Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 March 2

Fakih Usman (1904–68) was an Indonesian Islamic leader and politician with the Masyumi Party. Born to a merchant and his wife in Gresik, Dutch East Indies, Fakih studied with his father and at a series of pesantren until the 1920s. In 1925 he became involved with the modernist Islamic organisation Muhammadiyah, rising quickly until he became the head of the Surabaya branch in 1938. When a group of Islamic organisations formed the Indonesian Islamic Assembly in 1937, Fakih became treasurer. He continued to be involved in politics and Islamic groups during the Japanese occupation and ensuing national revolution. In post-Revolution Indonesia, Fakih twice served as the Minister of Religious Affairs: under the Halim Cabinet in the State of the Republic of Indonesia in 1950, and in the national government during the Wilopo Cabinet from 1952 to 1953. While serving as minister of religious affairs, he oversaw educational and institutional reform. Growing in prominence within the Muhammadiyah, he was chosen as its chairman in late 1968, several days before his death. (Full article...)

Recently featured: F★CK (film) – Starfish – "Terms of Endearment" (The X-Files)

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the Church of the Holy Trinity in Newton St Loe has a clock (pictured) with only one hand?
• ... that the union of the Italian Sacarello and Bignone families in Gibraltar became known as the "Marriage of Two Mountains"?
• ... that Sunderland's semi-final penalty shootout win against Manchester United in order to reach the 2014 Football League Cup Final had no English players scoring any of the penalties?
• ... that Enid Blyton's books were banned by the BBC for being "second-rate" and without merit?
• ... that the music video for Bed Peace by American singer Jhené Aiko pays homage to John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Bed-In for Peace protest?
• ... that Aasa Helgesen was elected the first female mayor in Norway after an election where she didn't know she was on the ballot?

• At least 29 people are killed and 130 injured in a mass stabbing at Kunming Railway Station in China.
• Amid tensions in Crimea, the Russian parliament authorizes President Vladimir Putin (pictured) to use force.
• Militants kill 59 students in Yobe State, Nigeria.
• The Winter Olympics close with host nation Russia winning the most gold medals and most medals overall.
• Matteo Renzi is sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy.

Recent deaths: Paco de Lucía – Harold Ramis – Alice Herz-Sommer

March 2: The Nineteen Day Fast begins (Bahá'í Faith)

• 1444 – Skanderbeg organised the League of Lezhë, an alliance of Albanian principalities that is regarded as the first unified Albanian state.
• 1877 – The U.S. Electoral Commission awarded twenty disputed electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, thus assuring his victory in the 1876 U.S. presidential election.
• 1939 – Italian Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected as Pope and took the name Pius XII (pictured).
• 1965 – Vietnam War: The American and South Vietnamese air forces began Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam that eventually became the most intense air/ground battle waged during the Cold War period.
• 1978 – Aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 28, Czech Vladimír Remek became the first person not from the Soviet Union or the United States to go into space.

More anniversaries: March 1 – March 2 – March 3

{| style="margin:0 3px 3px; width:100%; text-align:center; background-color:transparent; border-collapse: collapse; padding:0.9em"

Recently featured: Arp 273 – Wes Brady, ex-slave – Yellow-throated Honeyeater