Main Page

The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, 6 kilometres (4 mi) long by 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) wide, in the English Channel. Portland is 8 kilometres (5 mi) south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. Chesil Beach connects it to the mainland, and the A354 road bridge connects it to Weymouth, which together form the borough of Weymouth and Portland. The population of Portland is almost 13,000. Portland is a central part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms. Its name is used for one of the British Sea Areas, and has been exported as the name of North American and Australian towns. Portland limestone is still quarried here, and is used in British architecture, including St Paul's Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. The large, deep artificial harbour on Portland's northern shore was a Royal Navy base during World War I and World War II; the Navy and NATO trained in its waters until the 1990s. The harbour is a small civilian port and popular recreation area; the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy will host the sailing events for the 2012 Olympic Games. (more...)

Recently featured: New Super Mario Bros. – Ramblin' Wreck – Street newspaper

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that Stanton windmill (pictured) has a wooden windshaft?
• ... that Hector Hyppolite was a Haitian Vodou priest who was classified as a surrealist painter by the surrealist theorist André Breton?
• ... that Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! won the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for comedy?
• ... that Nobel Laureate George Smoot, whose work cemented the Big Bang theory, made a cameo appearance on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory in the episode "The Terminator Decoupling"?
• ... that footballer Bud Houghton was born in Madras to an Anglo-Indian family who migrated to England in 1947 when India gained independence from British rule?
• ... that custom allocators may greatly improve the performance of a computer program written in C++?
• ... that the Jablonkow Incident has been named the first commando operation of the Second World War?
• ... that the 1931 Vickers Type 161 may have been the first aircraft to be fitted with in-flight adjustable elevator trims?
  
  
  Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

• In Kuwait's parliamentary election (parliament building pictured), several women are elected for the first time in the nation's history.
• Ruth Padel is named the first female Oxford Professor of Poetry, after a controversial race.
• Norway wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Fairytale" performed by Alexander Rybak, with a record-breaking 387 points.
• In India's general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party concedes defeat to the United Progressive Alliance, the ruling coalition led by the Indian National Congress.
• The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory and Planck satellite are launched from the Guiana Space Centre, using an Ariane 5ECA rocket.
• An attack by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda kills more than 90 civilians and government troops in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
  Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...

May 17: Constitution Day in Norway (1814); Galician Literature Day in Galicia, Spain

• 1590 – Anne of Denmark (pictured) was crowned Queen consort of Scotland in the abbey church at Holyrood Palace.
• 1865 – The International Telecommunication Union, an international organization that standardizes and regulates international radio and telecommunications, was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Mafeking in South Africa was lifted after 217 days, a decisive victory for the British against the Boers.
• 1943 – World War II: Royal Air Force Dam Busters successfully deployed bouncing bombs on German dams in Operation Chastise.
• 1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal".

• More events: May 16 – May 17 – May 18

  Archive – By email – More anniversaries...
  It is now May 17, 2009 (UTC) – Refresh this page