Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 November 18
From today's featured article
Alan Shepard (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961 he became the second person and the first American to travel into space, and in 1971 he walked on the Moon (pictured). Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II. He became a naval aviator in 1947, and a test pilot in 1951. He was one of NASA's original Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, and in May 1961 he made his first spaceflight: Mercury-Redstone 3, the first crewed Project Mercury flight. In 1971, he commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the Apollo Lunar Module Antares. He became the fifth and the oldest person to walk on the Moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1971, and was the first astronaut to reach that rank. He was Chief of the Astronaut Office from November 1963 to July 1969, and from June 1971 to April 1974. He retired from NASA and the United States Navy in July 1974. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that some Catholics considered Tom Lehrer's "The Vatican Rag" (audio featured) to be blasphemous?
- ... that Hilda Hilst impersonated a journalist to meet Marlon Brando, and asked him about Franz Kafka's works?
- ... that after the Iraqi government lost control of its northern territories following the 1991 Gulf War, the Legislative Council of the Autonomous Kurdistan Region was based in Baghdad?
- ... that the killing of hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians by starvation in the siege of Leningrad was ruled not criminal by an American court?
- ... that Stella Alexander, the first female mayor of Issaquah, was nicknamed "Madame Mussolini" by her detractors?
- ... that Canadian photographer and architectural activist Brian Merrett's works prompted the preservation of Montreal's Shaughnessy House, now the Canadian Centre for Architecture?
- ... that Susan Murabana created Africa's first permanent planetarium?
- ... that @NYT_first_said's most popular tweet, as of 2019, was simply "shithole"?
In the news
- Pedro Sánchez (pictured) is invested as Prime Minister of Spain, after proposing amnesty for Catalan separatists and then receiving support from them.
- In the Myanmar civil war, opposition forces capture multiple cities in a major offensive against the ruling military junta.
- In stock car racing, Ryan Blaney wins the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
- In baseball, the Hanshin Tigers defeat the Orix Buffaloes to win the Japan Series.
On this day
- 1583 – The Siege of Godesberg, the first major siege of the Cologne War, began.
- 1977 – Solomon Islands ratified the adoption of a new flag (pictured).
- 1978 – Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple to mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after some of its members assassinated U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan.
- 2003 – With its ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made the state the first in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage.
- 2017 – Cyclone Numa, a rare "medicane", made landfall in Greece to become the worst weather event that the country had experienced since 1977.
- Philibert Commerson (b. 1727)
- Mitsuyo Maeda (b. 1878)
- Wilma Mankiller (b. 1945)
- Maribel Domínguez (b. 1978)
Today's featured picture
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Rani ki Vav is a stepwell situated in the town of Patan in Gujarat, India. It is located on the banks of the Saraswati River. Its construction is attributed to Udayamati, the spouse of the 11th-century Chaulukya king Bhima I. Silted over, it was rediscovered in the 1940s and restored in the 1980s by the Archaeological Survey of India. It has been listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India since 2014. One of the largest examples of its kind, this stepwell is designed as an inverted temple highlighting the sanctity of water. It is divided into seven levels of stairs with sculptural panels. These panels have more than five hundred principal sculptures and more than one thousand minor ones that combine religious and symbolic imagery. Photograph credit: Snehrashmi
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