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Today's featured article

George Washington was an early inventor of instant coffee, and worked to ensure a full supply to soldiers fighting at the front. Early on, his campaign was based in Brooklyn, but later he crossed into New Jersey toward a more profitable position. In the countryside, he demonstrated a love of wild creatures, and was often seen with a bird or a monkey on his shoulder. Washington's choice beverage was taken up by the soldiers for its psychoactive properties, even though it tasted terrible. Some thought his brewed powder could even remedy the chemical weapons then in use. But, despite this, Washington failed in his first bid for the Presidency, as papers were filed too late, and the nominator forgot to tell him about it. (more...)

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In the news

Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks receives the first sentence from the Guantanamo military commission, and the first conviction in a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.
Following a provincial general election that saw no party win more than 39% of the seats, the Liberal Party retains power in Quebec (flag pictured) as the province's first minority government in 129 years.
Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is declared the winner of the Mauritanian presidential election.
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Today's featured picture

A statue of Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American geologist, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, on the campus of Stanford University. It is said that when the earthquake struck, "[the statue of] Agassiz stuck his head underground to find out what was going on in the earth below and with his finger pointing saying, 'Hark! Listen!'"

Photo credit: USGS
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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

...that the cappuccio (pictured), a type of headgear worn by men and women in 15th century Florence, was typically made by tailors instead of hatmakers?
...that Desmarest's Hutia has the most complex stomach of any rodent?
...that Richard de Southchurch, Sheriff of Essex, planned to attack London with burning cocks?
...that Rush Limbaugh was appointed an ambassador to India?
...that the Tempest Prognosticator employs a jury of twelve leeches that use small hammers to ring a bell to indicate the approach of a storm?
...that Serge Voronoff's surgical technique of grafting monkey testicle tissue onto human males has some modern supporters?
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Wikipedia in other languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001, it currently contains 1,715,667 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; the largest are listed below.