The Wikipedia article of the day for October 14, 2016 is Norman conquest of England.
The Norman conquest of England was the invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton, and French soldiers, led by Duke William II of Normandy, later styled as William the Conqueror. The invasion culminated in the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. William’s claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor, who died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. After the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September, Harold defeated and killed him at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Within days, William landed in southern England. Harold marched south to confront him, but left a significant portion of his army in the north, and was defeated and killed by William’s force at Hastings. William faced rebellions for years, and was not secure on his throne until after 1072. He confiscated the lands of the resisting English elite, some of whom fled into exile. To control his new kingdom, William gave lands to his followers and built castles commanding military strongpoints.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 14, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for October 12, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 12, 2016 is Gold dollar.
The gold dollar was a coin struck as a regular issue by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1849 to 1889. The coin had three types over its lifetime, all designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre. The Type 1 issue had the smallest diameter of any United States coin ever minted. A gold dollar had been proposed several times in the 1830s and 1840s, but was not initially adopted. Congress was finally galvanized into action by the increased supply of bullion from the California gold rush, and in 1849 authorized a gold dollar. In its early years, silver coins were being hoarded or exported, and the gold dollar found a ready place in commerce. Silver again circulated after Congress required in 1853 that new coins of that metal be made lighter, and the gold dollar became a rarity in commerce even before federal coins vanished from circulation amid the economic disruption of the American Civil War. Gold did not circulate again in most of the nation until 1879, and even then, the gold dollar did not regain its place in commerce. In its final years, struck in small numbers, it was hoarded by speculators and mounted in jewelry.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 11, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 11, 2016 is Zapata rail.
The Zapata rail (Cyanolimnas cerverai) is a medium-sized, dark-coloured rail. It has brown upperparts, greyish-blue underparts, a red-based yellow bill, white undertail coverts, and red eyes and legs. Its short wings render it almost flightless. It is endemic to the wetlands of the Zapata Peninsula in southern Cuba, where its only known nest was found in sawgrass tussocks. Little is known of its diet or reproductive behaviour, and its described calls may belong to a different species. The Zapata rail was discovered by Spanish zoologist Fermín Zanón Cervera in March 1927 in the Zapata Swamp near Santo Tomás, in the southern Matanzas Province of Cuba. The swamp holds one other bird found nowhere else, the Zapata wren, and also gives its name to the Zapata sparrow. Due to ongoing habitat loss in its limited range, its small population size, and predation by introduced mammals and catfish, the Zapata rail is evaluated as critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species. The swamp is listed as an internationally important wetland by the Convention on Wetlands.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 10, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 10, 2016 is Wendell Willkie.
Wendell Willkie (1892–1944) was an American corporate executive and the 1940 Republican candidate for president. In 1933 he became president of Commonwealth & Southern Corporation (C&S), a utility holding company. He fought against President Franklin Roosevelt’s Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a publicly owned competitor of C&S; though unsuccessful, he sold C&S’s property to the TVA for a good price, and gained public esteem. A longtime Democratic activist, Willkie changed his party registration to Republican in late 1939. He did not run in the 1940 presidential primaries, but positioned himself as an acceptable choice for a deadlocked convention. As Hitler rampaged through Western Europe in the spring of 1940, many Republicans did not wish to nominate an isolationist like Thomas E. Dewey, and turned to Willkie, who was nominated on the sixth ballot. His support for aid to Britain paralleled Roosevelt’s, defying Republican opposition. Roosevelt won a third term, taking 38 of the 48 states and 55 percent of the vote. Willkie made two wartime foreign trips as Roosevelt’s informal envoy.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 9, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 9, 2016 is Russian battleship Potemkin.
The Russian battleship Potemkin was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet and launched 9 October 1900. The crew’s rebellion against the officers in June 1905 (during that year’s revolution) is now viewed as a first step towards the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the mutineers sought asylum in Constanța, Romania, and the Russians recovered the ship, her name was changed to Panteleimon. She accidentally sank a Russian submarine in 1909 and was badly damaged when she ran aground in 1911. During World War I, Panteleimon participated in the Battle of Cape Sarych in late 1914 and covered several bombardments of the Ottoman Bosphorus fortifications in early 1915. The ship was relegated to secondary roles after the first dreadnought battleship entered service in late 1915. Panteleimon was captured when the Germans took Sevastopol in May 1918 and was handed over to the Allies after the Armistice in November 1918. She was abandoned when the White Russians evacuated the Crimea in 1920 and was finally scrapped by the Soviets in 1923. The 1905 mutiny inspired Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 silent propaganda film The Battleship Potemkin.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 8, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 8, 2016 is 2006 UAW-Ford 500.
The 2006 UAW-Ford 500 was an American stock car racing competition. Held on October 8 at Talladega Superspeedway, the 188-lap race was the 30th in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fourth in the ten-race, season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. Brian Vickers (pictured) of Hendrick Motorsports won the first race of his career; Kasey Kahne finished second, and Kurt Busch came in third. David Gilliland, who had the pole position, was passed immediately by teammate Dale Jarrett. The race lead changed 63 times, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading for the most laps (37). On the final lap, Jimmie Johnson and Vickers made a move to pass Earnhardt, but Vickers clipped Johnson. Then Johnson clipped Earnhardt, and both were knocked into the infield. The race was halted, giving Vickers the win, although the crowd booed, and he was later criticized for hurting his teammate Johnson in the points standings. After the race Jeff Burton maintained his Drivers’ Championship points lead, while Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship, 51 points ahead of Dodge and 52 ahead of Ford with six races remaining in the season.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 7, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 7, 2016 is Angel of Death (Slayer song).
“Angel of Death” is the opening track on thrash metal band Slayer’s album Reign in Blood, released on October 7, 1986. Written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman (pictured) and produced by Rick Rubin, it is by far the longest track on the album at 4 minutes and 51 seconds, and features prominent verses and choruses, unlike the other tracks. The lyrics invent a sadistic rant by the Nazi physician Josef Mengele, who conducted human experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Despite accusations that the lyrics reflect Nazi sympathizing and racism, which the band vigorously denied, the song has been highly influential in the development of both thrash and speed metal. Although it did not chart, it has been praised by critics, and appears on all of Slayer’s live albums. AllMusic’s Steve Huey described it as a classic and the album as “the pinnacle of speed metal”. One of its riffs was sampled by Public Enemy in their 1988 song “She Watch Channel Zero?!”
Wikipedia article of the day for October 6, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 6, 2016 is Æthelwulf.
Æthelwulf was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. He was defeated in 843 in battle against the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but achieved a major victory at the Battle of Aclea in 851. He went on pilgrimage to Rome in 855, leaving his eldest surviving son Æthelbald to act as King of Wessex in his absence. Æthelwulf stayed a year in Rome; on his way back he married Judith, the daughter of the West Frankish King Charles the Bald. When Æthelwulf returned to England, Æthelbald refused to surrender the throne, and Æthelwulf agreed to divide the kingdom, taking the east and leaving the west in Æthelbald’s hands. Before the twenty-first century Æthelwulf’s reputation among historians was poor: he was seen as excessively pious and impractical, and his pilgrimage was viewed as a desertion of his duties. Now historians see him as a king who consolidated and extended the power of his dynasty, and dealt more effectively than most of his contemporaries with Viking attacks. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 5, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 5, 2016 is Jarrow March.
The Jarrow March (5–31 October 1936) was a protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the Tyneside town of Jarrow, England, during the 1930s. Around 200 men marched from Jarrow to London to petition the British government, requesting the re-establishment of industry in the town following the closure in 1934 of Palmer’s shipyard. Palmer’s had seen the launching of more than 1,000 ships since 1852. In the 1920s, a combination of mismanagement and changed world trade conditions brought a decline which led to the yard’s closure. When plans for its replacement by a modern steelworks plant were thwarted, the lack of any prospect of large-scale employment in the town led the borough council to organise the march on London to present their case to the government. The petition was received by the House of Commons but not debated, and the march produced few immediate results. The Jarrovians went home believing that they had failed. Nevertheless, in subsequent years the Jarrow March became recognised by historians as a defining event of the 1930s and helped to prepare the way for widespread social reform after the Second World War.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 4, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 4, 2016 is Hurricane Iris.
Hurricane Iris of 2001 was the most destructive tropical cyclone in Belize since Hurricane Hattie in 1961. Iris was the second-strongest storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, behind Hurricane Michelle. While passing south of the Dominican Republic, Iris dropped heavy rainfall that caused landslides, killing eight people. Later, the hurricane passed south of Jamaica, where it destroyed two houses. On reaching the western Caribbean Sea, it rapidly intensified to Category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson scale. A small hurricane with an eye of only 7 miles (11 km) in diameter, it reached peak winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) before making landfall in Belize. The storm killed 24 people there, including 20 who died when a scuba diving boat capsized near Big Creek. It also killed eight people and damaged about 2,500 homes in neighboring Guatemala, and later dropped heavy rainfall in southern Mexico, where two people died. Destruction in Belize totaled US$250 million. Because Iris was compact, the damage was confined to 72% of the houses in the Toledo district and 50% of the houses in the Stann Creek district.
