Wikipedia:Main Page queue

March 10

Map of the Vicksburg area. Canal begins near center and meanders to bottom left of map.

The Duckport Canal was constructed by Union forces during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Ordered built in late March 1863 by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, the canal stretched from the Mississippi River near Duckport, Louisiana, to New Carthage, Louisiana, and utilized a series of bayous for much of its path. It was intended to provide a water-based supply route for a southward movement against Confederate-held Vicksburg, Mississippi (area map shown), as high water levels made overland travel difficult. The digging was done by 3,500 soldiers from Grant's army and was finished on April 12. The next day, the levee separating the canal cut and the river was breached, and water flowed into the canal. Trees in the bayous and water levels as low as 6 inches (15 cm) hampered the use of the canal, and the project was abandoned on May 4. Only one vessel ever passed from the river to New Carthage through the canal. After a lengthy siege, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4. (Full article...)

March 10: Harriet Tubman Day in some parts of the United States

Eliot Spitzer

• 1695 – Nine Years' War: At the Battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Catalan miquelets attacked a column of French regular infantry and caused them to surrender.
• 1968 – Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of Lima Site 85.
• 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory discovered a faint ring system around Uranus.
• 2008 – The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer (pictured), Governor of New York, had patronized a prostitution ring.
• 2019 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa International Airport due to a fault within the software of the plane, resulting in the deaths of all 157 people on board.

March 10

The plumed whistling duck (Dendrocygna eytoni), is a species of bird in the whistling duck subfamily of the family Anatidae. It is resident and breeds in Australia, in a broad arc covering the northern half and most of the eastern third of the continent. There are also non-breeding and seasonally uncertain populations in New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It is a predominantly brown-coloured duck with a long neck and characteristic plumes arising from its flanks. The sexes are similar in appearance. This plumed whistling duck was photographed in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: Game.com Lilly Walleni African leopard Archive More featured pictures

March 11

FA Cup trophy presented in 1876

The 1876 FA Cup final was an association football match between Wanderers F.C. and Old Etonians F.C. on 11 March 1876 at the Kennington Oval in London. The Wanderers had won the FA Cup (pictured) twice before, while the Etonians were playing their second consecutive final. Both teams had conceded only one goal in the four earlier rounds of the competition. The match ended in a 1–1 draw, the second consecutive FA Cup final to finish level and require a replay. John Hawley Edwards scored for the Wanderers, but the Etonians equalised with a goal credited in modern publications to Alexander Bonsor. A week later, the teams met again at the same venue. The Etonians were forced to make several changes to their line-up due to players being unavailable, and the Wanderers won 3–0. Charles Wollaston and Thomas Bridges Hughes scored a goal apiece in a five-minute spell before half-time, and Hughes added the third early in the second half. (This article is part of a featured topic: Wanderers F.C.)

March 11

Premiere poster of Rigoletto

• 1851 – The first performance of Verdi's Rigoletto took place at La Fenice in Venice (poster pictured).
• 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood killed at least 240 people and damaged more than 600 homes, after a crack in the dam holding the Dale Dike Reservoir caused it to fail.
• 1993 – The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno as the first female United States attorney general.
• 2007 – Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter attack in the Kodori Valley, in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia.
• 2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic.

March 11

Wembley Stadium, previously the Empire Stadium, in 2002

Twenty-five venues hosted the events of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, the diving, gymnastics, swimming, and water polo competitions were held indoors. These Games have since been nicknamed the "Austerity Games" for the tight control of costs at a time when the United Kingdom was still under rationing. All of the venues were already in place and required only temporary modifications. The organizing committee decided not to build an Olympic Village; foreign athletes were instead housed in makeshift camps at military bases and colleges around London, while local athletes were told to stay at home. The Empire Stadium (pictured), later known as Wembley Stadium, was chosen as the main venue. The Empress Hall (later Earls Court Exhibition Centre) and the Empire Pool (later Wembley Arena) were later reused as venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics. (Full list...)

March 11

Mobile radar observation of tornadoes, or mobile Doppler weather radar, is a technique developed in the late 20th century to study rapidly evolving atmospheric phenomena such as tornadoes and severe convective storms. This is an improvement over earlier ground-based observation networks such as mesonets, which are often too slow to capture detailed measurements of short-lived events. Early innovations include the 1993 ELDORA airborne radar system, mounted on a Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft to observe large storms at high resolution, and the 1994–95 Doppler on Wheels (DOW), which was deployed during the VORTEX1 project. Later developments improved scanning speed and detail: in 2011, the RaXPol mobile radar was created to rapidly observe storms and hurricanes, and in 2023 the University of Oklahoma and the National Severe Storms Laboratory deployed HORUS, the first fully digital mobile phased array weather radar. This DOW radar loop shows the hook echo and the associated mesocyclone of the 2009 Goshen County tornado in Wyoming. The animation spans a duration of about 24 minutes, and is colored according to reflectivity data on the left and velocity data on the right. Animation credit: Joshua Wurman / Center for Severe Weather Research Recently featured: Plumed whistling duck Game.com Lilly Walleni Archive More featured pictures

March 12

Obverse of the five-pound piece

The Young Head coinage consists of the issues of British coins with an obverse bust of Queen Victoria first used in 1838 while she was still a teenager. The bust was designed by William Wyon and remained on some British coins until 1887, by which time she was almost 70 years of age and had ceased to resemble her depiction. The young queen sat for Wyon in August and September 1837. Wyon then created his coinage portrait of her, which was approved in February 1838, and production began later that year. Some of the new coins had reverses by Wyon, others by Jean Baptiste Merlen. The new issue produced generally favourable reactions, especially the Una and the Lion reverse used for the five-pound piece. The Young Head portrait was finally replaced by the Jubilee bust in 1887. Wyon's Young Head bust was reproduced on coins for British dependencies and imitated on private issues of tokens. Both the portrait and the Una reverse appeared on British commemorative coins in 2019. (Full article...)

March 12

Süleyman Demirel

• 1088 – Odo of Châtillon was elected as the 159th Pope of the Catholic Church.
• 1940 – The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union.
• 1971 – The Turkish Armed Forces executed a "coup by memorandum", forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel (pictured).
• 1993 – The Storm of the Century formed over the Gulf of Mexico; at its height its effects were directly experienced by nearly 40 percent of the United States' population.
• 2006 – U.S. Army soldiers gang-raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family members.

March 12

Milk Drop Coronet is a high-speed photograph taken in 1957 by the American engineer and photographer Harold "Doc" Edgerton. It shows a drop of milk striking a surface and forming a crown-shaped splash, captured using Edgerton's stroboscope-based flash photography techniques. A professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Edgerton had pioneered the use of extremely short flashes of light to photograph the motion of electric motors, later applying the technique to phenomena such as flying insects, bullets, and splashing liquids. He had experimented with milk-drop images since 1932 and produced a similar photograph in 1936. Milk Drop Coronet became one of the best-known examples of high-speed photography, widely exhibited in museums and included in Time's list of the 100 most influential photographs. Photograph credit: Harold Edgerton Recently featured: Mobile radar observation of tornadoes Plumed whistling duck Game.com Archive More featured pictures

March 13

Wolf in 2010

Swift Justice is an American detective drama television series created by Dick Wolf (pictured) and Richard Albarino which aired for one season on UPN from March 13 to July 17, 1996. It follows former Navy SEAL Mac Swift (James McCaffrey), a private investigator who was fired from the New York City Police Department. He receives support from his former partner Detective Randall Patterson (Gary Dourdan) and his father Al Swift (Len Cariou). Episodes were filmed on location in New York. Critics noted its emphasis on violence, specifically in the pilot episode's opening sequence, comparing it to the crime drama The Equalizer (1985–1989) and the 1988 film Die Hard. UPN canceled the program after receiving complaints from viewers, advertisers, and critics of its violent scenes. Wolf considered the cancellation a mistake due to the show's good ratings. The series was praised for its visuals and McCaffrey's performance, but criticized as being either too violent or formulaic. (Full article...)

March 13

British attack on Cartagena de Indias

• 1741 – War of Jenkins' Ear: The British began an assault against Spanish forts in the Caribbean in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (pictured).
• 1848 – Klemens von Metternich was forced to resign as the foreign minister of Austria following student demonstrations in Vienna.
• 1964 – Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, prompting research into the bystander effect due to the false story that neighbors witnessed the killing and did nothing to help her.
• 1996 – A mass shooting at a primary school occurred in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and a teacher and prompting tighter gun control in the United Kingdom.

March 13

Crested porcupine

There are eleven extant species of hystricids, members of Hystricidae, a family of herbivorous mammals in the order Rodentia commonly referred to as Old World porcupines. The Old World porcupines range in size from the long-tailed porcupine, which measures 48 cm (19 in) plus a 23 cm (9 in) tail, to the crested porcupine (example pictured), at 93 cm (37 in) plus a 17 cm (7 in) tail. Found in Southern Europe, the Levant, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, Old World porcupines generally inhabit shrublands, grasslands, forests, and savannas. The eleven species of hystricids are divided into three genera: Atherurus, which contains two species, the African and Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine; Hystrix, which contains eight species in three subgenera; and Trichys, which contains only the long-tailed porcupine. (Full list...)

March 13

The Scoliidae, or scoliid wasps, are a family of around 300 described species of wasps found worldwide. They are solitary parasitoids whose larvae develop on the larvae of other insects, most commonly the scarab beetle. Females search for hosts in soil or rotting wood, sometimes following tunnels created by the beetle larvae. After locating a host, the female stings and paralyses it and may move it into a chamber before laying a single egg on the immobilised grub. Because many scarab beetles are agricultural pests, scoliid wasps can act as important biological control agents. Adult wasps often visit flowers and may function as minor pollinators. In some species, orchid flowers mimic female wasps and attract males, which attempt to mate with the flowers and thereby pollinate them. This photograph shows a scoliid wasp of the Megascolia bidens species on Cape Bon peninsula, Tunisia. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: Milk Drop Coronet Mobile radar observation of tornadoes Plumed whistling duck Archive More featured pictures

March 14

An illustration of the value of pi

The number π is a mathematical constant, approximately equal to 3.14159, that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is an irrational number, meaning that it cannot be expressed exactly as a ratio of two integers, though it is sometimes approximated as ⁠22/7⁠. Its decimal representation never ends, nor does it enter a permanently repeating pattern. The digits of π appear to be evenly distributed, but no proof of this conjecture has been found. π appears in many formulae in mathematics and physics, and for thousands of years, mathematicians have computed its value with increasing accuracy. Since the late 20th century, mathematicians and computer scientists have extended the decimal representation of π to many trillions of digits. Many equations from trigonometry and geometry rely on π, especially those concerning circles and spheres. A transcendental number, π is one of the most widely known mathematical constants. (Full article...)

March 14: Sikh New Year's Day; White Day in parts of East Asia; Pi Day

Gioachino Rossini

• 1309 – On Eid al-Fitr, the citizens of Granada stormed palaces in the city, deposing Sultan Muhammad III and placing his half-brother Nasr on the throne.
• 1864 – The Petite messe solennelle by Gioachino Rossini (pictured) was first performed in Paris, 34 years after his retirement as a composer.
• 1931 – Alam Ara, the first Indian sound film, premiered at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay.
• 1988 – China defeated Vietnam in a naval altercation while attempting to establish oceanographic observation posts on the Spratly Islands.
• 2021 – The Burmese military and police forces killed at least 65 civilians during the Hlaingthaya massacre in Yangon, including those protesting a recent coup d'état.

March 14

Columbus is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. It had a population of 905,748 at the 2020 census, making it the 14th most populous city in the United States, and a metropolitan area population of around 2.2 million. The city is the county seat of Franklin County and also extends into Delaware and Fairfield counties. Columbus was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers and was named after Christopher Columbus. It became the state capital in 1816 and grew during the nineteenth century as a transportation and industrial hub linked by the National Road, canals and railroads. Columbus is now a center for high-tech manufacturing with plants operated by Intel, Honda and LG Energy Solution and is home to Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in the country. This photograph shows Downtown Columbus and the Scioto Mile, viewed from the south-west. Photograph credit: Paul Wasneski Recently featured: Scoliidae Milk Drop Coronet Mobile radar observation of tornadoes Archive More featured pictures

March 15

Coin depicting Zenobia as empress

Zenobia (c. 240 – c. 274) was queen of the Palmyrene Empire. Her husband Odaenathus became king in 260 and elevated Palmyra's power in the Near East by defeating the Sassanians and stabilizing the Roman East. After his assassination, she became the regent of her son Vaballathus and held de facto power throughout his reign. In 270, Zenobia launched an invasion which brought most of the Roman East under her sway, culminating with the annexation of Egypt. In reaction to Roman emperor Aurelian's campaign in 272, Zenobia declared Palmyra's secession from Rome, naming her son emperor and assuming the title of empress. The Romans were victorious after heavy fighting; the queen was besieged in her capital and captured by Aurelian. He exiled her to Rome, where she spent the remainder of her life. Zenobia fostered a multicultural and intellectual environment in her court, which was open to scholars and philosophers. Her biography has inspired historians, artists and novelists. (Full article...)

March 15: Ides of March; Night of Power (Shia Islam, 2026); Laetare Sunday (Western Christianity, 2026)

Julius Caesar

• 44 BC – Julius Caesar (bust pictured), the dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus.
• 1823 – American sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reported the existence of New South Greenland, a phantom island, near Antarctica.
• 1916 – Six days after Pancho Villa and his cross-border raiders attacked Columbus, New Mexico, U.S. general John J. Pershing led a punitive expedition into Mexico to pursue him.
• 1917 – Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
• 1943 – The deportation of 50,000 Jews from the Greek city of Thessaloniki began.
• 1951 – The Iranian oil industry was nationalized in a movement led by Mohammad Mosaddegh.

March 15

Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and was one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures. Bacall made her acting debut on Broadway in 1942 at age 17. Her final role was in 2014 as a guest voice appearance. During her long career, she won seven major awards: one Oscar, one Critics' Choice Award, two Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, and two Tony Awards. The photograph was taken by Bernard Gotfryd in 1979 and shows Bacall with the manuscript of her first autobiography, Lauren Bacall, By Myself. Photograph: Bernard Gotfryd Recently featured: Columbus, Ohio Scoliidae Milk Drop Coronet Archive More featured pictures

March 16

Advertisement for the film

Yan Ruisheng is a 1921 Chinese silent film directed by Ren Pengnian, starring Chen Shouzi and Wang Caiyun. A docudrama based on the murder of Wang Lianying the previous year, it follows a young man named Yan Ruisheng who kills a courtesan to steal her jewellery. When the crime is discovered, he and his accomplices flee, but Yan is captured and executed. China's first full-length feature film,Yan Ruisheng was produced as domestic short films were becoming increasingly common. It emphasized accuracy to real life in its casting and setting; the stars were chosen based on their physical resemblance to those involved, while extensive use of location shooting allowed scenes to be set in places associated with the murder. A commercial success upon release, the critical reception of its technical aspects was positive but the subject matter was challenged and the film faced several calls for banning.The film is thought to be lost. (Full article...)

March 16: Purim in Jerusalem

Cap badge of the Royal Welch Fusiliers

• 934 – Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
• 1689 – The Royal Welch Fusiliers (cap badge pictured), one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.
• 1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.
• 1984 – William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.
• 1988 – Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killing three attendees and injuring at least sixty others.

March 16

Jon Stewart

The 78th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2005 and took place on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. Televised in the United States by ABC, the ceremony was produced by Gilbert Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Jon Stewart hosted the show for the first time. Crash won three awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included Brokeback Mountain, King Kong, and Memoirs of a Geisha, with three each. The telecast garnered more than 39 million viewers in the United States. (Full list...)

March 16

The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen.

In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.

March 17

The Corleck Head is a 1st or 2nd century AD three-faced Irish stone idol discovered in Drumeague in County Cavan c. 1855. Its dating to the Iron Age is based on its iconography, which is similar to that of contemporary northern European Celtic art artefacts. Most archaeologists believe that it probably depicts a Celtic god and was intended to be placed on top of a larger shrine. The head is carved from a single block of limestone into three simply described faces. They each have similar features, including protruding eyes, thin and narrow mouths and enigmatic expressions. The head's dating and cultural significance are difficult to establish. The faces may depict all-knowing, all-seeing gods representing the unity of the past, present and future. The head is assumed to have been intended for ceremonial used on the nearby Corleck Hill, a major religious centre during the late Iron Age and a site for celebration of the Lughnasadh, a pre-Christian harvest festival. (Full article...)

March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Christianity); Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (1861)

Dorchester Heights Monument

• 1864 – Second Schleswig War: In an attempt to end a Danish blockade, Eduard von Jachmann led a Prussian squadron in an attack against a Danish fleet led by Edvard van Dockum.
• 1902 – The Dorchester Heights Monument (pictured), memorializing the siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War, was dedicated.
• 1957 – A plane crash on the slopes of Mount Manunggal killed Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
• 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the Scottish Borders collapsed during refurbishing construction, killing two workers, and leading to the abandonment of the tunnel.
• 2004 – Unrest in Kosovo broke out, resulting in the deaths of 28, the wounding of more than 600 others, and the destruction of several Serb Orthodox churches and shrines.

March 17

Burst of Joy is a Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph showing Robert L. Stirm (1933–2025), a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, meeting his family after five years as a POW in North Vietnam due to the Vietnam War. The photograph was taken by Slava "Sal" Veder, an Associated Press photographer, on March 17, 1973, at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California. Photograph credit: TBD Recently featured: Lauren Bacall Columbus, Ohio Archive More featured pictures