Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 October 30

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The Gevninge helmet fragment is the dexter eyepiece of a Danish helmet from the Viking Age or end of the Nordic Iron Age. It was found in 2000 during the excavation of a Viking farmstead at Gevninge. The fragment is moulded from bronze and gilded, and consists of a stylised eyebrow with eyelashes above an oval opening. There are three holes at the top and bottom of the fragment to affix the eyepiece to a helmet. One of two Scandinavian eyepieces discovered alone, it may have been deposited in an invocation of the one-eyed god Odin. Gevninge is three kilometres (1.9 mi) upriver from Lejre, a one-time centre of power believed to be the setting for Heorot, the fabled mead hall to which the epic hero Beowulf journeys in search of the monster Grendel; on his way, Beowulf passes through an armed outpost comparable to Gevninge. The eyepiece has been in the collection of the Lejre Museum since its discovery, and has been exhibited internationally as part of a traveling exhibition on Vikings. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Regina Kapeller-Adler

... that in 1934, the Austrian biochemist Regina Kapeller-Adler (pictured) developed an innovative test for early pregnancy based on the presence of histidine in urine?
... that an island in New York City used to be a summer campsite, with up to half a million visitors by 1917?
... that at the age of 23, Adam Holland became the youngest person to run 100 marathons?
... that the French town of Bergerac was captured after a portcullis jammed on a wounded horse?
... that Victoria Lederberg was a SimCity mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, before becoming a state supreme court justice?
... that Heinrich Himmler may have given permission for the Red Cross to visit the family camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, just a few hundred meters from the gas chambers?
... that in 2018, storyboard artist Domee Shi became the first woman to direct a Pixar short film?
... that Charles XI of Sweden tried mounting his cavalry on moose?

In the news

Jair Bolsonaro

Lion Air Flight 610 crashes off the coast of Java, Indonesia, with 189 people on board.
Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) is elected President of Brazil.
In baseball, the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.
Michael D. Higgins is re-elected President of Ireland.
A shooting at a synagogue kills 11 people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

On this day

October 30: Arba'een/Arba'een Pilgrimage (Shia Islam, 2018); Mischief Night in some areas of the United States

George I of Greece

1485 – Having seized the throne of England after the Wars of the Roses, Henry VII was formally crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1863 – Seventeen-year-old Vilhelm, Prince of Denmark, arrived in Athens to become George I (pictured), King of Greece.
1918 – The Armistice of Mudros was signed in Greece, ending the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, and paving the way for the occupation of Constantinople and the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
1938 – The radio drama The War of the Worlds, based on the science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, frightened many listeners in the United States into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.
1993 – The Troubles: Three members of the Ulster Defence Association opened fire in a crowded pub during a Halloween party, killing eight civilians and wounding nineteen.

André Chénier (b. 1762) · William H. Webb (d. 1899) · Florence Nagle (d. 1988)

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The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, which holds ballet and opera performances. The company was founded on 28 March [O.S. 17 March] 1776, when Catherine the Great granted Prince Pyotr Urusov a licence to organise theatrical performances, balls and other forms of entertainment. Usunov set up the theatre in collaboration with English tightrope walker Michael Maddox. The present building was built between 1821 and 1824 and designed by architect Joseph Bové.

Photograph: DmitriyGuryanov

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