SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II was the second of the Kaiser Friedrich III class of pre-dreadnought battleships, built at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. She was launched on 14 September 1897 and commissioned into the fleet in 1902. She was armed with four 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns in two twin turrets and powered by triple expansion engines that delivered a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). Kaiser Wilhelm II served as the flagship of the German fleet until 1906, participating in fleet training exercises and visits to foreign ports. After the new dreadnought battleships began entering service in 1908, she was decommissioned, then reactivated between 1910 and 1912 for training ship duties in the Baltic. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II and her sister ships were brought back into duty as coastal defense ships in the V Battle Squadron. Her age, coupled with shortages of ship crews, led to her withdrawal from this role in February 1915; after which she served as a command ship for the High Seas Fleet, based in Wilhelmshaven. She was sold for scrap in the early 1920s. ( Full article...)

Part of the Battleships of Germany series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

Recently featured: September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt – Problem of religious language – Verbascum thapsus

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that although the type specimen of the black catbird (pictured) was reportedly collected in Honduras, the species has never been recorded there since?
• ... that Charles Romeyn, an All-American fullback for the Army football team, was sent to Montana in 1902 with the charge of "quieting" the Cheyenne Indians?
• ... that the Irish billionaire property developer Sean Mulryan grew up in rural poverty?
• ... that the olive-backed pocket mouse keeps its cheek pouches clean by rubbing them in the sand?
• ... that William Byam's World War I research into trench fever appeared in Lice and their Menace to Man?
• ... that St Helen's Church, in St Helens, Merseyside, has been described as "the focal point of the town"?
• ... that the demoness Trijata is described as the ideal of a true friend by Indologist Camille Bulcke?

• South African athlete Oscar Pistorius (pictured) is found guilty of the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
• Scientists report the first synthesis of germanene, a single atom thick nanomaterial that is the germanium equivalent of graphene.
• One of the ships from Franklin's lost expedition, missing since 1845, is discovered off King William Island, Canada.
• Researchers announce that newly described Dendrogramma specimens may represent a previously unknown phylum of animal life.
• Archaeologists announce the discovery of the oldest known abstract art attributed to Neanderthals, in Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar.
• Hamas and Israel agree to a long-term ceasefire brokered by Egypt after seven weeks of conflict.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Ukrainian conflict – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Joan Rivers

September 14: Feast of the Cross (Christianity)

• AD 81 – Domitian became the last Flavian emperor of Rome, succeeding his brother Titus.
• 1752 – In adopting the Gregorian calendar under the terms of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the British Empire skipped eleven days: (September 2 was followed directly by September 14).
• 1901 – Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States at age 42, the youngest person ever to do so, eight days after William McKinley was fatally wounded in Buffalo, New York.
• 1911 – Prime Minister of Russia Pyotr Stolypin (pictured) was mortally shot at the Kiev Opera House.
• 2003 – Kumba Ialá, the President of Guinea-Bissau, was deposed in a bloodless coup.

More anniversaries: September 13 – September 14 – September 15