User:Allard

Hello and a warm welcome to all my fellow Wikipedians. How nice of you to drop in to see who I am!

Morning>

Wikipedia & me:

How I discovered Wikipedia, I do not remember. But from being a reader I slowly became a contributor. Although I don't work that much on Wikipedia I do see myself as a Wikipedian. I don't go searching on Wikipedia what I can edit next, I edit what I find and want to do. This means I add and mainly improve a lot of small things and only rarely I make large edits.

My work:

My list of contributions

Articles I've started on Wikipedia:

Images I made for Wikipedia:

Article guide:

A list of articles worth looking at, if one can find them:

And there's always the Random article

And to all citizens of the European Union, please read this: Oneseat.eu

News

Grand Kartal Hotel in 2007

A fire at a ski resort hotel (pictured) in Kartalkaya, Turkey, leaves at least 78 people dead and 51 others injured.
A series of attacks by the National Liberation Army in the Catatumbo region of Colombia leaves more than a hundred people dead.
A ceasefire agreement suspends the Israel–Hamas war, involving the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Two Supreme Court judges are assassinated in a shooting at the Supreme Court of Iran in Tehran.

Selected anniversaries

January 24: Alasitas (La Paz, Bolivia); Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities (1859)

Sutter's Mill

1458 – The Estates unanimously proclaimed 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary after being persuaded to do so by his uncle Michael Szilágyi.
1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill (reconstruction pictured) in Coloma, California, leading to the California gold rush.
1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launched Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong.
1977 – Spanish transition to democracy: Neo-fascists attacked an office in Madrid, killing five people and injuring four others.
1987 – About 20,000 protestors marched in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States.

Signe Rink (b. 1836)
Maria Tallchief (b. 1925)
Madge Bellamy (d. 1990)
Helena Kmieć (d. 2017)

More anniversaries:

Did you know...

Ruins of the Jethani Temple

... that the Jethani Temple (ruins pictured) may have collapsed under its own weight?
... that the T24 Festival was organized after a former soldier boasted online that he could set up a 24-person military tent by himself?
... that the organ console at the Loew's Jersey Theatre was originally installed at another theater by mistake?
... that Margaret Reid is the first woman to have served as President of the Australian Senate?
... that The Hangover by Toulouse-Lautrec, which features the stylistic influence of Vincent van Gogh, was once displayed by Aristide Bruant in his nightclub?
... that there were "jubilant" cheers from the courtroom audience when three students were acquitted of the murder of Fernando Rios?
... that the discontinuation of a Warsaw-based Yiddish literary journal in the summer of 1939 was unrelated to the invasion of Poland?
... that Olympic gold medalist Lao Lishi was one of eight bell-ringers for the Alibaba Group's listing on the New York Stock Exchange?
... that according to the Mercurius Aulicus, 400 soldiers were routed by six officers and a boy during the English Civil War?

Today's featured article

Alonzo W. Slayback, commander of the regiment

Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Formed as Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Battalion, the unit consisted of men recruited in Missouri by Lieutenant Colonel Alonzo W. Slayback (pictured) during Price's Raid in 1864. The battalion's first action was at the Battle of Pilot Knob in September; it later participated in actions at Sedalia, Lexington, and the Little Blue River. In October, the unit was used to find an alternate river crossing during the Battle of the Big Blue River and saw action at the battles of Westport, Marmiton River, and Second Newtonia. Around February 1865, the battalion reached regimental strength after more recruits joined. On June 2, 1865, the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered. The men of the regiment were located at different points in Louisiana and Arkansas when they were paroled, leading the historian James McGhee to believe that the regiment had disbanded before the surrender. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Picture of the day

Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, is a Catholic cathedral in Chartres, France, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Paris. It is the seat of the bishop of Chartres. Mostly constructed between 1194 and 1220, it stands on the site of at least five cathedrals that have occupied the site since the Diocese of Chartres was formed as an episcopal see in the 4th century. It is one of the best-known and most influential examples of High Gothic and Classic Gothic architecture. Chartres Cathedral is known for its stained glass, and contains 167 stained-glass windows dating from the 12th century to the 20th century. This photograph shows the stained glass in the north transept of Chartres Cathedral. The rose window, which is 10.5 metres (34 feet) in diameter, was installed circa 1230 and contains imagery relating to the Virgin Mary and figures from the Old Testament. The presence of the coats of arms of King Louis IX and his mother Blanche of Castile are taken as a sign of royal patronage for this window. Below the rose are five lancet windows, each 7.5 metres (25 feet) tall, depicting Saint Anne and four Old Testament figures.Photograph credit: PtrQs

Archive – More featured pictures...