Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 November 24

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The SECR N class was a steam locomotive designed by Richard Maunsell for mixed-traffic duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) in London and south-east England. This locomotive class, with two leading wheels and no trailing wheels (2-6-0), was mechanically similar to the SECR K class 2-6-4 passenger tank engine, also by Maunsell. Built at Ashford Works and the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, between 1917 and 1934, the N class was based on the GWR 4300 Class design, improved with Midland Railway concepts. The class replaced obsolete 0-6-0s as part of the SECR's fleet standardisation, using parts interchangeable with those of other classes. Eighty N class locomotives were built in three batches between the First and Second World Wars. They worked over most of the Southern Railway network, and were used by the Southern Region of British Railways until the last was withdrawn in 1966. One locomotive is preserved on the Swanage Railway in Dorset, undergoing overhaul. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Detail of chandelier in Thorne miniature room

... that Narcissa Niblack Thorne commissioned approximately 100 miniature rooms replicating historical interiors from Europe and North America on a 1:12 scale (detail of chandelier pictured)?
... that Ratna Ani Lestari and her husband, the regent of Jembrana, were the first married couple to lead two adjacent Indonesian regencies?
... that the French submarine Amazone was named after a mythological tribe of women warriors?
... that Ryan Kocer won the Best Male Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award in 2008 after losing his left leg the year before?
... that the shear vane was developed for testing soils, but has also been used on snow to determine the risk of an avalanche forming?
... that political scientist Hu Fo counted among his students the former president, vice president, and premier of Taiwan?
... that Gorgonorhynchus repens has an unusual sticky, branched proboscis with which it snares its prey?
... that in 1953, Francis D. Pastorius and Edward E. Holloway were elected to local offices that the Philadelphia city government had abolished a month earlier?

In the news

Joey Logano

In U.S. stock car racing, Joey Logano (pictured) wins the NASCAR Cup Series.
The wreck of Argentinian submarine San Juan, which disappeared in November 2017, is found in the South Atlantic.
David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sells for more than US$90 million, the highest price for a work by a living artist at auction.
The General Conference on Weights and Measures confirms new definitions for the units kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole.

On this day

November 24: Holodomor Remembrance Day in Ukraine (2018)

On the Origin of Species

1750 – Tarabai, former regent of the Maratha Empire, had Rajaram II, whom she had previously claimed was her grandson, arrested as an impostor.
1859 – On the Origin of Species (title page pictured) by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
1922 – Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Erskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi-automatic pistol.
1943 – World War II: Following the American capture of Makin Atoll, USS Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from Japanese submarine I-175, killing 644.
2012 – A fire at a clothing factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed at least 117 people.

Junípero Serra (b. 1713) · Diego Rivera (d. 1957) · Beth Phoenix (b. 1980)

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Today's featured picture

Farida Arriany (24 November 1938 – 15 October 1977), was an Indonesian actress and singer. Born in Bandung, West Java, she made her feature film debut in 1955, taking the role of Sari in Golden Arrow's Kasih Ibu (A Mother's Love). She appeared in eighteen further films in the following six years, including an apearance as Lastri in the 1957 film Anakku Sajang (My Dear Child), for which she won Best Leading Actress at the 1960 Indonesian Film Week. She established her own film company in the 1960s, producing Kami Bangun Hari Esok (We Wake Tomorrow) in 1963, the first Indonesian film shot with CinemaScope. After a period of inactivity in the mid-1960s she appeared in films again from 1969 until her death, including a singing role in Sjumandjaja's Apa jang Kau Tjari, Palupi? (What Are You Seeking, Palupi?) and Wim Umboh's Laki-Laki Tak Bernama (Man Without a Name).

Photograph: Tati Studio. Restoration: Chris Woodrich

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