Wikipedia:Today's featured list/October 2021
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October 1
The Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist is given each year for artists of works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. The award has been given annually under several names since 1955, with the exception of 1957. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The inaugural 1953 Hugo Awards recognized "Best Interior Illustrator" and "Best Cover Artist" categories, awarded to Virgil Finlay and a tie between Hannes Bok and Ed Emshwiller, respectively. The Best Professional Artist award was simply named "Best Artist" in 1955 and 1956, was not awarded in 1957, and was named "Outstanding Artist" in 1958, finally changing to its current name the following year. During the 74 nomination years, 89 artists have been nominated; 24 of these have won, including co-winners and Retrospective Hugo Awards. Michael Whelan (pictured) has received the most awards, with 13 wins out of 24 nominations. Frank Kelly Freas has 11 wins and 28 nominations, the most nominations of any artist. (This list is part of a featured topic: Hugo Awards.)
October 4
The first entry in the SaGa series of role-playing video games premiered in Japan in 1989, and SaGa games have subsequently been localized for markets in North America and Europe across multiple video game consoles since the series debut on the Game Boy with The Final Fantasy Legend. The series is developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Square). The original Game Boy trilogy was released outside of Japan under the Final Fantasy brand as a marketing move but was otherwise unrelated to the franchise. Several titles remained exclusive to Japan in their original forms, only coming to other territories with ports or remakes on later platforms. New SaGa games were released for home and handheld consoles until Unlimited Saga in 2002, after which Square Enix only developed ports and remakes of already released SaGa games until SaGa: Scarlet Grace in 2016. Beginning in 2012 with Emperors SaGa, the series expanded onto mobile and web browsers. The series has reached cumulative sales and downloads of over ten million units worldwide as of 2020. The Romancing SaGa trilogy is the best-selling part of the series, with four million copies sold worldwide. (Full list...)
October 8
There have been 55 race winners in the 67 editions of the Macau Grand Prix, an annual automobile road event for single seater racing cars that has been held every third or fourth weekend of November on the Guia Circuit in the streets of the territory of Macau. It was founded in 1954 by Fernando Macedo Pinto, Carlos da Silva and Paulo Antas as a local treasure hunt for car enthusiasts in the Pearl River Delta territory, but Swiss expatriate Paul Dutoit suggested that the route be used for local professional motor races. John MacDonald holds the record for the most Macau Grand Prix victories, having won the race four times. There have been eight drivers who have achieved two victories in Macau. Six drivers have won the race twice in succession but none have claimed three or more consecutive victories. The first winner of the Macau Grand Prix was the local driver Eduardo de Carvalho at the 1954 sports car event, and the most recent competitor to achieve their first victory in the territory was Hon Chio Leong of Macau who took his first win in the 2020 Formula 4 race. (Full list...)
October 11
The 1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea (WPNK) was elected by the 1st Congress on 30 August 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of North Korea and the New People's Party of Korea, and remained in session until the election of the 2nd Central Committee on 30 March 1948. In between party congresses and specially convened conferences the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution in the party and North Korea. Forty-three members were elected to the 1st Central Committee, of which thirty-one were re-elected at the 2nd Congress. Its members convened for the 1st Plenary Session on 31 August 1946 and elected the 1st Organisation Committee, 1st Standing Committee and the 1st Political Committee, and voted in Kim Tu-bong as the WPNK Chairman and Kim Il-sung and Chu Yong-ha were elected vice chairmen. A feature of North Korean politics was its factionalism. Four loosely defined factions had taken shape by this time; Kim Il-sung's partisans, domestic communists, the Yan'an group and the Soviet Koreans. (Full list...)
October 15
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American actor and producer Jake Gyllenhaal has received numerous awards and nominations, including a British Academy Film Award for playing Jack Twist in Ang Lee's romance Brokeback Mountain (2005). After receiving his first nominations for the 1999 film October Sky, Gyllenhaal's performance as the title character in the 2001 psychological thriller film Donnie Darko earned him a Young Hollywood Award. He received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role opposite Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. In 2014, Gyllenhaal starred in Nightcrawler as a stringer selling footage of violent late-night events; he was awarded Best Actor by several regional film critics associations and nominated for Best Actor at the 68th British Academy Film Awards and the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. For his performance in the Broadway play Sea Wall/A Life, he was nominated for Best Actor in a Play at the 74th Tony Awards. (Full list...)
October 18
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As of 2021, 100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia University in New York City, and 84 of them are officially listed as "Columbia's Nobel Laureates" by the university. The Nobel Prizes, established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, are awarded to individuals who make outstanding contributions in the fields of Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine. An associated prize, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (commonly known as the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences), was instituted by Sweden's central bank, Sveriges riksbank, in 1968 and was first awarded in 1969. Among the 100 laureates, 71 are Nobel laureates in natural sciences; 44 are Columbia alumni (graduates and attendees) and 33 have been long-term academic members of the Columbia faculty or Columbia-affiliated research organizations; subject-wise, 32 laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, more than in any other subject for the university. (Full list...)
October 22
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Five different songs topped the Billboard Latin Pop Airplay chart in 1994, and sixteen different tracks did the same in 1995. In October 1994, Billboard magazine established Latin Pop Airplay, a chart that ranks the top-performing songs played on Latin pop radio stations in the United States based on weekly airplay data compiled by Nielsen's Broadcast Data Systems. It is a subchart of Hot Latin Songs, which lists the best-performing Spanish-language songs in the country. The first song to reach number one on the Latin Pop Airplay chart was "Mañana" by Cristian Castro (pictured), which was composed and originally performed by Juan Gabriel. Castro was also the artist with the most number-one songs in 1995, with "Con Tu Amor", "Azul Gris" and "Vuélveme a Querer". Luis Miguel had two number-one songs on the chart in 1994, with "El Día Que Me Quieras" and "La Media Vuelta", the second of which was the final chart-topper of the year and the first at the start of 1995. (Full list...)
October 25
The Roberto Clemente Award is given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team", as voted on by baseball fans and members of the media. It is named for Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente. Originally known as the Commissioner's Award, it has been presented by MLB since 1971. In 1973, the award was renamed after Clemente following his death in a plane crash while he was delivering supplies to victims of the Nicaragua earthquake. The first recipient of the award was Willie Mays (pictured), and the most recent honoree is Adam Wainwright. The first pitcher to receive the award was Phil Niekro in 1980, and the first catcher to receive it was Gary Carter in 1989. The team to have the most winners representing their club is the St. Louis Cardinals. (Full list...)
October 29
As of 2021, Vietnam has eight sites inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites, and a further seven on the tentative list. Selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. Vietnam accepted the convention on 19 October 1987, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. The first site in the country to be added to the list was the Complex of Huế Monuments in 1993. Two cultural sites from Quảng Nam were listed in 1999: Hội An Ancient Town and Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary (pictured). Further sites were added in 1994, 2003, 2010, and 2016, when Tràng An Scenic Landscape Complex was inscribed as the first mixed site in Southeast Asia. (Full list...)