Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 October 18

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Deathrow is a sports video game developed by Southend Interactive and published by Ubisoft Entertainment. It was released as an Xbox gaming system exclusive in November 2002 in Europe and North America. Built on an in-house 3D game engine, it was Southend's first full release. Supporting up to eight players, the game is based on the fictional extreme sport Blitz, a futuristic full-contact hybrid of hockey and basketball played with a flying disc. Teams can win on points or by knocking opposing players unconscious. The single-player campaign is set in the 23rd century, when Blitz is a popular televised sport and the teams battle to scale the ranks and win the championship. The game's largely favorable reviews praised its fast-paced action and surround sound, but faulted its high difficulty curve, generic soundtrack, and lack of an online multiplayer mode. The game won the TeamXbox 2002 Breakthrough Game of the Year and the IGN 2002 Best Game Nobody Played awards. IGN later reported that a sequel would be unlikely due to the original's low revenue. Southend dissolved in 2013. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Bathers Along the Shore, 1910

... that American artist Louise Upton Brumback (painting pictured) said of artists as teachers that "the great ones won't teach their secrets, and the little ones have none to teach"?
... that queens of the fossil ant Pachycondyla petiolosa are described as being heavy and massive?
... that Split, the debut novel by Swati Avasthi, an Indian American writer and teacher, was published in 2010 and received a plethora of awards?
... that Ty Isaac‍‍ '‍s 515-yard rushing performance was an Illinois High School Association championship game record?
... that DEC's VT1000 X terminals were designed for simplicity after the firm found their expensive workstations were being used mostly as glorified text terminals?
... that the Greek Constitution of 1973 is the second in modern Greek history to have resulted from a failed coup by the Hellenic Navy?
... that with its campaign for Shadowrun Returns, Harebrained Schemes became the third video game studio to break $1 million on Kickstarter?
... that Loretta Marron became known as "the Jelly Bean Lady" after using jelly beans to test bogus health products?

In the news

Alexander Lukashenko

Anheuser-Busch InBev agrees to the purchase of SABMiller for £69 billion.
Dell Inc. agrees to the acquisition of EMC Corporation for US$67 billion in cash and stock.
Alexander Lukashenko (pictured) is re-elected President of Belarus for a fifth term.
Angus Deaton is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
At least 105 people are killed and more than 500 others injured in twin bombings at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey.

On this day...

October 18: Feast day of Saint Luke; Independence Day in Azerbaijan (1991); Alaska Day (1867)

Evita Perón

1081 – Byzantine–Norman wars: The Normans under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, defeated the Byzantines outside the city of Dyrrhachium, the Byzantine capital of Illyria.
1356 – The most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central Europe in recorded history destroyed Basel, Switzerland, and caused much destruction in a vast region extending into France and Germany.
1748 – The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón married popular actress Eva Duarte, better known as Evita (pictured).
2007 – A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto in Karachi caused at least 139 deaths and 450 injuries.

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Today's featured picture

The Sicilian wall lizard (Podarcis waglerianus) is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. Endemic to Italy, it occurs in temperate forests, temperate shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, temperate grassland, arable land, pastureland, and rural gardens in Sicily and the Aegadian Islands. The species' numbers are generally stable, and it has been listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Photograph: Benny Trapp

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