Main Page
Welcome to Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.2,334,934 articles in EnglishArtsBiographyGeographyHistoryMathematicsScienceSocietyTechnologyAll portalsOverview · Editing · Questions · HelpContents · Categories · Featured content · A–Z indexToday’s featured articleThe Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting consisting of two separate attacks approximately two hours apart on April 16, 2007, which took place on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. The perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many more before committing suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Cho, a senior English major at Virginia Tech, had been diagnosed with and was treated for a severe anxiety disorder. In 2005, Cho had been accused of stalking two female students and was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice. The incident received international media coverage and drew criticism of U.S. laws and culture from commentators around the world. It sparked intense debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, the perpetrator’s state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations, privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues. The incident prompted immediate changes in Virginia law that had allowed Cho, an individual adjudicated as mentally unsound, to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It also led to passage of the first major federal gun control measure in more than 13 years, a law that strengthens the NICS. (more…)Recently featured: Ailanthus altissima – 1999 Sydney hailstorm – Lisa del GiocondoArchive – By email – More featured articles…Did you know…From Wikipedia’s newest articles:…that the portrait by Pontormo of Maria Salviati with the young Giulia de’ Medici (pictured) is one of the first portraits in Europe of a child with presumed African and European ancestry?…that the sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard may not be the world’s worst sound?…that the palm tree Ptychococcus lepidotus is used in the New Guinea highlands to make bows and arrows?…that medieval Perpendicular Gothic Somerset Towers typically feature pinnacles, lacy tracery windows and bell openings, gargoyles, arches, buttresses, merlons, and external stair turrets?…that the American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler married a former professor, who was actually a Russian double agent named Sergei Degaev?…that David Powel compiled and published the first printed history of Wales in 1584, which popularized the legend that Prince Madoc discovered America in about 1170?…that Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Sidorenko, a World War II Soviet sniper, destroyed a tank and three tractors, in addition to killing five hundred Wehrmacht soldiers?…that the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company was among the earliest and the last major electric streetcar systems in the United States?Archive – Start a new article…In the newsThe People of Freedom alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) wins the general election in Italy.In golf, Trevor Immelman of South Africa wins the 2008 Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club.Jacques-Édouard Alexis is ousted as Prime Minister of Haiti following riots over the price of food.The Channel Island Sark abolishes the last remaining feudal system in Europe.The Grand National Party of President Lee Myung-bak wins a majority of seats in the National Assembly of South Korea.Soyuz TMA-12 is launched, carrying Yi So-yeon, the first Korean in space, for a mission to the International Space Station.The Olympic torch relay is disrupted in London, Paris and San Francisco by protesters objecting to China’s human rights record.Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events…On this day…April 16: Education and Sharing Day in the United States (2008); Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C.1582 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founded the settlement of Salta in Argentina.1853 – Indian Railways, the state-owned railway company of India, launched its first passenger service between Bombay and Thane.1912 – Harriet Quimby (pictured) became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.1917 – Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland, and joined the Bolshevik movement in Russia.1925 – A group of Bulgarian Communist Party members assaulted the St Nedelya Church in Sofia, Bulgaria during the funeral service of General Konstantin Georgiev, killing 150 people and injuring about 500 others.1943 – Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of the semisynthetic drug LSD.1947 – American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch first described the post-World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a “cold war”.2003 – The Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens, admitting ten new member states into the European Union.More events: April 15 – April 16 – April 17Archive – By email – More anniversaries…Today’s featured pictureCapt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performing the first aerial refueling on June 27, 1923. The DH-4B biplane (right) remained aloft over the skies of Rockwell Field in San Diego, California, for 37 hours, using nine mid-air refuelings to transfer 687 US gallons (2,601 l) of aviation gasoline and 38 US gal (144 l) of engine oil.Photo credit: United States Air ForceRecently featured: Gilbert and Sullivan – Red-headed Woodpecker – SaturnArchive – More featured pictures…