Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 November 19

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From today's featured article

A 3rd-century limestone bust,
possibly depicting Odaenathus

Odaenathus (c. 220 – 267) was the founder of the Palmyrene Kingdom. Born into an aristocratic family of Palmyra, Syria, he became the lord of the city in the 240s. By 258, he was a consularis, a position of high status in the Roman Empire. In 260 the Roman emperor Valerian was captured by the Sassanian emperor Shapur I, leaving the eastern Roman provinces at the mercy of the Persians. Odaenathus fought the Persians, reclaiming the entirety of the Roman lands they occupied. By 263, following a successful campaign in which he besieged their capital Ctesiphon, Odaenathus took the title traditionally held by Persian emperors, King of Kings, and gained effective control of the Levant, Roman Mesopotamia and Anatolia's eastern region. He was assassinated in 267 during or immediately after a campaign in Anatolia. He was succeeded by his son Vaballathus under the regency of his widow Zenobia, who used the power base established by Odaenathus to forge the Palmyrene Empire in 270. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Gara Medouar

... that a film set for The Mummy was built at Gara Medouar (pictured), an 11th-century fortress on a rock plateau near Sijilmasa, Morocco?
... that the William Ulmer Brewery, the first brewery to be designated a New York City landmark, produced up to 3,200,000 U.S. gal (12,000,000 L) of beer per year?
... that with Danielle Dithurbide's appointment to anchor the morning newscast on Las Estrellas, a majority of Mexican news broadcaster Noticieros Televisa's news programs are hosted by women?
... that the Racecourse Ground, which has hosted more Wales home international matches than any other stadium, is the oldest stadium in the world still hosting international football fixtures?
... that Kurdish civil engineer and politician Hevrin Khalaf, who worked for tolerance among Christians, Arabs, and Kurds, was killed in the 2019 Turkish offensive into Syria?
... that St. Charles College in Louisiana was the first Jesuit college established in the southern United States?
... that in addition to writing operas that premiered in Porto and Paris, Italian classical organist and composer Francesco Filidei has collaborated with a singer-songwriter on a theatrical show?
... that soldiers were reduced to eating rats during the Siege of Masaka?

In the news

Kyle Busch

In stock car racing, the NASCAR Cup Series concludes, with Kyle Busch (pictured) winning the drivers' championship.
Cyclone Bulbul hits the Indian and Bangladeshi coasts of the Bay of Bengal, killing at least 24 people.
After weeks of protests over electoral fraud, Bolivian president Evo Morales and other high-ranking politicians are forced to resign, and opposition senator Jeanine Áñez becomes interim president.
The Supreme Court of India delivers a unanimous verdict in favour of the construction of a Hindu temple at a disputed holy site in Ayodhya.

On this day

November 19: International Men's Day; World Toilet Day; Liberation Day in Mali (1968)

Ronald Reagan (left) and
Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva

1794 – The United States and Great Britain signed the Jay Treaty, the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
1941 – World War II: The Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran destroyed each other in the Indian Ocean.
1969 – Playing for Santos against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian footballer Pelé scored his thousandth goal.
1985 – Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. president Ronald Reagan held the first of five summits (pictured) between them in Geneva.
2013 – A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killed 23 people and injured 160 others.

Jean-Antoine Nollet (b. 1700) · James Ensor (d. 1949) · Tove Styrke (b. 1992)

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Today's featured picture

A compass rose, sometimes called a windrose or rose of the winds, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their intermediate points. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional magnetic compass. Today, a form of compass rose is found on, or featured in, almost all navigation systems, including nautical charts, non-directional beacons, VHF omnidirectional range systems, GPS, and similar equipment.

This picture is an illustration of a compass rose, copied from a 1492 portolan chart by Portuguese navigator and cartographer Jorge de Aguiar, now in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Illustration credit: Joaquim Alves Gaspar, after Jorge de Aguiar

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