Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 November 1

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From today's featured article

Barbara L (1947–1977) was an American Quarter Horse that raced during the early 1950s. A bay daughter of a Thoroughbred stallion named Patriotic and a Quarter Horse broodmare named Big Bess, she often defeated some of the best racehorses of the time. She earned $32,836 (about $290,000 in 2015 dollars) on the race track in 81 starts and 21 wins, including six wins in stakes races, and set two track records during her racing career. After retiring from racing in 1955, she went on to become a broodmare and had 14 foals, including 11 who earned their Race Register of Merit with the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA). Her offspring earned more than $200,000 in race money. A stakes race was named in her honor and run at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico, in 1956. She earned a Dam of Distinction award from the AQHA in 2006, and was inducted the next year into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. (Full article...)

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In the news

Airbus A321-231 involved in the Kogalymavia Flight 9268 crash

Kogalymavia Flight 9268 (aircraft pictured) crashes in the Sinai Peninsula en route to St. Petersburg, Russia, killing all 224 people on board.
Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is awarded the 2015 Sakharov Prize for defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Bidhya Devi Bhandari is elected Nepal's first female President.
The People's Republic of China abolishes its one-child policy and imposes a two-child policy.
A 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 380 people and injuring more than 2,400 others.

Ongoing events:
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Philip French
- Ranjit Roy Chaudhury

On this day...

November 1: All Saints' Day (Western Christianity); National Day in Algeria (1954); Rajyotsava (Formation Day) in Karnataka, India (1956); World Vegan Day

Athenagoras I

1141 – The Anarchy: Matilda's brief reign as the first female ruler of England ended when Stephen of Blois regained the throne.
1876 – The Colony of New Zealand dissolved its nine provinces and replaced them with 63 counties.
1928 – The current 29-letter Turkish alphabet was introduced, replacing the Ottoman Turkish alphabet as the official writing system of the Turkish language.
1948 – Athenagoras I (pictured) was elected as the 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
1998 – The European Court of Human Rights was instituted as a permanent court with full-time judges to monitor compliance by the signatory parties of the European Convention on Human Rights.

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Today's featured picture

The Eckert II projection is an equal-area pseudocylindrical map projection presented by Max Eckert-Greifendorff in 1906. In the equatorial aspect (where the equator is shown as the horizontal axis) the network of longitude and latitude lines consists solely of straight lines, and the outer boundary has the distinctive shape of an elongated hexagon.

Map: Strebe, using Geocart

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