Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 October 15

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From today's featured article

Actor dressed as Master Chief at Nasdaq

Master Chief is a major character in the Halo multimedia franchise. First appearing in the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved, he is the playable character and protagonist of many of the games in the franchise, and makes additional appearances in spin-offs, novels, and comics. In the story, Master Chief is abducted as a child and raised by the military to fight against human rebels. He and his fellow Spartan supersoldiers instead become humanity's best weapon in the fight against a genocidal collective of alien races known as the Covenant. The character is voiced by Steve Downes. Master Chief was originally designed to be a faceless avatar whom players could inhabit while playing the games, but the relationship between him and his artificial intelligence companion Cortana has become a central part of the franchise. Master Chief serves as a mascot for the Xbox brand, and is an iconic character in gaming culture. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Dagger and sheath from the Khalili Collection

... that the Khalili Collection of Spanish Metalwork includes a Moroccan-style dagger (pictured) previously owned by King Alfonso XII of Spain?
... that Albert Johnson was the first black mayor in New Mexico?
... that the fish-for-finance trade-off in EU–UK trade negotiations pits an industry that accounts for nearly seven per cent of the UK's GDP against one with revenues less than those of Harrods?
... that a ten-day silent retreat led Deradoorian to invite Dave Harrington to collaborate on her 2020 album Find the Sun?
... that Myra Kathleen Hughes's Vanishing London series captured several landmarks before they were demolished?
... that "microatolls" of the coral Porites lutea have been used to study past changes in sea level?
... that A Night to Remember, a live broadcast about Titanic's final night, featured 107 actors and 31 sets, and proved that "TV occasionally can rise to great heights"?
... that cricketer Issy Wong can solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds?

In the news

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

LeBron James

In basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals (MVP LeBron James pictured).
In tennis, Iga Świątek wins the women's singles title and Rafael Nadal wins the men's singles at the French Open.
The UN World Food Programme is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger.

On this day

October 15:

Mata Hari

1529 – Ottoman–Habsburg wars: The Siege of Vienna ended with Austrian forces repelling the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of conquest in Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
1917 – Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari (pictured) was executed by a firing squad for spying for Germany.
1982 – Ata'ollah Ashrafi Esfahani was assassinated by the People's Mujahedin of Iran during Friday prayers in Kermanshah.
2006 – An earthquake registering 6.7 M_w occurred off the northwestern coast of the island of Hawaii.

Razia Sultana (d. 1240)
William H. Crook (b. 1839)
Stepan Bandera (d. 1959)

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Today's featured picture

Wheat fields were a fascination with Vincent van Gogh, and this 1889 work, Landscape from Saint-Rémy, is one of many oil-on-canvas paintings that included them. From his studio room at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, southern France, Van Gogh worked on a group of paintings of the view from his window. During his stay, he made about twelve paintings showing the enclosed wheat field and the distant mountains in varying aspects. In this series, he expresses through symbolism and use of colour his deeply felt spiritual beliefs, appreciation of manual labourers and connection to nature. This painting is now part of the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Painting credit: Vincent van Gogh

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