Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 October 8

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From today's featured article

Mark Oliphant (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist who made the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion. Born and raised in Adelaide, he studied in England under Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. There, he used a particle accelerator on deuterons, and discovered helium-3 and tritium. During the Second World War he headed the group at the University of Birmingham that created the cavity magnetron, which made microwave radar possible. He served on the MAUD Committee, which found that an atomic bomb was feasible, and on the Manhattan Project with his friend Ernest Lawrence at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, developing electromagnetic isotope separation. After the war, he returned to Australia as the first director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University. He retired from the university in 1967, and served as Governor of South Australia from 1971 to 1976. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Chaophraya Phrasadet Surentharathibodi

... that Chaophraya Phrasadet Surentharathibodi (pictured) wrote a manual on etiquette in order to teach proper manners to Siam's newly educated class?
... that the unsolved killing of a Chinese immigrant family in Guilderland, New York, four years ago today was the first quadruple homicide in the state's Capital District?
... that Eleonore Trefftz was the second woman to become a scientific member of the Max Planck Society?
... that in "Mein Gott, wie schön ist deine Welt", a 1936 hymn by Georg Thurmair, every stanza declares three times, "How beautiful is Your world"?
... that Zena Edosomwan was the first top-100 high school basketball recruit to commit to Harvard?
... that Project Harvest Moon intended to commercialize space by selling moon rocks to pay for further lunar experiments?
... that ships of Thomas King's firm Camden, Calvert and King carried more than 20,000 slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean?
... that Working with Lemons participated in an event in Provo, Utah, that broke the world record for most people participating in a live nativity scene re-enactment?

In the news

Jorge Cori

The 43rd Chess Olympiad concludes with China winning both the open (individual winner Jorge Cori pictured) and women's sections of the tournament.
Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Frances Arnold for her work on directed evolution of enzymes and to George Smith and Greg Winter for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies.
Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on laser science.

On this day

October 8: Thanksgiving in Canada (2018); Independence Day in Croatia (1991)

Gustav Mahler

1897 – Composer Gustav Mahler (pictured) was appointed the director of the Vienna Court Opera.
1918 – World War I: After his platoon suffered heavy casualties during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France's Forest of Argonne, American Corporal Alvin York led the 7 remaining men on an attack against a German machine gun nest, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132 others.
1952 – Three trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station in London, killing 112 people and injuring 340.
1962 – The German news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the unpreparedness of the West German armed forces against the communist threat from the east, and was accused of treason shortly afterwards.
1969 – Demonstrations organized by the Weather Underground known as the Days of Rage began in Chicago.

Harriet Taylor Mill (b. 1807) · Kiichi Miyazawa (b. 1919) · Clement Attlee (d. 1967)

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From today's featured list

Ivory in 1991

Call Me by Your Name is a 2017 coming-of-age drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino. The screenplay, written by James Ivory, is based on André Aciman's 2007 novel of the same name. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017, the film garnered a variety of awards and nominations. Ivory won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards and 71st British Academy Film Awards, making him the oldest-ever winner in any competitive category for both awards at the age of 89. At the 27th Gotham Independent Film Awards, the film won Best Feature and Breakthrough Actor for Timothée Chalamet. It led the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards with six nominations, winning Best Male Lead for Chalamet and Best Cinematography for Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. The American Film Institute and National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of 2017. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford. The site of the cathedral became a place of worship in the 8th century or earlier. However, the oldest part of the current building, the bishop's chapel, dates to the 11th century. The cathedral is dedicated to two saints, Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Ethelbert the King. The latter was beheaded by Offa, King of Mercia in the year 794, and he was buried at the site of the cathedral. The cathedral contains the Mappa Mundi, a mediaeval map of the world created in around 1300 by Richard of Holdingham. The map is listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

This picture shows the nave of the cathedral, viewed from the east.

See also: Nave viewed from the west · Choir · Lady Chapel

Diliff

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