Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 April 15

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From today's featured article

Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) was the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1843, became Governor of Tennessee in 1853, and was elected to the Senate in 1857, where he sought passage of the Homestead Bill. As Southern states, including Tennessee, seceded to form the Confederacy, Johnson remained firmly with the Union. As a War Democrat in 1864, he was a logical choice as running mate for President Abraham Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity. Johnson was sworn in as vice president in March 1865; six weeks later, the assassination of Lincoln made him president. Johnson directed the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to re-form their civil governments. When Congress passed bills for a more severe Reconstruction, he vetoed them, but Congress overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency. When he tried to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in possible violation of the Tenure of Office Act, he was impeached by the House of Representatives, and narrowly avoided removal from office. Although his ranking has fluctuated over time, he is generally considered among the worst American presidents. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers (pictured), an oil painting by the Swedish portrait painter Alexander Roslin, depicts three brothers, including two future kings?
... that the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb is buried in the Tomb of Aurangzeb at Khuldabad, near Aurangabad in India?
... that William W. Havens, Jr. worked on the Manhattan Project and was an American delegate at the Geneva "Atoms for Peace" conferences in 1955 and 1958?
... that the Lithuania–Poland border is the only land border that the Baltic States share with a country that is not a member of the Russian-aligned Commonwealth of Independent States?
... that Simon Henig, an academic who studies voting behaviour and election results, has won several elections as a politician?
... that the Javanese grasshopper can be a serious pest in oil palm and rubber plantations?
... that Pearl Schiff couldn't find an American publisher for her second novel after her first made The New York Times Best Seller list?

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In the news

Günter Grass (pictured), Nobel laureate and author of The Tin Drum and Dog Years, dies at the age of 87.
In basketball, USK Praha beat UMMC Ekaterinburg to win the EuroLeague Women title.
In golf, American Jordan Spieth wins the Masters Tournament.
In rowing, Oxford's men's crew and women's crew defeat the respective Cambridge crews in the 161st Boat Race and the first Women's Boat Race held on the Tideway.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is found guilty on thirty charges related to the Boston Marathon bombings.

Ongoing: Yemeni Civil War – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Percy Sledge – Richie Benaud – Jayakanthan

On this day...

April 15: Father Damien Day in Hawaii; Day of the Sun in North Korea; Tax Day in the United States (2015)

1071 – Norman forces, under the command of Robert Guiscard, conquered the city of Bari, the capital of the Catepanate of Italy.
1638 – A rebellion by Catholic Japanese peasants in Shimabara over increased taxes was put down by the Tokugawa shogunate, resulting in greater enforcement of the policy of national seclusion.
1912 – The passenger liner RMS Titanic sank (pictured) about two hours and forty minutes after colliding with an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people.
1986 – U.S. armed forces began bombing Libya to try to reduce that country's ability to support international terrorism.
1995 – At a GATT ministerial meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities signed an agreement to establish the World Trade Organization.

More anniversaries: April 14 – April 15 – April 16

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Today's featured picture

The Sleeping Venus is an oil painting on canvas begun by the Italian Renaissance master Giorgione and completed by Titian after the former's death in 1510. One of Giorgione's last works, it portrays a nude woman whose profile seems to follow that of the hills in the background. This lone nude, unprecedented in Western painting at the time, influenced numerous future artists. The work is now held in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany.

Painting: Giorgione and Titian

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