetry when he was nine years old?
... that in his Clarinet Sonata in G minor, composer Ferdinand Ries provided the opportunity for improvised cadenzas?
... that an automobile graveyard in Georgia, United States, has become an open-air art gallery?
... that the three-gap theorem explains both the spacing of leaves on plant stems and the intervals between adjacent tones in certain musical tuning systems?
... that Nicole Girard-Mangin, the first woman doctor to serve in the French army, was initially paid at the same rate as a nurse?
... that the video game Harlem Globetrotters: World Tour does not feature the Washington Generals, even though they have been the Globetrotters' traditional rival for over 50 years?
... that George Smith left money to establish a school for poor children named Smith?

In the news

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in

In Spanish football, FC Barcelona win La Liga.
At the inter-Korean summit at the Peace House in Panmunjom, the leaders of North and South Korea (pictured) agree to formally end the Korean War later this year.
American comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault in a retrial of a case that was closed as a mistrial in 2017.
Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Kim Wall.

On this day...

May 1: Beltane in Ireland and Scotland

Moses Fleetwood Walker

1753 – Carl Linnaeus published his Species Plantarum, which, with his earlier work Systema Naturae, is considered the beginning of modern botanical nomenclature.
1794 – War of the Pyrenees: France regained nearly all the land it lost to Spain the previous year with its victory in the Second Battle of Boulou.
1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker (pictured), the last African American in Major League Baseball until Jackie Robinson, played his first game for the Toledo Blue Stockings.
1974 – Argentine President Juan Perón expelled the Montoneros from a demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, forcing the group to become clandestine and later a target of the Dirty War.
1985 – Labor groups in the Philippines established the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, a political coalition and communist front, in order to challenge the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

Honora Sneyd (d. 1780) · Anna Jarvis (b. 1864) · Ulric Cross (b. 1917)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The inaugural flight of Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre, with two Galileo navigation system satellites, on 21 October 2011. In this ongoing ESA programme, Soyuz-ST launch vehicles are operated from Guiana Space Centre, providing Arianespace with a medium-size launch capability alternative to the light Vega and the heavy-lift Ariane 5. Since 2011, the programme has completed eighteen missions, with another three scheduled for 2018.

Photograph: DLR German Aerospace Center

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.
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.