Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 October 19b

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From today's featured article

John (1166–1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death. The youngest of the four surviving sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, he became Henry's favourite after a revolt by his brothers Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey. Despite rebelling against King Richard, who was away on the Third Crusade, he became king after Richard's death. War with France broke out in 1202; John achieved early victories, but shortages of resources led to the loss of the Duchy of Normandy and most other French lands. His judicial reforms had a lasting effect on English law and provided him with revenue from fines and court fees. An argument with Pope Innocent III led to John's excommunication from 1209 to 1213. John faced a rebellion by many of his barons, and although they agreed to the Magna Carta peace accord in 1215, neither side complied with it, and civil war broke out shortly afterwards. John died of dysentery while on campaign in late 1216. (Full article...)

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Haukilahti water tower

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In the news

Sir David Amess

British Member of Parliament Sir David Amess (pictured) dies after being stabbed during a constituency meeting.
Severe Tropical Storm Kompasu kills 40 people in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
In cricket, the Indian Premier League concludes with Chennai Super Kings defeating Kolkata Knight Riders in the final in Dubai.
A building fire in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, kills at least 46 people and injures 41 others.

On this day

October 19

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky by Benjamin West

1596 – The Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on the Japanese island of Shikoku, and its cargo confiscated by the local daimyō.
1752 – The Pennsylvania Gazette published a statement by Benjamin Franklin describing a kite experiment (depicted) to determine the electrical nature of lightning.
1943 – World War II: Allied aircraft sank the German cargo ship Sinfra, killing mostly Italian POWs.
1955 – At a meeting of its general assembly, the European Broadcasting Union approved the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.
1987 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 22.6 percent on Black Monday, the largest one-day percentage decline in the stock market index's history.

Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (b. 1897)
Demetrios Christodoulou (b. 1951)
Ali Treki (d. 2015)

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Today's featured picture

The red-billed gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus), also known as the tarāpung, is a member of the gull family, Laridae. Endemic to New Zealand, it is found throughout the country and on outlying islands including the Chatham Islands and the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands. Formerly considered a separate species, it is now usually treated as a subspecies of the silver gull. It regularly feeds on small fish, shell fish and worms, and sometimes berries, lizards and insects; it scavenges among urban waste in coastal towns. This red-billed gull was photographed in Christchurch.

Photograph credit: Michal Klajban

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