Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 October 20

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From today's featured article

Hurricane Patricia set records for the highest maximum sustained winds ever recorded in a tropical cyclone and the second-lowest barometric pressure (after Typhoon Tip of 1979). Originating near the Gulf of Tehuantepec off the Pacific coast of southern Mexico, the system was classified as a tropical depression on October 20, 2015. The next day it became a tropical storm, the twenty-fourth named storm of the 2015 Pacific hurricane season. The following day it grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours. The National Hurricane Center ultimately estimated that Patricia attained winds of 215 mph (345 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 872 mbar (hPa; 25.75 inHg). The storm made landfall on October 23 near Cuixmala, Jalisco, in a significantly weakened state, but it was still the strongest recorded hurricane to strike Mexico's Pacific coast, with winds estimated at 150 mph (240 km/h). (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Franz Halder

... that Franz Halder (pictured), a former chief of staff of Nazi Germany's army, was the only German to be decorated by both Adolf Hitler and an American president?
... that at 2.5 miles (4.0 km), New York City's South Beach Boardwalk was cited as the fourth longest boardwalk in the world in 2010?
... that medical researcher Shuping Wang may have saved tens of thousands of lives by defying authorities and exposing an HIV/AIDS scandal in China?
... that two years after going on the air, WBCE radio switched from country to gospel music because too many stations in western Kentucky had country formats?
... that Lee Eun-soo was South Korea's seventh female general officer and the first in the legal branch?
... that at the 2019 China Championship, Judd Trump's fifteen-match and six-month winning streak was broken when he was defeated by Joe Perry?
... that Gujarati writer Rambha Gandhi wrote and participated in more than 400 radio plays?
... that the 1977 fantasy novel The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions was originally planned as a children's book?

In the news

Abhijit Banerjee

The trial of Catalonia independence leaders concludes with nine prison sentences, sparking protests across the region.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Abhijit Banerjee (pictured), Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for their work in poverty reduction.
Ten days of protests in Ecuador end after President Lenín Moreno agrees to restore fuel subsidies.
Kenyan Brigid Kosgei breaks the women's marathon world record at the Chicago Marathon.

On this day

October 20

Pope Pius XII

1740 – Under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Maria Theresa assumed the throne of the Habsburg Monarchy in Austria.
1939 – Pope Pius XII (pictured) published his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, critiquing ideologies such as racism, cultural superiority and totalitarianism.
1951 – African-American college football player Johnny Bright was the victim of an on-field assault that eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules and mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards.
2011 – Libyan Civil War: Deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured by rebel forces during the Battle of Sirte and killed less than an hour later.

Ralph d'Escures (d. 1122) · James Chadwick (b. 1891) · Chen Liting (b. 1910)

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Today's featured picture

Atiśa (982–1054) was a Bengali Buddhist religious leader and master from the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the major figures in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra. In 1013, he travelled to the kingdom of Srivijaya and stayed there for 12 years before returning to India. He is recognised as one of the greatest figures of classical Buddhism. Atiśa's chief disciple, Dromtön, was the founder of the Kadam school, one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism, later supplanted by the Gelug tradition in the 14th century, adopting its teachings and absorbing its monasteries. In 2004, Atiśa was ranked 18th in the BBC's poll of the greatest Bengalis of all time.

This picture is a Tibetan painting of Atiśa, produced in the early to mid-12th century with distemper and gold on cloth. In this depiction, he holds a long, thin palm-leaf manuscript with his left hand, probably symbolizing one of the many important texts he wrote, while making the gesture of teaching with his right hand. The painting originated from a Kadam monastery in Tibet and was gifted to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1993.

Painting credit: unknown

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