Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 October 9

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From today's featured article

Horizon Guyot is an underwater volcanic mountain with a flat top in the Mid-Pacific Mountains west of Hawaii and northeast of the Line Islands. An elongated ridge over 300 kilometres (190 mi) long and 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi) high, it stretches in a northeast–southwest direction, rising to a depth of 1,443 metres (4,734 ft). It was probably formed by a hotspot, but evidence is conflicting. Its volcanic activity occurred between 100.5 and 82 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Around 89 million years ago, carbonate deposition from lagoonal and reefal environments set in and formed limestone. Volcanic islands developed on Horizon Guyot as well and were colonised by plants. Pelagic ooze has accumulated on the seamount, forming a thick layer that has been further modified by ocean currents, landslides, and various organisms living on it. Ferromanganese crusts have been deposited on exposed rocks. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Barr's Strange Children ballet

... that choreographer Margaret Barr created more than 80 works (example pictured), inspired by subjects such as Mahatma Gandhi, Margaret Mead, drought, and the Melbourne Cup?
... that birds nest in the Quelccaya Ice Cap of Peru?
... that Deng Hongkui and Chen Hu were the first to use CRISPR gene editing on an HIV patient?
... that the upper level of New York's 63rd Street Tunnel took 20 years to open, while the lower level is still under construction after nearly half a century?
... that Polish entomologist Sergiusz Toll amassed a collection of about 8,000 bird eggs and 12,000 butterflies and moths while in Bydgoszcz?
... that a snake chased a mouse into the transmitter of Nebraska radio station KWRV in 1962, knocking it off the air for two hours?
... that despite the party's anti-smoking faction, the Sturmabteilung was funded by a Nazi cigarette company?
... that Jane Eskind was the first woman to win a statewide election in Tennessee?
... that the Free School Under the Bridge in Delhi uses a metro bridge as its roof and blackboards painted on the wall of a depot?

In the news

Khalifa International Stadium

Archaeologists announce the discovery of En Esur, the largest known Bronze Age settlement in the Southern Levant.
The World Athletics Championships (location pictured) conclude in Doha, Qatar.
At least ninety people are killed in protests over poor living conditions and state corruption in Iraq.
A privately owned Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crashes in Connecticut, United States, killing seven people and injuring seven others.

On this day

October 9: Leif Erikson Day

A 2009 performance of The Phantom of the Opera

1676 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek wrote a letter to the Royal Society describing "animalcules" – the first known description of protozoa.
1874 – The Universal Postal Union, then known as the General Postal Union, was established with the signing of the Treaty of Bern to unify disparate postal services and regulations so that international mail could be exchanged easily.
1986 – The Phantom of the Opera (scene pictured), a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and currently the longest-running Broadway show in history, opened in London's West End.
2012 – Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was severely injured by a Taliban gunman in a failed assassination attempt.

Edward Bok (b. 1863) · Ivo Andrić (b. 1892) · John Lennon (b. 1940)

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Today's featured picture

The sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) is an antelope which inhabits wooded savanna in eastern and southern Africa, from the south of Kenya to South Africa, with a separate population in Angola. The species is sexually dimorphic, with the male heavier and about one-fifth taller than the female. It has a compact and robust build, characterized by a thick neck and tough skin, and both sexes have ringed horns which arch backward. The sable antelope has four subspecies.

This picture shows an adult male common sable antelope (H. n. niger) in the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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