Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 November 10

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From today's featured article

Gough Whitlam (left) and Malcolm Fraser (right)

The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis culminated on 11 November when Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Gough Whitlam (pictured, left) of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as prime minister and appointed Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser (pictured, right) as caretaker. The Whitlam Government had been rocked by scandals and political miscalculations. In October the Opposition blocked bills in the Senate financing the government, and urged Kerr to dismiss Whitlam unless he agreed to call an election for the House of Representatives. On 11 November, Whitlam intended to call a half-Senate election instead, but when he met with Kerr to seek his approval, Kerr dismissed him as prime minister. Before the ALP parliamentarians knew what had happened, Fraser and his allies secured passage of the appropriation bills and Kerr dissolved Parliament. Fraser and his government were returned with a large majority in elections the following month. Widely vilified by ALP supporters for his actions, Kerr resigned early as governor-general and lived much of his remaining life abroad. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Masroor Rock Cut Temple

... that according to a popular legend, the Pandavas of the Mahabharata built the Masroor Rock Cut Temple (pictured) during their "incognito" exile from their kingdom?
... that Vernon Jones was the first African American to be elected as CEO of DeKalb County, Georgia, and the youngest person to ever serve in that office?
... that players can ride on elephants in Far Cry 4?
... that Alice Alldredge, an expert on marine snow, has been in the top 0.1% of the Web of Science's highly cited researchers list since 2003?
... that Chuixian San Chi was released in Taiwan to commemorate Ringo Sheena's first overseas concert?
... that Andreas Panayiotou was kicked out of school at the age of 14 for punching his teacher, and became an amateur boxing champion and the UK's largest private landlord?
... that in the 1985 John Candy film Volunteers, the Washington State University fight song is used as a battle cry by Thai communist partisans?
... that with certain diseases, vaginal discharge can become cheesy, frothy, or fishy?

In the news

Ma Ying-jeou (left) and Xi Jinping (right)

Chinese and Taiwanese presidents, Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou, formally meet for the first time (pictured).
At least 41 people are killed when an Antonov An-12 cargo plane crashes near Juba, South Sudan.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigns over the fatal Colectiv nightclub fire.
Cyclone Chapala becomes the first hurricane-force storm on record to strike mainland Yemen.
In horse racing, Michelle Payne becomes the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, riding Prince of Penzance.

Ongoing events:
- Metrojet Flight 9268
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Tom Graveney
- Ahmed Chalabi

On this day...

November 10: Diwali (Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, 2015); Remembrance of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (09:05 EET/07:05 UTC, Turkey)

SS Edmund Fitzgerald

1202 – The first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders, the Siege of Zara, began in Zadar, Croatia.
1775 – The United States Marine Corps was founded as the Continental Marines by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War.
1940 – A magnitude 7.7 M_L earthquake struck the Vrancea region of Romania, the country's strongest earthquake in the 20th century.
1945 – Indonesian National Revolution: Following the killing of the British officer Brigadier A. W. S. Mallaby a few weeks prior, British forces began their retaliation by attacking Surabaya, Indonesia.
1975 – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald (pictured), the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, sank in Lake Superior with the loss of 29 lives.

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Today's featured picture

A Hidatsa warrior in the costume of the dog dance. This drawing is one of several completed by Karl Bodmer while during his Missouri River expedition between 1832 to 1834.

Illustration: Karl Bodmer; restoration: Adam Cuerden and Chris Woodrich

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