Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 October 21

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From today's featured article

Joseph Johnson, co-founder of the Analytical Review

The Analytical Review was a periodical established in London in 1788 by the publisher Joseph Johnson (pictured) and the writer Thomas Christie. Part of the Republic of Letters, it provided summaries and analyses of new publications and acted as a forum for radical political and religious ideas. Although it aimed at impartiality, its articles were often critical of the British government and supportive of the French revolutionaries. While the journal had low circulation numbers for its day, it still influenced popular opinion and was feared by the administration of William Pitt the Younger. Government supporters founded the Anti-Jacobin Review in 1797, which criticized the radical politics of the Analytical and monitored it for unpatriotic and irreligious sentiments. The Analytical Review focused on politics, philosophy, natural history, and literature. Its prominent writers (who signed their work with pseudonymous initials) included the poet William Cowper, the moralist William Enfield, the physician John Aikin, and the polemicist Mary Wollstonecraft. It suspended publication in December 1798 after Johnson was convicted of seditious libel and other contributors had died or retired. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Stewart Gray (pictured) was a "heroic dreamer" who originated the back-to-the-land movement in the UK and started an artists' colony in London?
... that Corn Run was likely named for bushels of corn washed into it during a flood?
... that Clarence N. Hickman, a developer of the bazooka, was also the "Father of Scientific Archery", and is an AMICA Hall-of-Famer for his improvements to player pianos?
... that burglars attacking a Barretville, Tennessee, bank vault with blowtorches in 1930 failed to steal any money, but burned down the adjacent general store?
... that the French singer Christophe got the inspiration for the title of his 1965 hit song "Aline" during a visit to the dentist?
... that Hugh Bolton Jones exhibited at New York's National Academy of Design for sixty years?
... that part of Ashutosh Gowariker's Everest has been filmed at over 17,000 feet (5,200 m) above sea level?

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In the news

Comet Siding Spring makes a very close approach to Mars (artist's rendering pictured) and is observed by means of surface rovers and satellites.
At least 39 people are killed in Nepal's worst snowstorm disaster around the mountains of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri.
Jean Tirole is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of market power and regulation.
Cyclone Hudhud strikes India and Nepal, killing at least 84 people.
Evo Morales is re-elected for a third term as President of Bolivia.
Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their activism against the oppression of children and young people.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Hong Kong protests – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Gough Whitlam

On this day...

October 21: Trafalgar Day in various Commonwealth countries

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Lord Nelson signalled "England expects that every man will do his duty" to the rest of his Royal Navy forces before they defeated Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and his combined French–Spanish navy at the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain's Cape Trafalgar.
1854 – Florence Nightingale (pictured) and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to Turkey to help treat wounded British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War.
1910 – HMS Niobe arrived in Halifax Harbour to become the first large ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.
1944 – World War II: German forces surrendered to American troops, ending the three-week-long Battle of Aachen.
1978 – After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft, Frederick Valentich disappeared in unexplained circumstances while piloting a Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia.

More anniversaries: October 20 – October 21 – October 22

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It is now October 21, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

A male Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) in Bandipur National Park, Karnataka. First described by Georges Cuvier in 1798, this subspecies of Asian elephant is considered endangered owing to large population declines since the mid-20th century.

Photograph: Yathin S Krishnappa

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