Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 May 11

California State Route 57 (SR 57), also known as the Orange Freeway for most of its length, is a north–south state highway in the Greater Los Angeles Area. It connects the interchange of Interstate 5 (I-5) and SR 22 near downtown Orange, locally known as the Orange Crush, to the Glendora Curve interchange with I-210 and SR 210 in Glendora. The highway provides a route across several spurs of the Peninsular Ranges, linking the Los Angeles Basin with the Pomona Valley and San Gabriel Valley. An oiled-dirt predecessor to this road ran through Brea Canyon by the late 1910s; it was paved in concrete in 1923 and added to the state highway system in 1931. The freeway, including the Brea Canyon Freeway segment, was built in stages during the 1950s, becoming SR 57 in the 1964 state highway renumbering. The final portion of the present-day Orange Freeway was not completed until the mid 1970s. The last piece of SR 57 to be added was formerly part of I-210, after SR 210 was extended to San Bernardino in 1998. An unconstructed extension of SR 57 from Santa Ana south to Huntington Beach has been studied as a proposed toll road above the Santa Ana River. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Reg Saunders – Gary Cooper

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Tony Benn (pictured) challenged Neil Kinnock for the leadership of the Labour Party in 1988 , on a far-left platform?
• ... that Kavindya Thennakoon , one of the top four scorers in the world on the Cambridge International Examinations, founded a community development project in Sri Lanka?
• ... that Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games for a home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics?
• ... that Laotian General Sing Rattanasamai was originally a policeman in the Garde Indigene?
• ... that the fragile shell of the glassy nautilus was once worth more than its weight in gold?
• ... that Time Crash claims to be the first Time Lord rock band in the United States?
• ... that Operation Scarlift carried out 500 stream pollution abatement projects, eliminated 150 areas of mine subsidence, extinguished 75 mine fires, and alleviated air pollution at 30 burning refuse banks?

• The World Health Organization declares Liberia Ebola-free .
• Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to three years in prison for corruption.
• Scientists announce the discovery of Lokiarchaeota , a transitional form between Archaea and Eukaryotes.
• The UK's Conservative Party, led by David Cameron (pictured), wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
• Pakistan declares a national day of mourning after a helicopter crash kills eight people, including two ambassadors to Pakistan.
• A newly discovered species of prehistoric bird, Archaeornithura meemannae , becomes the oldest known member of Ornithuromorpha, a clade that contains all modern birds.
• Roughly 110 lost newspaper "letters" by Mark Twain are rediscovered.
• In snooker, Stuart Bingham wins the World Championship .

Ongoing : Nepal earthquake – Yemeni Civil War
Recent deaths : Kenan Evren

May 11

• 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in China, making it the world's oldest dated printed book.
• 1812 – In the lobby of the British House of Commons, Spencer Perceval (pictured) became the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated.
• 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.
• 1985 – During an association football match between Bradford City and Lincoln City in Bradford, England, a flash fire consumed one side of the Valley Parade stadium, killing 56 attendees.
• 1998 – India began conducting the Pokhran-II nuclear weapons test, its first since the Smiling Buddha test 24 years earlier.

More anniversaries: May 10 – May 11 – May 12

The 3,000 hit club is the group of batters in Major League Baseball (MLB) who have collected 3,000 or more regular-season hits in their careers. Cap Anson was the first to join the club on July 18, 1897. Two players—Nap Lajoie and Honus Wagner—reached 3,000 hits during the 1914 season. Ty Cobb became the club's fourth member in 1921 and the first player in MLB history to reach 4,000 hits in 1927, ultimately finishing his career with more than 4,100. Cobb, also MLB's all-time career batting average leader, remained the MLB hit leader until September 11, 1985, when Pete Rose (pictured) collected his 4,192nd hit. Rose, the current record holder, finished his career with 4,256 hits. In total, 28 players have reached the 3,000 hit mark in MLB history. Of these, 14 were right-handed batters, 12 were left-handed, and 2 were switch hitters, meaning they could bat from either side of the plate. Baseball writer Josh Pahigian wrote that the club has been "long considered the greatest measure of superior bat handling." (Full list... )