Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 October 15

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From today's featured article

Gold dinar of al-Mu'tadid

Al-Mu'tadid (c. 857 – 5 April 902) was the Abbasid Caliph from 15 October 892 until his death. As a prince, he served under his father al-Muwaffaq during various military campaigns and helped suppress the Zanj Rebellion. As caliph, he restored to the Abbasid state some of the power it had lost during the turmoils of the previous decades. In a series of campaigns he recovered the provinces of Jazira, Thughur and Jibal, and effected a rapprochement with the Saffarids in the east and the Tulunids in the west. He brought the capital back to Baghdad, where he engaged in major building projects. He was a firm supporter of Sunni traditionalist orthodoxy, and notorious for his fiscal stringency and cruel punishments, but also interested in the learning and science that had flourished under his predecessors, promoting men like Thabit ibn Qurra, a mathematician and translator of Greek texts. His reign marks the last revival of the Abbasid empire before its terminal decline during the 10th century. (Full article...)

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In the news

Esther Duflo

The 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo (pictured), and Michael Kremer for their work in poverty reduction.
Ten days of protests in Ecuador end after President Lenín Moreno agrees to repeal austerity measures and restore fuel subsidies.
Kenyan Brigid Kosgei breaks the women's marathon world record at the Chicago Marathon.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge becomes the first person to run the marathon distance in less than two hours, in a non-IAAF event in Vienna, Austria.

On this day

October 15

Demonstrators in Madrid, 2011

1529 – Ottoman–Habsburg wars: The Siege of Vienna ended as the Austrians repelled the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of conquest in Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces captured Glasgow, Missouri, although it had little long-term benefit as Price's Missouri Expedition was defeated a week later.
1982 – Ata'ollah Ashrafi Esfahani was assassinated by the People's Mujahedin of Iran during Friday prayers.
2003 – Shenzhou 5, China's first crewed space mission, was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei.
2011 – Global demonstrations against economic inequality (protests in Madrid pictured), corporate influence on government, and other issues, were held in more than 950 cities in 82 countries.

P. G. Wodehouse (b. 1881) · Hiram Fong (b. 1906) · Aydın Sayılı (d. 1993)

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Today's featured picture

William H. Crook (October 15, 1839 – March 13, 1915) was one of President Abraham Lincoln's bodyguards in 1865. After Lincoln's assassination (while Crook was off duty), he continued to work in the White House for a total of over 50 years, serving 12 presidents. Crook, a member of the Washington Police Force and a former Union Army soldier, was selected as one of Lincoln's bodyguards in January 1865. On April 14, 1865, the day of Lincoln's assassination, Crook began his shift at 8 am. He was to have been relieved by John Frederick Parker at 4 pm, but Parker was several hours late. Crook tried to persuade the president not to attend a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre that night, or at least allow him to go along as an extra bodyguard, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife they would go. As Lincoln left for the theater, he turned to Crook and said "Goodbye, Crook". Before, Lincoln had always said, "Good night, Crook". Crook later recalled: "It was the first time that he neglected to say 'Good Night' to me and it was the only time that he ever said 'Good-bye'. I thought of it at that moment and, a few hours later, when the news flashed over Washington that he had been shot, his last words were so burned into my being that they can never be forgotten." Crook blamed Parker, who had left his post at the theater without permission. Crook was later appointed Executive Clerk of the President of the United States in 1870, and Chief Disbursing Officer in 1877, the latter of which he would hold for the rest of his career, up until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

Photograph credit: Frances Benjamin Johnston; restored by Adam Cuerden

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