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From today's featured article

[[File:|180px|Ceilings of the Central Hall at the Natural History Museum, London ]]

The decorated ceilings of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, were designed by the museum's architect Alfred Waterhouse, and were unveiled at the building's opening in 1881. The ceiling of the large Central Hall (pictured) consists of 162 panels, 108 of which depict plants considered significant to the history of the museum, to the British Empire or to the museum's visitors. The remaining 54 are highly stylised decorative botanical paintings. The ceiling of the smaller North Hall consists of 36 panels, 18 of which depict plants growing in the British Isles. Both ceilings make extensive use of gilding for visual effect. Built of lath and plaster to save costs, the ceilings are unusually fragile and require extensive maintenance and restoration. Since 2016 the skeleton of a blue whale has been suspended from the ceiling of the Central Hall. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Detail of Genesis by Rico Lebrun

... that Rico Lebrun refused to submit sketches of Genesis (detail pictured), a mural commissioned by Pomona College, for approval by its board of trustees?
... that college football player Ricot Joseph declined a full scholarship so that he could be a walk-on?
... that the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Service were breached by protestors in 2003?
... that Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna's car was once fired on by Russian tanks?
... that the owner of the De Vinne Press Building finalized his purchase of the building while in an elevator?
... that Grizel Niven created "The Bessie", the Women's Prize for Fiction statuette, which a past winner called "ugly"?
... that two of the victims and much of the aircraft involved in the crash of Western Air Lines Flight 636 were never removed from San Francisco Bay?
... that a superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department posed as a corrupt officer during covert operations?
... that The Lock-Up, an art gallery housed in a former police station, retains the graffiti drawn by prisoners in the holding cells and has incorporated it into a performative exhibition?

In the news

Donald Trump

Donald Trump (pictured) wins the United States presidential election.
Maia Sandu is re-elected President of Moldova.
In baseball, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars defeat the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to win the Japan Series.
A canopy collapse at Serbia's Novi Sad railway station kills fourteen people.
The ruins of a Maya city, dubbed Valeriana, are discovered in Campeche, Mexico.

On this day

November 8: Intersex Day of Remembrance

Shunzhi Emperor

1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor (portrait shown), the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
1965 – Vietnam War: In the Battle of Gang Toi, one of the earliest battles between the two sides, Viet Cong forces repelled an Australian attack.
1966 – Former Massachusetts attorney general Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
1974 – British peer Lord Lucan disappeared without a trace, a day after allegedly murdering Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny.
2006 – Israeli artillery shelled a row of houses in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding more than 40 others.

Thomas Bewick (d. 1828)
Hermann Rorschach (b. 1884)
Rhea Seddon (b. 1947)
Johannes Latuharhary (d. 1959)

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Christopher Nolan

Interstellar, a 2014 epic and science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan (pictured), garnered accolades in a variety of categories, with particular recognition for Nolan's direction as well as its musical score, cinematography, production design, and visual effects. It received five nominations at the 87th Academy Awards, winning Best Visual Effects. At the 68th British Academy Film Awards, it was nominated for Best Original Music, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, and won Best Special Visual Effects. The film received eleven nominations at the 41st Saturn Awards, winning six, and seven nominations at the 20th Critics' Choice Awards, winning Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie. Interstellar was named one of the Top 11 Films of 2014 by the American Film Institute. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

John Tarleton (8 November 1811 – 25 September 1880) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Second Naval Lord. He was given command of the fifth-rate HMS Fox in 1852, of the frigate HMS Eurydice in 1855 and of the frigate HMS Euryalus in 1858: he led the latter ship as an element of the Channel Squadron and then of the Mediterranean Squadron. Tarleton served as Junior Naval Lord from 1871 and then as Second Naval Lord from 1872 to 1874. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1875 and retired in 1879. He is seen here in an 1860 photograph by John Jabez Edwin Mayall.

Photograph credit: John Jabez Edwin Mayall; restored by User:Adam Cuerden

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