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October 2
Houston is the site of 48 completed high-rises over 427 feet (130 m), 35 of which stand taller than 492 feet (150 m). The tallest building in the city is the JPMorgan Chase Tower, which rises 1,002 feet (305 m) in Downtown Houston and was completed in 1982. It also stands as the tallest building in Texas and the 16th-tallest building in the United States. The second-tallest skyscraper in the city is the Wells Fargo Plaza, which rises 992 feet (302 m) and was completed in 1983. The history of skyscrapers in the city began with the construction of the original Binz Building in 1895. This building, rising 6 floors, is often regarded as the first skyscraper in Houston; it was demolished in 1951 to allow for the construction of a more modern building of the same name, which was in turn replaced by another, 14-floors tall high-rise that also kept the original name. Houston's first building standing more than 492 feet (150 m) was the El Paso Energy Building, completed in 1962. (Full list...)
October 6
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The Charmed literary franchise is a series of novels and short stories based on the eponymous television show, which aired from 1998 to 2006. The franchise consists of forty-four novels and eleven short stories released in two anthologies, with ten guide books. Scholarly essay collections on the show were also published. Writers of the novels had to obtain approval from Paramount Pictures or CBS Consumer Products to ensure that they followed the canon established for the television series. A majority of the novels are original stories revolving around the Charmed Ones and their allies, while some were novelizations of episodes. Between 1999 and 2008, forty-one novels were published by Simon & Schuster and were set roughly during the same period as the events of the television series. HarperCollins published a second series of novels starting in 2015, and these narratives primarily occur during the same time period as the comic book series. (Full list...)
October 9
There are 802 eponymous fictional species of collectible monsters in the Pokémon franchise, each having unique designs and skills. Conceived by Satoshi Tajiri in early 1989, Pokémon are creatures that inhabit the fictional Pokémon World. The designs for the multitude of species can draw inspiration from anything, such as inanimate objects, real-world animals, or mythology. Many Pokémon are capable of evolving into more powerful species, while others can undergo form changes and achieve similar results. Originally, only a handful of artists led by Ken Sugimori designed Pokémon, however, by 2013 a team of 20 artists worked together to create new species designs. Sugimori and Hironobu Yoshida lead the team and determine the final designs. Each iteration of the series has brought about praise and criticism over the numerous creatures. The vast array of creatures is commonly divided into "Generations", with each division encompassing new titles in the main video game series and often a change of handheld platform. (Full list...)
October 13
Twenty-six albums by deceased artists have posthumously reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, a weekly record chart based on sales of albums in the United Kingdom. The first deceased artist to top the UK Albums Chart was Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash on 10 December 1967. On 20 May 1968, Redding's sixth studio album, The Dock of the Bay, was released in the UK – three weeks later, it became his first and only UK number-one album. Since Redding, 11 further artists have posthumously topped the albums chart, of which three have done so more than twice. The first of these was American singer Eva Cassidy; after dying in 1996, three posthumous releases from Cassidy reached number one in consecutive years, 2001–03. The second musician to achieve this feat was American entertainer Elvis Presley (pictured). The death of a musician can often result in an immediate increase in sales of their albums. Following his death in 2009, the number of purchases of Michael Jackson's albums grew significantly worldwide. In the UK, sales of the singer's albums increased by more than 80 times in a single day. (Full list...)
October 16
The Atlantic hurricane season of 2008 was the first such year to feature a major hurricane in every month from July to November. Although Tropical Storm Arthur formed on May 30, 2008, the season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30, dates that conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones develop in the Atlantic basin. The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was the fourth most active season in recorded history, and featured slightly more activity than that of the previous year. Pre-season forecasts noted a high possibility for an above average number of tropical cyclones, primarily due to lingering La Niña effects and abnormally warm sea surface temperatures across the Atlantic basin. Seventeen tropical cyclones were observed during the season, of which sixteen intensified into tropical storms, eight became hurricanes, and five became major hurricanes. With the exception of Tropical Storm Nana, every tropical cyclone during the season affected land to an extent. (Full list...)
October 20
Nepali actress Manisha Koirala is known for her work in Bollywood films. Koirala's acting debut was in the Nepali film Pheri Bhetaula (1989). Two years later, she made her Bollywood debut in Subhash Ghai's Saudagar, which was a commercial success. However, she followed this by appearing in a series of films which performed poorly at the box office. Koirala's career had a turnaround when she starred as the daughter of a freedom fighter in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 1942: A Love Story (1994). The following year, Koirala received the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress, and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil for playing a Muslim married to a Hindu during the 1992–1993 Bombay riots in the Mani Ratnam-directed Tamil drama Bombay (1995). For playing the daughter of a mute and deaf couple in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Koirala garnered a second consecutive Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She followed this with leading roles in Agni Sakshi (1996) and Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997), which were among the highest-grossing Indian films of their respective years. (Full list...)
October 23
The 500 home run club is a group of Major League Baseball (MLB) batters who have hit 500 or more regular-season home runs in their careers. On August 11, 1929, Babe Ruth became the first member of the club. Ruth ended his career with 714 home runs, a record which stood from 1935 until Hank Aaron surpassed it in 1974. Aaron's ultimate career total, 755, remained the record until Barry Bonds (pictured) set the current mark of 762 during the 2007 season. Twenty-seven players are members of the 500 home run club. Of these 27 players, 14 were right-handed batters, 11 were left-handed, and 2 were switch hitters. The San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox are the only franchises to see four players reach the milestone while on their roster. Five 500 home run club members—Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez—are also members of the 3,000 hit club. (Full list...)
October 27
There are thousands of common English language terms that are used in relation to the study of birds—warm-blooded vertebrates of the class Aves, characterized by feathers, the ability to fly in all but the approximately 60 extant species of flightless birds, toothless, beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Among other details such as size, proportions and shape, terms defining bird features developed and are used to describe features unique to the class—especially evolutionary adaptations that developed to aid flight. There are, for example, numerous terms describing the complex structural makeup of feathers (e.g., barbules, rachides and vanes); types of feathers (e.g., filoplume, pennaceous and plumulaceous feathers); and their growth and loss (e.g., colour morph, nuptial plumage and pterylosis). Although some terms in the area may be familiar, such as back or belly, they too are defined in relation to distinct features of external bird anatomy, sometimes called topography. (Full glossary...)
October 30
The U.S. state of West Virginia has 55 counties. Fifty of them existed at the time of the Wheeling Convention in 1861, before which West Virginia was part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The remaining five (Grant, Mineral, Lincoln, Summers and Mingo) were formed within the state after its admission to the United States on June 20, 1863. The West Virginia Constitution was ratified in 1872, replacing the state constitution created in 1863 when West Virginia became a state. Article 9, Section 8, of the West Virginia Constitution permits the creation of additional counties if a majority of citizens in the proposed new county vote for its creation and the new county has a minimum area of 400 square miles (1,036 km2) and a population of at least 6,000. Creation of a new county is prohibited if it would bring another county below these thresholds. Randolph County is the largest by area at 1,040 square miles (2,694 km2), and Hancock County is the smallest at 83 square miles (215 km2). (Full list...)