Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 March 29

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Today's featured article
William Walton (1902–1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade – An Entertainment, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast and his First Symphony. Born in Lancashire, the son of a musician, Walton was a chorister and then an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. On leaving the university, he was taken up by the literary Sitwell siblings, who provided him with a home and a cultural education. His earliest work of note was a collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Façade, which at first brought him notoriety as a modernist, but later became a popular ballet score. Other early works that made his name were a Viola Concerto and Belshazzar's Feast. By middle age, he had ceased to be regarded as a modernist, and some of his compositions of the 1950s were criticised as old-fashioned. In his last years, his works came back into critical fashion; his later compositions, dismissed by critics at the time of their premieres, were revalued and regarded alongside his earlier works. (more...) Recently featured: Court of Chancery – Hurricane Eloise – Admiralty Islands campaign Archive – By email – More featured articles...
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From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Etropole Monastery (pictured), the most important literary centre of northern Bulgaria in the 16th through 18th centuries, later sheltered national hero Vasil Levski in a specially built hideout? ... that the Iberian frog includes beetles, caddisflies and spiders in its diet? ... that Wallace Wade led the 1930 Alabama Crimson Tide football team to the national championship after he announced his resignation as head coach prior to the start of the season? ... that Fedor Baranov, a founding father of fisheries science, was saved from a Gulag by one of his students? ... that Eskimos harvested the leaves of diamondleaf willow in the spring and stored them in seal oil for later eating? ... that Indonesian radio personality Sys NS wanted to open a museum to pornography but later destroyed his collection? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Guggenheim Partners agree to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers (cap insignia pictured) for US$2.1 billion, the most ever for a professional sports franchise. The Deepsea Challenger completes the first solo voyage to reach the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth. Macky Sall is elected President of Senegal. The African Union suspends Mali after President Amadou Toumani Touré is ousted in a coup d'état. The Mahon Tribunal into political corruption in Ireland concludes with findings against high-profile politicians, including two former Taoisigh. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic 1461 – Yorkist troops (emblem pictured) defeated Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire, England, the largest battle in the Wars of the Roses up until that time with approximately 20,000 casualties. 1807 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered 4 Vesta, the brightest asteroid and the second-most massive body in the asteroid belt. 1911 – The M1911 single-action, semi-automatic pistol developed by American firearms designer John Browning became the standard-issue side arm in the United States Army. 1941 – Second World War: British Royal Navy and Australian Navy ships intercepted and sank or severely damaged the ships of the Italian Regia Marina near Crete. 1999 – The strongest earthquake to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than ninety years killed 103 people. More anniversaries: March 28 – March 29 – March 30 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now March 29, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

Several shells of the giant spider conch (Lambis truncata), a species of sea snail in the true conch family found in the Indian Ocean. At up to 16 inches (40 cm), it is the largest and heaviest of spider shells.

Photo: H. Zell

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