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November 20

12th-century illustration of the use of Greek fire

The first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the Arab–Byzantine wars, and the first culmination of the Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the Byzantine Empire. In 672–673 Arab fleets secured bases along the coasts of Asia Minor, and set up a loose blockade around Constantinople. They used the peninsula of Cyzicus near the city as a base to spend the winter, and returned every spring to launch attacks against the city's fortifications. Finally the Byzantines managed to destroy the Arab navy using a new invention, the liquid incendiary substance known as Greek fire (pictured). The Byzantines also defeated the Arab land army in Asia Minor, forcing them to lift the siege. A peace treaty was signed, and following the outbreak of another Muslim civil war, the Byzantines experienced a brief period of ascendancy. The siege was the first major Arab defeat in 50 years of expansion. Tales of a large-scale siege of Constantinople even reached China. (Full article...)

November 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance

Graffiti from the occupation of Alcatraz

• 284 – Diocletian became Roman emperor, eventually establishing reforms that ended the Crisis of the Third Century.
• 1739 – War of Jenkins' Ear: A British naval force arrived at the settlement of Portobello in the Spanish Main, capturing it the next day.
• 1969 – A group of Native American activists began a 19-month occupation (graffiti pictured) of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
• 1979 – Armed insurgents attacked and took over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, declaring that one of their leaders was the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam.
• 1994 – In accordance with the Lusaka Protocol, the Angolan government signed a ceasefire with UNITA rebels in a failed attempt to end the Angolan Civil War.

November 20

Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was a Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short-story writer, widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. In 1897, he founded and became the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was multilingual, having taught himself French, English, German and Greek later in life. Machado's work shaped the realist movement in Brazil and the birth of the Brazilian republic made Machado become more critical and an observer of the Brazilian society of his time. Generally considered to be Machado's greatest works are Dom Casmurro (1899), Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner) and Quincas Borba (also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?). In 1893, he published "A Missa do Galo" ("Midnight Mass"), often considered to be the greatest short story in Brazilian literature. This photograph of Machado was taken by the Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez in 1890. Photograph credit: Marc Ferrez; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Fomitopsis quercina Apennine Colossus European bison Archive More featured pictures

November 21

Foxboro Stadium, host venue of MLS Cup 1999

MLS Cup 1999 was the fourth edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-level soccer league of the United States. It took place on November 21, 1999, at Foxboro Stadium (pictured) in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and was contested by D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy in a rematch of the inaugural 1996 final played at the same venue. Both teams finished atop their respective conferences during the regular season under new head coaches and advanced through the first two rounds of the playoffs. D.C. United won 2–0 with first-half goals from Jaime Moreno and Ben Olsen for their third MLS Cup victory in four years; Olsen was named the most valuable player of the match for his winning goal. The final was played in front of 44,910 spectators – a record for the MLS Cup – and drew 1.16 million viewers on its ABC television broadcast. It was also the first MLS match to be played with a standard game clock and without a tiebreaker shootout. (Full article...)

November 21: Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh

Alan Freed

• 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the Chinese city of Port Arthur, the Japanese army began a massacre of the city's soldiers and civilians.
• 1959 – American disc jockey Alan Freed (pictured), who popularized the term rock and roll, was fired from WABC-AM for his role in the payola scandal.
• 1964 – The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.
• 1974 – Bombs exploded in two pubs in central Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and leading to the imprisonment of six people who were later exonerated.
• 2009 – An explosion in a coal mine in Heilongjiang, China, killed 108 miners.

November 21

The red-lored whistler (Pachycephala rufogularis) is one of nine species of whistler occurring in Australia and a member of the family Pachycephalidae. It resides in the low mallee, spinifex, cypress pine and broombush woodland in the desert of central New South Wales, north-western Victoria and adjacent south-eastern South Australia, preferring low mallee woodlands or shrublands with open canopy, above a moderately dense but patchy scrub layer. The male bird has an orange or buff face and throat, a grey breastband extending around the neck and over the head, and rufous underparts with pale yellow or olive edging to primaries. The female is similar but with a paler throat and underparts. While it is often seen perched in trees and shrubs, the red-lored whistler feeds, for the most part, on the ground. Little is known about the movement of this species, although it is thought to be sedentary, with some movement possibly after breeding. It builds a substantial, cup-shaped nest made mostly of coarse bark and mallee leaves, neatly woven around the rim in low shrubs and lays two or three eggs. The species's limited range has seen it listed nationally as a vulnerable species. This red-lored whistler was photographed in the Nombinnie Nature Reserve in New South Wales. Photograph credit: John Harrison Recently featured: Machado de Assis Fomitopsis quercina Apennine Colossus Archive More featured pictures

November 22

Weise's epitaph in Eisenberg, Germany

In historical linguistics, Weise's law describes the loss of palatal quality some consonants undergo in specific contexts in the Proto-Indo-European language. In short, when the consonants represented by *ḱ *ǵ *ǵʰ, called palatovelar consonants, are followed by *r, they lose their palatal quality, leading to a loss in distinction between them and the plain velar consonants *k *g *gʰ. Some exceptions exist, such as when the *r is followed by *i or when the palatal form is restored by analogy with related words. Although this sound change is most prominent in the satem languages, it is believed that the change must have occurred prior to the centum–satem division, based on an earlier sound change which affected the distribution of Proto-Indo-European *u and *r. The law is named after the German linguist Oskar Weise (epitaph pictured), who first postulated it in 1881 as the solution to reconciling cognates in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. (Full article...)

November 22

Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office of the President of the United States

• 1574 – The Spanish explorer Juan Fernández discovered the islands off the coast of Chile which now bear his name.
• 1635 – Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launched a three-month pacification campaign against the island's indigenous peoples.
• 1910 – The crews of three Brazilian warships – all commissioned only months before – and several smaller vessels mutinied against perceived "slavery" being practised in the Brazilian Navy.
• 1963 – John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas; hours later, Lyndon B. Johnson (pictured) was sworn in aboard Air Force One as the 36th President of the United States.
• 1971 – In Britain's worst mountaineering tragedy, five teenage students and one of their leaders were found dead from exposure on the Cairngorm Plateau in the Scottish Highlands.

November 22

Garry Kasparov (left) and Viswanathan Anand (right) in the observation deck of 2 World Trade Center during the 1995 Classical World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship has taken several distinct forms since Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Johannes Zukertort in an 1886 match to become the first undisputed World Chess Champion. Following a period of private organization and sponsorship, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) began organizing Championship events under its auspices following the end of World War II, instituting a regular cycle of tournaments held to determine the challenger for each Championship match. In the 1990s, FIDE faced competition with the Classical Chess Championship inaugurated by former FIDE Champion Garry Kasparov, and began experimenting with the format by organizing several Championships as tournaments instead of as matches. The title was ultimately reunited under FIDE via the World Chess Championship 2006, where the Classical Champion Vladimir Kramnik defeated the FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov in match play. (Full list...)

November 22

Wait for Me, Daddy is a photo taken by Claude P. Dettloff of The Province on October 1, 1940, of the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) marching down Eighth Street at the Columbia Street intersection, New Westminster, British Columbia. While Dettloff was taking the photo, Warren "Whitey" Bernard ran away from his mother to his father, Private Jack Bernard. The picture received extensive exposure and was used in war-bond drives. Photograph credit: Claude P. Dettloff; restored by Yann Forget Recently featured: Red-lored whistler Machado de Assis Fomitopsis quercina Archive More featured pictures

November 23

Newman as part of a Canadian media delegation to China.

Sydney Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer who played a pioneering role in British television and Canadian cinema. During the 1950s and 60s, he held the role of Head of Drama at ABC Weekend TV and later at the BBC. During this time, he created the spy-fi series The Avengers and co-created the science-fiction series Doctor Who. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and then head of the National Film Board of Canada. He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as acting as an advisor to the Secretary of State. His obituary in The Guardian declared that "for ten brief but glorious years, [he] ... was the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks... the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art." (Full article...)

November 23

Edwin Hubble

• 1644 – In opposition to licensing and censorship during the English Civil War, John Milton's Areopagitica was published, arguing for the right to free expression.
• 1924 – The New York Times published evidence from Edwin Hubble (pictured) stating that the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is in fact another galaxy.
• 2003 – Rose Revolution: Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as President of Georgia following weeks of mass protests over disputed election results.
• 2009 – A crowd of people on their way to register Esmael Mangudadatu's candidacy for governor of Maguindanao, Philippines, were kidnapped and killed by supporters of his rival, resulting in 58 deaths.
• 2011 – Arab Spring: After months of protests in Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to transfer power to Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

November 23

The Finding in the Temple, also called Christ among the Doctors, the Disputation in the Temple and variations of those names, is an episode in the early life of Jesus depicted in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke. It is the only event of the later childhood of Jesus mentioned in a canonical gospel. In the episode, Jesus – at the age of twelve – accompanies Mary, Joseph, and a large group of their relatives and friends to Jerusalem on many pilgrimages. On the day of their return, Jesus remained in the Temple. Mary and Joseph returned home believing he was among their group when he was not. After a day of travel they realised Jesus was missing and returned to Jerusalem, finding him three days later. He was found in the Temple in discussion with the elders, "listening to them and asking them questions". When admonished by Mary, Jesus replied: "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" The Finding in the Temple is frequently shown in art. This representation, titled The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, is an oil-on-canvas painting produced by William Holman Hunt in 1860. It now hangs in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, England. Photograph credit: William Holman Hunt Recently featured: Wait for Me, Daddy Red-lored whistler Machado de Assis Archive More featured pictures

November 24

Scene from the play's opening run

The Importance of Being Earnest is a drawing-room comedy by Oscar Wilde, premiered on 14 February 1895 in London. It depicts the affairs of two young men about town who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest to woo two young women. Other characters are the formidable Lady Bracknell, the fussy governess Miss Prism and the benign and scholarly Canon Chasuble. The play, celebrated for its wit and repartee, parodies contemporary dramatic norms and comically satirises late-Victorian manners. The triumphant opening night was followed within weeks by Wilde's downfall and imprisonment for homosexual acts and the closure of the production, and Wilde wrote no more comic or dramatic works. From the early 20th century onwards the play has been revived frequently and adapted for radio, television, film, operas and musicals. (Full article...)

November 24: Feast day of Vietnamese Martyrs (Roman Catholicism)

Hibiscus Rising from above

• 1542 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scots with a victory at the Battle of Solway Moss.
• 1859 – British naturalist Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
• 1976 – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, destroying 80 per cent of the buildings in the area, with at least 4,000 casualties.
• 2009 – The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, is launched in Bucharest, Romania.
• 2023 – Hibiscus Rising (pictured), commemorating the life of David Oluwale, is unveiled in Leeds.

November 24

November 25

Symptoms of ME/CFS

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling chronic illness. People with ME/CFS experience profound fatigue that does not go away with rest, sleep issues, and problems with memory or concentration. The hallmark symptom is a worsening of the illness which starts hours to days after minor physical or mental activity, and lasts from hours to several months. The cause of the disease is unknown. ME/CFS often starts after an infection, and many people fit the ME/CFS diagnostic criteria after contracting long COVID. Diagnosis is based on symptoms because no diagnostic test is available. The illness can improve or worsen over time, but full recovery is uncommon. No therapies or medications are approved to treat the condition, and management is aimed at relieving symptoms. About a quarter of those affected are unable to leave their bed or home. People with ME/CFS often face stigma in healthcare settings, and care is complicated by controversies around the cause and treatments of the illness. (Full article...)

November 25: Evacuation Day in New York City (1783)

Stanisław II Augustus, 1764

• 1759 – The second of two strong earthquakes struck the Levant and destroyed all the villages in the Beqaa Valley.
• 1795 – Stanisław II Augustus (pictured), the last king of Poland, was forced to abdicate after the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1901 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 premiered in Munich.
• 1952 – Korean War: After 42 days of fighting, the Battle of Triangle Hill ended as American and South Korean units abandoned their attempt to capture the "Iron Triangle".
• 1981 – A group of Conservative members of Parliament wrote a letter outlining their opposition to the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher, leading to speculation over a split from the party.

November 25

Hazlewood Marshes

Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) describes itself as the county's "nature charity – the only organisation dedicated wholly to safeguarding Suffolk's wildlife and countryside." It was founded in 1961, and is one of 46 wildlife trusts covering the Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The trust manages 3,120 hectares (7,700 acres) of land in 60 nature reserves, most of which are open to the public. The whole or part of nine SWT reserves are Ramsar internationally important wetland sites, thirty-one are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, four are national nature reserves, and ten are Special Protection Areas. One SWT reserve is in Dedham Vale, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and seven are in another AONB, Suffolk Coast and Heaths. (Full list...)

November 25

Thecacera pennigera, also known as the winged thecacera, is a species of sea slug in the family Polyceridae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in temperate waters on either side of the North Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, around South and West Africa, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Pakistan and more recently in Australia and New Zealand. There is a significant difference in colouring between Atlantic populations and Pacific specimens, however. Thecacera pennigera has a typical adult length between 15 millimetres (0.6 in) and 30 millimetres (1.2 in), featuring a short, wide head with two lateral flaps and two sheathed olfactory organs called rhinophores. The body is wedge shaped, being wide at the front and ending in a slender foot with a lateral keel on either side. The general colour of the body is translucent white and the upper side is covered with orange splotches and small black spots. Like other sea slugs, T. pennigera is a hermaphrodite with internal fertilisation and a mating mechanism whereby pairs of animals exchange packets of sperm. This T. pennigera was photographed in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, Italy. Photograph credit: Roberto Strafella Recently featured: Double Asteroid Redirection Test Finding in the Temple Wait for Me, Daddy Archive More featured pictures

November 26

The giant golden mole is the type host of H. niekerki.

Heptamegacanthus is a genus of acanthocephalans (thorny- or spiny-headed parasitic worms) containing a single species, Heptamegacanthus niekerki. This worm is a parasite of the endangered giant golden mole found only in isolated forests near East London and in the Transkei, both in South Africa. The worms are about 4 millimetres (0.2 in) long and 2 millimetres (0.08 in) wide with minimal sexual dimorphism. Their body consists of a proboscis with 40 to 45 hooks arranged in rings which are used to pierce and hold the rectal wall of its host and a long trunk. The life cycle of H. niekerki remains unknown; however, like other acanthocephalans, it likely involves complex interactions with at least two hosts. Although the intermediate host for Heptamegacanthus is not definitively identified, it is presumed to be an arthropod such as an insect which is then eaten by the giant golden mole where they mature and reproduce sexually within the Gastrointestinal tract#Lower gastrointestinal tract, creating eggs which are released in the feces. (Full article...)

November 26: Feast day of Saint Sylvester Gozzolini (Catholicism); Constitution Day in India (1949)

Main Building of the University of Notre Dame

• 43 BC – The Second Triumvirate alliance is formed by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony.
• 1842 – The University of Notre Dame (main building pictured) was founded by Edward Sorin of the Congregation of Holy Cross as an all-male institution in the U.S. state of Indiana.
• 1942 – World War II: Josip Broz Tito and the Yugoslav Partisans convened the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
• 1977 – A speaker claiming to represent the "Intergalactic Association" interrupted a Southern Television broadcast in South East England.
• 2014 – The European Space Agency's Philae probe lands on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

November 26

Ice eggs, also known as ice balls, are a rare phenomenon caused by a process in which small pieces of sea ice in open water are rolled over by wind and currents in freezing conditions and grow into spheroid pieces of ice. They sometimes collect into heaps of balls on beaches where they pack together in striking patterns. The gentle churn of water, blown by a suitably stiff breeze makes concentric layers of ice form on a seed particle that then grows into the floating ball as it rolls through the freezing currents. This ice-egg formation formed in 2014 on Stroomi Beach in Tallinn, Estonia. The temperature was around between –20 and –15 degrees Celsius and the diameter of each ball was around 5–10 cm. Photograph credit: Aleksandr Abrosimov Recently featured: Thecacera pennigera Double Asteroid Redirection Test Finding in the Temple Archive More featured pictures

November 27

Susanna Lee Hoffs (born January 17, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter. She, Debbi Peterson, and Vicki Peterson founded the Bangles in 1981. Their second album, Different Light, (1986) was warmly received by critics and was certified triple-platinum in 1994. The group's third album, Everything (1988), included the US top ten charting "In Your Room" and number one "Eternal Flame", both written by Hoffs with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Following tensions including resentment at Hoffs's perceived leadership of the band and the stress of touring, the band split in 1989, reforming in 1999. Hoffs's first solo album, When You're a Boy (1991), was followed by Susanna Hoffs (1996). Neither of the releases proved to be as popular as the Bangles' albums, although they yielded two US-charting singles. Her most recent solo album is The Deep End (2023), and her first novel, This Bird Has Flown, a romantic comedy about a struggling musician, was published in the same year. (Full article...)

November 27: Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2023)

William III

• 1835 – James Pratt and John Smith became the last people to be executed in England for sodomy.
• 1856 – William III (pictured) unilaterally revised the constitution of Luxembourg, greatly expanding his powers as grand duke.
• 1950 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army launched multiple attacks against United Nations forces, beginning the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
• 1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the "Let Us Continue" speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress five days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in which he advocated for civil-rights legislation and national cohesion.
• 2009 – Lady Gaga performed the first concert of The Monster Ball Tour, which became the highest-grossing tour in history for a debut headlining artist.

November 27

The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen.

In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.