Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 October 15

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

P. G. Wodehouse (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humourists of the 20th century. His novels and short stories feature elaborate plots and a unique writing style based on a combination of very formal language, references to classical literature, and contemporary club-room slang. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction, creating several regular characters who became familiar to the public. They include the jolly gentleman of leisure Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves. He began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood and moved to France in 1934 for tax reasons. In 1940 he was taken prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans and interned for nearly a year. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin. The talks were comic and apolitical, but they prompted anger and a threat of prosecution in Britain. He never returned to England, living from 1947 until his death in the US. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know...

Spyridon Louis in 1896

... that Greek water-carrier Spyridon Louis (pictured) became a national hero as a result of winning the inaugural modern Olympic men's marathon?
... that Venezuelan political activist Rafaela Requesens was a flamenco dancer for fifteen years from the age of six?
... that the Harvard Graduate Students Union, a labor union representing 5,000 student workers at Harvard University, is affiliated with the United Automobile Workers?
... that the fee in excess of £2,000 paid by Blackburn Rovers in 1921 for the footballer Fergie Aitken was the record that Bury had received for a player?
... that Wandersong was one of the first GameMaker Studio titles to be released on the Nintendo Switch, along with Hyper Light Drifter and Undertale?
... that Trey Lewis transferred to Louisville with hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament, but the team declared itself ineligible for the tournament after he joined?
... that Don Raimondo Viale was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations for assisting Jews who had escaped from the Borgo San Dalmazzo concentration camp?
... that Henry G. Hanks left Cleveland to join the California Gold Rush, only to end up selling paint and studying mineralogy?

In the news

Soyuz MS-10 launch

Both crew members survive an emergency landing when Soyuz MS-10 suffers a booster failure shortly after launch (pictured) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Hurricane Michael makes landfall in Florida, United States, as a Category 4 storm, killing 17 people after causing at least 15 deaths in Central America.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases a report on actions urgently needed to confine global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F).
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for integrating climate change and technological innovation, respectively, into "long-run macroeconomic analysis".

On this day

October 15

Air India Boeing 747

1529 – The Siege of Vienna ended as the Austrians repelled the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of conquest in Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
1888 – George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in London, received a letter allegedly from Jack the Ripper.
1932 – Air India (aircraft pictured), the flag carrier airline of India, began operations under the name Tata Airlines.
1965 – Vietnam War protests: At an anti-war rally in New York City, David J. Miller burned his draft card, the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.
2013 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Bohol in the Philippines, resulting in 222 deaths.

Al-Mu'tamid (d. 892) · Dolores Jiménez y Muro (d. 1925) · Julia Yeomans (b. 1954)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

Kinewell Lake

There are 18 Local Nature Reserves in Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. It has an area of 236,700 hectares (914 sq mi) and a population estimated in mid-2015 at 723,000. A ridge of low Jurassic hills runs through the county, separating the basins of the Welland and Nene rivers. The county's main architectural feature is its country houses and mansions. Twelve of its Local Nature Reserves are managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, and two are also Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Ramsar internationally important wetland sites, and Special Protection Areas under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The largest site is Titchmarsh Nature Reserve at 72.7 hectares (180 acres), which has nationally important numbers of goosanders, wigeons and gadwalls in winter. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

The Northern Lights Cathedral is a Church of Norway parish church in Alta Municipality, Finnmark county, Norway. It is located in the centre of the town of Alta, and is part of the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland. It was built in a circular style in 2013 by the architecture firm Link Arkitektur, in collaboration with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, and seats about 350 people. Prior to its opening, the main church for the parish was the historic Alta Church.

Photograph: DXR

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.