Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 October 23

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Retvizan in 1902

Retvizan was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy, launched on 23 October 1900. Named after a Swedish ship of the line that was captured during the battle of Vyborg Bay in 1790, Retvizan was transferred to the Far East in 1902. In the Russo-Japanese War, the ship was torpedoed during the Japanese attack on Port Arthur on the night of 8/9 February 1904 and grounded in the harbour entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside. She was refloated and repaired in time to join the rest of the 1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach Vladivostok through the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them again in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, forcing most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur. Retvizan was sunk there by Japanese howitzers in December, then raised and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy as Hizen in 1908. After World War I she supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War. (Full article...)

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A still frame from the film The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karađorđe

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In the news

Sebastián Piñera

In Santiago, Chile, protests over increased metro fares cause President Sebastián Piñera (pictured) to declare a state of emergency.
Several Lebanese cabinet ministers resign amid protests after the government announces plans to tax gasoline, tobacco, and online phone calls.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo jointly win the Booker Prize for Fiction.
The trial of Catalonia independence leaders concludes with nine prison sentences, sparking protests across the region.

On this day

October 23: Mole Day

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis

1641 – Irish Catholic gentry in Ulster tried to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, to force concessions to Catholics.
1850 – The first National Women's Rights Convention, presided over by Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (pictured), began in Worcester, Massachusetts.
1942 – World War II: Japanese forces began their ill-fated attempt to recapture Henderson Field in Solomon Islands from the Americans.
1956 – The Hungarian Revolution began as a peaceful student demonstration that attracted thousands as it marched through central Budapest to the parliament building.
1982 – An attempt to arrest members of a cult in Miracle Valley, Arizona, led to a shootout in which two church members were killed and seven police officers were injured.

John Heisman (b. 1869) · Douglas Jardine (b. 1900) · Daniel Wildenstein (d. 2001)

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Today's featured picture

Hurricane Patricia was the most intense tropical cyclone on record worldwide in terms of wind speed and the second-most intense on record worldwide in terms of pressure, behind Typhoon Tip in 1979, with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 872 mbar (hPa; 25.75 inHg). Originating from a sprawling disturbance near the Gulf of Tehuantepec, south of Mexico, in mid-October 2015, Patricia was first classified a tropical depression on October 20. Initial development was slow, with only modest strengthening within the first day of its classification. The system later became a tropical storm and was named Patricia, the twenty-fourth named storm of the annual hurricane season. Exceptionally favorable environmental conditions fueled explosive intensification on October 22. A well-defined eye developed within an intense central dense overcast and Patricia grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours – a near-record pace. On October 23, the hurricane achieved its record peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 215 mph (345 km/h). This made it the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere and the strongest globally in terms of one-minute maximum sustained winds.

This picture shows Hurricane Patricia on October 23, shortly after its record peak intensity, while approaching western Mexico. The image was captured by the MODIS instrument on board NASA's Terra satellite.

Photograph credit: NASA; edited by Meow

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