Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 October 25

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From today's featured article

Operation Barras was a British Army operation in Sierra Leone in 2000 that rescued five soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment and 21 Sierra Leonean civilians being held by the West Side Boys militia group. The soldiers were part of a patrol returning from a visit to Jordanian peacekeepers attached to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) at Masiaka. The ground operation was conducted by D Squadron, 22 Regiment Special Air Service, with a diversionary assault by elements of 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment. At least 25 West Side Boys and one soldier in the rescue party were killed, and 18 West Side Boys—including the gang's leader, Foday Kallay—were taken prisoner and later transferred to the custody of the Sierra Leone Police. Many West Side Boys fled the area during the assault, and over 300 surrendered to UNAMSIL forces within a fortnight. After the operation, the British government increased its support of UNAMSIL and its efforts to bring the Sierra Leone Civil War to an end, both politically, through the United Nations Security Council, and through the provision of staff officers to support UNAMSIL. (Full article...)

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In the news

Model of the Schiaparelli lander

At least 70 people are killed and around 600 others injured in a train derailment in Cameroon.
Numerous media outlets, social networks, and retailers go offline in parts of North America and Europe during a large-scale denial-of-service cyberattack.
The ESA–Roscosmos ExoMars mission's Trace Gas Orbiter enters orbit around Mars, but contact is lost with the Schiaparelli lander (model pictured) during its descent to the planet's surface.
Iraqi government forces, allied militias, peshmerga, and the CJTF-OIR launch an offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

On this day...

October 25: Retrocession Day in Taiwan (1945)

The Hartog Plate (replica)

1616 – The Dutch sailing ship Eendracht reached Shark Bay on the western coastline of Australia, as documented on the Hartog Plate (replica pictured) etched by explorer Dirk Hartog.
1812 – War of 1812: USS United States captured HMS Macedonian, which later became the first British warship to be brought into an American harbor.
1861 – The Toronto Stock Exchange, the stock exchange with the most mining and petrochemical companies listed in the world, was established.
1971 – The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, replacing the Republic of China with the People's Republic of China as China's representative at the United Nations.
2001 – Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale.

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Today's featured picture

Banknotes of the Czechoslovak koruna (1919)

A 20-korun banknote from the first issue of the Czechoslovak koruna, the national currency of Czechoslovakia from 1919 to 1939 and from 1945 to 1993. The issue, which consisted of denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100 and 1000 korun, used banknotes of the Austro-Hungarian Bank to which adhesive stamps equal to 1/100 the value of the note were affixed.

See another banknote: 10 korun, 50 korun, 100 korun, 1,000 korun

Banknote: Austro-Hungarian Bank and the First Republic of Czechoslovakia; image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection

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