Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 November 20b

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From today's featured article

The Harry F. Sinclair House stands at the corner of East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. It was built between 1897 and 1899, designed in a French Renaissance style by C. P. H. Gilbert and built by foreman Harvey Murdock. It was successively owned by businessmen Isaac D. Fletcher and Harry F. Sinclair, and then descendants of Peter Stuyvesant. The Ukrainian Institute of America acquired the mansion in 1955. It fell into disrepair and was renovated in the 1990s. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and named a National Historic Landmark in 1978. The building largely retains its original design, being constructed mainly of brick faced with limestone ashlar. The northern façade on 79th Street includes the main entrance and has multiple windows in square recesses or Gothic arches. The western façade is symmetrical and dominated by a curved pavilion. The interior has six floors, with a total floorspace of 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²). (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Original Trictrac board and equipment

... that Trictrac (board pictured) was the classic tables game of France, just as backgammon is of the English-speaking world today?
... that Russel and Mary Wright's American design "manifesto" Guide to Easier Living proposed that life was "engineering problems with scientific solutions"?
... that the telephone exchange in Craig's Court contains one of the entrances to the secret government tunnels under London?
... that Bob Ferry became general manager of the Washington Bullets by selling advertisements for its game programs, giving its upper management the impression that he "must know a lot about business"?
... that the tourist attraction Little Canada has a "Littlization Station" used to create scale 3D replicas of visitors to be placed in the exhibit?
... that 14 top art students in the Russian Empire revolted and quit their academy because of a competition theme?
... that Nancy Cappello was described as the "founder of the breast density education movement" for her campaign to inform women about the issue of mammograms failing to detect breast cancer?
... that the biggest Turdus is 23–28 centimetres (9–10 inches) in length?

In the news

SpaceX Crew-3 launch

Kosmos 1408 is destroyed by a Russian anti-satellite weapon and becomes a cloud of space debris.
We Continue the Change, led by Kiril Petkov and Asen Vasilev, wins the most seats in the Bulgarian general election.
SpaceX's Crew-3 mission (launch pictured) takes four astronauts to the International Space Station.
Former South African president F. W. de Klerk, who negotiated the end of apartheid with Nelson Mandela, dies at the age of 85.

On this day

November 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance; National Sovereignty Day in Argentina (1845)

Bust of Diocletian

284 – Diocletian (bust pictured) became Roman emperor, eventually establishing reforms that ended the Crisis of the Third Century.
1739 – War of Jenkins' Ear: A British naval force arrived at the settlement of Portobello in the Spanish Main (now in Panama), which it captured the next day.
1902 – While discussing how to promote the newspaper L'Auto, sports journalist Géo Lefèvre came up with the idea of holding a cycling race that later became known as the Tour de France.
1979 – A group of armed insurgents attacked and took over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, declaring that one of their leaders was the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam.
1991 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: An Azerbaijani military helicopter carrying a peacekeeping mission team was shot down in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, disrupting the ongoing peace talks.

Thomas Chatterton (b. 1752)
Irakli Tsereteli (b. 1881)
Ancel Keys (d. 2004)

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Today's featured picture

The ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) is a small wading bird in the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. It is a highly migratory bird, breeding in northern parts of Eurasia and North America and flying south to winter on coastlines almost worldwide. This adult ruddy turnstone in non-breeding plumage was photographed at Boat Harbour in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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