Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 15b

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Rampart, ditch, and bank of the Trundle

The Trundle is a hillfort from the Iron Age on St Roche's Hill, north of Chichester, England. It is built on the site of a causewayed enclosure, a form of early Neolithic earthwork. Causewayed enclosures were built in England from shortly before 3700 BC until about 3300 BC; their purpose is not known. A chapel dedicated to St Roche was built on the hill around the end of the 14th century; it was in ruins by 1570. The hillfort is still a substantial earthwork (pictured), but the Neolithic site was unknown until 1925. Causewayed enclosures were new to archaeology at the time and an aerial photograph persuaded archaeologist E. Cecil Curwen to excavate the site in 1928 and 1930. These early digs established a construction date of about 500 BC to 100 BC for the hillfort, and proved the existence of the Neolithic site. In 2011 the Gathering Time project used radiocarbon dating to conclude that the Neolithic part of the site was probably constructed no earlier than the mid–4th millennium BC. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Echinocereus websterianus, named after Gertrude Webster

... that a cactus (pictured) is named after Gertrude Webster, who helped found the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona?
... that Gamaliel's principle has been used to support religious pluralism and reforms within religious groups?
... that the photographer Václav Jírů was sentenced to death for resisting the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and spent years in Nazi prisons?
... that the recreation area in Cleadon contains the remains of an 18th-century grotto?
... that West Virginia nursing professor Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen wrote science-fiction and Gothic novels under the pseudonyms Christabel and Kathleen Westcott?
... that the Caslon Type Foundry made metal type in London for more than two hundred years?
... that St. James AME Zion Church, the oldest known standing church in Ithaca, New York, was a site on the Underground Railroad?
... that in the lead-up to the Second World War, the British government stockpiled more than 100,000 tons of whale oil?

In the news

Hunga Tonga eruption

The Hunga Tonga volcano erupts (satellite animation shown), causing damage in Tonga and tsunamis across the Pacific Ocean.
An apartment fire in the Bronx, New York City, kills 17 people.
A rockfall at Furnas Lake in Capitólio, Brazil, kills 10 people.
Sidney Poitier, the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, dies at the age of 94.

On this day

January 15: John Chilembwe Day in Malawi

Fragment of the Derveni papyrus

1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, was captured by a squadron of four British frigates.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalist and Republican forces both withdrew after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.
1947 – The mutilated corpse of the Black Dahlia, a 22-year-old woman whose murder is one of the most famous unsolved crimes in the U.S., was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.
1962 – The Derveni papyrus (fragment pictured), the oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, was discovered in Macedonia, northern Greece.
1975 – Portugal and the nationalist factions UNITA, the MPLA and the FNLA signed the Alvor Agreement, ending the Angolan War of Independence.

Wilhelm Marx (b. 1863)
Sylvia Lawler (b. 1922)
Bo Yibo (d. 2007)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Frances Benjamin Johnston (January 15, 1864 – May 16, 1952) was an early American photographer and photojournalist whose career lasted for almost half a century. She is most known for her portraits, images of Southern architecture, and various photographic series featuring African Americans and Native Americans at the turn of the 20th century. This 1896 photograph, titled Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), depicts Johnston seated in front of a fireplace, holding a cigarette in one hand and a beer stein in the other, in her studio in Washington, D.C.

Photograph credit: Frances Benjamin Johnston; restored by Adam Cuerden

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.
Teahouse – To ask your first basic questions about contributing to Wikipedia.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.