Main Page
Welcome to Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.2,339,333 articles in EnglishArtsBiographyGeographyHistoryMathematicsScienceSocietyTechnologyAll portalsOverview · Editing · Questions · HelpContents · Categories · Featured content · A–Z indexToday’s featured articleEmma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches. She was lionized as a free-thinking “rebel woman” by admirers, and derided as an advocate of politically-motivated murder and violent revolution by her critics. Born in the province of Kaunas, Lithuania she moved with her sister Helena to Rochester, New York in the United States at the age of sixteen. Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket Riot, Goldman was trained by Johann Most in public speaking and became a renowned lecturer, attracting crowds of thousands. The writer and anarchist Alexander Berkman became her lover, lifelong intimate friend and comrade. Together they planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Though Frick survived, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. In 1917 Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to “induce persons not to register” for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested – with hundreds of others – and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country’s Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. Eventually she traveled to Spain to participate in that nation’s civil war. She died in Toronto on 14 May 1940. (more…)Recently featured: Cannibal Holocaust – Dawson Creek, British Columbia – Virginia Tech massacreArchive – By email – More featured articles…Did you know…From Wikipedia’s newest articles:…that Sans Pareil (pictured), one of five locomotives to compete in the 1829 Rainhill Trials, was later used on the Bolton and Leigh Railway?…that A. V. Meiyappan produced India’s first dubbed film, Harischandra, in 1944?…that Cyclone Gamede in February 2007 was among the wettest tropical cyclones on record, dropping more than 5.5 metres (18 ft) of precipitation in a nine day period on Réunion island?…that John Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy, played for the Brown Bears before eventually transferring to the University of Pennsylvania?…that the original specimen of the mauve splitting waxcap, a fungus from eastern Australia, found its way from Melbourne to Budapest but disappeared during the First World War?…that there was an element of eroticism concerning death in Viking culture, and that the dead were often described as being received by a lady?…that the world’s largest factory trawler, the 144 metres (470 ft) long Atlantic Dawn, is able to process 350 tonnes of fish a day?…that when St. Andrew’s Church in Pasadena was built in the 1920s, it was compared to “a jeweled crown on the head of a Byzantine queen”?Archive – Start a new article…In the newsAn airliner operated by Hewa Bora Airways crashes upon takeoff in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 44 people.The People of Freedom alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) wins the general election in Italy.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.Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events…On this day…April 19: Passover begins at sunset (Judaism, 2008); Feast of Saint Alphege (Western Christianity)1713 – With no living male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure one of his daughters would inherit the Habsburg monarchy.1775 – The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.1943 – Nazi German troops entered the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews (pictured), sparking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the first mass uprising in Poland against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust.1971 – The first space station, Salyut 1, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR, USSR.1984 – Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick’s “Advance Australia Fair”, a patriotic song that was first performed in 1878, officially replaced “God Save the Queen” as Australia’s national anthem.1995 – A car bomb was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, killing 168 people and injuring over 800 others.More events: April 18 – April 19 – April 20Archive – By email – More anniversaries…Today’s featured pictureA Green Grass-Dart Skipper Butterfly (Ocybadistes walkeri), perched on a succulent plant. The family Hesperiidae contains the skippers, named after their quick, darting flight habits. Many species of skippers look frustratingly alike and cannot currently be distinguished in the field.Photo credit: Fir0002Recently featured: Red lionfish – 16″/50 caliber Mark 7 gun – First aerial refuelingArchive – More featured pictures…