Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 October 12

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From today's featured article

Gonzalo at peak intensity north of the Greater Antilles

Hurricane Gonzalo formed on October 12, 2014, and became the first Category 4 Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Ophelia in 2011. It made landfall on Antigua, Saint Martin, and Anguilla as a Category 1 hurricane. Antigua and Barbuda sustained US$40 million in losses, and three people died on Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy. Gonzalo intensified into a major hurricane, peaking on October 16 with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h). It struck Bermuda less than a week after the surprisingly fierce Hurricane Fay; the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season was the first in recorded history with two hurricane landfalls in Bermuda. Gonzalo battered the island with wind gusts as high as 144 mph (232 km/h), downing hundreds of trees and causing widespread roof damage and power outages, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported. A large storm system from the remnants of Gonzalo battered the British Isles and central Europe on October 21, killing three people in the United Kingdom. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Howrah railway station

... that Kolkata, the smallest by area of India's six A-1 cities, has the country's largest suburban rail system by track length and number of stations (one pictured)?
... that the American tubist Constance Weldon "fell in love with the tuba" after her father brought one home from a pawn shop?
... that the National Covenant was signed after protests possibly started by Jenny Geddes throwing a stool at the dean of St Giles'?
... that it took until 2009 to determine which of two apostles was the patron of the 14th-century church of St. Jacobi in Werther?
... that YouTube channel All Gas No Brakes contains interviews with flat earthers, QAnon adherents, and other groups that its host says represent "true Americana"?
... that French historian Josette Elayi was made a knight of the Legion of Honour by the French government for her works on Phoenician history?
... that My Lonesome Cowboy, a sculpture created by artist Takashi Murakami as a companion to his earlier Hiropon, sold at auction for US$15.1 million – nearly four times the amount at which it had been valued?
... that the New York Tribune Building, once New York City's second tallest building, "vanished almost without a trace, and barely a whimper"?

In the news

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

LeBron James

In basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals (MVP LeBron James pictured).
The UN World Food Programme is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger.
Poet Louise Glück is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a method for genome editing.

On this day

October 12: Thanksgiving in Canada (2020); National Day in Spain (1492)

New York City entrance of the Holland Tunnel

1406 – Chen Yanxiang, the only person from Indonesia known to have visited dynastic Korea, reached Seoul after having set out from Java four months before.
1798 – The Peasants' War began in Overmere, Southern Netherlands, with peasants taking up arms against the French occupiers.
1920 - Construction began on the Holland Tunnel (entrance pictured) under the Hudson River, linking New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey, in the United States.
1960 – Japan Socialist Party leader Inejirō Asanuma was assassinated during a live television recording by a man using a samurai sword.
1992 – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 or 5.9 struck south of Cairo, Egypt, killing 545 people.

Juan José Castelli (d. 1812)
Gilbert Parkhouse (b. 1925)
Anna Escobedo Cabral (b. 1959)

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From today's featured list

Emanuel Kudela, who died in a cycling accident in 1920

Documented deaths of competitive cyclists date to when the safety or two-wheel bicycle was invented in the late 19th century. Cycling as transportation and as sport became more popular (including bicycle racing). Accidents on velodromes date back to cycling's early days and were sometimes fatal. Various health issues for competitive cyclists including performance-enhancing attempts and cardiac events have also been part of cycling's history. From the 1890s until the present era, at least 100 professional or competitive amateur cyclists have died during races – usually from accidents but sometimes from various health conditions – and in that same timeframe over 30 cyclists have died in accidents while training on open roads. Many of these cyclists are remembered in museums, and with roadside memorials, plaques, statues, and shrines. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas entitled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the Ring cycle. The work's title originates from Norse mythology and refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world. This painting is an 1894 reproduction of the final scene from Götterdämmerung, showing Valhalla in flames, by Max Brückner, one of the original set designers for the opera.

Painting credit: Max Brückner; restored by Adam Cuerden

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