Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 May 11

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Today's featured article
Shimer College is a small, private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Chicago. Founded by Frances Wood Shimer in 1853 in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, it was a women's school for most of its first century. It joined with the University of Chicago in 1896, and became one of the first junior colleges in the country in 1907. In 1950, it became a co-educational four-year college, took the name Shimer College, and adopted the university's curriculum of the Hutchins Plan of Great Books and Socratic seminars. In 1958, Shimer separated from the university and enjoyed national recognition and strong growth in the 1960s but was forced by financial problems to abandon its campus in 1978. It then moved to Waukegan, IL, remaining there until 2006, when it moved to the National Register of Historic Places-listed campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in the Bronzeville neighborhood in the Douglas community area of Chicago. Classes are exclusively small seminars in which students discuss original source material rather than textbooks. The Early Entrant Program, in place since 1950, allows students who have not yet completed high school to start college early. Shimer has the highest rate of doctoral productivity of any liberal arts college in the country. (more...) Recently featured: Toronto Raptors – Edward III of England – House Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest articles: ... that Jacqueline Kennedy wore her pink Chanel suit (pictured) at the inauguration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, even though it was stained with her husband's blood? ... that Teresa de Jesús, an eight-hour television/DVD mini-series about St. Teresa of Ávila, won the 1985 Spanish TP de Oro for Best National Series? ... that the community of Frontera Corozal, Chiapas, Mexico, is the main access to the Maya site of Yaxchilan? ... that Fay Wray played the mother of Natalie Wood in a forgotten sitcom, The Pride of the Family, which aired on ABC from 1953 to 1954? ... that the Battle of the Echinades in 1427 was the last naval victory in the history of the Byzantine Empire? ... that you can improve your maximum a-vO₂ diff through aerobic exercise? ... that Pima County, Arizona Supervisors ordered Sheriff Robert H. Paul to bring his friend Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday back from Colorado after they killed four outlaw Cowboys, but he returned empty-handed? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Wouter Weylandt Microsoft announces the acquisition of Internet phone service Skype for US$8.5 billion. Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt (pictured) dies in a crash during the third stage of the Giro d'Italia, becoming the first cyclist killed on a Grand Tour since 1995. In the Singaporean general election, the People's Action Party is returned to power, while the opposition wins its first Group Representation Constituency. In association football, A.C. Milan win their 18th Serie A title. Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao retains his WBO Welterweight championship after defeating American Shane Mosley. Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros dies after a three-year battle with cancer. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
May 11 330 – The city of Byzantium was consecrated as Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine the Great (bust pictured). 1812 – In the lobby of the British House of Commons, Spencer Perceval became the first, and to date only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated. 1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth departed westward from Sydney on an expedition to become the first Europeans confirmed to cross the Blue Mountains. 1880 – A land dispute between the Southern Pacific Railroad and settlers in Hanford, California, turned deadly when a gun battle broke out, leaving seven dead. 1946 – The United Malays National Organisation, today Malaysia's largest political party, was founded, originally to oppose the constitutional framework of the Malayan Union. 1997 – Deep Blue became the first computer to defeat a world chess champion, when it bested Garry Kasparov in six games. More anniversaries: May 10 – May 11 – May 12 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now May 11, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A poster advertising Big White Fog, a play by Theodore Ward. The play follows the Masons, a fictional African American family struggling through the Great Depression. Ward completed the play in 1937, and it debuted at the Great Northern Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938. The play received its European premiere on May 11, 2007, at the Almeida Theatre in London.

Image: Works Progress Administration; Restoration: Jujutacular

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