Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 March 26

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Manitoba. The name comes from Western Cree words for muddy or brackish water, referring to Lake Winnipeg, which is just north of the city along the Red River. The region was a trading centre for aboriginal peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was founded in 1812 by the Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. The census of 2011 lists Winnipeg as the seventh most populous municipality in Canada. Known as the "Gateway to the West", it is a transportation hub with a diversified economy. Its annual festivals include the Festival du Voyageur, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, and Folklorama. Winnipeg was the first Canadian host of the Pan American Games. It is home to several professional sports franchises, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Canadian football), Winnipeg Jets (ice hockey), Manitoba Moose (ice hockey) and Winnipeg Goldeyes (baseball). (Full article...)

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• Denis Sassou Nguesso (pictured) is re-elected President of the Republic of the Congo for a third term.
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March 26: Holy Saturday (Western Christianity, 2016); Independence Day in Bangladesh (1971)

• 1344 – Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a 21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
• 1484 – William Caxton printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables (page pictured).
• 1830 – The Book of Mormon, the defining sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, was first published.
• 1978 – Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan's Narita International Airport, a group of protesters destroyed much of the equipment in the control tower with Molotov cocktails.
• 1999 – Jack Kevorkian, an American advocate for and practitioner of physician-assisted suicide, was found guilty of murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.

• More anniversaries:

  • March 25
  • March 26
  • March 27

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Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855, but continuously revised until Whitman's death), which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Photograph: George C. Cox; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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