Main Page

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American writer and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his apparent life of adventure and the public image he cultivated. He produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and his career peaked in 1954 when he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Hemingway's fiction was successful because the characters he presented exhibited authenticity that reverberated with his audience. Many of his works are classics of American literature. After leaving high school, he worked for a few months as a reporter before leaving for the Italian front to become an ambulance driver during World War I, which became the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms. His first novel, The Sun Also Rises, was written in 1924. After divorcing Hadley Richardson in 1927, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer; they divorced following Hemingway's return from covering the Spanish Civil War, after which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940, but he left her for Mary Welsh Hemingway after World War II, during which he was present at D-Day and the liberation of Paris. Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in a plane crash that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life. Hemingway had permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 40s, but in 1959 he moved from Cuba to Idaho, where he committed suicide in mid 1961. (more...)

Recently featured: Raccoon – Jack the Ripper – Funerary art

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that 46 High Street, an Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, has a carved wooden caryatid (pictured)?
• ... that United States Ambassador to Cyprus Taylor G. Belcher was awarded the Distinguished Service Award because of his peace-keeping abilities during the eruption of violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots?
• ... that the MIT Media Lab's RoboScooter is a foldable electric scooter, designed to be one-third the weight and have 10% of the parts of traditional gas-powered scooters?
• ... that according to James A. Beckford, the refusal of many French prisons to provide halal meat and religious services to Muslims leads to increased radicalisation in the Muslim community?
• ... that roughly 1% of all star formation occurs within tidal tails?
• ... that when Fr. Jeremiah Callahan was appointed president of Duquesne University in 1931, he used the opportunity to tell reporters about his personal critique of Einstein's theory of relativity?
• ... that Australian cricket all-rounder Sarah Elliott only took her first wicket in senior cricket eight years after her debut?
• ... that despite helping arrange the engagement of Princess Feodora with the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, German Emperor Wilhelm II refused to attend their wedding?
  
  Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

• Social Party of National Unity co-leader Juan Manuel Santos (pictured) is elected President of Colombia.
• Northern Irish golfer Graeme McDowell wins the U.S. Open, becoming the tournament's first European champion since 1970.
• A parliamentary election in Nauru results in a hung parliament.
• Widespread flooding throughout southern China kills at least 132 people, leaving at least 80 missing and thousands displaced.
• Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden and Daniel Westling marry at a ceremony in Stockholm.
• Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago dies at the age of 87.
• In basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, winning their second consecutive championship.
  Wikinews – FIFA World Cup – Recent deaths – More current events...

June 23: Jaaniõhtu and Victory Day in Estonia; Jāņi in Latvia; Saint Jonas' Festival in Lithuania; Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg

• 1757 – Seven Years' War: British forces under Robert Clive defeated troops under Siraj ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey, allowing the British East India Company to annex Bengal.
• 1887 – The Parliament of Canada passed the Rocky Mountains Park Act, creating Banff National Park (pictured) as Canada's first national park.
• 1894 – Led by French historian Pierre de Coubertin, an international congress at the Sorbonne in Paris founded the International Olympic Committee to reinstate the ancient Olympic Games.
• 1919 – Estonian War of Independence: Estonian troops engaged the forces of the Pro-German Government of Latvia near Cēsis, Latvia, recapturing the area four days later.
• 1946 – Canada's largest onshore earthquake, measuring 7.3 M_w, struck Vancouver Island, but only caused two casualties since there were no heavily populated areas near its epicenter.
• 1961 – The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, came into force.

More anniversaries: June 22 – June 23 – June 24