Main Page

Recently featured: Elagabalus – Royal Blue – Super Smash Bros. Melee

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that the Harihareshwara temple in Karnataka, India, was consecrated in 1224 CE, in dedication to Harihara (pictured), a fusion of the Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu?
• ... that the St. Philip's Church Ruins include the graves of two North Carolina governors and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court?
• ... that Pythagoras, a sculptor from Samos in the 5th century BCE, was credited with the innovation of sculpting athletes with visible veins?
• ... that serial killer Nathaniel White claimed his first murder was inspired by a scene in Robocop 2?
• ... that Ichitaro Kanie grew Japan's first tomatoes in 1899, founding the ¥157 billion Kagome tomato empire?
• ... that the Confederate-Union Veterans' Monument in Morgantown, Kentucky was built due to the feelings of reconciliation following the Spanish-American War?
  

• A series of bomb blasts in Jaipur, India, kills at least 80 people.
• An earthquake (epicenter shown on map) measuring 7.9 M_w strikes Sichuan, China, with more than 22,000 people reported dead.
• President Boris Tadić's coalition For a European Serbia wins a plurality in Serbia's first parliamentary election since the Kosovo declaration of independence, displacing the Serbian Radical Party as the largest party.
• Sudan cuts diplomatic relations with Chad, blaming it for helping rebels from Darfur to launch an attack on Sudan's capital, Khartoum.
• An international relief operation begins after Cyclone Nargis strikes Burma, with at least 100,000 people reported killed or missing. The Burmese military regime conducts a constitutional referendum days after the cyclone's strike.

May 17: Armed Forces Day in the United States (2008); Constitution Day in Norway; Galician Literature Day in Galicia, Spain

• 1590 – Anne of Denmark (pictured) was crowned Queen Consort of Scotland in the abbey church at Holyrood Palace.
• 1865 – The International Telecommunication Union, an international organization that standardizes and regulates international radio and telecommunications, was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Mafeking in South Africa was lifted after 217 days, a decisive victory for the British against the Boers.
• 1943 – World War II: Royal Air Force Dam Busters successfully deployed bouncing bombs on German dams in Operation Chastise.
• 1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal".

More events: May 16 – May 17 – May 18