Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 September 29

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From today's featured article

The two submarines of the U-1 class, U-1 and U-2, were built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Constructed according to an American design, they were launched in 1909. A diving chamber, wheels for traveling along the seabed, and other experimental features were tested extensively in sea trials. Their gasoline engines were replaced around the start of World War I over safety and efficiency concerns. The boats have been described by naval historians as obsolete by the time they were commissioned in 1911. Both submarines were mobilized briefly during the Balkan Wars, and otherwise served as training boats before 1915. From 1915 to 1918 they conducted reconnaissance cruises out of Trieste and Pola, though neither sank any enemy vessels during the war. Facing defeat in October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian government transferred the bulk of its fleet, including these submarines, to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to avoid having to hand its ships over to the Allied Powers. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in 2021

... that the artist Robert Smithson suggested that the boulder in the center of his piece Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (pictured) was a "warning from the Ice Age"?
... that the 1911 fire at the New York State Capitol destroyed over 700,000 items held by the New York State Library, creating a "hole in [New York's] cultural heritage"?
... that a 15-year-old boy died after falling from the top of a 142-foot high (43 m) mast?
... that Richard McGeagh did not receive a gold medal, even though he set an Olympic record in the 4×100 metre medley relay at the 1964 Olympics?
... that the winner of the men's race at the 2004 London Marathon fell during the race on cobblestones?
... that Saul Soliz was known as "the godfather of Texas MMA"?
... that the Morowali Industrial Park is the largest center of nickel industry in Indonesia, the world's top nickel producer?
... that Dinah John was one of an estimated fifteen Native American women from New York state to serve in the War of 1812?

In the news

Michael Kovrig

The Social Democratic Party wins the most seats in the German federal election.
Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig (pictured) are released from detention in China shortly after the release of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from house arrest in Canada.
The Liberal Party of Canada, led by Justin Trudeau, is re-elected to a minority government.
Former President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika dies at the age of 84.

On this day

September 29: Michaelmas (Western Christianity)

New Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police headquarters

1714 – During the Russian occupation of Finland, Cossacks killed about 800 inhabitants of the island of Hailuoto with axes.
1829 – The Metropolitan Police (headquarters pictured) of Greater London, originally headquartered in Great Scotland Yard, Westminster, was founded.
1941 – The Holocaust: Nazi forces, aided by Ukrainian collaborators, began a massacre of Jews in a ravine in Kyiv, killing more than 30,000 civilians in two days and thousands more in the following months.
1954 – Willie Mays of the New York Giants made The Catch, one of the most famous defensive plays in the history of Major League Baseball.
1991 – The award-winning Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast premiered as an unfinished film at the New York Film Festival.

Arnaud Amalric (d. 1225)
Elizabeth Gaskell (b. 1810)
Bill Shankly (d. 1981)

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Today's featured picture

Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii) is a large species of chameleon, a lizard in the family Chamaeleonidae. The species is endemic to isolated pockets of humid primary forest in eastern and northern Madagascar. It is listed on CITES Appendix II, meaning that trade in this species is regulated. While it is illegal for most chameleon species from Madagascar to be exported, a limited number of Parson's chameleons can legally be exported each year from its native country. This female Parson's chameleon of the subspecies C. p. cristifer was photographed near Andasibe, Moramanga.Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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