Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 November 14

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From today's featured article

First X-ray laser

Project Excalibur was an American Cold War–era research program to develop nuclear-device-powered, space-based X-ray lasers as a ballistic missile defense. X-ray lasers were conceived in the 1970s by George Chapline Jr. (pictured with George Maenchen) and further developed by Peter L. Hagelstein, both working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Edward Teller. After a promising test, Teller discussed the proposal in 1981 with US president Ronald Reagan, who in 1983 incorporated it in his Strategic Defense Initiative. Further underground nuclear tests suggested progress was being made. Reagan refused to abandon the technology at the 1986 Reykjavík Summit arms-control talks, even after a critical test demonstrated it was not working as expected. Researchers at Livermore and Los Alamos began to raise concerns about test results, and the infighting became public. In 1988 the program budget was cut dramatically, after additional problems were revealed. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

A dog bedecked with flower garlands

... that on this day, Nepali people worship dogs (example pictured) to please Yama?
... that as part of a famous priority dispute, E. T. Whittaker's 1953 book claimed that Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz developed the theory of special relativity before Albert Einstein?
... that journalist Robert Sam Anson, assigned to cover boxer Joe Frazier, instead got into the ring with him and suffered a broken leg or dislocated shoulder as a result?
... that a fatberg heavier than an African elephant was removed from a sewer beneath Cadogan Place?
... that author and book reviewer Janice Harayda started an all-woman church service in New York City in 1974?
... that the video game I Hate Running Backwards was named after a quote from the Serious Sam series?
... that Dámasa Cabezón was contracted by the Bolivian government to establish a school for girls in La Paz after having done so in Santiago de Chile?
... that Georgies is known as "the gay Cheers"?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Martín Vizcarra

Manuel Merino becomes President of Peru after Martín Vizcarra (pictured) is impeached and removed from office.
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement to end the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
In cricket, the Indian Premier League concludes with the Mumbai Indians defeating the Delhi Capitals in the final.
In stock car racing, Chase Elliott wins the NASCAR Cup Series.

On this day

November 14: World Diabetes Day

Milli Vanilli with NARAS president C. Michael Greene (center)

1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovered the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope.
1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932, chartered by the Marshall University football team, crashed into a hill near Ceredo, West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board.
1990 – Music producer Frank Farian admitted that the German R&B duo Milli Vanilli (pictured) did not sing the vocals on their album Girl You Know It's True.
2010 – Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel won the Drivers' Championship after winning the final race of the season, becoming the youngest Formula One champion.

Hugh Faringdon (d. 1539)
Franz Müller (d. 1864)
Ahmed Jabari (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

The Hunting of the Snark is a poem composed by the English writer Lewis Carroll between 1874 and 1876, typically characterised as a nonsense poem. The plot follows a crew of ten who cross the ocean to hunt the Snark, which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. This is the second of Henry Holiday's original illustrations for the first edition of the poem. It introduces some of the crew, whose names all start with "B"; the Bellman and Baker are on the upper deck, with the Barrister seated in the background; below are the Billiard-marker, the Banker and the Broker, with the maker of Bonnets and Hoods visible behind.

Illustration credit: Henry Holiday, after Lewis Carroll; restored by Adam Cuerden

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