Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 September 22

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From today's featured article

Guy Burgess (1911–1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War. His defection in 1951 to the Soviet Union, with his fellow-spy Donald Maclean, led to a serious breach in Anglo-American intelligence co-operation, and caused long-lasting demoralisation in Britain's foreign and diplomatic services. Born into a wealthy middle-class family, Burgess was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he embraced left-wing politics and joined the British Communist Party. He was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1935, on the recommendation of the future double-agent Kim Philby. After working for the BBC as a producer, Burgess joined the Foreign Office in 1944 and served in several sensitive posts, including a spell as secretary to Hector McNeil, the deputy to Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary. In the critical postwar period Burgess had access to information on all aspects of Britain's foreign policy, and may have passed thousands of documents to his Soviet controllers. He fled to Moscow in May 1951 and never left the Soviet Union. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

General Frisbie

... that General Frisbie (pictured) accidentally sank two ships and disabled a third, was demoted to a Commander, and then turned into a salmon cannery?
... that Israa al-Ghomgham could become the first Saudi woman to be beheaded as punishment for defending human rights?
... that under low relative humidity conditions, protonymph pyroglyphid mites may die, or they may enter a state of diapause until conditions improve?
... that Austrian fencer Ernst Königsgarten once performed in front of King Edward VII?
... that the expedition to Valdivia seized and then abandoned the last Dutch possession on the Pacific coast of America?
... that after Australian rules footballer Nathan Murphy was drafted by Collingwood, cricketer Shane Warne rang club president Eddie McGuire to commend the selection?
... that a verse from Psalm 36 is seen as endorsing animal welfare and animal rights?
... that the suspected Mexican drug lord José González Valencia possessed an official passport that had all the security features needed for international travel, issued under a false name?

In the news

Eliud Kipchoge

A Tanzanian ferry capsizes on Lake Victoria, killing at least 136 people.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge (pictured) runs the Berlin Marathon in world record time.
NASA's ICESat-2 satellite is launched, the last mission to use the Delta II rocket.
Typhoon Mangkhut impacts the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, resulting in more than 90 fatalities.
Hurricane Florence impacts the East Coast of the United States, causing at least 30 deaths.

On this day

September 22: Independence Day in Mali (1960); Day of Baltic Unity in Latvia and Lithuania

Richard Wagner

1499 – The Swabian War between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg came to a close with the signing of the Treaty of Basel.
1869 – Das Rheingold, the first of four operas in Der Ring des Nibelungen by German composer Richard Wagner (pictured), was first performed in Munich.
1948 – Led by Gail Halvorsen, the U.S. Army Air Forces began Operation "Little Vittles", delivering candy to children as part of the Berlin Airlift.
1965 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire in the Indo-Pakistani War.
1993 – A tugboat towing a barge collided with a rail bridge in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., deforming the tracks and causing the derailment of a passenger train eight minutes later, which killed 47 people and injured an additional 103.

John Biddle (d. 1662) · Stephen D. Lee (b. 1833) · Aurelio López (d. 1992)

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Today's featured picture

Christiansborg Palace is a building in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Supreme Court. The first castle on the site was Absalon's Castle, built in 1167 by the bishop Absalon and demolished in 1370, after King Valdemar was defeated by the Hanseatic League. By the end of the 14th century Copenhagen Castle was built on the site but that too was demolished in 1731. The first Christiansborg was then built, on the orders of King Christian VI, becoming the largest palace in northern Europe on its completion in 1745. It was destroyed in 1794 by fire, and replaced by the second Christiansborg. That too burned down in 1884, eventually being replaced by the current building, which was built between 1907 and 1928. The modern building is neo-Baroque in style, although the 19th-century neoclassical chapel and the original Baroque riding grounds remain, having survived the fires.

Photograph: Julian Herzog

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