Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 November 5

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From today's featured article

Guy Fawkes (1570–1606) was one of a group of English Catholics who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the failure of which is commemorated in Britain every 5 November as Guy Fawkes Night. He converted to Catholicism and fought for Spain in the Eighty Years' War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries. In Spain he sought support for a Catholic rebellion in England, but the court of Philip III was unwilling to help him. He later met Thomas Wintour, returned to England, and was introduced to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords in Westminster Palace, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder that they stockpiled there. The authorities found Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was arrested and died after falling from the scaffold where he was to be hanged. (This article is part of a featured topic: Gunpowder Plot.)

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Did you know ...

Lang Ayre

... that the Lang Ayre (pictured), the longest beach in Shetland, has red sand?
... that Hall of Fame players Curly Lambeau and Arnie Herber both played in the Green Bay East–Green Bay West football rivalry?
... that in 1985, Hezi Shai and two other captured soldiers were returned to Israel in exchange for 1,150 Palestinian and Lebanese security prisoners?
... that the first chapter of Go For It, Nakamura! was commissioned to fill a gap of empty pages in the manga magazine in which it was published?
... that Abraham Groves is credited with performing the first appendectomy in North America?
... that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation wound up operating a radio station when it seized a failed Tennessee bank, which in turn had seized WIDD?
... that Ding Shisun considered his own tenure as President of Peking University a failure, but scholar Ji Xianlin called him one of the two best presidents in the institution's history?
... that poison devil's-pepper has been used both as rat poison and as a traditional medicine for humans?

In the news

Duane Vermeulen

In rugby union, the World Cup concludes with South Africa defeating England in the final (Player of the Match Duane Vermeulen pictured).
A series of earthquakes hits Mindanao, Philippines, killing at least 21 people.
A fire on a passenger train near Liaquatpur, Pakistan, kills at least 75 people.
In baseball, the Washington Nationals defeat the Houston Astros to win the World Series.

On this day

November 5: Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries (1605)

Memorial to the Morea
expedition in Nafplio

1138 – Lý Anh Tông was enthroned as Emperor of Đại Việt at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign.
1828 – Greek War of Independence: The French Morea expedition (memorial pictured) to recapture Morea (now known as the Peloponnese) ended when the last Ottoman forces departed the peninsula.
1943 – World War II: An unknown aircraft dropped four bombs on Vatican City, which maintained neutrality during the war.
1967 – A train derailed near Hither Green maintenance depot in London, killing 49 people and injuring 78 others.
2009 – U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, the worst shooting ever to take place on an American military base, killing 13.

Mariotto Albertinelli (d. 1515) · Ida Tarbell (b. 1857) · Luis Cernuda (d. 1963)

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Today's featured picture

The French franc is a former currency of France and Monaco and, alongside the Spanish peseta, a former de facto currency in Andorra. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360, which showed King John II of France on a richly decorated horse, earning it the name franc à cheval. A later coin, showing Charles VII on foot, under a canopy, was named the franc à pied. The decimal franc was established by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit, and became the official currency of France in 1799. France joined the euro in 1999, and the franc was replaced by euro notes and coins in 2002.

This picture shows a 100-franc gold coin, dated 1889, with a "winged genius" designed by Augustin Dupré on the obverse. Only a hundred proof coins of this design were minted.

Coin credit: Monnaie de Paris; photographed by the National Numismatic Collection

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