Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 October 11

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"Home" is the second episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, which originally aired on the Fox network on October 11, 1996. Directed by Kim Manners and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, it is a "monster-of-the-week" story, unconnected to the overarching mythology of The X-Files. Watched by 18.85 million viewers, the initial broadcast had a Nielsen rating of 11.9. The series centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who work on cases linked to the paranormal. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a baby born with severe physical defects. While in the isolated town of Home, Pennsylvania, they meet a family of deformed farmers who have not left their home in a decade. "Home" was the first episode of the series to receive a viewer discretion warning for graphic content. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Female Schneider's marmoset

... that Schneider's marmoset (pictured) is one of three primates newly described in the 2020s?
... that in 2010, ice hockey executive Kirovs Lipmans was reported to be the second-richest person in Latvia?
... that Benedict Cumberbatch was originally expected to have a cameo appearance as Dr. Strange in the WandaVision episode "Breaking the Fourth Wall"?
... that World War II war criminal Ivo Herenčić worked as an art dealer in Rome after the war?
... that L. P. Hollander & Company filed for bankruptcy less than two years after moving its New York City store to 3 East 57th Street?
... that "The Epic Split" featured an actor performing a gymnastic split between two backwards moving trucks?
... that academese has been criticized for being unnecessarily complex and in extreme cases, purposefully discriminating and obfuscating?
... that the Delphian Club designated John Neal as Magister Facetiarum of the Office of the Joke Master General?

In the news

Petr Fiala

Following the Czech legislative election, SPOLU agree to a coalition with Pirates and Mayors, with SPOLU leader Petr Fiala (pictured) as the Prime Minister.
Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to safeguard freedom of speech.
A magnitude-5.9 earthquake kills at least 20 people and injures 300 others in Balochistan, Pakistan.

On this day

October 11: Feast day of Saint James the Deacon (Anglicanism); National Coming Out Day; Thanksgiving in Canada (2021)

Bashir Shihab II

1311 – The peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England published the Ordinances of 1311 to restrict King Edward II's powers.
1531 – Swiss Reformation leader Huldrych Zwingli was killed in battle when Zürich forces were attacked by Catholic cantons in response to a food blockade being applied by his alliance.
1840 – Bashir Shihab II (pictured) surrendered to the Ottoman Empire and was removed as Emir of Mount Lebanon after an imperial decree by Sultan Abdülmecid I.
1937 – Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, arrived at Friedrichstraße station in Berlin to begin their tour of Germany.
1991 – During the confirmation hearings upon the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States, Anita Hill testified that he had sexually harassed her several years earlier.

Edward Colston (d. 1721)
Henry J. Heinz (b. 1844)
Beni Montresor (d. 2001)

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The 1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea (WPNK) was elected by the 1st Congress on 30 August 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of North Korea and the New People's Party of Korea, and remained in session until the election of the 2nd Central Committee on 30 March 1948. In between party congresses and specially convened conferences the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution in the party and North Korea. Forty-three members were elected to the 1st Central Committee, of which thirty-one were re-elected at the 2nd Congress. Its members convened for the 1st Plenary Session on 31 August 1946 and elected the 1st Organisation Committee, 1st Standing Committee and the 1st Political Committee, and voted in Kim Tu-bong as the WPNK Chairman and Kim Il-sung and Chu Yong-ha were elected vice chairmen. A feature of North Korean politics was its factionalism. Four loosely defined factions had taken shape by this time; Kim Il-sung's partisans, domestic communists, the Yan'an group and the Soviet Koreans. (Full list...)

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NASA space-flown Apollo medallions were mission-specific commemorative medallions which were approved by NASA and carried aboard the mission spacecraft into orbit. Apollo 17 (December 7 – 19, 1972) was the final Moon landing mission of NASA's Apollo program, and remains the most recent time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit and also the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. The crew consisted of Commander Gene Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, and Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans

The medallions were struck by the Robbins Company in sterling silver and ordered by the mission crew as a personal memento of their flight; they were often taken to the lunar surface in the landing module. A total of over 3,000 Robbins medallions were flown into space across the 12 crewed flights of the Apollo program.

See other medallions: Apollo 7 · Apollo 8 · Apollo 9 · Apollo 10 · Apollo 11 · Apollo 12 · Apollo 13 · Apollo 14 · Apollo 15 · Apollo 16

Photograph credit: Heritage Auctions; commissioned by the NASA astronaut office

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