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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 1 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 1: 1991 Perfect Storm

100px|Flooding from the storm in Ocean City, New Jersey

The 1991 Perfect Storm was a powerful storm that lashed the East 
Coast of the United States for several days with 30 ft (9.1 m) waves. 
The initial area of low pressure developed off Atlantic Canada on 
October 28 and moved westward toward New England. It absorbed Hurricane 
Grace to its south and intensified significantly. The center remained 
offshore, although the high waves caused over $200 million in damage 
(1991 USD) and 13 deaths. More than 38,000 people were left without 
power, and along the coast high waves inundated roads and buildings. In 
portions of New England, damage was worse than Hurricane Bob had caused 
two months prior. Aside from tidal flooding along rivers, the storm's 
effects were primarily concentrated along the coast. In the middle of 
the storm, the Andrea Gail sank, killing its crew of six and inspiring 
a book and later a movie. It later received the name "the Perfect 
Storm" after a conversation between Boston National Weather Service 
forecaster Robert Case and author Sebastian Junger. After moving over 
the Gulf Stream, the system evolved into a small hurricane that 
dissipated after striking Nova Scotia. (more...)

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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 2 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 2: Deinosuchus

100px|Artist's rendering of Deinosuchus rugosus

Deinosuchus is an extinct relative of the alligator that lived 80 to 
73 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. The name is 
derived from the Greek δεινός/deinos ("terrible") and σουχος/soukhos 
("crocodile"). Although Deinosuchus was far larger than any modern 
crocodile or alligator—measuring up to 12 m (40 ft) and weighing up to 
8.5 metric tons (9.4 short tons)—its overall appearance was fairly 
similar to its smaller relatives. It had large, robust teeth that were 
built for crushing, and its back was covered with thick semispherical 
osteoderms. One study indicates that Deinosuchus may have lived for up 
to 50 years, growing at a similar rate to that of modern crocodilians, 
but maintaining this growth over a much longer period of time. 
Deinosuchus fossils have been found in ten U.S. states, as well as 
northern Mexico. It lived on both sides of the Western Interior Seaway, 
and was an opportunistic apex predator in the coastal regions of 
eastern North America. Deinosuchus reached its largest size in its 
western habitat, but the eastern populations were far more abundant. 
Deinosuchus was probably capable of killing and eating large dinosaurs. 
It may have also fed upon sea turtles, fish, and other aquatic and 
terrestrial prey. (more...)

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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 3 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 3: L'ange de Nisida

70px|Gaetano Donizetti

L'ange de Nisida (The Angel of Nisida) is an opera semiseria in four 
acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (pictured), from a libretto 
by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz. Parts of the libretto are 
considered analogous with the libretto for Giovanni Pacini's Adelaide e 
Comingio, and the final scene is based on the François-Thomas-Marie de 
Baculard d'Arnaud play Les Amants malheureux, ou le comte de Comminges. 
Donizetti worked on the opera in the autumn of 1839—its final page is 
dated 27 December 1839. Because the subject matter involved the 
mistress of a Neapolitan king, and may thus have caused difficulties 
with the Italian censors, Donizetti decided that the opera should be 
presented in France. However, the theater company Donizetti contracted 
went bankrupt. L'ange was never performed and was reworked as La 
favorite in September 1840. (more...)

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Umar, the Muslim Caliph who succeeded Muhammad, was fatally stabbed by
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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 4 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 4: Battle of Lipantitlán

The Battle of Lipantitlán was fought along the Nueces River on November 
4, 1835, between the Mexican Army and Texian insurgents, as part of the 
Texas Revolution. After the Texian victory at the Battle of Goliad, 
only two Mexican garrisons remained in Texas, Fort Lipantitlán near San 
Patricio and the Alamo Mission at San Antonio de Béxar. The commander 
of Fort Lipantitlán, Nicolás Rodríguez, had been ordered to harass the 
Texian troops at Goliad. Rodríguez took the bulk of his men on an 
expedition; while they were gone, Texian Captain Ira Westover's force 
arrived in San Patricio. On November 3, a local man persuaded the 
Mexican garrison to surrender, and the following day the Texians 
dismantled the fort. Rodríguez returned as the Texians were crossing 
the swollen Nueces River to return to Goliad. The Mexican soldiers 
attacked, but the longer range of the Texians' rifles soon forced them 
to retreat. The Texians now had full control of the Texas Gulf Coast, 
which meant that the troops stationed at San Antonio de Béxar could 
receive reinforcements and supplies only overland. Historian Bill 
Groneman believes that this contributed to the eventual Mexican defeat 
at the siege of Béxar, which expelled all Mexican troops from Texas. 
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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 5 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 5: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video 
game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for 
Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A 
separate handheld game was made separately for the Nintendo DS. The 
game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 
2007 for video game consoles and Windows. It was released for the Mac 
in September 2008, then released for the Wii in November 2009, given 
the name Reflex Edition. It is the fourth installment in the Call of 
Duty video game series, excluding expansion packs, and is the first in 
the Modern Warfare line of the franchise, followed by a direct sequel, 
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as the first game in the series 
to have a Mature rating. The game breaks away from the World War II 
setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern 
times. Call of Duty 4 was in development for two years, and it uses a 
proprietary game engine. On September 10, 2009, it was re-released in 
Japan by Square-Enix. (more...)

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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 6 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 6: Rova of Antananarivo

120px|Rova of Antananarivo

The Rova of Antananarivo is a royal palace complex in the central 
highlands of Madagascar. It served as the former residence of the 
sovereigns of the Kingdom of Imerina from the 17th to the 19th 
centuries. The Rova occupies the peak of Analamanga hill in the capital 
city of Antananarivo. Merina king Andrianjaka (ruled 1610 to 1630) is 
believed to have captured the hill from a Vazimba king and erected the 
site's first fortified royal structure. Successive Merina sovereigns 
continued to rule from the Rova until the fall of the monarchy in 1896. 
The largest palace within the complex, called Manjakamiadana, was built 
from 1839 to 1841 for Queen Ranavalona I. A fire on the night of 6 
November 1995 destroyed or damaged all the structures within the Rova 
complex shortly before it was due to be inscribed on the list of UNESCO 
World Heritage Sites. Reconstruction of the Manjakamiadana exterior is 
scheduled for completion in 2011. (more...)

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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 7 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 7: Battle of Tippecanoe

80px|Tenskwatawa

The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811, between U.S. 
forces led by Governor William Henry Harrison and warriors of a Native 
American confederation led by Shawnee brothers Tenskwatawa (pictured) 
and Tecumseh. While Tecumseh was away recruiting allies, Harrison 
marched with about 1,000 men to disperse the confederation's 
headquarters at Prophetstown, near the confluence of the Tippecanoe and 
Wabash Rivers in what is now the U.S. state of Indiana. The outnumbered 
warriors from Prophetstown launched a surprise attack, but Harrison's 
army prevailed. Public opinion in the United States blamed the conflict 
on British interference, a suspicion that served as a catalyst to the 
War of 1812. When the U.S. declared war on Great Britain in June 1812, 
Tecumseh's confederacy, now allied with the British, initiated its own 
war against the United States. (more...)

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The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English-language newspaper,
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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 9 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 9: Edward VII

90px|Edward VII

Edward VII (1841–1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British 
Dominions and Emperor of India from 1901 until his death. Before his 
accession to the throne, he held the title of Prince of Wales for 
longer than anyone else in British history. During the long reign of 
his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political 
power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. The 
Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, 
coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant 
changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the 
rise of socialism. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the 
British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services, and the 
reorganisation of the British army after the Second Boer War. He 
fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, 
but his relationship with his nephew, Wilhelm II of Germany, was poor. 
Edward presciently suspected that Wilhelm would precipitate a war, and 
four years after Edward's death, World War I brought an end to the 
Edwardian way of life. (more...)

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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 10 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 10: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

110px|The Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a 729-foot (222 m) Great Lakes freighter 
that made headlines after sinking in Lake Superior in a massive storm 
on November 10, 1975, with near hurricane-force winds and 35-foot 
(11 m) waves. The Fitzgerald suddenly sank approximately 17 miles 
(27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay, at a depth of 530 feet 
(160 m). Her crew of 29 perished without sending any distress signals, 
and no bodies were recovered; she is the largest boat to have sunk in 
the Great Lakes. The Fitzgerald carried taconite from mines near 
Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo and other ports. 
Many theories, books, studies and expeditions have examined the cause 
of the sinking. Her sinking is one of the most well-known disasters in 
the history of Great Lakes shipping and is the subject of Gordon 
Lightfoot's 1976 hit song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". 
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English Wikipedia Article of the Day | 11 Nov 2011 01:05
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[Daily article] November 11: Harry Cobby

85px|Captain Harry Cobby in 1919

Harry Cobby (1894–1955) was the leading fighter ace of the Australian 
Flying Corps during World War I. A bank clerk when war broke out, he 
was prevented by his employer from enlisting in the military until 
1916. After flying training, he was posted to the Western Front with 
No. 4 Squadron AFC. In less than a year of combat he achieved 29 
victories, all flying the Sopwith Camel. Acclaimed a national hero, 
Cobby transferred to the newly formed Royal Australian Air Force in 
1921. He commanded No. 1 Squadron and RAAF Station Richmond, before 
leaving to join the Civil Aviation Board in 1936. Re-joining the RAAF 
at the outbreak of World War II, Cobby was awarded the George Medal in 
1943 for rescuing fellow survivors of an aircraft crash. The following 
year he was appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 10 Operational Group, 
but was relieved of his post in the wake of the "Morotai Mutiny" of 
April 1945. Retiring from the RAAF in 1946, Cobby served with the 
Department of Civil Aviation until his death on Armistice Day in 1955. 
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