Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 March 19

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Today's featured article
Seattle Sounders FC is a Major League Soccer (MLS) team based in Seattle, Washington, that plays its home matches at Qwest Field. It was established in November 2007 as an MLS expansion team. The league's 15th team, Sounders FC played the first match of its inaugural season on March 19, 2009. During their first two seasons every home game was sold out, they set a new MLS record for average match attendance, and they sold the most season tickets in the league. Seattle finished both seasons with a winning record and qualified for the MLS playoffs. In 2009 Sounders FC became the second expansion team in MLS history to win the U.S. Open Cup, and in 2010 became the first ever MLS team to repeat as Open Cup champions. Fans selected the Sounders name for the club through an online poll in 2008, making the Seattle Sounders FC the third Seattle soccer team to bear the moniker. (more...) Recently featured: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Anthony Roll – Final Fantasy XII Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest articles: ... that 1952 Winter Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen once ran a ski shop in the La Fave Block (pictured), the second oldest brick commercial building in Aspen, Colorado? ... that Norwegian entrepreneur Henrik Christian Fredrik Størmer was appointed official reporter of Norway at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris? ... that a significant difference between the Christian Evangelical Church of Romania and the Evangelical Church of Romania, which were united under the Communist regime, is the form of baptism each practices? ... that after KV Pharmaceutical received an FDA-sponsored monopoly to exclusively market a drug that had been already available for five decades, it raised its price from about US$15 to US$1,500? ... that medieval historian Eleanor Duckett (1880–1976) and her lifelong companion, regional novelist Mary Ellen Chase, have adjoining halls named for them at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts? ... that Dutch paleobotanist Willem van Zeist analyzed the first domesticated emmer wheat found at Tell Aswad, Syria? ... that the actor voicing the creature in the Fringe episode "Night of Desirable Objects" placed pieces of orange in his mouth in order to have "a slobbery, sputtering voice"? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
NASA's MESSENGER space probe becomes the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury (artist's rendering pictured). Yemen declares a state of emergency after unidentified gunmen open fire on anti-government protesters, killing at least 41. Engineers work to contain radiation following a series of accidents at Japan's Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Amid an ongoing armed conflict, the U.N. Security Council approves military force against Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya, including a no-fly zone. An American drone attack kills at least 38 people in North Waziristan and draws condemnation from Pakistan. Earthquake and tsunami in Japan Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
March 19: Purim begins at sunset (Judaism, 2011); Saint Joseph's Day in Western Christianity; Father's Day in various countries 1279 – The Song Dynasty in Imperial China ended with a victory by the Yuan Dynasty at the Battle of Yamen off the coast of Xinhui, Guangdong Province. 1687 – The search for the mouth of the Mississippi River led by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle ended with a mutiny and his murder in present-day Texas. 1915 – Pluto was photographed for the first time, 15 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory. 1945 – World War II: A single Japanese aircraft bombed the American aircraft carrier USS Franklin (pictured), killing over 700 of her crew and crippling the ship. 1978 – In response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the United Nations called on Israel to immediately withdraw its forces from Lebanon, and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. More anniversaries: March 18 – March 19 – March 20 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now March 19 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A sand wasp (Bembix sp.) digging its nest in sand, which is typically a short, simple burrow, with a single enlarged chamber at the bottom which is stocked with prey items for the developing wasp larva. Sand wasps are predators on various groups of insects, with flies being the most common.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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