Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 November 25

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From today's featured article

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...)

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Did you know...

Memorial to the Canadian exiles

... that Bayview Park ferry wharf in Sydney, Australia, is situated on the historic landing site of 58 exiles from the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1840 (memorial pictured)?
... that Jeanne LaDuke worked alongside Natalie Wood as a child actor before becoming a professional mathematician?
... that the gavaksha motif, common in Hindu temples, originated in replications of timber and thatch roofs?
... that Sheetal Pandey won her first election at the age of 63?
... that the diets of different species of bat include frogs, fish, other bats, nectar, and blood?
... that Estelle Cascarino represented France at the under-19 and under-20 levels in international tournaments in the same year?
... that the Wall of Grief is Russia's first monument ordered by presidential decree for victims killed during the political persecutions of Joseph Stalin?
... that Bongo Joe Coleman was distinguished by a drum set fabricated from 55-gallon oil drums?

In the news

Artist's impression of ʻOumuamua

At least 230 people are killed in a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in Bir al-Abed, Egypt.
Former Republika Srpska military leader Ratko Mladić is sentenced to life imprisonment by the ICTY for genocide and war crimes in the Bosnian War.
Robert Mugabe resigns as President of Zimbabwe following a military coup.
Scientists describe ʻOumuamua (artist's impression shown), the first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System.
In American stock car racing, Martin Truex Jr. wins the NASCAR Cup Series.

On this day...

November 25: Evacuation Day in New York (1783); Holodomor Remembrance Day in Ukraine (2017)

Schutztruppe at the Battle of Ngomano

1759 – The second of two strong earthquakes struck the Levant and destroyed all the villages in the Beqaa Valley.
1795 – Stanisław II Augustus, the last King of Poland, was forced to abdicate after the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1917 – World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa (fighting pictured) in an attempt to escape superior British forces to the north and resupply from captured Portuguese materiel.
1947 – McCarthyism: Executives from movie studios agreed to blacklist ten screenwriters and directors who were jailed for refusing to give testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
1975 – Upon Suriname's independence from the Netherlands, Johan Ferrier became its first president.

Osanna of Cattaro (b. 1493) · Hu Zongxian (d. 1565) · Albertus Soegijapranata (b. 1896)

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Today's featured picture

A series of rock formations, with the Dedo de Deus (God's Finger) peak in the background, at the Serra dos Órgãos National Park in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Established in 1939 as the country's third national park, Serra dos Órgãos National Park contains the Serra dos Órgãos mountain range as well as several water sources.

Photograph: Carlos Perez Couto, edit: The Photographer

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