Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 November 9

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From today's featured article

A Child of Our Time is a secular oratorio by the British composer Michael Tippett (1905–98). It was inspired by events in 1938 that had affected Tippett profoundly: the assassination of a German diplomat by a young Jewish refugee (Herschel Grynszpan, pictured) and the Nazi government's reaction in the form of the so-called Kristallnacht—a vicious pogrom against Germany's Jewish population on the night of 9–10 November. Tippett uses these incidents to represent the experiences of all oppressed peoples, in the context of a pacifist message of ultimate understanding and reconciliation. The text's recurrent themes of shadow and light reflect the Jungian psychoanalysis which Tippett underwent in the years immediately before writing the work. The oratorio's most original feature is the use of African American spirituals, which perform the function allocated in Bach's Passions to chorales; Tippett believed that these songs of oppression possess a universality absent from specifically Christian and other hymns. A Child of Our Time was well received on its first performance in 1944 at the Adelphi Theatre, London, and has since been performed all over the world in many languages. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that a photograph (pictured) taken by Elena Mrozovskaya at the 1903 Ball in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was exhibited in the Hermitage Rooms in London 100 years later?
... that Ségolène Royal became the first woman nominee of a major party for President of France after she won the French Socialist Party presidential primary of 2006?
... that college basketball players Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton, who are true freshmen for the 2013–14 Michigan Wolverines, were Boys Basketball Gatorade Players of the Year for Indiana and Michigan, respectively?
... that the starfish Asterina gibbosa cements its egg cluster to a rock while Asterina phylactica broods its young?
... that in 1948, the socialist leader Nanasaheb Purohit organized a people's army to capture the Janjira state and proclaimed himself Prime Minister?
... that Inside Claridge's was shortlisted for the Grierson 2013: British Documentary Awards?
... that the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, which resolved the 2013 U.S. government shutdown and debt-ceiling crisis, may just be kicking the can down the road?

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In the news

Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical cyclone of 2013, makes landfall in the Philippines.
The European Central Bank cuts its bank rate to the historically low 0.25%.
A court in Bangladesh sentences 152 people to death for their part in the Bangladesh Rifles revolt.
The Congolese army declares a defeat of the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In horse racing, Fiorente (pictured), ridden by Damien Oliver, wins the Melbourne Cup.
India launches the Mars Orbiter Mission, its first interplanetary probe.
Kenyans Geoffrey Mutai and Priscah Jeptoo win the New York City Marathon.

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On this day...

November 9: Inventors' Day in Austria, Germany and Switzerland; Independence Day in Cambodia (1953); Muhammad Iqbal's Day in Pakistan

1799 – The coup of 18 Brumaire led by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and Napoleon deposed the French government, replacing the Directory with the Consulate.
1888 – Mary Jane Kelly was murdered in London, widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.
1913 – The "Big Blow" storm reached its maximum intensity in the Great Lakes Basin of North America, destroying 19 ships and 68,300 tons of cargo, and killing over 250 people.
1989 – East Germany announced the opening of the inner German border and the Berlin Wall, marking the symbolic end of the Cold War, impending collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and beginning of the end of Soviet communism.
1998 – With the passing of the Human Rights Act, the United Kingdom abolished capital punishment for all criminal offences.

More anniversaries: November 8 – November 9 – November 10

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It is now November 9, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

The Dark-sided Thrush (Zoothera marginata) is a species of bird in the thrush family Turdidae. Described by Edward Blyth in 1847, the species is closely related to the Long-billed Thrush and Scaly Thrush.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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