Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 October 13

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Ben Paschal (October 13, 1895 – November 10, 1974) was an American Major League Baseball player for eight seasons between 1915 and 1929. He spent most of his career as the fourth outfielder and right-handed pinch hitter of the Murderers' Row championship teams of the New York Yankees in the late 1920s. He is best known for hitting .360 in the 1925 season while standing in for Babe Ruth, who missed the first 40 games with a stomach ailment. Paschal was described as a five-tool player, excelling at running, throwing, fielding, hitting percentage and power hitting. His playing time with the Yankees was limited because they already had future Baseball Hall of Famers Ruth and Earle Combs, along with Bob Meusel, in the outfield. Paschal was considered one of the best bench players in baseball during his time with the Yankees, and sportswriters agreed that he would have started for most other teams in the American League. He was one of the best pinch hitters in the game at a time when the term was still relatively new to baseball. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know...

Cinder Butte Fire

... that in August 2017, the Cinder Butte Fire (pictured) threatened important archaeological sites in Central Oregon?
... that Prince of Wallachia Radu Paisie was deposed by his Ottoman overlords in 1545, with measures taken to prevent his "abscond[ing] with the treasury"?
... that both sides in the Battle of Emmendingen lost their commanding general, one to a musket ball, the other to a cannonball?
... that filmmaker Nicholas McCarthy and humorist John Hodgman co-edited a controversial high school magazine?
... that the milky ribbon worm feeds on soft-shell clams, inserting its proboscis through the siphon and devouring the soft tissues?
... that until 1968, a list of some 5,000 people, referred to as the "Indian List" due to the automatic inclusion of indigenous people, was prohibited from buying liquor from BC Liquor Stores?
... that the butterfly Calycopis pisis has a junior synonym named after American cartoonist Gary Larson?
... that Erich Mühe, the first surgeon to remove a gallbladder by laparoscopy, was initially mocked by his colleagues for performing "Mickey Mouse surgery"?

In the news

Tropical Depression 23W

Flash floods and landslides from a tropical depression (satellite image pictured) kill more than 50 people in Vietnam.
Wildfires in Northern California kill at least 31 people and destroy thousands of buildings and other structures.
Richard Thaler is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Flooding and landslides from Hurricane Nate kill at least 38 people in Central America.
Kazuo Ishiguro is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.

On this day...

October 13: Friday the 13th (2017)

Georgia Institute of Technology in 1899

1307 – Agents of King Philip IV of France launched a dawn raid, arresting many members of the Knights Templar, and subsequently torturing them into "admitting" heresy.
1885 – The Georgia Institute of Technology (pictured) was established in Atlanta as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the Southern United States.
1917 – At least 30,000 people in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal, witnessed the "Miracle of the Sun".
1979 – Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" topped the Billboard Hot 100.
2013 – During the Hindu festival of Navratri at a temple in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, rumours about an impending bridge collapse caused a stampede that resulted in 115 deaths.

Iyasu I (d. 1706) · Lillie Langtry (b. 1853) · Walter Houser Brattain (d. 1987)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

Elvis Presley

Twenty-six albums by deceased artists have posthumously reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, a weekly record chart based on sales of albums in the United Kingdom. The first deceased artist to top the UK Albums Chart was Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash on 10 December 1967. On 20 May 1968, Redding's sixth studio album, The Dock of the Bay, was released in the UK – three weeks later, it became his first and only UK number-one album. Since Redding, 11 further artists have posthumously topped the albums chart, of which three have done so more than twice. The first of these was American singer Eva Cassidy; after dying in 1996, three posthumous releases from Cassidy reached number one in consecutive years, 2001–03. The second musician to achieve this feat was American entertainer Elvis Presley (pictured). The death of a musician can often result in an immediate increase in sales of their albums. Following his death in 2009, the number of purchases of Michael Jackson's albums grew significantly worldwide. In the UK, sales of the singer's albums increased by more than 80 times in a single day. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

Suzzanna (1942–2008) was an Indonesian actress of Eurasian descent. Born in Bogor, while a teenager she took a starring role in Usmar Ismail's Asrama Dara (1958). Later in her career she became known as the "horror queen of Indonesian cinema", having portrayed such spirits as Nyai Roro Kidul and sundel bolong.

Photograph: Tati Studios; restoration: Chris Woodrich

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.