Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 March 25

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From today's featured article

Main facade of the Biblioteca Marciana

The Marciana Library in Venice is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and holds one of the world's most significant collections of classical texts. Named after Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice, it was founded in 1468 when the humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion donated his collection of Greek and Latin codices to Venice as a means of preserving the writings of the classical Greek authors and the literature of Byzantium after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. It is the only institution established by the Venetian government that continues to function. The original building, now largely a museum, was constructed from 1537 to 1588. It is considered to be the masterpiece of Jacopo Sansovino and is a key work in Venetian Renaissance architecture. Since 1904, the library offices and most of the collection have been housed in the adjoining Zecca, the former Venetian mint. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Kaktovik numerals, representing 0 to 19

... that Kaktovik numerals (pictured) are an iconic, base-20 numeral system created by the Alaskan Iñupiat, with shapes that visually indicate the numbers being represented?
... that Edward Hewitt Nichols, the first leader of Hong Kong's Country Parks administrations, oversaw the designation of 40 per cent of the territory as parkland?
... that one of the first recorded cases of the rare genetic disorder ring chromosome 22 was in a pair of identical twins?
... that Isa Briones, who played Soji and other roles on Star Trek: Picard, sang a new arrangement of Irving Berlin's song "Blue Skies" for the first season's finale?
... that until the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 was passed, the new year began on 25 March in England, Wales, Ireland, and Britain's American colonies?
... that the current United States Chargé d'affaires to China, Robert W. Forden, taught English at universities in Shenyang and Beijing from 1981 to 1983?
... that recordings of Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, a Bach chorale cantata for the Annunciation, include Fritz Lehmann's with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt's using period instruments?
... that at the opening ceremony for Ontario Highway 105, a construction company presented Minister of Highways George Doucett with a bear cub as thanks for his efforts towards the creation of the route?

In the news

Windsor Bridge submerged in western Sydney

A fire at the Rohingya refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, kills at least 15 people and injures hundreds of others.
In Australia, floods in New South Wales (pictured) force the evacuation of more than 18,000 people.
Samia Suluhu Hassan becomes the first female president of Tanzania, following the death of John Magufuli at the age of 61.
Mathematicians Avi Wigderson and László Lovász share the Abel Prize for their work in complexity theory and graph theory.

On this day

Pope Constantine

March 25: Bengali Genocide Remembrance Day

708 – Constantine (pictured) was selected as one of the last popes of the Byzantine Papacy; he would be the last pope to visit Constantinople until Paul VI in 1967.
1708 – Jacobite risings: A French fleet anchored near Fife Ness as part of a planned French invasion of Britain.
1948 – Meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, United States, issued the world's first tornado forecast after noticing conditions similar to another tornado that had struck five days earlier.
1949 – The Soviet Union began mass deportations of more than 90,000 people from the Baltic states to Siberia.
1971 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces abandoned a campaign to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail, which supplied North Vietnamese troops, in Laos.

José de Espronceda (b. 1808)
Alexandra of Yugoslavia (b. 1921)
Marcel Lefebvre (d. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

Le mage is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jean Richepin. First performed at the Paris Opera in 1891, it has rarely been performed since its premiere run of 31 performances, and is one of Massenet's least-known operas. A rare complete concert performance took place at the Massenet Festival in Saint-Étienne in 2012. This poster by Alfredo Edel was produced for the opera's premiere on 16 March 1891.

Poster credit: Alfredo Leonardo Edel; restored by Adam Cuerden

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