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Today's featured article The buildings of Nuffield College, one of the colleges of the University of Oxford, are to the west of the city centre of Oxford, England, on the former site of the largely disused basin of the Oxford Canal. Nuffield College was founded in 1937 after a donation to the university by the car manufacturer Lord Nuffield. He rejected the initial designs of the architect Austen Harrison, which were heavily influenced by Mediterranean architecture, describing them as "un-English". Harrison then aimed for "something on the lines of Cotswold domestic architecture", as Nuffield wanted. The college was built to the revised plans between 1949 and 1960. During construction, the tower, about 150 feet (46 m) tall, was redesigned to hold the college's library. Reaction to the architecture has been largely unfavourable. It has been described as "Oxford's biggest monument to barren reaction" and "a hodge-podge from the start". However, the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner thought that the tower helped the Oxford skyline and predicted that it would "one day be loved". The writer Simon Jenkins doubted Pevsner's prediction, though, saying that "vegetation" was the "best hope" for the tower, and for the rest of the college too. (more...) Recently featured: Tom Derrick – Tom Swift – "Abyssinia, Henry" Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Sir John Cordy Burrows is responsible for the Victoria Fountain (pictured) at the Old Steine Gardens? ... that the Chicago Housing Authority's renovation of the Dearborn Homes housing project includes adding neo-Georgian quoins and ball-topped gables to the brick high-rises? ... that the German teleplay Jeder stirbt für sich allein, about Otto and Elise Hampel, who were executed by the Third Reich, was directed by Falk Harnack, who lost several family members to Nazi executions? ... that the 1879 Michigan football team defeated Racine College, 1–0, in the first intercollegiate football game in the school's history? ... that dormice benefit from charcoal burning at Croes Robert Wood, near Monmouth? ... that De Typhoon, a Dutch paper founded during World War II by the Dutch resistance, merged in 1992 with a competing local paper that had collaborated with the Germans during the war?

In the news Lindsey Vonn (pictured) and Marcel Hirscher win the Alpine Skiing World Cup. George Tupou V, the King of Tonga, dies in Hong Kong at the age of 63. Joachim Gauck is elected President of Germany. Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, dies at the age of 88. Sachin Tendulkar of India becomes the first cricketer to score 100 international cricket centuries. Nicolae Timofti is elected President of Moldova. On this day... March 21: Independence Day in Namibia (1990); Naw-Rúz in the Bahá'í calendar; World Down Syndrome Day; Mother's Day in the Arab world 1556 – Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for heresy. 1909 – The remains of the Báb, one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith, were interred by `Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa, present-day Israel. 1943 – Second World War: Wehrmacht officer Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing, but had to abort the plan at the last minute. 2002 – British schoolgirl Amanda Dowler was abducted on her way home from Heathside School in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. 2006 – A man using a hammer smashed the statue of Phra Phrom (pictured) in the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders. More anniversaries: March 20 – March 21 – March 22 It is now March 21, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture Three samples of yttrium, a silvery rare earth metal. The left sample is sublimed, the middle one is in dendritic form, and the cube on the right was created by argon arc remelting. Yttrium is named after the town of Ytterby, Sweden, where it was first discovered, and is used industrially in making phosphors such as those in cathode ray tubes and LEDs. Photo: Alchemist-hp Recently featured: Lime Butterfly Papilio demoleus, Bangalore, India – Sydney Harbour Bridge – Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

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