Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 September 7

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From today's featured list

Symphony of the Seas
Symphony of the Seas

As of June 2020, the largest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas (pictured), has a gross tonnage (GT) of 228,081, is 361 metres (1,184 ft) long, 65.7 metres (216 ft) wide, and holds up to 6,680 passengers. Cruise ships can carry thousands of passengers in a single trip, and are some of the largest ships in the world by GT, bigger than many cargo ships. Cruise ships started to exceed ocean liners in size and capacity in the mid-1990s; before then, few were more than 50,000 GT. In the decades since, the size of the largest vessels has more than doubled. There have been nine or more new cruise ships added every year since 2001, most of which are 100,000 GT or greater. In the two decades between 1988 and 2009, the largest cruise ships grew a third longer (268 to 360 m [879 to 1,181 ft]), almost doubled their widths (32.2 to 60.5 m [106 to 198 ft]), doubled the total passengers (2,744 to 5,400), and tripled in volume (73,000 GT to 225,000 GT). (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Aerial view of the Tauride Palace
Front view of the Tauride Palace

The Tauride Palace is one of the largest and most historic palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was designed by Ivan Starov for Prince Grigory Potemkin, and was constructed between 1783 and 1789. After the owner's death, it was purchased by Catherine the Great, who constructed a theatre in the east wing and a church in the west wing. Many improvements were also made to the grounds, including construction of the Admiralty Pavilion, the gardener house, the orangery, glass-houses, bridges, and ironwork fences. Although the exterior of the building was rather plain, the interior was very luxurious. More recently, the building housed the first Imperial State Duma (1906–1917) and the post-revolution provisional government.

Photograph credit: Andrew Shiva