Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 November 27

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From today's featured article

Caroline Brady (1905–1980) was an American philologist whose scholarship focused on Old English and Old Norse. Her works included the 1943 book The Legends of Ermanaric, based on her doctoral dissertation, and three influential papers on the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. She was born an American citizen in Tientsin, China, and studied in the University of California system, receiving her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1935. The Legends of Ermanaric discussed two competing traditions about the Gothic king Ermanaric, who ruled in the fourth century AD. Ostrogothic lore viewed him as a good king, whereas a second tradition, promulgated by those subjugated by him, saw him as evil. Brady was known as an investigator of the intractable problems of Germanic myth, and the convoluted nature of the related scholarship. In 1952–53 she was the Marion Talbot Fellow of the American Association of University Women. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Eugen Ernst

... that the appointment of Eugen Ernst (pictured) as president of the Berlin police prompted the Spartacist uprising of 1919?
... that a man claiming to be Lynyrd Skynyrd's Billy Powell fooled Sioux Falls radio station KRRO into letting him sing in their studios?
... that Chinese archaeologist Duan Qingbo found that the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor bore similarities to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus built a century earlier?
... that women vendors at Victorian charity bazaars were criticized for using the events to flirt with men?
... that 19th-century bridge builder Zenas King built thousands of bridges across the continental United States, some of which are still standing?
... that the green spruce aphid often continues breeding throughout the winter, but the nymphs become dormant in the summer?
... that Isabelle Kabatu, a Belgian soprano of African origin, recorded the role of Dolly in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera Sly alongside José Carreras in the title role?
... that the 2018 teen drama Skate Kitchen was partly filmed with a camera mounted on a motorized skateboard deck traveling at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h)?

In the news

Andrew Harris

At least 24 people are killed and 650 others injured in an earthquake in northwestern Albania.
Several hundred diamonds and jewelled items are stolen from Dresden Castle, Germany.
In Canadian football, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to win the Grey Cup (MVP Andrew Harris pictured).
Klaus Iohannis of the National Liberal Party is re-elected as President of Romania in a runoff election.
Amid ongoing protests in Hong Kong, the pro-democracy camp wins control of 17 of the 18 district councils in local elections.

On this day

November 27

Alfred Nobel

885 – Viking expansion: Danish Vikings began an ultimately unsuccessful siege of Paris.
1895 – Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel (pictured) signed his last will and testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death.
1919 – The first fraternity exclusively for collegiate band members, Kappa Kappa Psi, was founded on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
1999 – The Labour Party defeated the governing National Party in the New Zealand general election, with Labour's Helen Clark becoming the country's first female prime minister to have won office at an election.
2009 – A bomb exploded under, and derailed, a Russian high-speed train travelling between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, killing 28 passengers.

Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (b. 1635) · William Bliss Baker (b. 1859) · May Gibbs (d. 1969)

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Today's featured picture

Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat, whose most renowned masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it was first exhibited in Paris. Around this time, the peak of France's modern era emerged and many painters were in search of new methods. Followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists' characterization of their own contemporary art. The Pointillist and Divisionist techniques are often mentioned in this context, because it was the dominant technique in the beginning of the Neo-impressionist movement.

This picture is a oil-on-canvas portrait of Félix Fénéon in the Neo-Impressionist style by French painter Paul Signac, dated 1890. The painting is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Painting credit: Paul Signac

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