Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 July 13

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Today's featured article

A photograph of the ruins of Santa Maria de Ovila

Santa Maria de Ovila is a former Cistercian monastery built in Spain beginning in 1181 on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Madrid. During prosperous times over the next four centuries, construction projects expanded and improved the small monastery. Its fortunes declined significantly in the 1700s, and in 1835 it was confiscated by the Spanish government and sold to private owners who used its buildings to shelter farm animals. American publisher William Randolph Hearst bought parts of the monastery in 1931 with the intention of using its stones in the construction of a grand and fanciful castle at Wyntoon, California, but after some 10,000 stones were removed and shipped, they were abandoned in San Francisco for decades. These stones are now in various locations around California: the old church portal has been reassembled at the University of San Francisco, and the chapter house is being reassembled by Trappist monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California. In Spain, the new government of the Second Republic declared the monastery a National Monument in June 1931, but not in time to prevent the mass removal of stones. Today, the remnant buildings and walls stand on private farmland. (more...)

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From Wikipedia's newest content:

Old Cooney Hospital

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    • In the news

    Serena Williams

  • Astronomers announce the discovery of S/2012 P 1, the fifth moon of Pluto.
  • In tennis, Serena Williams (pictured) and Roger Federer win the women's singles and men's singles, respectively, at the Wimbledon Championships.
  • At least 141 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
  • The Shard in London is inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 metres (1,020 ft).
  • In association football, the Copa Libertadores concludes with Corinthians defeating Boca Juniors in the Finals.
  • CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.

    • On this day...

    July 13

  • 1814 – The Carabinieri, the national military police of Italy, was founded by Victor Emmanuel I as the police force of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
  • 1830 – The Scottish Church College (pictured), the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in India, was founded as the General Assembly's Institution.
  • 1923 – The Hollywoodland Sign was officially dedicated as an advertisement for a new housing development in the hills above Hollywood, California.
  • 2003 – French DGSE personnel aborted an operation to rescue Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, causing a political scandal when details were leaked to the press six days later.
  • 2011 – Three coordinated bombings across Mumbai, India, killed 26 victims and injured 130 more.

    • More anniversaries: July 12 – July 13 – July 14

    It is now July 13, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

    Today's featured picture

    Ant encased in amber

    An ant encased in amber, the name for fossilized tree resin. Amber has been known since at least the fourth century BC and was used as fuel in ancient times, as well as jewelry, a use which continues to this day. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder correctly theorized that because insects and other objects were occasionally found in amber, it must have been a liquid at some point in the past. The English word amber derives from the Arabic anbar, via Medieval Latin ambar and Old French ambre. The word originally referred to a precious oil derived from the sperm whale (now called ambergris). The two substances were confused, because they both were found washed up on beaches.

    Photo: Anders L. Damgaard

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