Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 November 1

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From today's featured article

James Rowland (1 November 1922 – 27 May 1999) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), serving as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1975 to 1979. He later held office as Governor of New South Wales from 1981 to 1989, and was Chancellor of the University of Sydney from 1990 to 1991. After joining the RAAF in 1942, he was posted to Britain as a Pathfinder bomber pilot in the air war over Europe, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was forced to bail out over Germany following a collision with another Allied aircraft in 1945, and was imprisoned. After repatriation and demobilisation, Rowland finished an aeronautical engineering degree and rejoined the RAAF. He became a test pilot, serving with and later commanding the Aircraft Research and Development Unit in the 1950s, and also a senior engineering officer, being closely involved in the delivery to Australia of the Dassault Mirage III supersonic fighter in the 1960s. He served as Air Member for Technical Services from 1972 until 1975, when he was elevated to air marshal and CAS, the first engineer to hold the position. He was knighted in 1977 and appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1987. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

OREYA in 2009

... that the Ukrainian mixed chamber choir OREYA (pictured) won a special prize for the best interpretation of a religious choral work at the 14th International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf?
... that the 1973 Indian film Kaadu, which won the National Award for Second Best Feature Film, was based on the novel of the same name by Srikrishna Alanahalli?
... that John F. Good's role in the Abscam sting operation was portrayed in the 2013 film American Hustle, though he felt if it was more like real life "it would be a very boring movie"?
... that FUNCINPEC started as a Cambodian resistance movement and later became a political party?
... that the Burmese court treatise Zabu Kun-Cha is believed to have been written by Chief Minister Min Yaza of Ava?
... that the ant Pachycondyla oligocenica is one of three Pachycondyla species with described fossil males?
... that Lidiane Lopes holds the Cape Verdean record in the women's 100-metre sprint?
... that the artwork of the West African Senufo people inspired Pablo Picasso?

In the news

Brandon Laird

In baseball, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters defeat the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to win the Japan Series (MVP Brandon Laird pictured).
Yazidi human rights activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar win the Sakharov Prize.
More than 60 people are killed in an attack on a police training centre in Quetta, Pakistan.
At least 70 people are killed and around 600 others injured in a train derailment in Cameroon.

On this day...

November 1: Twin Holy Birthdays begin (Bahá'í Faith, 2016); All Saints' Day (Western Christianity); National Day in Algeria (1954); Rajyotsava (Formation Day) in Karnataka, India (1956); World Vegan Day

Stephen of Blois

1141 – The Anarchy: Matilda's brief reign as the first female ruler of England ended when Stephen of Blois (pictured) regained the throne.
1611 – The first recorded performance of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest was held at the Palace of Whitehall in London, exactly seven years after the first certainly known performance of his tragedy Othello was held in the same building.
1876 – The Colony of New Zealand dissolved its nine provinces and replaced them with 63 counties.
1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams shot Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, one of his most famous photographs.
1956 – The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka were formally created under the States Reorganisation Act.

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Today's featured picture

A yellow-billed shrike (Corvinella corvina) with its prey. The yellow-billed shrike is a common resident breeding bird in tropical Africa from Senegal east to Uganda and locally in westernmost Kenya. It frequents forest and other habitats with trees. Although it generally feeds on insects, this shrike may hunt larger prey as well.

Photograph: Summet Moghe

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