Wikipedia:Today's featured list/April 2012
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April 2
Microsoft's portfolio of mergers and acquisitions includes the acquisition of 146 companies, the purchase of stakes in 61 companies, and a history of 25 divestments. Microsoft is an American public multinational corporation headquartered (headquarters pictured) in Redmond, Washington, US, that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Of the companies that Microsoft has acquired, 107 were based in the United States. Since Microsoft's first acquisition in 1987, it has purchased an average of six companies a year. The company has purchased more than ten companies a year since 2005, and it acquired 18 firms in 2006, the most in a single year, including Onfolio, Lionhead Studios, Massive Incorporated, ProClarity, Winternals Software, and Colloquis. Microsoft has made five acquisitions worth over one billion dollars: Skype, aQuantive, Fast Search & Transfer, Navision, and Visio Corporation. Microsoft has also obtained an 11.5% stake in Comcast for $1 billion, a 22.98% stake in Telewest Communications for $2.263 billion, and a 3% stake in AT&T for $5 billion. (Full list...)
April 9
There are some exceptions to the rule in the English language that the letter Q is followed by the letter U. The majority of these exceptions are anglicised from Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Inuktitut, or other languages which do not use the English alphabet, with Q representing a sound not found in English. For example, in the Chinese pinyin alphabet, qi is pronounced /tʃi/ by an English speaker, as pinyin uses ‹q› to represent the sound [tɕʰ], which is approximated as [tʃ] in English. In other examples, Q represents [q] in standard Arabic, such as in qat and faqir. In Arabic, the letter ق, traditionally romanised as Q, is quite distinct from ك, traditionally romanised as K; for example, قلب /qalb/ means "heart" but كلب /kalb/ means "dog". However, alternative spellings are sometimes accepted which use K (or sometimes C) in place of Q. QWERTY, one of the few native English words with Q and no U in current usage, is derived from the first six letters of a standard keyboard layout (pictured). (Full list...)
April 16
British film actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, musician and music composer Charlie Chaplin's work in motion pictures spanned from 1914 until 1967. During his early years in film, he became established as a worldwide cinematic idol renowned for his tramp persona (pictured). In 1918, Chaplin began producing his own films, initially releasing them through First National and then through United Artists, a corporation he co-founded with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith. During his lifetime, Chaplin received three awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the 1st Academy Awards ceremony, held on May 16, 1929, he won an honorary award for writing, directing, producing, and acting in The Circus. Chaplin also received Academy Award nominations in 1940 for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for The Great Dictator and in 1947 for his screenplay of Monsieur Verdoux. (Full list...)
April 23
The all-time roster of the Major League Baseball franchise's Boston Reds spans one season in the Players' League (PL) in 1890 (team pictured), and one season in the American Association (AA) in 1891. In each season, the Reds were their league's champion. The Reds were an instant success on the field and with the public. The team signed several top-level players, and they played in a larger, more modern ballpark than the Boston Beaneaters, the popular and well-established cross-town rival. After the dissolution of the PL, the AA voted to allow the Reds into the new combined league. The Reds stayed intact by keeping several of their top players, and signed several other top-level players to fill the void of the departing players. When the 1891 season ended, the AA also folded, and the Reds were bought out by the surviving NL clubs. (Full list...)
April 30
There are 270 Underground stations composing 11 lines in the London Underground, a metro system in the United Kingdom that serves Greater London and adjacent districts of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Its first section opened in 1863, making it the oldest underground metro system in the world. The system operates below ground in central London but generally runs on the surface in the outlying suburbs. Approximately 55 per cent of its routes are above ground. The system is operated by Transport for London (TfL). Most of the system is north of the River Thames with stations in the City of London or one of twenty-seven London boroughs. Stations at the north-eastern end of the Central line are in the Epping Forest district of Essex and stations at the north-western end of the Metropolitan line are in the Three Rivers and Watford districts of Hertfordshire and the Chiltern district of Buckinghamshire. (Full list...)