| << | Today's featured articles for November 2017 | >> | ||||
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November 1
Super Mario Galaxy is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii console, first released on 1 November 2007. In this third 3D-graphics game in the Super Mario series, Mario is on a quest to rescue Princess Peach while saving the universe from Bowser. A central element of gameplay is the way gravitational forces change as Mario navigates galaxies filled with minor planets and worlds. The spherical platforms used in the game first appeared in Super Mario 128, a technology demonstration shown at Nintendo Space World in 2000. Development of Super Mario Galaxy began after the release of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in late 2004, when Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that Nintendo should commission a large-scale Mario game. The game was a critical and commercial success, hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time. It won multiple Game of the Year titles, and became the first Nintendo title to win a British Academy Games Award for Best Game. It is the second-highest-rated game of all time on review aggregator GameRankings. (Full article...)
November 2
The Balfour Declaration (2 November 1917) was a public statement issued by the British government during World War I announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a minority Jewish population. It represented the first expression of public support for Zionism by a major political power. The term "national home" had no precedent in international law, and was intentionally vague as to whether a Jewish state was contemplated. The second half of the declaration was added to satisfy opponents, who had claimed that it would otherwise prejudice the position of the local population of Palestine and encourage antisemitism against Jews worldwide. While the declaration called for political rights in Palestine for Jews, rights for the vast majority of the local population, the Palestinian Arabs, were limited to the civil and religious spheres. The declaration greatly increased popular support for Zionism, and led to the creation of Mandatory Palestine, which later became Israel and the Palestinian territories. Historians consider it one of the causes of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. (Full article...)
November 3
Pru is the debut studio album by American singer Pru, released in November 2000 through Capitol Records. The album was managed by Capitol Records executive Roy Lott, who had signed Pru to Warner/Chappell Music Publishing after being impressed by her songwriting and voice on a demo tape. Pru collaborated with Ben Garrison, the Characters, and Rick Williams on the album. According to Lott, Pru was part of Capitol Records' attempts to attract a wider audience through her crossover appeal. Music critics have identified several genres on the album, with some commentators noting influences from neo soul. Pru also used poetry as an inspiration for writing music. Reviews of the album were generally positive, noting its composition and Pru's voice, and comparing her favorably to contemporary artists. The album peaked at number 176 on the Billboard 200 chart, an achievement made possible in part by an intensive marketing strategy devised by Capitol Records executives. Two singles – "Candles" and "Aaroma (of a Man)" – were released to positive reviews. "Candles" peaked at number 68 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Billboard chart. (Full article...)
November 4
Leek Town Football Club is an English football club based in Leek, Staffordshire, currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One South. The team, nicknamed "The Blues", play their home games at Harrison Park (pictured). The club was founded in 1946 and played in a variety of local leagues, including the Staffordshire County, Manchester, Mid-Cheshire and Cheshire County leagues, before becoming a founding member of the North West Counties League in 1982 and from there progressing to the Northern Premier League in 1987. In 1997 they were Northern Premier League champions and gained promotion to the Football Conference, the highest level of English non-league football, spending two seasons at that level before being relegated. Leek Town reached the final of the FA Trophy in 1990, having progressed all the way from the first qualifying round, but lost in the final at Wembley Stadium 3–0 to Barrow. (Full article...)
November 5
Guy Fawkes Night is an annual commemoration of the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. To celebrate the arrest, which put an end to the plot on King James I's life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving. Within a few decades Gunpowder Treason Day, as it was known, became the predominant English state commemoration. As it carried strong Protestant religious overtones, it also became a focus for anti-Catholic sentiment; increasingly raucous celebrations featured the burning of effigies of popular hate-figures, such as the pope. Towards the end of the 18th century, children were seen begging for money with effigies of Guy Fawkes. In the 1850s much of the day's anti-Catholic rhetoric was toned down, and by the 20th century Guy Fawkes Day had become an enjoyable social commemoration. Today it is usually celebrated with bonfires and extravagant firework displays. (Full article...)
Part of the Gunpowder Plot featured topic.
November 6
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Rotating locomotion in living systems – the use of wheels and propellers by organisms – has long been pondered among biologists and writers of speculative fiction. Rolling and wheeled creatures have appeared in the legends of many cultures. While other human technologies, like wings and lenses, have common analogues in the natural world, and several species are able to roll, structures that propel by rotating relative to a fixed body are represented only by the corkscrew-like bacterial flagella. Macroscopic organisms have apparently never evolved wheels, and this is attributed to two main factors: limitations of evolutionary and developmental biology, and disadvantages of wheels, when compared with limbs, in many natural environments. Wheels, beyond the molecular scale, may not be within the reach of natural evolution, and may be infeasible to grow and maintain with biological processes. Compared with limbs, they are often less energy-efficient, less versatile, and less capable of traversing or avoiding obstacles. These environment-specific disadvantages of wheels also explain why some historical civilizations abandoned them. (Full article...)
November 7
Vladimir Lenin (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, 1870–1924) was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of the Soviet Union, which under his administration became a one-party state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism. After the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar, he played a leading role in the 7 November 1917 insurrection commonly known as the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new regime. Lenin's administration redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry. It withdrew from the First World War by signing a treaty with the Central Powers, and promoted world revolution through the Communist International. Widely considered one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Lenin is viewed by supporters as a champion of socialism and the working class, while critics on both the left and right emphasize his role as founder and leader of an authoritarian regime responsible for political repression and mass killings. (Full article...)
November 8
St Helen's Church is the Anglican parish church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in the deanery of North West Leicestershire and the Diocese of Leicester. A previous church on the site was rebuilt beginning in 1474 by William Hastings, while he was converting his neighbouring manor house into a castle. The church was refurbished in about 1670 and again in 1829 to create more space, and a major rebuild in 1878–80 added two outer aisles, making the nave wider than it is long. The sandstone church has a tower at the west end. Other fixtures include ancient stained glass at the east end, some important funereal monuments, and a font, pulpit and carved heads by Thomas Earp. The finger pillory is a rare item, once seen as a humane form of punishment. The church has a long association with the Hastings family, its patrons for four centuries, and became a centre for Puritanism under Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. The church's architecture has earned it a Grade I listing, denoting a building of "exceptional interest". (Full article...)
November 9
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Joaquim José Inácio, Viscount of Inhaúma, (1808–1869) was a naval officer, politician and monarchist of the Empire of Brazil. After Brazilian independence in 1822, he enlisted in the armada (navy) and participated in the subduing of secessionist rebellions, including the Confederation of the Equator. He helped quell a military mutiny in 1831 and saw action in the Sabinada rebellion (1837–1838) and the Ragamuffin War (1840–1844). In 1849 he was given command of the fleet that was instrumental in subduing the Praieira revolt, the last rebellion in imperial Brazil. Inhaúma entered politics in 1861 as a member of the Conservative Party, serving first as navy minister and then as agriculture minister; the first professional firefighter corps in Brazil was formed during his tenure. In late 1866 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet engaged in the Paraguayan War, and achieved the rank of admiral. Although historical works have not given much coverage to Inhaúma, some historians regard him among the greatest of the Brazilian navy officers. (Full article...)
November 10
Tropical Storm Bonnie was the second storm of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, making landfall in Florida in August. It developed from a tropical wave to the east of the Lesser Antilles. After moving through the islands, its forward motion caused the wave to dissipate, but it later regenerated into a tropical storm near the Yucatán Peninsula. It attained peak winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) over the Gulf of Mexico, turned to the northeast, and hit Florida with sustained 45 mph (75 km) winds. The storm accelerated to the northeast and became an extratropical cyclone to the east of New Jersey. Bonnie was the first of five tropical systems to make landfall on Florida that year, and the second of a record eight disturbances to reach tropical storm strength during the month of August. Bonnie caused a tornado outbreak across the Southeastern United States that killed three people and inflicted damage costs of over $1 million. Other impacts were minimal, including flooding and minor damage in Florida. The day after Bonnie made landfall, Hurricane Charley struck Florida. (Full article...)
November 11
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Norwich War Memorial is a First World War memorial in Norwich in Eastern England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was the last of his eight cenotaphs (empty tombs) to be erected in England. In 1926 Norwich's newly elected lord mayor established an appeal to raise memorial funds for local hospitals and to construct a physical monument. He commissioned Lutyens, who designed a cenotaph atop a low screen wall with bronze gas-lit torches at either end, and a protruding Stone of Remembrance. Lutyens also installed a roll of honour listing the city's dead at Norwich Castle in 1931. A local disabled veteran unveiled the memorial in October 1927. It was moved from its original location to become the centrepiece of a memorial garden between the market and the City Hall in 1938. The structure on which the garden is built was found to be unstable in 2004; the memorial was closed off, and fell into disrepair. Work was completed in 2011, and the memorial was restored and rotated to face the city hall. It was rededicated on Armistice Day 2011 and is today a grade II* listed building. (Full article...)
November 12
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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction fantasy film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Melissa Mathison, it stars Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote and Pat Welsh. It tells the story of Elliott (Thomas), a lonely boy who befriends a stranded extraterrestrial. Elliott and his siblings help E.T. return home while attempting to hide him from their mother and the government. Filmed on a budget of $10.5 million, it was shot in rough chronological order, to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast. E.T. was an immediate blockbuster, surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time—a record it held for eleven years until Jurassic Park, another Spielberg-directed film, surpassed it in 1993. Considered one of the greatest films ever made, it was widely acclaimed by critics as a timeless story of friendship, and it ranks as the greatest science fiction film ever made in a Rotten Tomatoes survey. It was re-released in 1985, and then again in 2002 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, with altered shots and additional scenes. (Full article...)
November 13
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Myriostoma, the salt-shaker earthstar, is the largest fungus in the earthstar family, with a fruit body up to 12 cm (4.7 in) across. It has been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. It grows in humus-rich forests or in woodlands, especially on well-drained and sandy soils. Myriostoma coliforme, the only species in the genus, is somewhat rare, appearing on the Red Lists of 12 European countries. It was one of 33 species proposed for protection in 2004 under the Bern Convention by the European Council for Conservation of Fungi. The inedible fruit body, initially shaped like a puffball, is encased in an outer covering that splits open from the top to form rays. These pieces curve down in a star shape to expose a papery spore case surrounding the fertile spore-bearing tissue, the gleba. The fungus is unique among the earthstars in having a spore sac that is supported by multiple stalks, and is perforated by several small holes, suggestive of its common name. The spores are dispersed when falling water hits the sac, forcing them up through the holes. (Full article...)
November 14
Ernest Joyce (c. 1875 – 1940) was a Royal Naval seaman and Antarctic explorer who served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton in the early years of the 20th century. Joyce entered the navy as a boy seaman in 1891; his Antarctic experiences began in 1901 when he joined Scott's Discovery Expedition. In 1907 Shackleton recruited him to take charge of dogs and sledges on the Nimrod Expedition, a role he performed with distinction. Thus Shackleton employed him in a similar capacity in 1914, as a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's Ross Sea party. Despite Joyce's acknowledged heroism during that expedition, it ended his exploring career, although he made attempts to join other expeditions. An abrasive and sometimes truculent character, his effectiveness in the field was nonetheless widely acknowledged. He was awarded a lifesaving Albert Medal and a Polar Medal with four bars, but Joyce made no significant material gains from his exploits, living out his post-Antarctic life in humble circumstances before dying suddenly in 1940. (Full article...)
November 15
Bazy Tankersley (1921–2013) was an American breeder of Arabian horses and a newspaper publisher. She was a daughter of Senator Joseph M. McCormick and Congresswoman Ruth Hanna McCormick. Her father died when she was a child, and she moved west when her mother remarried, where she was given a part-Arabian horse. She began working as a reporter at 18, and began her horse breeding operation, Al-Marah Arabians, in 1941. In 1949, she became the publisher of the conservative Washington Times-Herald owned by her uncle, Robert R. McCormick, where she became a friend of Senator Joseph McCarthy. When McCormick demanded she choose between the newspaper and Garvin "Tank" Tankersley, who became her second husband, she shifted to full-time horse breeding. By 1957 Al-Marah was the largest Arabian horse farm in the United States. Over her career she bred more than 2,800 registered Arabians. Though she was involved with conservative Republican causes as a young woman, she was a strong supporter of environmental causes in the 21st century and backed Barack Obama for president in 2008. She was a patron of many charities. (Full article...)
November 16
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The Susan B. Anthony dollar is a U.S. dollar coin that was minted from 1979 to 1981, when the series was suspended due to poor public reception, and briefly minted again in 1999. It was proposed as a replacement for the cumbersome Eisenhower dollar. A round planchet with an eleven-sided inner border, acceptable to the vending machine industry (a powerful lobby affecting coin legislation), was chosen for the smaller dollar. Social reformer Susan B. Anthony was selected for the obverse side; on the reverse, the design of the Eisenhower dollar was retained. Both sides of the coin were designed by Frank Gasparro, the Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. The Mint struck 500 million coins, but these entered circulation slowly, in part because of confusion caused by their similarity in size and appearance to the quarter. A final run of these dollar coins was struck in 1999 to compensate for the slow production of the Sacagawea dollar, authorized in 1997. Susan B. Anthony dollars are still plentiful, including many in uncirculated condition, so they hold little extra value for collectors. (Full article...)
November 17
Ben Affleck (born 1972) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He starred as a child in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi beginning in 1984. He later appeared in several Kevin Smith films, including Chasing Amy (1997) and Dogma (1999). Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting (1997). He established himself as a leading man in studio films including Armageddon (1998), Forces of Nature (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001) and Changing Lanes (2002). After a career downturn, his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone (2007), was well received. For the political thriller Argo (2012), which he directed, co-produced and starred in, he won two major industry awards for best director, and the film won three for best picture. Affleck is a co-founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative and the production company Pearl Street Films. He has three children with actress Jennifer Garner (married 2005–2017). (Full article...)
November 18
Presque Isle State Park is a 3,112-acre (1,259 ha) Pennsylvania state park on an arching, sandy peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, near the city of Erie, Pennsylvania. The peninsula was formed from glacial deposits more than 14,000 years ago, and is constantly being reshaped by waves and wind. There are seven ecological zones within the park, each with a different plant and animal community. The Erielhonan, a Native American tribe who gave their name to Lake Erie, probably lived on Presque Isle, which was named by the French in the 1720s. A French fort was built nearby, followed by a British and then an American fort. During the War of 1812 the peninsula sheltered the fleet of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. With the growing importance of shipping on Lake Erie in the 19th century, several lighthouses were built on Presque Isle. In 1876 the US Life-Saving Service opened a station, still in use and operated by the US Coast Guard. Presque Isle became a state park in 1921, and a National Natural Landmark in 1967. (Full article...)
November 19
Freak Out! (1966) is the debut studio album by the American rock band the Mothers of Invention. One of rock music's first concept albums, it is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's perception of American pop culture. It was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music. It features Zappa on vocals and guitar, along with lead vocalist and tambourine player Ray Collins, bass player and vocalist Roy Estrada, drummer-vocalist Jimmy Carl Black and guitar player Elliot Ingber, who later joined Captain Beefheart's Magic Band under the name Winged Eel Fingerling. The musical content of Freak Out! ranges from rhythm and blues, doo-wop and standard blues-influenced rock to orchestral arrangements and avant-garde sound collages. The album was a success in Europe; in the United States, it was poorly received at first, but gradually gained a cult following. In 1999, the album was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and in 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. (Full article...)
November 20
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The Beograd class consisted of three destroyers built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy in the late 1930s, to a French design. Beograd was constructed in France, and Zagreb and Ljubljana were built in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Zagreb was scuttled to prevent its capture, and the other two were seized by the Italians. The Royal Italian Navy operated the two captured ships as convoy escorts between Italy, the Aegean Sea and North Africa. One was lost in the Gulf of Tunis in April 1943; the other was seized by the Germans in September 1943 after the Italian surrender, and was operated by the German Navy. There are conflicting reports about the fate of the last ship, but it was lost in the final weeks of the war. In 1967, a French film was made about the scuttling of Zagreb. In 1973, the President of Yugoslavia and wartime Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito awarded the Order of the People's Hero posthumously to the two officers who scuttled Zagreb. (Full article...)
November 21
Interstate 96 (I-96) is an Interstate Highway running 192 miles (309 km) roughly east–west entirely within the US state of Michigan, from east of Lake Michigan at US Highway 31 near Muskegon to I-75 near the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. From Grand Rapids through Lansing to Detroit, the freeway parallels Grand River Avenue, never straying more than a few miles from the decommissioned US 16. Within the city of Detroit, the road was renamed the Rosa Parks Memorial Highway in 2005 in honor of the late civil rights pioneer. There are four auxiliary Interstate Highways as well as two current and four former business routes associated with I-96. Grand River Avenue originated as an Indian trail before Michigan statehood. It was later used as a wagon road across the state. In 1919 the roadway was included in the State Trunkline Highway System as M-16 and later the US Numbered Highway System as US 16. Construction of the freeway was started in 1956 and initially completed across the state to Detroit in 1962. I-96 was completed in the Detroit area on November 21, 1977. (Full article...)
Part of the Interstate 96 and Interstate Highways in Michigan featured topics.
November 22
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The sea mink (Neovison macrodon) was a mammal from the eastern coast of North America, in the family of weasels and otters in the order Carnivora. The largest of the minks, it was hunted to extinction by fur traders before 1903, when it was first given a species description. Some biologists classify it as a subspecies of the American mink. Estimates of its size are speculative, based largely on skull fragments recovered from Native American shell middens, and on tooth remains. Some information on its appearance and habits was provided by fur traders and Native Americans. It may have been similar in behavior to the American mink: it probably maintained home ranges, was polygynandrous, and had a similar diet, supplemented by saltwater prey. Sea minks were commonly trapped along the coast of the Bay of Fundy in the Gulf of Maine. Remains have been found along the New England coast, and there were regular reports of unusually large mink furs, probably sea mink, being collected from Nova Scotia. (Full article...)
November 23
The 1966 New York City smog (November 23–26) was an air-pollution event, with damaging levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, smoke, and haze. Coming during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, it was the third major smog in New York City, after a similar event in 1953 (pictured) and another in 1963. Leaders of local and state governments announced an alert and asked residents and industry to take voluntary steps to minimize emissions. Health officials advised people with respiratory or heart conditions to stay indoors. The alert ended after a cold front dispersed the smog. It was an environmental disaster with severe public health effects, including 168 deaths, according to a statistical analysis. The smog catalyzed greater national awareness of air pollution as a serious health problem, and became a political issue. With support from presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, a series of bills and amendments aimed at regulating air pollution culminated in the 1967 Air Quality Act and the 1970 Clean Air Act. (Full article...)
November 24
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The black vulture (Coragyps atratus) is a bird in the New World vulture family commonly found from the southeastern United States to Central Chile and Uruguay in South America. Despite the similar name and appearance, this species is unrelated to the Eurasian black vulture, an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae (which includes eagles, hawks, kites and harriers). The American species is the only extant member of the New World vulture genus Coragyps in the family Cathartidae. It inhabits relatively open areas near scattered forests or shrublands. With a wingspan of 1.5 m (4.9 ft), it is a large bird though relatively small for a vulture. It has black plumage, a featherless, grayish-black head and neck, and a short, hooked beak. The black vulture is a scavenger and feeds on carrion, but will also eat eggs or kill newborn animals. In areas populated by humans, it also feeds at garbage dumps. It finds its meals with its keen eyesight and sense of smell. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. (Full article...)
November 25
New Worlds is a British science fiction magazine that began in 1936 as a fanzine called Novae Terrae. It was first published professionally in 1946, edited by John Carnell. It was the leading British science fiction publication during the period to 1960 described by historian Mike Ashley as the magazine's "Golden Age". Early issues featured John Wyndham's "The Living Lies", under his John Beynon alias, and "Inheritance", an early story by Arthur C. Clarke. "Escapement" by J. G. Ballard appeared in the December 1956 issue; this was Ballard's first professionally published work, and he went on to become a significant figure in science fiction in the 1960s. After 1964, when Michael Moorcock became editor, the magazine featured experimental and avant-garde material, and it became the focus of the modernist New Wave of science fiction. Reaction among the science fiction community was mixed, with partisans and opponents of the New Wave debating the merits of New Worlds in the columns of fanzines, such as Speculation. Several of the regular contributors during this period, including Brian Aldiss and Thomas M. Disch, became major names in science fiction. (Full article...)
November 26
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The 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division of the British Army was active during the First and the Second World War. The division arrived in France in 1915. In July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, it captured the strongly held Mametz Wood with the loss of nearly 4,000 men, allowing XV Corps to advance to the next phase of the Somme offensive, the Battle of Bazentin Ridge. A year later it made a successful attack in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening of the Third Battle of Ypres. In 1918, during the German Spring Offensive and the Allies' subsequent Hundred Days Offensive, the division attacked several fortified German positions. It crossed the Ancre River, broke through the Hindenburg Line and German positions on the River Selle, and ended the war on the Belgian frontier; by then, it was considered one of the Army's elite units. The division was demobilised after the war. It was recreated in September 1939, but never deployed overseas as a division, restricted to home defence duties around the United Kingdom. It was constituted from September 1944 until the end of the war as the 38th Infantry (Reserve) Division, a training formation. (Full article...)
November 27
The Battle of Winterthur (27 May 1799) was fought between French forces under André Masséna and elements of the Austrian army under Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The town of Winterthur lies 18 kilometers (11 mi) northeast of Zürich, in Switzerland. Any army holding the town, at the junction of seven crossroads, controlled access to most of Switzerland and entry points into southern Germany. By mid-May 1799, the Austrians had wrested control of parts of Switzerland from the French. After defeating Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's 25,000-man Army of the Danube at the battles of Ostrach and Stockach, the Austrian army prepared to unite its three main forces on the plains surrounding Zürich. The French Army of Switzerland and the Army of the Danube, now both under the command of Masséna, sought to prevent this merger. The Austrians pushed the French out of the Winterthur highlands and consolidated their forces on the plateau north of Zürich, leading to the French defeat in the First Battle of Zürich a few days later. (Full article...)
November 28
"X-Cops" is the twelfth episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. Directed by Michael Watkins and written by Vince Gilligan, the installment originally aired on the Fox network in February 2000. In this episode, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), special agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are interviewed for the Fox network reality television program Cops during an X-Files investigation. Mulder, hunting what he believes to be a werewolf, discovers that the monster terrorizing people craves the fear it provokes. While Mulder embraces the publicity of Cops, Scully is uncomfortable about appearing on national television. "X-Cops" is one of only two X-Files episodes that was shot in real time. The episode has been thematically analyzed for its use of postmodernism and its presentation as reality television. It has been named among the best episodes of The X-Files by several reviewers, for its humor and format. (Full article...)
November 29
Josephine Butler (1828–1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage and better education for women. She was instrumental in the 1886 repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, which had subjected prostitutes to invasive medical examinations, and she founded an organisation to combat similar practices across Europe. After she became aware that English women and children were being sold into prostitution on the continent, her allegations led to the sacking of a Belgian police commissionaire and the imprisonment of his deputy and 12 brothel owners. Josephine fought child prostitution with help from the campaigning editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, William Thomas Stead, leading to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, which raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age. Her final campaign came in the late 1890s, against medical mistreatment of prostitutes in the British Raj. She wrote more than 90 books and pamphlets, including three biographies. Her Christian feminism is celebrated by the Church of England with a Lesser Festival, and Durham University named one of their colleges after her. (Full article...)
November 30
Fallout 4: Far Harbor is an expansion pack for the 2015 video game Fallout 4, developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In the aftermath of a cataclysmic nuclear war, the player character is recruited by a detective agency to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. The game's quests and puzzles can be played in first-person or third-person perspective. The puzzles feature a variety of game mechanics, including lasers and building blocks. The expansion was influenced by player feedback, which faulted the base game's dialogue system and showed interest in additional explorable territory. Reviews from critics were generally favorable; the addition of new quests was praised, but there were mixed opinions on the game's atmosphere and its use of fog. The main criticisms were directed at the puzzles, which reviewers thought were a waste of time, unnecessary, or overly frustrating. (Full article...)