Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 2019
<< | Today's featured articles for October 2019 | >> | ||||
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October 1
Simon Hatley (1685 – after 1723) was an English sailor involved in two hazardous privateering voyages to the South Pacific Ocean. With his ship beset by storms south of Cape Horn, Hatley shot an albatross, an incident immortalised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (illustrated). Hatley went to sea in 1708 under Captain Woodes Rogers, but was captured by the Spanish on the coast of Ecuador and was tortured by the Inquisition. Hatley's second voyage, under George Shelvocke, was the source of the albatross incident, recorded in Shelvocke's journal for 1 October 1719, and also ended with his capture by the Spanish, who held him as a pirate for looting a Portuguese ship. Hatley returned to Britain in 1723, though he hastily sailed to Jamaica lest he risk trial for piracy. His fate thereafter is unknown. In 1797, Wordsworth suggested Hatley's shooting of an albatross as the basis of a poem, which Coleridge published in Lyrical Ballads (1798). (Full article...)
October 2
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Michael Hordern (3 October 1911 – 2 May 1995) was an English stage and film actor best known for his Shakespearean roles, especially King Lear, whom he played on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1969 and London in 1970 and on television five years later. Hordern came to prominence in the 1950s with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre where he played Caliban in The Tempest and Jaques in As You Like It. With Michael Benthall's company at the Old Vic, he played Polonius in Hamlet, and the title role in King John. In 1958 he won a best actor award at the British Academy Television Awards for his role as the barrister in John Mortimer's courtroom drama The Dock Brief. He appeared in nearly 140 cinema roles, including Cleopatra (1963) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). His television credits include Paradise Postponed, the BAFTA-award-winning Memento Mori, and the BBC adaptation of Middlemarch. He was knighted in 1983. (Full article...)
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Kate Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. She made her film debut playing a murderer in Heavenly Creatures (1994), and received her first BAFTA Award for playing Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995). After her leading role in the epic romance Titanic (1997), she appeared in critically acclaimed period pieces, including Quills (2000) and Iris (2001). She starred in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), Little Children (2006), and Revolutionary Road (2008). For playing a Nazi camp guard in The Reader (2008), she won the BAFTA Award and Academy Award for Best Actress. In the 2010s, Winslet played a single mother in 1930s America in the miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011), joined the Divergent film series, and portrayed Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs (2015). Winslet's awards include three British Academy Film Awards, an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. In 2012 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. (Full article...)
October 6
"Barge of the Dead" is an episode from the sixth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. First broadcast by UPN on October 6, 1999, it was developed from a story by Ronald D. Moore and Bryan Fuller, and directed by Mike Vejar. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship USS Voyager after they are stranded in the Delta Quadrant, far from the rest of the Federation. In this episode, the half-Klingon, half-human B'Elanna Torres – played by Roxann Dawson (pictured) – has a near-death experience and is sent to the Klingon version of Hell. Some television critics praised Dawson's performance, while others faulted the representation of Klingon spirituality. Following the episode's completion, both Moore and Fuller left the series, dissatisfied with their lack of control over its direction and with the storylines. (Full article...)
October 7
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Douglas Albert Munro (October 11, 1919 – September 27, 1942) served in the United States Coast Guard in World War II, and was the Coast Guard's only recipient during the war of the Medal of Honor. He was awarded the medal posthumously after leading the evacuation of American marines whose positions had been overrun during the Second Battle of the Matanikau. He was shot while piloting a Higgins boat to shield a landing craft filled with marines from Japanese fire. Numerous warships, buildings, and monuments have been dedicated to him, and he is the only non-marine to be enshrined on the Wall of Heroes of the National Museum of the Marine Corps. He is annually memorialized in ceremonies held in his hometown of Cle Elum, Washington, and at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May. Munro was the nephew of Francis Fairey, a commanding officer of the Irish Fusiliers of Canada and a member of the Canadian House of Commons. (Full article...)
October 12
William de Corbeil (c. 1070 – 1136) was an Archbishop of Canterbury, and the first Augustinian canon to become an archbishop in England. Born at Corbeil, south of Paris, he was educated as a theologian. In 1123 he was elected to the See of Canterbury. Throughout his archbishopric, William was embroiled in a dispute with Thurstan, the Archbishop of York, over the primacy of Canterbury. As a temporary solution, the pope appointed William the papal legate for England, giving him powers superior to those of York. He presided over three legatine councils, which condemned the purchase of benefices or priesthoods and admonished the clergy to be celibate. He oversaw construction of the keep of Rochester Castle (pictured), the tallest Norman-built keep in England. Towards the end of his life William crowned Count Stephen of Boulogne as King of England, despite his oath to the dying King Henry I that he would support the succession of Henry's daughter, the Empress Matilda. (Full article...)
October 13
Banksia caleyi, the red lantern banksia, is a species of dense, woody shrub of the family Proteaceae native to Western Australia. It generally grows up to 2 m (7 ft) tall, with serrated leaves and red inflorescences. First described by Scottish naturalist Robert Brown in 1830, it was named in honour of the English botanist George Caley. No subspecies are recognised. It is one of three or four closely related species within the genus with hanging inflorescences. Found from the vicinity of Jerramungup to south and east of the Stirling Range, B. caleyi is killed by periodic bushfires and regenerates by seed afterwards. The species was classified as "Not Threatened" under the Wildlife Conservation Act of Western Australia. In contrast to most other Western Australian banksias, it appears to have some resistance to dieback from the soil-borne water mould Phytophthora cinnamomi, and is comparatively easy to grow in cultivation. (Full article...)
October 14
The Senghenydd colliery disaster occurred at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, on 14 October 1913. The explosion, which killed 439 miners and a rescuer, is still the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom. In an earlier disaster in May 1901, three underground explosions at the colliery killed 81 miners; the inquest into that accident established that the colliery had high levels of airborne coal dust, which would have exacerbated the explosion and carried it further into the mine workings. The cause of the 1913 explosion may have been a spark from underground signalling equipment. The miners in the east side of the workings were evacuated, but the men in the western section bore the brunt of the explosion, fire and afterdamp—a poisonous mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen left after an explosion. It took several weeks for most of the bodies to be recovered. (Full article...)
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The McKinley Birthplace Memorial gold dollar was a commemorative coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1916 and 1917, with the obverse designed by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, and the reverse by his assistant, George T. Morgan. As William McKinley had appeared on a version of the 1903-dated Louisiana Purchase Exposition gold dollar, the 1916 release made him the first person to appear on two issues of U.S. coins. The coins benefitted the National McKinley Birthplace Memorial at Niles, Ohio. The issue was originally proposed as a silver dollar; this changed when it was realized it would not be appropriate to honor a president who had supported the gold standard with such a piece. The coins were poorly promoted, and did not sell well. Despite an authorized mintage of 100,000, only about 20,000 were sold, many of these at a reduced price to Texas coin dealer B. Max Mehl. Another 10,000 pieces were returned to the Mint for melting. (Full article...)
October 17
The Battle of Neville's Cross took place on 17 October 1346 during the Second War of Scottish Independence, half a mile (800 m) to the west of Durham, England. During the Hundred Years' War, King Philip VI of France called on the Scots to fulfil their obligation under the terms of the Auld Alliance. King David II obliged and ravaged part of northern England. An English army of approximately 6,000–7,000 men led by Lord Ralph Neville took David by surprise on a hill marked by an Anglo-Saxon stone cross. David's army of 12,000 was defeated, he was captured, and most of his leadership was killed or captured. The English victory freed significant resources for their war against France, and the English border counties were able to guard against the remaining Scottish threat from their own resources. The eventual ransoming of the Scottish king resulted in a truce which brought peace to the border for forty years. (Full article...)
October 18
The Coterel gang was an armed group in the English North Midlands that roamed across the countryside in the late 1320s and early 1330s, a period of political upheaval and lawlessness. Despite repeated attempts by the crown to suppress James Coterel and his band, they committed murder, extortion and kidnapping across the Peak District. Basing themselves in Sherwood Forest (pictured), other wooded areas of north Nottinghamshire and the peaks of Derbyshire, the Coterels frequently cooperated with other groups, including the Folville gang. As members of the gentry, Coterel and his immediate supporters were expected to assist the crown in the maintenance of law and order, rather than encourage its collapse, but most of the band received royal pardons following service abroad or in Scotland. Groups such as the Coterels may have inspired many of the stories woven around Robin Hood in the 15th century. (Full article...)
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The megabat family, Pteropodidae, includes the largest bat species, some weighing up to 1.45 kg (3.2 lb) with wingspans up to 1.7 m (5.6 ft), as well as smaller species, some less than 50 g (1.8 oz). They are found in tropical and subtropical areas of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Unlike other bats, they have dog-like faces and clawed second digits. Well-adapted for flight, megabats have sustainable heart rates of more than 700 beats per minute and large lungs. Most of them are active at night. They roost in trees or caves, sometimes in colonies of up to a million individuals. Most are unable to echolocate, relying instead on their keen senses of sight and smell to navigate and locate food, usually fruits or nectar. A quarter of all megabat species are listed as threatened, due mainly to habitat destruction and overhunting. Even though they can transmit a variety of dangerous viruses, they are a popular food source for humans in some areas. (Full article...)
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October 29
Operation Obviate was an unsuccessful British air raid of World War II that targeted the German battleship Tirpitz (pictured in 1943 or 1944). Conducted by Royal Air Force heavy bombers during the early hours of 29 October 1944, it sought to destroy the damaged battleship after she moved to a new anchorage near Tromsø in northern Norway. The attack followed the previous month's successful Operation Paravane, during which Tirpitz was crippled by British heavy bombers. In Operation Obviate, 38 bombers and a film aircraft departed from bases in northern Scotland. Obscured by clouds, the battleship was not directly hit, but was damaged by a bomb that exploded near her hull. A British bomber made a crash landing in Sweden after being hit by German anti-aircraft fire, and several others were damaged. The plans for the attack were reused for the next raid on the battleship, Operation Catechism, on 12 November, when Tirpitz was sunk with heavy loss of life. (Full article...)
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