Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 October 14

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From today's featured article

Crowds await news at the Universal Colliery.

The Senghenydd colliery disaster occurred at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, on 14 October 1913. The explosion, which killed 439 miners and a rescuer, is still the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom. In an earlier disaster in May 1901, three underground explosions at the colliery killed 81 miners; the inquest into that accident established that the colliery had high levels of airborne coal dust, which would have exacerbated the explosion and carried it further into the mine workings. The cause of the 1913 explosion may have been a spark from underground signalling equipment. The miners in the east side of the workings were evacuated, but the men in the western section bore the brunt of the explosion, fire and afterdamp—a poisonous mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen left after an explosion. It took several weeks for most of the bodies to be recovered. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Female apple maggot

... that adult apple maggot flies (example pictured) use their wing patterns defensively to mimic spiders?
... that Celia Harvey has been a countess, a lecturer, a parliamentary candidate, and a British Army brigadier?
... that today's Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Fleet Review was canceled due to Typhoon Hagibis?
... that Hans Riemer went from being a prisoner of war in 1945 to President of Austria's Bundesrat in 1955?
... that the Archer Avenue subway took 16 years to finish, was completed at a cost of nearly five times its original budget, and was cut back to a fraction of its original length?
... that the Australian Aboriginal community of Ali Curung is named after a nearby ancestral Dingo Dreaming site?
... that the murder of Chicago alderman Benjamin F. Lewis was considered unsolvable for having too many suspects?
... that a tournament in which a goat is awarded as the top prize was used by the selectors of India's Special Area Games Scheme to scout for field hockey players?

In the news

Brigid Kosgei in 2018

Kenyan Brigid Kosgei (pictured) breaks the women’s marathon world record at the Chicago Marathon.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge becomes the first person to run the marathon distance in less than two hours, in a non-IAAF event in Vienna, Austria.
Former cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first person to conduct a spacewalk, dies at the age of 85.
Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in easing the long-standing tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

On this day

October 14: First day of Sukkot (Judaism, 2019); Thanksgiving in Canada (2019); Defender of Ukraine Day

Erwin Rommel

1758 – Third Silesian War: At the Battle of Hochkirch, an Austrian army under Leopold Joseph von Daun surprised the Prussians commanded by Frederick the Great, overwhelming them and forcing a general retreat.
1912 – Former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt was shot in an assassination attempt, but delivered a speech before receiving treatment from preeminent surgeon John Benjamin Murphy.
1939 – Second World War: The German submarine U-47 torpedoed and sank the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak while the latter was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland.
1944 – Having been linked to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, German field marshal Erwin Rommel (pictured) was forced to commit suicide.
1979 – At least 75,000 people attended the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C., to demand equal civil rights for LGBT people.

Joseph Plateau (b. 1801) · Jessie Bonstelle (d. 1932) · Julius Nyerere (d. 1999)

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From today's featured list

Foo Fighters

The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for quality rock music albums. The Grammy Awards are presented at a ceremony annually by The Recording Academy of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". The Best Rock Album honor was first presented to The Rolling Stones at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards (1995) for the album Voodoo Lounge. The band Foo Fighters (pictured) holds the records for the most wins, with four. Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Muse and U2 have each received the award twice. Neil Young holds the record for the most nominations without a win, with seven. The band Greta Van Fleet most recently won the award for their album From the Fires at the 2019 ceremony. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Roundhay Garden Scene is a short silent actuality film recorded by French inventor Louis Le Prince on 14 October 1888, filmed in Roundhay, Leeds, in the north of England. The footage is believed to be the oldest surviving film in existence. The footage features Louis's son Adolphe Le Prince, mother-in law Sarah Whitley, father-in-law Joseph Whitley, and Annie Hartley, believed to be a family friend, in the garden of Oakwood Grange, the Whitleys' home, leisurely walking around the garden of the premises. This digital remastered version of the film contains 52 frames and is played back at a modern cinematographic frame rate, yielding a running time of 2.11 seconds. Adolphe Le Prince stated, however, that the film was originally shot at 12 frames per second, which would result in a duration of 4.33 seconds.

Film credit: Louis Le Prince

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