Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 November 26

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From today's featured article

The 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division of the British Army was active during the First and the Second World War. The division arrived in France in 1915. In July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, it captured the strongly held Mametz Wood with the loss of nearly 4,000 men, allowing XV Corps to advance to the next phase of the Somme offensive, the Battle of Bazentin Ridge. A year later it made a successful attack in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening of the Third Battle of Ypres. In 1918, during the German Spring Offensive and the Allies' subsequent Hundred Days Offensive, the division attacked several fortified German positions. It crossed the Ancre River, broke through the Hindenburg Line and German positions on the River Selle, and ended the war on the Belgian frontier; by then, it was considered one of the Army's elite units. The division was demobilised after the war. It was recreated in September 1939, but never deployed overseas as a division, restricted to home defence duties around the United Kingdom. It was constituted from September 1944 until the end of the war as the 38th Infantry (Reserve) Division, a training formation. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Opening of Bach's setting of "Es ist genug"

... that Bach's setting (pictured) of the chorale "Es ist genug" ("It is enough"), with a melody beginning with an unusual whole-tone sequence, was quoted with variations in Alban Berg's Violin Concerto?
... that Reginald Appleby founded the law firm Appleby which has been at the centre of the recent Paradise Papers leak?
... that American Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps won the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year after retiring twice?
... that Ourida Chouaki co-ordinated the 20 ans, barakat! ("20 years is enough!") campaign to reform the Algerian Family Code?
... that Northfield Allotments are claimed to be the oldest in London?
... that Archibald Wager served as the Clerk of Court for three colonial Virginia counties?
... that the reticulated knifefish is sensitive to electric charges and uses this ability to locate objects in the vicinity?
... that Elizabeth M. Bryan's wedding was attended by 25 sets of twins?

In the news

Artist's impression of ʻOumuamua

At least 305 people are killed in a terrorist attack on a mosque in Bir al-Abed, Egypt.
Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeds Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe following a military coup.
Former Republika Srpska military leader Ratko Mladić is sentenced to life imprisonment by the ICTY for genocide and war crimes in the Bosnian War.
Scientists describe ʻOumuamua (artist's impression shown), the first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System.
In American stock car racing, Martin Truex Jr. wins the NASCAR Cup Series.

On this day...

November 26: Feast day of Sylvester Gozzolini, and Feast of Christ the King (Catholic Church, 2017); Constitution Day in India (1949)

University of Notre Dame main building

1805 – The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest in the world, opened.
1842 – The University of Notre Dame (main building pictured) was founded by Rev. Edward Sorin, of the Congregation of Holy Cross, as an all-male institution in South Bend, Indiana, US.
1917 – Unable to resolve disputes with Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Blueshirts, the other ice hockey clubs of Canada's National Hockey Association officially agreed to break away and form the National Hockey League.
1942 – Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca.
1977 – A speaker claiming to represent the "Intergalactic Association" interrupted the Southern Television broadcast in South East England, warning viewers that "All your weapons of evil must be destroyed."

Sojourner Truth (d. 1883) • Helen C. White (b. 1896) • Tina Turner (b. 1939)

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Today's featured picture

A daguerreotype portrait of William Sidney Mount (1807–1868), an American artist best known for his genre paintings. Born in Long Island, New York, Mount began his career as a history painter but soon began depicting everyday scenes. Today, the largest collection of Mount's works is held at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages.

Photograph: Mathew Brady; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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