Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 April 2

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From today's featured article

The Honan Chapel is a small Catholic church built in the Celtic-Romanesque Revival style on the grounds of University College Cork. Designed in 1914, the building was completed in 1916 and fully furnished by 1917. Its architecture and fittings are representative of the Celtic Revival movement. Its construction was initiated by Dublin solicitor John O'Connell, and funded by Isabella Honan, a member of a wealthy Cork family, who made a significant donation towards the works. O'Connell guided the architect James F. McMullen and the builders John Sisk and Sons, and hired the craftsmen and artists involved in its artwork. In 1986, the sculptor Imogen Stuart was commissioned to oversee the installation of a new altar and other furnishings and fittings. The chapel's interior is designed and fitted in a traditional Irish style, but with an appreciation of contemporary trends. Its furnishings include the mosaic flooring, altar plate, metalwork and enamel pieces, liturgical textiles, and nineteen stained-glass windows. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Johannes Hill as soloist at the Dreikönigskirche, Frankfurt

... that Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen, a Passion cantata for solo bass by Telemann composed in Frankfurt, was performed there in Lent during the COVID-19 pandemic (pictured)?
... that at the age of 12, the Lakota spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse became the youngest ever Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and Bundle?
... that Gwen Stefani's "Slow Clap" has a country-inspired cover artwork, despite the song itself having a ska sound?
... that in 1930, the new infant-care centre of the Mothercraft Training Society was named after Princess Elizabeth of York, now Queen Elizabeth II?
... that when journalist Pierre Nadeau reported on the 1973 famine in Ethiopia, his suggestion for viewers to donate to Oxfam led to an inundation of contributions the next day?
... that Duncan Jupp scored his first league goal for more than a decade in the 2005 Football League Two play-off Final?
... that Lieutenant General Osman Erbaş was one of 11 Turkish military personnel killed in a 4 March 2021 helicopter crash?
... that Prides Crossing station had separate benches for Democrats and Republicans?

In the news

Didier Ratsiraka

An express train derails in Hualien County, Taiwan, killing at least 54 people.
Dozens of civilians are killed and 35,000 others displaced after Islamist rebels seize the city of Palma in Mozambique.
Former President of Madagascar Didier Ratsiraka (pictured) dies at the age of 84.
The cargo ship Ever Given is freed after it had run aground, blocking the Suez Canal for six days and resulting in a traffic jam of more than 350 vessels.

On this day

April 2: World Autism Awareness Day; Feast day of Saint Francis of Paola (Catholicism)

Hatton Garden safe-deposit facility

1865 – American Civil War: On the third attempt, Union forces captured Petersburg, Virginia, although Confederate officials and most of their remaining troops were able to escape.
1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the first national census of the country.
1979 – Spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military research facility near the city of Sverdlovsk, causing around 100 deaths.
1992 – Bosnian War: At least 48 civilians were massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2015 – Six elderly men burgled a safe-deposit facility (pictured) in Hatton Garden, London, and stole items worth up to an estimated £14 million.

Maria Sibylla Merian (b. 1647)
Albert Pike (d. 1891)
Sue Townsend (b. 1946)

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From today's featured list

Borodino-class vessel under construction in 1916

The first Russian battlecruisers were developed after the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, when the Russian Naval General Staff decided that it needed a squadron of fast "armored cruisers" that could use their speed to maneuver into position to engage the head of the enemy's battle line, much as Admiral Tōgō had done during the Battle of Tsushima against the Russian fleet. However, World War I and the Russian Civil War interrupted the construction of the Russian Borodino-class ships (example pictured), and all were scrapped. Twenty years later, the Soviet Navy issued a requirement for a ship capable of dealing with enemy cruisers, but the design began to grow as it was modified to allow for combat with German pocket battleships on even terms, and later modified to gain parity with the Scharnhorst-class battleships. Two ships were laid down in 1939, but the development of their new guns lagged significantly behind their construction, and six 38-centimeter (15 in) twin-gun turrets were ordered from Germany in 1940. (This list is part of a featured topic: Battlecruisers of Russia.)

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Today's featured picture

The Entombment is an unfinished oil-on-panel painting of the burial of Jesus, now generally attributed to the Italian painter Michelangelo and dated to around 1500 or 1501. John the Evangelist may be the figure on the left, carrying Christ's body on strips of winding cloth up steps to the tomb, helped by one of the three Marys. The figure behind may be Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus, while another Mary sits on the ground at the bottom left. The unfinished area at bottom right was intended for a kneeling figure of the Virgin Mary. The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Painting credit: Michelangelo (attributed)

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