Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 October 31b

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From today's featured article

Bill Kibby (15 April 1903 – 31 October 1942) was a British-born Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces during World War II. In 1940, Kibby enlisted in the all-volunteer Second Australian Imperial Force and joined the 2/48th Infantry Battalion. He was injured before the Siege of Tobruk, but was with the battalion during the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942. In October, the battalion was committed to the Second Battle of El Alamein. Between 23 and 31 October, Kibby went forward alone and silenced an enemy machine gun post, mended a telephone line under heavy fire, and pressed forward under withering machine gun fire to help his company capture its objective. After this final action ultimately cost him his life, the Victoria Cross was awarded for his inspirational leadership. (Full article...)

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Krishna Lal Adhikari in prison

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In the news

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

Sean Connery

Scottish actor Sean Connery (pictured) dies at the age of 90.
An earthquake in the Aegean Sea kills at least 38 people and injures more than 900 others.
Typhoon Molave hits the Philippines and Vietnam, killing 96 people and leaving 53 others missing.
In baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series.

On this day

October 31: Halloween

Strikers surrounding a streetcar in Indianapolis

683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, considered the holiest site in Islam, was severely damaged by fire.
1913 – Public-transportation workers in Indianapolis went on strike (pictured), shutting down mass transit in the city.
1973 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the prison's exercise yard.
1999 – All 217 people on board EgyptAir Flight 990 perished when the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (d. 1214)
Anne Claude de Caylus (b. 1692)
Michael Collins (b. 1930)

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Today's featured picture

Candy apples (also known as toffee apples outside North America) are whole apples covered in a sugar candy coating, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts, with a stick inserted as a handle. These are a common treat at autumn festivals in Western culture in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Halloween, because these festivals occur in the wake of annual apple harvests. According to one source, candy apples were invented by Newark candy maker William W. Kolb in 1908 while experimenting in his candy shop with red cinnamon candy for the Christmas trade. This photograph shows a candy apple coated with red caramel and covered in chopped peanuts.

Photograph credit: Evan Amos

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