Wikiwand Today

Your daily knowledge snacks, directly from Wikipedia

Latest News

Indian farmers protesting

The Indian agriculture acts are repealed after a year of protests by farmers (example pictured).
Xiomara Castro is elected as the first female President of Honduras.
Magdalena Andersson, who resigned a week earlier after less than one day as prime minister–designate, is re-elected as Prime Minister of Sweden.
Barbados becomes a republic, with Sandra Mason replacing Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state.

Today in History

December 5: Krampusnacht in parts of Central Europe

1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issued the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, giving Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer explicit authority to prosecute witchcraft in Germany.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Continental Army colonel Henry Knox arrived at Fort Ticonderoga in New York to arrange the transport of 60 tons of artillery (depicted) to support the Siege of Boston.
1936 – The 1936 Soviet Constitution, also known as the "Stalin constitution", was adopted.
1995 – Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 56 crashed shortly after takeoff from Nakhchivan Airport, killing 52 people on board.
2005 – The Civil Partnership Act came into force, granting civil partnerships in the United Kingdom rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage.

Jacobus Anthonie Meessen (b. 1836)
René Cresté (b. 1881)
Amrita Sher-Gil (d. 1941)

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Did You Know?

New York Marriott Marquis

... that while the New York Marriott Marquis hotel (pictured) was valued at $579.7 million in 2008, the site was sold five years later for just $19.9 million?
... that for round-robin sports tournaments, finding a ranking of the competitors that minimizes the number of upset games is an instance of the feedback arc set problem?
... that Inger K. Frith, the first woman president of a major international sporting federation, played a key role in returning archery to the Olympics?
... that Glen Cove City School District closed the South School in 1966 to remedy alleged de facto segregation in the district?
... that the novel Dreams of Trespass, which portrays the patriarchy as un-Islamic, was translated into more than 20 languages?
... that in a study for UNICEF, Reginald Green found that more than two million children under the age of five had died in Angola and Mozambique due to the South African apartheid regime's economic policies?
... that most places where tectonic plates ram into each other involve oblique subduction?
... that the Atlas Tract is farmland with a population of 0, but is expected to have a population of 42,000 by 2045?

Today's Featured Article

U.S. Route 30 in Iowa runs generally east–west for 330 miles (530 km), and is the longest primary highway in Iowa. Going east, US 30 enters Iowa at the Missouri River bridge from Blair, Nebraska, and exits at Clinton, crossing the Mississippi River. The highway runs close to the Union Pacific Railroad's Overland Route as both cross Iowa. US 30 was conceived as a part of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway in the United States. A route through Iowa was chosen because of the important link between Omaha, Nebraska, and Chicago, Illinois, and, by 1931, it had been paved across the entire state. US 30 originally passed through many small Iowa towns, but over time, the route has been straightened, bypassing most downtown areas, and with long sections upgraded to a four-lane expressway. Since 2006, US 30 has been designated an Iowa Heritage Byway, the first highway in the state with that distinction. (Full article...)

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Today's Featured Picture

James Guthrie (December 5, 1792 – March 13, 1869) was a Kentucky lawyer, plantation owner, railroad president and Democratic Party politician. His financial acumen was recognized by President Franklin Pierce who appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1853. He strongly opposed Kentucky's secession from the United States and attended the Peace Conference of 1861, siding with the Union during the Civil War. This picture is a line engraving of Guthrie, produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva