Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 November 25

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From today's featured article

Territorial control in the caliphate c. 686, during the Second Fitna

Marwan I (c. 625 – 685) was the fourth Umayyad caliph, ruling for less than a year in 684–685. He was the secretary of his cousin Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). During the rebel siege of Uthman's house, Marwan was wounded and the caliph was slain. Marwan considered Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, a companion of the prophet Muhammad, culpable in the death of Uthman, and killed him in the Battle of the Camel in 656. Marwan later served as governor of Medina under his distant kinsman Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate. After the reigns of Yazid I (r. 680–683) and Mu'awiya II (r. 683–684), the tribal nobility of Syria, led by Ibn Bahdal of the Banu Kalb, elected Marwan caliph. He reasserted Umayyad rule over Egypt, Palestine and northern Syria, and dispatched an expedition to reconquer Iraq, but died while it was underway. His son Abd al-Malik was his designated successor, and the Umayyads continued to rule until 750. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Nine new Labour Party MPs

... that 42 new MPs were elected to the 53rd New Zealand Parliament: 23 for Labour, including Arena Williams, Ibrahim Omer, Helen White, Neru Leavasa, Ingrid Leary, Rachel Brooking, Anna Lorck, Tracey McLellan, and Shanan Halbert (all pictured); 5 for National, including Joseph Mooney, Simon Watts, and Penny Simmonds; 9 for ACT New Zealand, including Toni Severin, Simon Court, Brooke van Velden, and Chris Baillie; 3 for the Greens, including Ricardo Menéndez March and Teanau Tuiono; and 2 for the Māori Party, including Rawiri Waititi?
... that the crown of the General Electric Building in Midtown Manhattan contains Gothic tracery and four 50-foot-tall (15 m) electric deities?
... that the 1990 Hindi film Drishti, which follows the story of a married couple who divorce and later meet again, has been praised for its "harsh look at monogamy"?
... that 19th-century Mormonism embraced the desire for a slow, dramatic, "beautiful death" with plenty of witnesses?
... that Pierre Bleuse, who learned conducting after a career as violinist, was chosen by composer Michael Jarrell to lead his opera Cassandre, starring Fanny Ardant?
... that the Fijian fruit fly feeds on the yum-yum tree?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Arecibo Observatory

Douglas Stuart's debut novel Shuggie Bain wins the Booker Prize.
The National Science Foundation announces the decommissioning of the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope (pictured) in Puerto Rico.
The Brereton Report is released, documenting evidence of 39 unlawful killings, primarily of civilians and prisoners, by Australian Defence Force personnel during the war in Afghanistan.

On this day

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

de Havilland Mosquitos

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.
1940 – The de Havilland Mosquito (examples pictured), one of the most successful military aircraft in the Second World War, made its first flight.
1960 – Three of the four Mirabal sisters, who opposed the dictatorship of military strongman Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, were beaten and strangled to death.
1984 – Band Aid, a supergroup consisting of more than 30 leading British and Irish pop musicians, recorded the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Andrea Doria (d. 1560)
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1876)
Alexis Wright (b. 1950)

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Today's featured picture

Portrait of a Man is a 1514 oil-on-lime-wood painting by Hans Baldung, a German artist and printmaker, considered to be the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer. The unknown sitter seems to be a wealthy man, as indicated by his fur collar, the heavy gold chains around his neck, and the jewel in his cap. Baldung had a distinctive style, with paintings full of colour, expression and imagination. His talents were varied, and he produced a great and extensive variety of work including portraits, woodcuts, drawings, tapestries, altarpieces, stained-glass, allegories and mythological motifs. The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Painting credit: Hans Baldung

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