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From today's featured article

William I (Old Norman: Williame I; Old English: Willelm I; c. 1028 – 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands and by difficulties with his eldest son.

William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Robert's mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued the first years of his rule. During his childhood and adolescence, members of the (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... that Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople and before 324AD was known as Byzantium?
• ... that Arii Matamoe (pictured), an 1892 painting of a Pacific Islander's severed head, may have been inspired by the death of Pōmare V shortly after Paul Gauguin's arrival in Tahiti?
• ... that the President of the US, the Supreme Court and Congress are three significant branches of the US Government?
• ... that the type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion consists only of a thorax, leg, and wing portions?
• ... that NuScale Power has designed a line of small, modular nuclear reactors?
• ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
• ... that the Battle of Hampton Roads was perhaps the most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies?

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On this day...

October 19

• 1466 – The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Second Treaty of Thorn.
• 1512 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Ulm. Thirty thousand prisoners are captured and 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers.
• 1864 – Battle of Cedar Creek: Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys a Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
• 1914 – The First Battle of Ypres begins.
• 1950 – Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.
• 1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.

• More anniversaries:
  • October 18
  • October 19
  • October 20

October 20

• 1935 – The Long March, a mammoth retreat undertaken by the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party a year prior, ends.
• 1947 – The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
• 1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine.
• 1962 – People's Republic of China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War.
• 1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
• 1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.
• 1991 – A 6.8 M_w earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.

• More anniversaries:
  • October 19
  • October 20
  • October 21

• 1392 – Nanboku-chō, Japan: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
• 1824 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
• 1879 – Thomas Edison invents a workable electric light bulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. which was tested the next day and lasted 13.5 hours. This would be the invention of the first commercially practical incandescent light. Popular belief is that he invented the first light bulb, which he did not.
• 1931 – The Sakurakai, a secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.
• 1956 – Mau Mau Uprising: Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the ultimate defeat of the rebellion, and essentially ending the British military campaign.
• 1994 – In Seoul, 32 people are killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapses.
• 2005 – Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz.

• More anniversaries:
  • October 20
  • October 21
  • October 22

Today's featured picture

The Painter of Sunflowers (in French: Le Peintre de Tournesols) is a portrait of Vincent van Gogh by Paul Gauguin in December 1888. The portrait was painted when Gauguin visited in Arles. Van Gogh had asked him to come to Arles, because he wanted to start an art-colony there. Gauguin however only stayed for two months, because the painters argued. (Full article...)

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