Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 November 10

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From today's featured article

The Water Rail is a bird of the rail family found across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the warmer parts of its breeding range. It breeds in reed beds and other marshy sites with tall, dense vegetation, building its nest a little above the water level from whatever plants are available nearby. The adult is 23–28 cm (9–11 in) long, and, like other rails, has a body that is flattened laterally to allow it easier passage through reed beds. It has mainly brown upperparts and blue-grey underparts, black barring on the flanks, long toes, a short tail and a long reddish bill. The off-white, blotched eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and the precocial downy chicks hatch in 19–22 days. Water Rails are omnivorous, although they feed mainly on animals. They are territorial even after breeding, and will aggressively defend feeding areas in winter. These rails are vulnerable to flooding or freezing conditions, loss of habitat and predation by mammals (such as the American mink) and large birds, but overall the species' huge range and large numbers mean that it is not considered to be threatened. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the Royal Calcutta Turf Club (old stands pictured) was the main horse racing authority in the British Raj?
... that Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink was one of the Lübeck martyrs guillotined on 10 November 1943 for opposing the Nazi regime?
... that in 1953 the Louisville and Nashville Railroad upgraded its Pan-American passenger train with Pine-series sleeping cars?
... that the architect Edward Habershon was involved in the 1862 relocation of London's burial grounds, moving more than one hundredweight of human remains?
... that Japanese TV series National Kid was more popular in Brazil than in its home country?
... that Kjell Moe and Reidar Olsen, the two oldest footballers to make their debut for the Norwegian national team, made their debut in the same match?
... that since the Maryland State House is not rentable, producers of season 2 of House of Cards made various donations in order to use the building for filming?

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In the news

Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical cyclone of 2013, kills more than a hundred people in the Philippines.
The European Central Bank cuts its bank rate to the historical low of 0.25%.
A court in Bangladesh sentences 152 people to death for their part in the Bangladesh Rifles revolt.
The Congolese army defeats the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In horse racing, Fiorente (pictured), ridden by Damien Oliver, wins the Melbourne Cup.
India launches the Mars Orbiter Mission, its first interplanetary probe.

Recent deaths: John Cole

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On this day...

November 10: Remembrance Sunday in the Commonwealth (2013); Remembrance of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (09:05 EET/07:05 UTC, Turkey)

1202 – The first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders, the Siege of Zara, began in Zadar, Croatia.
1766 – William Franklin, the last Royal Governor of New Jersey, signed the charter establishing Queen's College, now known as Rutgers University.
1871 – Journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley located missing missionary and explorer David Livingstone (both pictured, left and right respectively) in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania.
1969 – The first episode of the children's television series Sesame Street premiered on public broadcasting television stations in the United States, to adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings.
2007 – At the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, King Juan Carlos I of Spain asked President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez "Why don't you shut up?" after Chávez repeatedly interrupted a speech by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

More anniversaries: November 9 – November 10 – November 11

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It is now November 10, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) is a large species of frog originally found in the forest canopies of central Panama. Only discovered in 2005, the species is thought to be extinct in the wild; only one specimen, a male at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, survives.

Photograph: Brian Gratwicke

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