Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 November 29

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From today's featured article

New York State Route 308 is a 6.19-mile-long (9.96 km) state highway within northern Dutchess County in New York State that connects U.S. Route 9 and NY 9G. The western end of the highway is in the Rhinebeck Village Historic District, a 2.6-square-mile (6.7 km²) area that features 272 buildings in a variety of architectural styles. NY 308 passes near the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, several historical landmarks, and the Landsman Kill River, a minor tributary of the Hudson River. Around 1685, the Native American Sepasco Trail ran from the Hudson eastward through modern-day Rhinebeck and ended at Lake Sepasco, roughly following NY 308 and its side roads. The trail remained until 1802, when part of the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike was chartered over it, extending from Salisbury, Connecticut, to the Susquehanna River at or near the town of Jericho (now Bainbridge). NY 308 incorporates a portion of the former turnpike. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Einsatzgruppen murder Jews in Ivanhorod.

... that a right-wing West German newspaper claimed that an iconic Holocaust photograph (pictured) depicting the murder of Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, was a Communist forgery?
... that the string-of-sausage lichen is very sensitive to air pollution and has become locally extinct over much of its former range?
... that bryologist Margaret Sibella Brown was awarded an honorary master of arts degree from Acadia University at the age of 84?
... that Robin Sparkles's "Let's Go to the Mall" was inspired by Alanis Morissette's material from her pre-Jagged Little Pill years?
... that neuroscientist Yang Dan and her team discovered that mice either enter a dream state or eat more in response to activation of certain brain neurons?
... that a small group of besieged Nizari Ismailis in the fortress of Shahdiz refused an offer of a safe withdrawal and fought against the Seljuk army from tower to tower in a last stand?
... that the Cubbington Pear Tree, voted England's Tree of the Year for 2015, is at risk of being felled during construction of High Speed 2?
... that the Ming dynasty awarded the pirate Wang Zhi 100 shoulder-loads of rice, which he dumped into the sea?

In the news

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen (pictured) defeats Fabiano Caruana to retain the World Chess Championship.
NASA's InSight successfully lands on Mars.
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko declares martial law after Russian forces seize three ships in the disputed Kerch Strait near Crimea.
In Canadian football, the Calgary Stampeders defeat the Ottawa Redblacks to win the Grey Cup.
In motorsport, the Formula One season concludes with Lewis Hamilton winning the Drivers' Championship and Mercedes the Constructors' title.

On this day

November 29

Pong screenshot

903 – The Abbasid Caliphate captured the Qarmatian leadership in the Battle of Hama in Syria, opening of the way for the reconquest of Tulunid Egypt.
1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, running low on water, began the killing of 133 African slaves by throwing them into the sea to claim insurance.
1847 – Oregon missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, along with about a dozen others, were killed by members of the Cayuse and Umatilla tribes, sparking the Cayuse War.
1972 – Atari released Pong (screenshot pictured), one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home console markets.
2012 – The United Nations General Assembly voted to accord non-member observer state status to Palestine.

George Brown (b. 1818) · Mary Somerville (d. 1872) · Emma Morano (b. 1899)

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Today's featured picture

Studies of the Fetus in the Womb is a set of two sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, made in around 1511. The studies depict the human fetus inside a dissected uterus. Da Vinci had studied human embryology with the help of anatomist Marcantonio della Torre and saw the fetus within a cadaver. This picture, the first of the two studies, shows the fetus in a breech position. Da Vinci mistakenly drew the placental cotyledons in the vascular walls of the uterus, a trait he had seen in a cow uterus but which is not found in humans. The studies were initially bequeathed to Francesco Melzi, with subsequent owners including Pompeo Leoni and Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel. Since 1690 they have been housed in the United Kingdom's Royal Collection.

Sketch: Leonardo da Vinci

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