Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 April 25

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From today's featured article

Alodia was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was Soba, near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers. In 580 it became a part of the Christian world, following the other two Nubian kingdoms, Nobadia and Makuria. Alodia reached its peak during the 9th–12th centuries, when it exceeded its northern neighbor and close ally, Makuria, in size, military power and economic prosperity. A large, multicultural state, Alodia was ruled by a powerful king and provincial governors appointed by him. Soba was a prosperous town and trading hub, and literacy in Nubian and Greek flourished. Goods arrived from Makuria, the Middle East, western Africa, India and even China. Alodia began a slow decline in the 12th century, possibly because of invasions from the south, droughts and a shift of trade routes, before finally collapsing around 1500. (Full article...)

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SARS coronavirus

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... that Mark M. Ravitch and Félicien M. Steichen introduced surgical staples, a time-saving replacement for suturing by hand, to American operating rooms?
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... that an "alarming" decline in arthropod populations in Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico has been linked to the warming climate?
... that Ronald Read, whose last job was working 17 years as a J. C. Penney janitor, left US$1.2 million to his local library and $4.8 million to the hospital where he died?

In the news

Volodymyr Zelensky

An earthquake in Luzon, the Philippines, kills at least 16 people.
Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) wins the Ukrainian presidential election.
More than 350 people are killed and hundreds of others are injured in multiple bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.
Scientists announce the discovery of naturally occurring helium hydride ions, believed to be the first compound to have formed in the universe, in the planetary nebula NGC 7027.

On this day

April 25: Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand (1915)

USS Triton (SSRN-586)

799 – Pope Leo III was attacked by partisans of his predecessor Adrian I, but was rescued and taken to Charlemagne, as described in the epic Karolus magnus et Leo papa.
1644 – The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
1792 – The French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by guillotine.
1920 – At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I decided upon the League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.
1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) (pictured) completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

Géza I of Hungary (d. 1077) · Charles Sumner Tainter (b. 1854) · Stefanie Zweig (d. 2014)

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Today's featured picture

A row of terraced houses on Bathwick Hill in the city of Bath. Like much of the city the houses are built using the local golden-coloured Bath stone, a type of limestone. Located in south-west England, Bath is notable for its baths fed by three hot springs. It was first recorded as a Roman spa and temple named Aquae Sulis, although archaeological evidence suggests that the main spring of the baths may have been treated as a shrine by the Britons before the Roman invasion. From Elizabethan to Georgian times it was a resort city for the wealthy. As a result of its popularity during the latter period, the city contains many fine examples of Georgian architecture, particularly the Royal Crescent.

Photograph: David Iliff

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