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Today's featured article

Medieval cuisine was the variety of foods eaten by the various European cultures during the Middle Ages. During this period, diets and cooking changed across Europe, and many of these changes laid the foundations for contemporary regional and folk cuisines. Transportation and communication were slow and prevented the export of many foods, especially fresh fruit and meat, which today are commonplace in all industrialized nations. Imported ingredients such as spices were expensive and mainly the preserve of the wealthy nobility, making their foods more prone to foreign influence than the foods of lower strata of society. The single most important foodstuff was bread, and to a lesser extent other foods made from cereals such as porridge and pasta. Meat was more prestigious but more expensive and therefore less cost-efficient than grain or vegetables. The most common dishes were potages and stews, and common ingredients used in cooking were verjuice, wine and vinegar. These, combined with the widespread usage of sugar (among those who could afford it), gave many dishes a distinctly sweet-sour flavor. The most popular types of meat were pork and chicken, while beef required greater investment in land and grazing and therefore was less common. (more...)

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The head of a Rothschild's Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi), a subspecies of giraffe found in Uganda and north-central Kenya. It has deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines and its hocks may be spotted. Photo credit: Fir0002 Archive - More featured pictures...

Current events

• Following the announcement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pictured), the Royal Navy personnel accused of trespassing into Iranian waters return to the UK after a two-week detention.
• TGV POS trainset number 4402 sets a new world speed record for railed vehicles at 574.8 km/h (357 mph) during test runs conducted in Champagne, France.
• Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolves the parliament and calls for an early parliamentary election, a move denounced by the parliament as unconstitutional.
• A tsunami triggered by an earthquake strikes the Solomon Islands, killing at least 20, destroying around 900 homes and leaving thousands homeless.
• Michael Phelps breaks five world records in swimming at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia and becomes the first person to win seven golds at a World Championships; seven other world records are also broken.

Selected anniversaries

April 5: Mawlid in Shi'a Islam, Maundy Thursday in Christianity (2007); Qingming Festival in the Chinese calendar; Hansik in South Korea.

• 1242 - In the Battle of the Ice, Novgorod forces led by Alexander Nevsky rebuffed an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus.
• 1614 - Native American Pocahontas (pictured) married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia, and was christened Lady Rebecca.
• 1847 - The world's first civic public park, Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England, opened.
• 1955 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned, stating his advancing age.
• 1998 - Japan's Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, linking Awaji Island and Kobe, opened to traffic, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world to date.

Recent days: April 4 – April 3 – April 2

Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ...that pattens (pictured) were wooden-soled overshoes worn from the 14th to 19th centuries to raise the wearer above mud and dirt?
• ...that Work, painted over 13 years from 1852 to 1865, is generally considered to be the most important painting by Ford Madox Brown?
• ...that the units of the Red Army and the Afghan army fought the Battles of Zhawar in 1985-86 to destroy a mujahideen supply base near the Pakistani border?
• ...that numerous common idioms feature one of the various slang meanings of 'dime'?
• ...that when Birmingham-based early-music choir Ex Cathedra founded its Baroque orchestra in its 1983–1984 season, this was the first period instrument orchestra to be established in an English city outside London?
• ...that Ngo Dinh Diem became president of South Vietnam after a fraudulent 1955 election run by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, polling 133% of registered voters in Saigon?
• ...that Sara Gruen’s historical novel Water for Elephants recounts that circus workers were sometimes thrown off the circus train in the middle of the night, a practice known as "redlighting"?

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