Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 November 12

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From today's featured article

A painting of Tirpitz's wreck
in June 1945

Operation Catechism was a British air raid of World War II that resulted in the destruction of the German battleship Tirpitz (depiction shown). On 12 November 1944, 29 Royal Air Force heavy bombers targeted the battleship at an anchorage near the Norwegian city of Tromsø. The ship capsized after being struck by at least two bombs and damaged by the explosions of others, killing between 940 and 1,204 members of the crew. Rescuers picked up hundreds of her crew from the water, but few of those trapped within the hull were saved. The British bombers were unmolested by a unit of German fighter aircraft stationed near Tromsø, and only one was significantly damaged by anti-aircraft artillery. The attack marked the end of a long-running series of air and naval operations against Tirpitz. The battleship's destruction was celebrated in Allied countries, as well as by Norwegian civilians, and is commemorated by several memorials and displays in museums. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

John A. Barnes III

... that 52 years ago today, PFC John A. Barnes III (pictured) was killed after jumping on a grenade to save wounded comrades during the Vietnam War?
... that New York City's Beekman Tower, built as housing for women in college sororities, was later patronized by United Nations delegates?
... that cricketer Yashasvi Jaiswal lived in a tent and sold panipuri before becoming the youngest List A double centurion?
... that the assassin bug Rhynocoris marginatus injects venomous saliva into its prey to paralyse it?
... that Rhode Island Public Radio's 2007 acquisition of WAKX brought NPR service to communities in southern Rhode Island for the first time?
... that Helmuth Froschauer, a former member of the Vienna Boys' Choir, later conducted the ensemble on 22 international tours?
... that Massport is expanding its Logan Express service, expecting to remove up to 3 million vehicle trips from the roads in and around Boston's Logan International Airport?
... that Tsai Ying-wen jokingly said that his award-winning book had sold well because readers mistook the author as Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen?

In the news

Evo Morales

After weeks of protests over electoral fraud, Bolivian president Evo Morales (pictured) and other high-ranking politicians are forced to resign, and opposition senator Jeanine Áñez becomes interim president.
A border corridor is opened between Pakistan and India, allowing Indian Sikh pilgrims visa-free access to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib for the first time since the partition.
Scientists describe Danuvius guggenmosi, a new species of ancient great ape capable of upright walking.

On this day

November 12: Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2019)

Robert Falcon Scott

1905 – In a referendum, 79 percent of voters opted to keep Norway a monarchy, paving the way for Haakon VII to take the throne.
1912 – The bodies of Robert Falcon Scott (pictured) and his companions were discovered, roughly eight months after their deaths during the ill-fated British Antarctic Expedition 1910.
1970 – The Oregon Highway Division unsuccessfully attempted to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale near Florence, Oregon, with dynamite.
1996 – A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines cargo plane collided in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 people.
2006 – Although the Georgian government declared it illegal, South Ossetia held a referendum on independence, with about 99 percent of voters in favour of preserving the region's status as a de facto independent state.

Zhang Jing (d. 1555) · Auguste Rodin (b. 1840) · Edward Soriano (b. 1946)

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Today's featured picture

Portsmouth Cathedral, officially known as the Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, is an Anglican cathedral church in Portsmouth, England. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of Portsmouth and the seat of the bishop of Portsmouth. The cruciform building was constructed in the Romanesque style on land donated by Norman lord Jean de Gisors in the 1180s and dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket, who was martyred around ten years earlier. It was made a cathedral upon the establishment of the Diocese of Portsmouth, which was split from the Diocese of Winchester in 1927, after which it was extended in a "Neo-Byzantine" style by Charles Nicholson.

This picture shows the cathedral's quire, built in a classical style in the late 17th century, looking northeastwards towards the apse.

Photograph credit: David Iliff

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