Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 November 28

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From today's featured article

The Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar was a commemorative fifty-cent coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1920 and 1921 to mark the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in North America. It was designed by Cyrus E. Dallin. Massachusetts congressman Joseph Walsh was involved in joint federal and state efforts to mark the anniversary. He saw a reference to a proposed Maine Centennial half dollar and realized that a coin could be issued for the Pilgrim anniversary in support of the observances at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The bill moved quickly through the legislative process and became the Act of May 12, 1920, with the signature of President Woodrow Wilson. Sculptor James Earle Fraser criticized some aspects of the design, but the Treasury approved it. After a promising start, sales tailed off, and tens of thousands of coins from each year were returned to the Philadelphia Mint for melting. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Opening night of the film
Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder

... that Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, a film adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play with the Berliner Ensemble, premiered on the author's birthday (opening night pictured)?
... that American politician Safiya Wazir came to Uzbekistan as a refugee from Afghanistan?
... that the 2019 Basshunter song "Home" was described as a throwback to the bounce music of the 2000s?
... that Zeng Rongsheng organized a Sino-American joint investigation of the geology of the Tibetan Plateau and examined the collision process of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate?
... that the Northwestern Lumberman, known originally as the Lumbermen's Gazette, was the first trade magazine for the U.S. lumber industry?
... that the ambrosia beetle Euplatypus parallelus cultivates fungi in the galleries it creates for its larvae?
... that Alexandrea Owens became known as "the Titanic girl" after performing with Leonardo DiCaprio in the James Cameron epic at the age of eight?
... that a local story suggests that, in 1912, a cow swam the entire 1,630-yard (0.93 mi; 1.49 km) length of the Foulridge Tunnel before being pulled out and revived with some brandy?

In the news

Andrew Harris

At least 40 people are killed and more than 650 others injured in an earthquake in northwestern Albania.
Several hundred diamonds and jewelled items are stolen from Dresden Castle in Germany.
In Canadian football, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to win the Grey Cup (MVP Andrew Harris pictured).
Klaus Iohannis of the National Liberal Party is re-elected as President of Romania in a runoff election.
Amid ongoing protests in Hong Kong, the pro-democracy camp wins control of 17 of the 18 district councils in local elections.

On this day

November 28: Thanksgiving in the United States (2019)

Radio signal of PSR B1919+21

1443 – Having deserted the Ottoman army, Skanderbeg arrived in the Albanian city of Krujë and, using a forged letter from Sultan Murad II to the governor of Krujë, became lord of the city.
1895 – The first automobile race in the United States, the Chicago Times-Herald race, was held in Chicago.
1925 – Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running radio broadcast in the U.S., first aired on WSM in Nashville, Tennessee.
1967 – Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a "bit of scruff" in data (pictured) from a radio telescope, which turned out to be from PSR B1919+21, the first discovered pulsar.
1979 – Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Antarctica's Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

Betty Parris (b. 1682) · Johann Peter Salomon (d. 1815) · Keith Miller (b. 1919)

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Today's featured picture

Lichfield Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Lichfield, in the English county of Staffordshire. A cathedral was first built on the site in 700, by Bishop Headda, to house the bones of St Chad. The original wooden building was replaced by a Norman cathedral made from stone, which in turn was replaced by the present Gothic structure, begun in 1195. The fabric of the cathedral suffered in the English Civil War, when it was used as a defensive structure. In the 18th century the interior was extensively remodelled, with major structural work organised by James Wyatt; this involved removing the high altar to make a single worship area consisting of the choir and lady chapel, and adding a massive stone screen at the entrance to the choir.

This picture shows the interior of Lichfield Cathedral as seen from the choir, with the cathedral's high altar in the centre.

Photograph credit: David Iliff

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