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Today's featured article Ram Narayan (born 1927) is an Indian musician who popularized the bowed instrument sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player. Narayan was born in Udaipur and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and traveling musician. All India Radio, Lahore, hired Narayan as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. He moved to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947, but wishing to go beyond accompaniment and frustrated with his supporting role, Narayan moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work in Indian cinema. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1954, Narayan became a concert solo artist in 1956, and later gave up accompaniment. He recorded solo albums and began to tour America and Europe in the 1960s. Narayan taught Indian and foreign students and performed, frequently outside of India, into the 2000s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2005. (more...) Recently featured: Red-tailed Black Cockatoo – Invasion of Tulagi – Golding Bird Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that the inselberg Mount Oxley (pictured) was known as Oombi Oombi to the local aborigines? ... that Tajul Muluk, whose home and boarding school were burnt down by opponents of his preaching Shia Islam, was arrested for blasphemy? ... that Johannes Brahms composed two major works about death inspired by the Luther Bible, his Requiem as a young man, and Vier ernste Gesänge, when close to his own death? ... that artefacts of the poorly understood Mezcala culture of western Mexico were re-used by the Aztecs? ... that French socialist Jules Nadi founded the Symbolist journal L'Œuvre? ... that in the United States, sex in public bathrooms is more frequent in bars than in restaurants? ... that the mossy saxifrage and the rough saxifrage are the only two species in the Trachyphyllum section of the genus Saxifraga to grow in the Alps?

In the news Beastie Boys founding member Adam Yauch (pictured), better known by his stage name "MCA", dies at the age of 47. János Áder is elected President of Hungary following the resignation of Pál Schmitt. An 1895 version of The Scream, by Edvard Munch, sells at auction for a record US$120 million. Bolivia announces plans to nationalise local assets of the Spanish electricity company Red Eléctrica de España. Guggenheim Partners, LLC purchases the Los Angeles Dodgers for US$2.1 billion, a record for a professional sports franchise. A ferry capsizes in Assam, India, killing at least 103 people on board. Saudi Arabia closes its embassy and consulates in Egypt following protests over the Saudi detention of Egyptian lawyer Ahmed al-Gizawi. On this day... May 5: Cinco de Mayo; Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; Children's Day in Japan and South Korea 1860 – Led by Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi (pictured), the volunteer Expedition of the Thousand set sail from Genoa on a campaign to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 1891 – New York City's Carnegie Hall, built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert conducted by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops captured Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unopposed. 1991 – Rioting broke out in Washington, D.C., after a rookie police officer shot a Salvadorean man in the chest. 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashed immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon, resulting in the deaths of all 114 people aboard. More anniversaries: May 4 – May 5 – May 6 It is now May 5, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture The Nefertiti Bust is a 3300-year-old painted limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and one of the most copied works of Ancient Egypt. It is believed to have been crafted in 1345 BCE by the sculptor Thutmose, in whose workshop it was discovered. It is part of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin collection and has been the subject of an intense argument between Egypt and Germany over the Egyptian demands for its repatriation. Photo: Philip Pikart Recently featured: Monarch butterfly with a tracking tag – Gondi women – Rubber tree seeds

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