Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 November 1

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Cyclone at landfall in India

Typhoon Gay was a small but powerful tropical cyclone that caused more than 800 fatalities in and around the Gulf of Thailand in November 1989. The worst typhoon to affect the Malay Peninsula in 35 years, Gay rapidly intensified from a monsoon trough, and on 3 November became the first typhoon since 1891 to make landfall in Thailand. It re-emerged into the Bay of Bengal and reorganized as it approached southeastern India. The typhoon moved ashore near Kavali, Andhra Pradesh, and dissipated over Maharashtra early on 10 November. The typhoon's rapid development took seafarers by surprise, leading to 275 offshore fatalities. Across the Malay Peninsula, 588 people died from various storm-related incidents and several towns were destroyed. Losses throughout Thailand totaled ฿11 billion (US$497 million). In India, Gay damaged or destroyed about 20,000 homes in Andhra Pradesh. It left 100,000 people homeless, caused 69 deaths, and was responsible for ₹410 million (US$25.3 million) in damage. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

First Phoenician inscription found in Phoenicia

... that almost half the known words in Phoenician inscriptions (example pictured) have never been found again?
... that Canadian professor Bob Hindmarch donated his own money to feed starving student athletes on the Canada men's national ice hockey team?
... that American artist Stuart Davis spent six years working on his jazz-inspired painting The Mellow Pad?
... that the Pilcher Monument was erected partly to warn people of the dangers of the Sark coast?
... that Martin Egel appeared at the Bayreuth Festival from 1975 to 1986, including a three-year run as Donner in the Jahrhundertring?
... that the giant pinkray limpet maintains a patch of the encrusting red alga Hildenbrandia rubra on which it feeds, driving off competitors?
... that the second birth in a Mexico City Metro station in 2020 occurred at Tláhuac?
... that Lillian Brown, makeup artist to nine U.S. presidents, stopped Richard Nixon's sobbing before he went on television to resign the presidency?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Sean Connery

Scottish actor Sean Connery (pictured) dies at the age of 90.
An earthquake in the Aegean Sea kills at least 38 people and injures more than 900 others.
Typhoon Molave hits the Philippines and Vietnam, killing 96 people and leaving 53 others missing.
In baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series.

On this day

November 1: Samhain and Beltane in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively; Rajyotsava (Formation Day) in Karnataka, India (1956)

Soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force

1214 – Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuq Turks captured the important port city of Sinope.
1503 – Giuliano della Rovere was elected pope, taking the name Julius II in emulation of Julius Caesar.
1914 – World War I: The first contingent of the First Australian Imperial Force (soldiers pictured) departed Albany, Western Australia.
1959 – Dominique Mbonyumutwa, one of the few Hutu sub-chiefs in colonial Rwanda, was attacked by Tutsi activists, precipitating the Rwandan Revolution.

Józef Zajączek (b. 1752)
Caroline Still Anderson (b. 1848)
Anthony van Hoboken (d. 1983)

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Today's featured picture

This large silk-embroidered wall hanging is part of the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art. The embroidery is worked in long and short silk stitch, with a composite imaginary view of Japan, including flowers, shrines, bridges, lakes and forests, with Mount Fuji rising in the distance. The private collection of decorative art, dating from Meiji-era Japan (1868–1912), was assembled by the British-Iranian scholar Nasser D. Khalili. It includes metalwork, enamels, ceramics, and lacquered objects, including works by artists of the imperial court that were exhibited at the Great Exhibitions of the late 19th century.

Artwork credit: unknown

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