Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 October 7

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From today's featured article

No. 1 Wing was an Australian Flying Corps and Royal Australian Air Force wing active during World War I and World War II. Established in September 1917 as the 1st Training Wing, it commanded Australian pilot training squadrons in England until April 1919, when it was disbanded. It was re-formed as No. 1 Wing on 7 October 1942 as a fighter unit of one British and two Australian flying squadrons equipped with Supermarine Spitfire aircraft, and a mobile fighter sector headquarters. The wing provided air defence to Darwin and several other key Allied bases in northern Australia. During its first months at Darwin, its fighters intercepted several air raids on Northern Australia by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and Imperial Japanese Navy. Although the wing was hampered by mechanical problems with its Spitfires and suffered heavy losses in some engagements, it eventually downed a greater number of Japanese aircraft than it lost in combat. The wing's two Australian flying squadrons were replaced with British units in July 1944, and it was disbanded after the war. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

1951 Muntz Jet

... that the Muntz Jet (pictured) was a car that came with the option of a liquor cabinet and ice chest under the rear seat armrests?
... that Alison Van Eenennaam is working on a collaborative research project focused on the production of hornless dairy cattle through gene editing?
... that when Pál Turán was forced to work in a brick factory during World War II, the bumpy crossings of the cart tracks inspired him to ask how to draw graphs with few crossings?
... that Fragmentarium digital research laboratory hopes to reunite lost fragments of medieval manuscripts?
... that despite being urged to do so, William Jennings Bryan refused to drop his free silver plank when he ran for U.S. President in 1900?
... that a 13-city tour for Just the Beginning, a November 2017 album release by 13-year-old America's Got Talent winner Grace VanderWaal, sold out in September?
...that the Forrest's pika has at different times been treated as a subspecies of the Moupin pika, the Royle's pika, and the steppe pika?
... that Jason Chee won a gold medal in table tennis despite losing both his legs, his left arm, one right finger, and his right eye?

In the news

Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro (pictured) is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm.
In the United States, 59 people are killed and 489 others are injured in a mass shooting at a concert near Las Vegas.
Amidst a constitutional crisis, an independence referendum takes place in Catalonia, Spain.
In Saudi Arabia, a decree by King Salman effectively removes a longstanding ban on women driving in the country.

On this day...

October 7

Iskander Mirza

1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: A Venetian army under Bartolomeo d'Alviano was decisively defeated by the Spanish army commanded by Ramón de Cardona and Fernando d'Avalos.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Patriots and Loyalist militias engaged each other at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina.
1800 – The French privateer Robert Surcouf led a 150-man crew to capture the 40-gun, 437-man East Indiaman Kent.
1958 – Attempting to control the political instability in Pakistan, President Iskander Mirza (pictured) suspended the 1956 constitution, imposed martial law, and dissolved the National Assembly.
1985 – As a result of severe flooding in Puerto Rico, at least 130 people died as a result of the deadliest single landslide on record in North America.

Stanisław Żółkiewski (d. 1620) · Niels Bohr (b. 1885) · Marie Lloyd (d. 1922)

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Today's featured picture

A pair of black lories (Chalcopsitta atra) at Gembira Loka Zoo in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Described in 1786 by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, this aptly named lory is found in eastern Indonesia. This species averages 32 cm (13 in) in length.

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

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