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The Wikipedia article of the day for October 31, 2020 is Bill Kibby . Bill Kibby (15 April 1903 – 31 October 1942) was a British-born Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces during World War II. In 1940, Kibby enlisted in the all-volunteer Second Australian Imperial Force and joined the 2/48th Infantry Battalion. He was injured before the Siege of Tobruk, but was with the battalion during the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942. In October, the battalion was committed to the Second Battle of El Alamein. Between 23 and 31 October, Kibby went forward alone and silenced an enemy machine gun post, mended a telephone line under heavy fire, and pressed forward under withering machine gun fire to help his company capture its objective. After this final action ultimately cost him his life, the Victoria Cross was awarded for hi...

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 25, 2020 is Soultaker (film) . Soultaker is an American fantasy horror film written by Vivian Schilling and directed by Michael Rissi, released on October 26, 1990. It stars Joe Estevez in the title role, alongside Schilling, Gregg Thomsen, Chuck Williams, Robert Z'Dar, and David "Shark" Fralick. The film follows a group of young adults who try to flee from the Soultaker when their souls are ejected from their bodies after a car accident. Inspired by discussions with Action International Pictures producer Eric Parkinson, the script was based on a real-life car accident Schilling was involved in. The film was shot in five weeks on a $250,000 budget. Originally planned for a direct-to-video release, it saw limited theatrical screenings, with eight prints distributed in United States. Since its release, the film has received negative reviews, but won the Saturn Award for "Best Genre Video Release" in 1992. A sequel was ...

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 18, 2020 is Canada lynx . The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a medium-sized North American cat breeding across Alaska, Canada and much of the contiguous United States. It has long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts, and broad paws. It is a good swimmer and climber. A specialist predator, the lynx depends heavily on snowshoe hares for food, which leads to a prey–predator cycle, as populations of the two species respond to each other. The lynx hunts at twilight or at night, ambushing hares and killing them by biting the head or throat. After a gestation period of two to three months, up to eight kittens are born which are weaned at three months. This lynx occurs predominantly in dense boreal forests, its range coinciding with that of the hare. Given its abundance and no severe threats, the Canada lynx is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is regularly trapped for the international fur trade in most of Alaska and Cana...

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 12, 2020 is Hurricane Gonzalo . Hurricane Gonzalo formed on October 12, 2014, and became the first Category 4 Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Ophelia in 2011. It made landfall on Antigua, Saint Martin, and Anguilla as a Category 1 hurricane. Antigua and Barbuda sustained US$40 million in losses, and three people died on Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy. Gonzalo intensified into a major hurricane, peaking on October 16 with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h). It struck Bermuda less than a week after the surprisingly fierce Hurricane Fay; the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season was the first in recorded history with two hurricane landfalls in Bermuda. Gonzalo battered the island with wind gusts as high as 144 mph (232 km/h), downing hundreds of trees and causing widespread roof damage and power outages, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported. A large storm system from the remnants...

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 11, 2020 is Jerome, Arizona . Jerome is a town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in the U.S. state of Arizona. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley, it is about 100 miles (160 km) north of Phoenix along State Route 89A between Sedona and Prescott. Supported in its heyday by mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. The town owes its existence mainly to two ore bodies that formed about 1.75 billion years ago. In the late 19th century, the United Verde Mine, developed by William A. Clark, extracted ore bearing copper, gold, silver, and other metals from the larger of the two deposits. The United Verde Extension UVX Mine, owned by James Douglas Jr., worked the smaller one. The copper deposits discovered in the vicinity of Jerome were among the richest ever found. As the ore deposits ran out, the mines closed, and the population had dwindled to fewer th...

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 10, 2020 is Battle of Cape Ecnomus . The Battle of Cape Ecnomus was a naval battle fought off the coast of Sicily in 256 BC between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic during the First Punic War (264–241 BC). The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by Hanno the Great and Hamilcar; the Roman fleet was led by the consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus. The Roman fleet of 330 warships sailed with approximately 140,000 men on board. The Romans' plan was to cross to Africa and invade the Carthaginian homeland, in what is now Tunisia. The Carthaginians were apparently aware of the Romans' intentions and mustered 350 warships off the south coast of Sicily to intercept them. With a combined total of about 680 warships carrying up to 290,000 crew and marines, the battle was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved. After a prolonged and confused day of fig...

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 4, 2020 is Joseph A. Lopez . Joseph A. Lopez (October 4, 1779 – October 5, 1841) was a Mexican Catholic priest who became a prominent ally of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide. As a priest in Peribán, he tried to arrest the first leader of the Mexican War of Independence, Miguel Hidalgo. Unsuccessful, he fled and became acquainted with Ana María Huarte, the wife of the future emperor of Mexico, Agustín de Iturbide. As a result, he was sent to Madrid to act as Iturbide's attorney and political informant, before returning to Mexico as chaplain and educator of the imperial family. He fled with the exiled family to Europe in 1823, and then returned to Mexico. Following Iturbide's execution in 1824, Lopez fled with the family to Washington, D.C., where he became chaplain to the Georgetown Visitation Monastery, and became a Jesuit. In 1840, Lopez was named the acting president of Georgetown University, becoming the first Latin American pr...

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 26, 2020 is Banksia blechnifolia . Banksia blechnifolia is a species of flowering plant that was first described by Victorian state botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1864. Its leaves are reminiscent of the fern genus Blechnum. B. blechnifolia is one of several closely related species that grow as prostrate shrubs, with horizontal stems and thick, leathery upright leaves. The red-brown flower spikes are up to 20 centimetres (8 in) high and appear from September to November. As the spikes age, they turn grey and develop as many as 25 woody seed pods. Insects such as bees, wasps, ants and flies pollinate the flowers. Found in sandy soils in the south coastal region of Western Australia in the vicinity of Lake King, B. blechnifolia is non-lignotuberous, regenerating by seed after bushfire. The plant adapts readily to cultivation, growing in well-drained sandy soils in sunny locations. It is suitable for rockeries and as a ground...

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 21, 2020 is Bat . Bats, of the order Chiroptera, are the only mammals capable of sustained flight. Their wings, spread-out fingers covered by a thin membrane, make them more manoeuvrable than birds. Bats range in size from Kitti's hog-nosed bat, weighing 2–2.6 g (0.07–0.09 oz), to the giant golden-crowned flying fox, up to 1.6 kg (4 lb) with a wingspan of up to 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in). The second largest order of mammals after rodents, bats comprise about 20% of all mammal species, with over 1,200 species distributed across the world. Most bats are nocturnal. They are mostly insect- and fruit-eaters, but some are carnivorous, such as vampire bats. Some are important for pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds; others consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides. Bats harbour the agents of many communicable diseases, such as rabies and coronaviruses. They are often associated with darkness, malevolenc...

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 7, 2020 is Flora of Madagascar . The flora of Madagascar consists of more than 12,000 species of vascular and non-vascular plants. Around 83 per cent of Madagascar's vascular plants are found only on the island. These include five entirely endemic plant families as well as most of the over 900 orchid species, the traveller's tree, the Madagascar periwinkle, six species of baobab (pictured) and around 200 species of palms. The high degree of endemism is due to Madagascar's long isolation following its separation from the African and Indian landmasses in the Mesozoic Era. Today, humid forests, including the lowland forests, are found on the eastern plateau. Much of the central highlands is grassland. In the west are dry forest and succulent woodland. Unique spiny thickets are in the southwest, and mangroves occur on the west coast. While 10 per cent of the land surface is protected, much of the native flora is threatened, especi...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 31, 2020 is New York State Route 175 . New York State Route 175 is a west–east state highway located in Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. The 15.46-mile (24.88 km) route begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 20 east of the village of Skaneateles. It heads towards the northeast as Lee Mulroy Road, traversing farmland. It then passes through the village of Marcellus before ending at a junction with U.S. Route 11 in Syracuse. Designated in the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the highway brought about an increase in population and development along its route. The section of Route 175 from downtown Marcellus to New York State Route 173 in Onondaga was built along the historical Seneca Turnpike, which was established in 1800 and dissolved in 1852. At 157 miles (253 km), the turnpike was the longest in the state at the time and was instrumental in the development of the villages o...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 30, 2020 is House of Music . House of Music is the fourth and final album by American R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, released in 1996 by Mercury Records. Bassist-vocalist Raphael Saadiq (pictured), guitarist-vocalist D'wayne Wiggins, and percussionist-keyboardist Timothy Christian Riley worked on its songs independently before recording them together as a group. While doing most of the production, Tony! Toni! Toné! emphasized musicianship and expanded on their previous work's traditional soul influences with live instrumentation and balladry. Music journalists have noted the album's incorporation of old-fashioned and modern sensibilities, themes of love and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics. The album charted for 31 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million units in the United States. Critics praised the musicianship and songwriting, later deeming it a masterpiece of 1990s R&B. Despite its success, the group disb...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 29, 2020 is Commissioner Government . The Commissioner Government was a short-lived Serbian collaborationist puppet government established in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II from 30 April to 29 August 1941. It was headed by Milan Aćimović (pictured) and was pro-German, anti-Semitic and anti-communist. The Aćimović government was merely an instrument of the German occupation regime, carrying out its orders within the occupied territory without appearing to moderate its policies. The government actively assisted the Germans in exploiting the population and the economy, and its members regarded their own participation in the Holocaust as "unpleasant but unavoidable". By mid-July, the Germans had decided that the Aćimović regime was incompetent, and the Commissioner Government resigned at the end of August. It was succeeded by the Government of National Salvation, in which Aćimović initially retained the...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 22, 2020 is John W. Beschter . John W. Beschter (1763–1842) was a Catholic priest from the Duchy of Luxembourg who emigrated to the United States in 1807 to become a missionary of the Society of Jesus. He took up ministry in rural Pennsylvania, and was soon made the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Lancaster. As pastor, Beschter was praised by Archbishop John Carroll for ministering to Catholic congregations of three distinct ethnic and linguistic groups, and quieting a parochial dispute over the nationality and language of their pastor. In 1812, Beschter went to Maryland to become the master of novices at the new Jesuit novitiate in White Marsh. After two years, he returned to ministering in rural Pennsylvania and Maryland. He became the pastor of the German congregation of St. John the Evangelist in Baltimore, a position he held until 1828. The following year, he became the president of Georgetown College. After several months, he l...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 19, 2020 is Hyborian War . Hyborian War is a play-by-mail game set during Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age in the world of Conan the Barbarian. The Origins Award–winning game, published by Reality Simulations, Inc., has been continuously available for play since 1985. The game’s genre is heroic fantasy, also known as sword and sorcery. Conan appears as a wandering hero whom players can employ until fortune takes him elsewhere. The game designer wove multiple aspects of Howard's stories into Hyborian War including diverse landscapes and cultures, grand armies, large-scale battles, powerful wizards, and courageous and heroic deeds. Gameplay is multifaceted and complex. Players choose from 36 kingdoms of small, medium, and large sizes, each with different victory conditions. A central focus of the game is conquest and expansion through military action and diplomacy. Intrigue, magic, and other tools of statecraft in a fantasy setting are ...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 17, 2020 is Illustrated Daily News . The Daily News was a newspaper published in Los Angeles from 1923 to 1954, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV as the first of several papers he wanted to manage. After quickly going into receivership, it was sold to Manchester Boddy, a local businessman. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, taking a mainstream Democratic perspective at a time when most Los Angeles newspapers supported the Republican Party. The newspaper began a steep decline in the late 1940s, continuing into the early 1950s. In the 1950 election, Boddy ran in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the United States Senate. He finished a distant second in each, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his stake in the paper in 1952 and publication ceased in December 1954. The business was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication, the...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 7, 2020 is Second Silesian War . The Second Silesian War (1744–1745) was a conflict between Prussia and Austria which confirmed Prussia's control of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Bohemia, and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession. The Habsburg Monarchy's fortunes had improved since the end of the First Silesian War two years earlier. Prussia entered an alliance with Austria's enemies and rejoined the war, invading Habsburg Bohemia in mid-1744 to prevent a resurgent Austria from taking back Silesia. The war ended in a Prussian victory with the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745. Continuing conflict over Silesia would draw Austria and Prussia into the Third Silesian War a decade later. The Second Silesian War repeated the earlier defeat of the Habsburg Monarchy by a lesser German power and contributed to the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would s...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 3, 2020 is Banksia sessilis . Banksia sessilis is a large shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae. First collected and described by Robert Brown in the early 19th century, the species grows widely throughout southwest Western Australia. It has prickly dark green leaves and dome-shaped cream-yellow flowerheads. Flowering from winter through to late spring, it provides a key source of food—both the nectar and the insects it attracts—for honeyeaters in the cooler months, and species diversity is reduced in areas where the plant does not occur. Several species of honeyeater, some species of native bee, and the European honey bee seek out and consume the nectar, while the long-billed black cockatoo and Australian ringneck eat the seed. The life cycle of B. sessilis is adapted to regular bushfires. Killed by fire and regenerating by seed afterwards, each shrub generally produces many flowerheads and a massive amount of seed. The species c...

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 2, 2020 is Trials of Mana . Trials of Mana is a 1995 action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom. The third installment in the Mana series, it follows three heroes in a high fantasy world as they attempt to claim the Mana Sword. The game features three lengthy main plotlines, a choice of six main characters, and a wide range of character classes and skills. It was designed by series creator Koichi Ishii, directed by veteran Square designer Hiromichi Tanaka (pictured), and produced by Tetsuhisa Tsuruzono, with artwork by Nobuteru Yūki and music by Hiroki Kikuta. The game was published in Japan, and an English fan translation appeared in 1999. It was first officially released in English in a 2017 port for the Nintendo Switch. Trials of Mana received considerable acclaim from reviewers for its graphics and gameplay, but some found the characters and plotlines clichéd. In April 2020, a 3D remake of the same n...

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 27, 2020 is Osbert Lancaster . Osbert Lancaster (4 August 1908 – 27 July 1986) was an English cartoonist, architectural historian and stage designer. He became known in the 1930s for his books on architecture, aiming to amuse the general reader while demystifying the subject. Several of the terms he coined as labels for architectural styles such as "Pont Street Dutch" have gained common usage, and his books have continued to be regarded as important works of reference on the subject. In the Daily Express from 1938 to 1981 he drew the "pocket cartoons", a form he introduced to Britain. They featured a cast of regular characters, led by his best-known creation, Maudie Littlehampton, through whom he expressed his views on the fashions, fads and political events of the day. In 1951 he was commissioned to create costumes and scenery for a new ballet, Pineapple Poll. Between then and the early 1970s he designed new productions fo...