User:Allard
Hello and a warm welcome to all my fellow Wikipedians. How nice of you to drop in to see who I am!
Morning>
Wikipedia & me:
[edit]How I discovered Wikipedia, I do not remember. But from being a reader I slowly became a contributor. Although I don't work that much on Wikipedia I do see myself as a Wikipedian. I don't go searching on Wikipedia what I can edit next, I edit what I find and want to do. This means I add and mainly improve a lot of small things and only rarely I make large edits.
My work:
[edit]Articles I've started on Wikipedia:
- Fort Knox Bullion Depository
- Animals are Beautiful People
- Template:David Attenborough Television Series
- Template:Malta Islands
Images I made for Wikipedia:
- Dutch lower house as from 2006
- New image of the Netherlands Air Force Roundel
- Map on membership of the League of Nations
- United Nations membership map
- Improved image of the British Helgoland flag
- New image showing the current flag of Hel(i)goland
Article guide:
[edit]A list of articles worth looking at, if one can find them:
- Antidisestablishmentarianism
- Ball's Pyramid
- British Isles (terminology)
- Eadweard Muybridge
- Gunpowder Plot
- Horace de Vere Cole
- Humphrey (cat)
- Islomania
- List of countries by date of nationhood
- List of flags
- List of people who died on their birthdays
- List of regnal numerals of future British monarchs
- List of unusual deaths
- Northwest Angle
- Quadripoint
- Racetrack Playa
- Rule of tincture
- San Gimignano
- Transcontinental country
- Undivided India & Partition of India
- Voyager Golden Record
- Web colors
- Winchester Mystery House
And there's always the Random article
And to all citizens of the European Union, please read this: Oneseat.eu
News
[edit]- Tropical Storm Trami (satellite image shown) leaves more than 120 people dead in the Philippines.
- An attack by the Kurdistan Workers' Party on the Turkish Aerospace Industries headquarters in Ankara leaves seven people dead.
- Moldova votes to amend its constitution to include the aim of becoming a European Union member state.
- Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is killed in a firefight with Israeli forces in Gaza.
Selected anniversaries
[edit]- 1707 – The Hōei earthquake ruptured all segments of the Nankai megathrust simultaneously – the only earthquake recorded to have done so.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: As George Washington's Continental Army retreated northward from New York City, the British Army captured the village of White Plains.
- 1928 – Indonesian composer Wage Rudolf Supratman introduced "Indonesia Raya", now the country's national anthem.
- 1971 – Prospero (flight spare pictured), the first British satellite launched on a British rocket, lifted off from Launch Area 5B in Woomera, South Australia.
- 1992 – Hans-Adam II threatened to dismiss the Landtag of Liechtenstein over disagreements on the date of a referendum for the country's accession to the EEA.
- 2013 – The first terrorist attack in Beijing's recent history took place when members of the Turkistan Islamic Party drove a vehicle into a crowd, killing five people and injuring thirty-eight others.
- Ibas of Edessa (d. 457)
- Johann Karl August Musäus (d. 1787)
- Bill Gates (b. 1955)
- Lucy Bronze (b. 1991)
Did you know...
[edit]- ... that the traditional Rapa Nui tattoos of Viriamo (pictured) included motifs similar to an adze and a paddle?
- ... that in the Littlehampton libels, Edith Swan fooled three juries and two judges, had another woman sent to prison twice, and was declared not guilty before finally being convicted?
- ... that Filomena Fortes once said that she was "a bit critical of top-level sports in Cape Verde" despite being the president of its National Olympic Committee?
- ... that on the same day that the members of Heaven's Gate died in a mass suicide, five members of an unrelated group did likewise?
- ... that American stage actress Verna Mersereau performed her traditional classical dances before royalty in Calcutta?
- ... that the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival canceled the screening of a politically themed film due to the "inability to locate suitable copies", despite the film having been showcased three years earlier?
- ... that the owners of Jumbo's claimed it became the first white-owned restaurant in Miami to serve and employ black people in the late 1960s?
- ... that Gerda Philipsborn, a German woman, dedicated her life to the development of Jamia Millia Islamia, a national university in New Delhi?
- ... that one 1886 night 150 people broke into a courthouse and began moving it 15 miles (24 km), before getting stuck in a blizzard?
Today's featured article
[edit]Cucurbita (Latin for gourd) is a genus of vines in the gourd family, native to the Andes and Mesoamerica. Five species are grown worldwide, variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd depending on species, variety, and local parlance. The fruits have played a role in human culture for at least 2,000 years. First cultivated in the Americas before being brought to Europe by returning explorers, the plants remain an important food source. Most Cucurbita species are herbaceous vines that grow several meters in length and have tendrils, but bush cultivars of C. pepo and C. maxima have also been developed. Many North and Central American species are visited by honey bees, as well as specialist bees that pollinate only a single species. Most of the domesticated species can be considered winter squash, since the full-grown fruits can be stored for months. Their extracts have many uses, including in cosmetics. The fruits are also good sources of vitamins and minerals. (Full article...)