Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 November 16

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Walter de Coutances was a medieval Anglo-Norman Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of Rouen. He began his royal service in the government of Henry II, serving as a vice-chancellor. He also accumulated a number of ecclesiastical offices, becoming successively canon of Rouen Cathedral (pictured), treasurer of Rouen, and Archdeacon of Oxford. King Henry sent him on a number of diplomatic missions, and finally rewarded him with the Bishopric of Lincoln in 1183. He did not remain there long, for he was translated to the archbishopric of Rouen in late 1184. When Richard I, King Henry's son, became king in 1189, Coutances absolved Richard for his rebellion against his father and invested him as Duke of Normandy. He then accompanied Richard to Sicily as the king began the Third Crusade, but events in England prompted Richard to send the archbishop back to England to mediate between William Longchamp, the justiciar whom Richard had left in charge of the kingdom, and Prince John, Richard's younger brother. Coutances succeeded in securing a peace between Longchamp and John, but further actions by Longchamp led to the justiciar's expulsion from England. Coutances died in November 1207 and was buried in his cathedral. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the Nelson Monument (pictured) was the first piece of public sculpture in Liverpool?
... that Gerard Fowke spent much of his life studying ancient burial mounds, trying to prove the existence of a civilization that predated what we currently understand to be the Native Americans?
... that the Kharijite uprising that began in the Jazira in 866, would last for 30 years before being suppressed by the Abbasid government?
... that Ellen van Dijk fired the starting shot for the 2013 Six Days of Amsterdam, an annual six-day track cycling race?
... that the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, is the oldest continuously existing scientific institution in South Africa?
... that Swedish singer Regina Lund had a part in Once in a Lifetime, a comedy film about the Eurovision Song Contest?
... that you can remotely control animals by inserting wires into their brains?

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In the news

At Christie's in New York City, Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud sells for US$142.4 million, a record price for a work of art sold at auction.
The International Court of Justice rules that the promontory at the Preah Vihear Temple (pictured) is part of Cambodia and that Thai forces must withdraw.
In motorcycling, Marc Márquez wins the MotoGP world championship.
Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical cyclone of 2013, kills more than 3,600 people and causes extensive damage across the Philippines.
The European Central Bank cuts its bank rate to a record low of 0.25%.
A court in Bangladesh sentences 152 people to death for their part in the Bangladesh Rifles revolt.

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On this day...

November 16: Day of Declaration of Sovereignty in Estonia (1988)

1491 – Several Jews and conversos were executed in Toledo, Spain, for the alleged ritual murder of an infant, who was later revered as the Holy Child of La Guardia.
1920 – Qantas, Australia's national airline, was founded as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited.
1938 – Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesized the psychedelic drug LSD (3D representation of molecule pictured) at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline to transport oil from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Alaska.
2002 – The first case of the respiratory disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was recorded in Guangdong, China.

More anniversaries: November 15 – November 16 – November 17

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Today's featured picture

Lothar Späth (b. 1937) is a German politician with the Christian Democratic Union and former minister-president of the Baden-Württemberg.

Photo: Felix König

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