Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 November 15

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From today's featured article

Bazy Tankersley (1921–2013) was an American breeder of Arabian horses and a newspaper publisher. She was a daughter of Senator Joseph M. McCormick and Congresswoman Ruth Hanna McCormick. Her father died when she was a child, and she moved west when her mother remarried, where she was given a part-Arabian horse. She began working as a reporter at 18, and began her horse breeding operation, Al-Marah Arabians, in 1941. In 1949, she became the publisher of the conservative Washington Times-Herald owned by her uncle, Robert R. McCormick, where she became a friend of Senator Joseph McCarthy. When McCormick demanded she choose between the newspaper and Garvin "Tank" Tankersley, who became her second husband, she shifted to full-time horse breeding. By 1957 Al-Marah was the largest Arabian horse farm in the United States. Over her career she bred more than 2,800 registered Arabians. Though she was involved with conservative Republican causes as a young woman, she was a strong supporter of environmental causes in the 21st century and backed Barack Obama for president in 2008. She was a patron of many charities. (Full article...)

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Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2016

... that Serena Williams (pictured) has won the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year three times, first in 2003 and most recently in 2016?
... that the 18th-century Scottish obstetrician William Smellie was the first to document the natural birthing process?
... that the Los Angeles Times–Washington Post News Service, in existence from 1962 to 2009, had some 650 clients?
... that Turkish socialist politician Fatma Hikmet İşmen used her first senate speech to accuse the Directorate of Religious Affairs of fueling discrimination against Alawites by Sunni Muslims?
... that the county courthouses in New Jersey serve 21 counties in 15 vicinages?
... that the Avenue Range Station massacre involved the shooting murders of nine Aboriginal Australians, including children and a baby, by white settlers?
... that Michèle Dix, managing director of the proposed £27 billion Crossrail 2 project, said she would like to run a tea room when she retires?
... that the species name of the ringed brown snake means "well-behaved" and has been linked to its reluctance to bite people?

In the news

Borut Pahor

Zimbabwe National Army troops seize control of Harare amidst a military takeover of the country.
Borut Pahor (pictured) is re-elected President of Slovenia.
An earthquake strikes the border between Iraq and Iran, killing over 500 people and injuring more than 7,000 others.
The Paradise Papers—more than 13 million financial documents relating to offshore investment—are leaked.
In the U.S. community of Sutherland Springs, Texas, 26 people are killed and 20 others are injured in a mass shooting at a Baptist church.

On this day...

November 15: Republic Day in Brazil (1889); Shichi-Go-San in Japan

Main façade of the Castellania Palace

655 – Penda of Mercia was defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria at the Battle of the Winwaed in modern-day Yorkshire, England.
1760 – The chapel of the new Castellania Palace (pictured) in Valletta, Malta, was consecrated.
1889 – Brazilian Emperor Pedro II was overthrown in a coup led by Deodoro da Fonseca, and Brazil was proclaimed a republic.
1959 – Two men murdered a family in Holcomb, Kansas, U.S.; the events became the subject of Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, a pioneering work of the true crime genre.
1968 – Vietnam War: American forces launched Operation Commando Hunt, a large-scale bombing campaign to prevent the People's Army of Vietnam from transporting personnel and supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Madeleine de Scudéry (b. 1607) · Émile Durkheim (d. 1917) · María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

A collection of sixteen wood samples, from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Pinus sylvestris (Pine)
2. Picea abies (Spruce)
3. Larix decidua (Larch)
4. Juniperus communis (Juniper)
5. Populus tremula (Aspen)
6. Carpinus betulus (Hornbeam)
7. Betula pubescens (Birch)
8. Alnus glutinosa (Alder)
9. Fagus sylvatica (Beech)
10. Quercus robur (Oak)
11. Ulmus glabra (Elm)
12. Prunus avium (Cherry)
13. Pyrus communis (Pear)
14. Acer platanoides (Maple)
15. Tilia cordata (Linden)
16. Fraxinus excelsior (Ash)

Photograph: Anonimski

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