Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 2025

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Today's featured article archive

October 1

One of T4's sister ships, T3

T4 was a seagoing torpedo boat operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1932. Originally built in 1914 for the Austro-Hungarian Navy as a 250t-class torpedo boat, she saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, anti-submarine operations and shore bombardment missions. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, she was allocated to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy, and was renamed T4. During the interwar period, T4 and the rest of the navy were involved in training exercises and cruises to friendly ports. In 1932, she ran aground on the island of Drvenik Mali off the central Dalmatian coast and the hull broke in half. The bow remained on the island, and the stern was towed to the Tivat Arsenal in the Bay of Kotor. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.)

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October 2

Ko Ping-chung, the tournament winner

The 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship was a professional pool tournament for the discipline of ten-ball organised by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and CueSports International. It was the fifth WPA World Ten-ball Championship; the previous championship was held in 2015. After plans for an event in both 2016 and 2018 to be held in Manila fell through, a 2019 event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as part of a three-year deal for the event to be played in the United States was agreed. The event was held concurrently with the Billiard Congress of America's National Ten-ball event from July 22 to 26. The event was sponsored by cue manufacturer Predator Group. The competition featured 64 participants, selected according to world and continental pool rankings as well as qualifying events. Ko Ping-chung (pictured), representing Taiwan, won the event, defeating German player Joshua Filler 10–7 in the final. (Full article...)

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October 3

In the Spaghetti House siege, an attempted robbery of the Spaghetti House restaurant in September 1975 in Knightsbridge, London, three men barricaded themselves and the staff in a storeroom. The ringleader was Franklin Davies, a 28-year-old Nigerian student who had previously served time in prison for armed robbery. The hostages were released unharmed after six days. Two of the gunmen gave themselves up, and Davies shot himself in the stomach. All three were later imprisoned, as was one of their accomplices. The police used fibre optic camera technology for live surveillance, and monitored the actions and conversations of the gunmen. The feed was watched by a forensic psychologist who advised police on the state of the men's minds, and how to best manage the ongoing negotiations. The siege was concluded on 3 October 1975. The 1976 play A Hole in Babylon and the 1982 Italian comedy film Spaghetti House were loosely based on the events of the siege. (Full article...)

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October 4

Ocellaris clownfish

Clownfishes are saltwater fishes found in the warm and tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. They mainly inhabit coral reefs and have a distinctive colouration typically consisting of white vertical bars on a red, orange, yellow, brown or black background. Clownfishes developed a symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship with sea anemones, which they rely on for shelter and protection, while they in turn, clean, fan and protect them. Clownfishes live in groups consisting of a breeding female and male, along with some non-breeding individuals. The female ranks at the top of the hierarchy, followed by the breeding male. The recognisable colour patterns and social nature of clownfishes have contributed to their popularity, having appeared in the film Finding Nemo. They are highly sought after in the aquarium trade and are often taken from the wild, which has led to their decline. (Full article...)

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October 5

Otto Hahn (1879–1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the field of radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry. Working with Lise Meitner at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in the building that now bears their names, they discovered isotopes of the radioactive elements radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of atomic recoil and nuclear isomerism, and pioneered rubidium–strontium dating. In 1938, Hahn, Meitner, Otto Robert Frisch and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, for which Hahn alone was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He worked on the German nuclear program during World War II; at the end of the war he was arrested by the Allied forces and detained in Farm Hall. After the war, he became the founding president of the Max Planck Society and one of the most influential and respected citizens of post-war West Germany. (Full article...)

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October 6

70 Pine Street is a 67-story, 952-foot (290 m) residential skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. Designed by the architectural firm of Clinton & Russell, Holton & George in the Art Deco style, 70 Pine Street was constructed between 1930 and 1932 as an office building. The structure was originally named for the energy conglomerate Cities Service Company, its first tenant. Upon its completion, it was Lower Manhattan's tallest building and the world's third-tallest building. It features a brick, limestone, and gneiss façade with numerous setbacks and an extensive program of ornamentation. Despite having been built during the Great Depression, the building was profitable enough to break even by 1936, and ninety percent of its space was occupied five years later. The building and its first-floor interior were designated as official New York City landmarks in June 2011, and the structure was converted to residential use in 2016. (Full article...)

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October 7

Licancabur is a prominent, 5,916-metre-high (19,409 ft) stratovolcano on the Bolivia–Chile border in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes. It is capped by a 400–500-metre (1,300–1,600 ft) wide summit crater which contains Licancabur Lake, a crater lake that is among the highest lakes in the world. There are no glaciers owing to the arid climate. Numerous plant and animal species live on the mountain. The volcanoes Sairecabur and Juriques are north and east of Licancabur, respectively. Licancabur formed on top of ignimbrites produced by other volcanoes and was active during the Holocene. Although no historical eruptions of the volcano are known, lava flows extending into Laguna Verde have been dated to 13,240 ± 100 before present and there may be residual heat in the mountain. The volcano has primarily erupted andesite, with small amounts of dacite and basaltic andesite. Several archaeological sites have been found on the mountain, possibly constructed by the Inca or Atacama people. (Full article...)

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October 8

Terraria is an action-adventure video game developed by Re-Logic and published by 505 Games. A sandbox game, it has no set goals. After creating the player character and choosing the game's difficulty, the player is placed in a two-dimensional, procedurally generated world where they explore, fight enemies, gather resources, and craft equipment. Players beat bosses, a tougher variety of enemies, to gain access to more items, resources, and equipment. By completing select goals, players receive access to non-player characters who sell items and offer services, such as healing and fishing quests. Terraria can be played alone or with others. Initially released in May 2011 on the Steam digital store, Terraria has received continuous content updates that have considerably changed it from its first version. Terraria has since seen the addition of new items, NPCs, enemies, and world difficulties, as well as quality-of-life improvements and crossovers with different games. Terraria has received generally favorable reviews from critics. (Full article...)

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October 9

Chris Pratt (born 1979) is an American actor. Born in Minnesota, he gained recognition by playing Andy Dwyer in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation from 2009 to 2015. Pratt achieved international stardom as Star-Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (2014–2023), a role he reprises across multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Pratt's popularity grew with his lead role as Owen Grady in the Jurassic World franchise (2015–2022). He has ventured into voice acting, voicing Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)—the highest-grossing film based on a video game in history—and Emmet Brickowski in the Lego Movie franchise (2014–2019). Known for repeatedly portraying similar characters across multiple films, which some critics have taken issue with, Pratt is one of the most commercially successful actors in Hollywood. From 2015 to 2017, he ranked among the world's highest-paid film stars and was included in the Time 100 (2015) and Forbes Celebrity 100 (2016). (Full article...)

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October 10

No Doubt in 2009

Tragic Kingdom is the third studio album by American band No Doubt (pictured), released on October 10, 1995, by Trauma Records and Interscope Records. Produced by Matthew Wilder, it was the last No Doubt album to feature Eric Stefani. The album spawned seven singles, including "Just a Girl", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK singles chart, and "Don't Speak", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and reached the top five of many international charts. It reached number one on the Billboard 200, as well as topping the charts in Canada and in New Zealand, selling more than 16 million copies worldwide. The album was certified diamond by the RIAA in the United States and Canada, platinum in the United Kingdom, and triple platinum in Australia. At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, No Doubt earned nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. Tragic Kingdom helped facilitate the ska revival of the 1990s and was ranked number 441 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. (Full article...)

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October 11

Georg Karo (1872–1963) was a German archaeologist who specialised in Mycenaean and Etruscan civilisation. He was twice director of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens (DAI), in which capacity he excavated the Mycenaean site of Tiryns and the Temple of Artemis on Corfu. A colleague of Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who had worked with Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, Karo published the findings from Schliemann's excavations of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. The work was considered to be Karo's greatest contribution to scholarship. He taught at Bonn between 1902 and 1905 before moving to the DAI in Athens as Dörpfeld's deputy. Although an early supporter of the Nazi government of Germany, Karo was forced from his post of director of the DAI in 1936 by antisemitism against his Jewish ancestry. In 1939, he fled to the United States, where he was accused of spying for the Nazi regime. He returned to Germany in 1952, and became an honorary professor at the University of Freiburg. (Full article...)

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October 12

Nathan Chen, winner of the men's event

The 2021 World Figure Skating Championships were held from March 22 to 28, 2021, at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. Sanctioned by the International Skating Union, the World Championships are considered the most prestigious event in figure skating. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The competition determined the entry quotas for each skating federation at the 2022 World Championships and was the first qualifying event for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The World Championships were the only ISU Championship event held during the 2020–21 season, while other competitions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was held without spectators. Nathan Chen (pictured) of the United States won the men's event, Anna Shcherbakova of Russia won the women's event, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov of Russia won the pairs event, and Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia won the ice dance event. (Full article...)

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October 13

Tell es-Sakan is an archaeological site about 5 kilometres (3 mi) south of Gaza City in Palestine. It was the site of two separate Early Bronze Age urban settlements. Ancient Egypt expanded its territory into southwestern Palestine in the latter half of the 4th millennium BCE and during this time Tell es-Sakan was founded as an administrative centre for the Egyptian colonies in the region. It was inhabited from about 3300 BCE to 3000 BCE. After a period of abandonment a Canaanite city was established around 2600 BCE and inhabited until about 2250 BCE, after which Tell es-Sakan was permanently abandoned. Tell es-Sakan functioned as a trading post and was positioned along what was probably a dried-up channel of the Wadi Ghazzeh – a watercourse that is dry most of the year but in the Bronze Age would have been navigable. The site covered around 8 to 9 hectares (20 to 22 acres), of which 0.14 hectares (0.35 acres) has undergone archaeological excavation. (Full article...)

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October 14

The British fourpence coin, sometimes known as a groat, is a silver coin valued at 1⁄60 of one pound or 1⁄3 of one shilling. It was struck throughout the 18th century, though by 1800 it had come mostly to be coined to be given as ceremonial alms at the Royal Maundy service. It returned as a circulating coin in 1836, as the Royal Mint sought to fill the gap between the penny and the sixpence. The fourpence was issued at the urging of the politician Joseph Hume, who noted that fourpence was the cab fare for short journeys. The new coin did not endear him to hackney drivers, who had often received sixpence without a request for change, and they gave it the nickname "joey". There was also confusion between it and the sixpence. The threepence, struck for use in Britain from 1845, proved more popular than the fourpence, which was struck only once for circulation after the mid-1850s. This was in 1888 for use in British Guiana, though it continued to be used in Scotland for many years. (Full article...)

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October 15

Jozo Tomasevich (1908 – October 15, 1994) was an American economist and historian whose speciality was the economic and social history of Yugoslavia. He was born in the Kingdom of Dalmatia, then part of Austria-Hungary. In the mid-1930s, he worked at the National Bank of Yugoslavia in Belgrade and published three well-received books on Yugoslavian economics. In 1938, he moved to the United States as the recipient of a Rockefeller fellowship and conducted research at Harvard University before joining the academic staff of Stanford University. In 1948, he joined the staff at San Francisco State College, where he researched and taught for twenty-five years until his retirement in 1973. Tomasevich began writing on Yugoslavia in World War II – War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–1945. He wrote two parts of a three-volume series before his death. The third volume, on the Yugoslav Partisans, remains unpublished despite being 75-percent complete at his death. (Full article...)

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October 16

Angela Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American actress, producer, and singer whose career spanned 80 years. To escape the Blitz, she moved to the U.S. in 1940, studying acting in New York City. She received three Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nominations for her roles in Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). On television, she starred as the sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the CBS whodunit series Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996), for which she was nominated for 12 consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Among Lansbury's numerous accolades were five Tony Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, 18 Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1997, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2013. (Full article...)

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October 17

Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed by Jeff Mangum in 1989. They were active until 1998, and then from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness. In 1996, he worked with childhood friend Robert Schneider to record the album On Avery Island. Mangum recruited musicians Julian Koster, Jeremy Barnes, and Scott Spillane for the band's second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998). While on tour, the band's popularity grew through Internet exposure. This negatively affected Mangum, whose mental health began to deteriorate, and the band went on hiatus shortly after. During their break, they gained a cult following and the critical standing of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea rose. Neutral Milk Hotel reunited in 2013 and undertook a reunion tour before another hiatus in 2015. (Full article...)

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October 18

Ulfcytel (died 1016) was a greatly respected English military leader during the reign of Æthelred the Unready (978–1013 and 1014–1016), when ineffective opposition to Danish Viking invasions ended in the Danish conquest of England. Ulfcytel commanded East Anglian forces in a battle in 1004 against Danish Viking invaders led by the future king Swein Forkbeard; although Ulfcytel lost, the Danes were badly mauled and said that they had never met such hard fighting in England. He led a local English army to another defeat in the Battle of Ringmere in 1010 and died in 1016 in the Battle of Assandun. He exercised the powers of an ealdorman, the second-highest rank in Anglo-Saxon England, but to the puzzlement of historians he was never formally given the title. Ulfcytel is highly praised in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Scandinavian skaldic poetry, and also by Anglo-Norman writers and modern historians. Scandinavian sources gave him the byname snilling, meaning "bold", and the Icelandic court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson called East Anglia "Ulfkell's Land" after him. (Full article...)

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October 19

U.S. Route 34 in Iowa is a United States Highway that runs across the southern third of Iowa. It begins on a bridge over the Missouri River west of Glenwood and travels east where it meets Interstate 29 (I-29) and US 275. Through southwestern Iowa, the highway is, for the most part, a two-lane rural road with at-grade intersections; there are interchanges with US 59 near Emerson and US 71 near Stanton and Villisca. At Osceola, the highway intersects I-35 and US 69. Just east of Ottumwa, where the road meets US 63, the road joins the four-lane Iowa 163 for the remainder of its trek through the state. At Mount Pleasant, it overlaps US 218 and Iowa 27, the Avenue of the Saints Highway. From there, the road heads to the southeast where it crosses the Mississippi River on the Great River Bridge at Burlington. US 34 was one of the original U.S. Highways when the system was created in 1926. Several widenings and improvements have been made to the highway since its original construction. (Full article...)

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October 20

Chicago police officer using his phone

Illinois Public Access Opinion 16-006 is a binding opinion of the Illinois Attorney General pursuant to the state's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Issued in 2016 in the aftermath of the police murder of Laquan McDonald on October 20, 2014, the opinion addressed a public records request from CNN for private emails by officers of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) related to the incident. After the CPD denied CNN's request, the Attorney General's office, led by Lisa Madigan, ruled that the police officers' private emails about McDonald's murder were subject to public disclosure, even though those emails were communicated on accounts outside of the police department's email servers. The Attorney General found that the police officers were acting on behalf of the police department, making their messages public records. Nonetheless, CNN never received the emails that it had requested, even after it went to court to enforce the Attorney General's opinion. (Full article...)

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October 21

The Manchester United and Ipswich Town football match was played at Old Trafford, Manchester, in March 1995 as part of the 1994–95 FA Premier League. It finished in a 9–0 victory for the home team. The result is a joint record, with Southampton having subsequently lost by the same scoreline at home to Leicester City in a 2019 game and away at Manchester United in 2021, while Bournemouth also lost 9–0 to Liverpool in a 2022 match. Manchester United and Ipswich went into the match at opposite ends of the table; Manchester United were second; Ipswich Town were second-last. In the corresponding game at Ipswich's Portman Road, they beat United 3–2. Manchester United were missing Eric Cantona, who was on a nine-month suspension, and their attacking partnership of Andy Cole and Mark Hughes was not well regarded by pundits. Ipswich's victory at Portman Road proved to be the more significant result with regard to the final placings, as Manchester United missed out on the title by one point. (Full article...)

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October 22

Kaniehtiio Horn, who portrayed the Deer Lady

"Deer Lady" is the third episode of the third season of the comedy and teen drama television series Reservation Dogs. The twenty-first episode overall, it was written by the program's showrunner and co-creator, Sterlin Harjo, and directed by Danis Goulet. Reservation Dogs tells the story a group of four friends and Indigenous teenagers who live in Oklahoma. They refer to themselves as the "Rez Dogs" and hope to eventually visit California in memory of their friend who committed suicide. Deer Lady is a recurring character in the show based on the mythological spirit, Deer Woman. Inspired by 1970s horror films and 1990s indie films, the story focuses on the history of American Indian boarding schools and makes use of the endangered Kiowa language. The episode was first broadcast in August 2023; it received positive reviews from critics. It won an Art Directors Guild Award and was nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy Award and a Gold Derby Television Award. (Full article...)

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October 23

Redshift and blueshift

In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, or equivalently, a decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and increase in frequency and energy, is known as a blueshift. The terms derive from the colours red and blue which form the extremes of the visible light spectrum. Three forms of redshift occur in astronomy and cosmology: Doppler redshifts due to the relative motions of radiation sources, gravitational redshift as radiation escapes from gravitational potentials, and cosmological redshifts caused by the universe expanding. Automated astronomical redshift surveys are an important tool for learning about the large scale structure of the universe. Examples of strong redshifting are a gamma ray perceived as an X-ray, or initially visible light perceived as radio waves. The initial heat from the Big Bang has redshifted far down to become the cosmic microwave background. (Full article...)

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October 24

Male with breeding plumage

The red-billed quelea is a small—approximately 12 cm (4.7 in) long and weighing 15–26 g (0.53–0.92 oz)—migratory, sparrow-like bird of the weaver family, Ploceidae, native to Sub-Saharan Africa. Non-breeding birds have light underparts, striped brown upper parts, yellow-edged flight feathers and a reddish bill. Breeding females attain a yellowish bill. Breeding males have a black (or rarely white) facial mask, surrounded by a purplish, pinkish, rusty or yellowish wash on the head and breast. The species avoids forests, deserts and colder areas such as those at high altitude and in southern South Africa. It constructs oval roofed nests woven from strips of grass hanging from thorny branches, sugar cane or reeds. It breeds in very large colonies. The quelea feeds primarily on seeds of annual grasses, but also causes extensive damage to cereal crops. It is regarded as the most numerous undomesticated bird on earth, with the population sometimes peaking at an estimated 1.5 billion individuals. (Full article...)

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October 25

Coat of arms for England, 1460

The Act of Accord was an act of the Parliament of England (English coat of arms pictured) passed on 25 October 1460. Three weeks earlier, Richard, Duke of York claimed the crown of England on the grounds that the male and female lines gave him two claims, while his rival King Henry VI only possessed one. The House of Lords decided that Henry would retain the crown for life, but York and his heirs were to succeed him, removing Henry's son Edward from the succession. Henry agreed to the compromise, which became the Act of Accord. The queen, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept the disinheritance of their son, and was joined by the majority of the English nobility. She raised an army in the north with her son and began the destruction of York's and the Nevilles's Yorkshire estates. York led an army to challenge her but was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. The Lancastrians were defeated three months later at the Battle of Towton by York's son, who was crowned King Edward IV. (Full article...)

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October 26

Cover of first issue (October/November 1930)

Oriental Stories was an American pulp magazine published by Popular Fiction and edited by Farnsworth Wright. It was launched in 1930 as a companion to Popular Fiction's Weird Tales, and carried stories with far eastern settings, including some fantasy. Contributors included Robert E. Howard, Frank Owen, and E. Hoffman Price. In 1932 publication was paused; it was relaunched in 1933 under the title The Magic Carpet Magazine, with an expanded editorial policy that now included any story set in an exotic location, including other planets. Some science fiction began to appear alongside the fantasy and adventure material as a result, including work by Edmond Hamilton. Wright obtained stories from H. Bedford Jones, who was a popular pulp writer, and Seabury Quinn. Most of the covers of The Magic Carpet Magazine were by Margaret Brundage. Competition from established pulps in the same niche was too strong, and after five issues under the new title the magazine ceased publication. (Full article...)

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October 27

Swift in 2015

"How You Get the Girl" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (pictured) from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). She wrote it with its producers, Max Martin and Shellback. An electropop and bubblegum pop song, it is a ballad that features acoustic guitar strums and a heavy disco beat. The lyrics find Swift telling a man how to win his ex-girlfriend back after their breakup. Some critics praised the song as catchy and highlighted the chorus; less enthusiastic reviews considered the production generic and the lyrics lightweight. The track received certifications in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Swift included it in the set list of the 1989 World Tour (2015), with choreography that evoked the musical film Singin' in the Rain (1952). She performed it on some dates of the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) and the Eras Tour (2023–2024). The track was used in a Diet Coke advertisement prior to its release. (This article is part of a featured topic: 1989 (album).)

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October 28

Mathos, as envisaged by Victor Armand Poirson in 1890

During the siege of Tunis in October 238 BC, a rebel army under Mathos (pictured) was besieged by a Carthaginian force under Hamilcar Barca and Hannibal. The Carthaginian army, which had served in Sicily during the First Punic War, mutinied starting the Mercenary War. After destroying a rebel army at the Battle of the Saw, the Carthaginians then besieged the rebels' stronghold at Tunis. The Carthaginian commander, Hamilcar, split his forces to blockade the rebels from the north and south. At the northern camp, commanded by Hannibal, he had ten captured rebel leaders killed and their bodies crucified. Mathos organised a night attack against Hannibal's camp, which scattered part of their army; Hannibal and 30 others were captured and crucified. Hamilcar withdrew to the north with the remaining half of his army. Mathos then abandoned Tunis and withdrew south. Hamilcar and his fellow general Hanno followed the rebels and wiped them out at the Battle of Leptis Parva. (This article is part of a featured topic: Mercenary War.)

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October 29

John Bullock Clark Sr. (April 17, 1802 – October 29, 1885) was an American militia officer and politician. A lawyer with a colorful reputation, Clark was also an officer in the Missouri militia. During the 1838 Mormon War, Clark was given the Extermination Order. A candidate in the 1840 gubernatorial election, he was later a member of the state legislature. In 1857, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. After the American Civil War began in 1861, he became a general in the pro-secessionist Missouri State Guard. After fighting against the United States military at the Battle of Carthage, he was expelled from the House. Clark later resigned his military commission to join the Provisional Confederate Congress. A Confederate senator for a term, he was not re-appointed due to concerns about his personal behavior. He was subsequently elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. Clark fled to Mexico after the defeat of the Confederacy, but later returned to Missouri. (Full article...)

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October 30

Cartoon in Punch, November 1858

On 30 October 1858 a batch of sweets poisoned hundreds in Bradford, England. The confectionary had been accidentally adulterated with poisonous arsenic trioxide. About five pounds (two kilograms) of sweets were sold to the public, leading to around 20 deaths and over 200 people suffering the effects of arsenic poisoning. With increasing urbanisation and the rise in shop-purchased food, adulterants became a growing problem. With the cost of sugar high, replacing it with substitutes was common. For the sweets produced in Bradford, the confectioner was supposed to purchase powdered gypsum, but a mistake at the wholesale chemist meant arsenic was purchased instead. Three men were arrested—the chemist who sold the arsenic, his assistant and the sweet maker—but all three were acquitted after the judge decided as it was all accidental, there was no case for any of them to answer. The deaths led to food adulteration legislation and were a factor in the passage of the Pharmacy Act 1868. (Full article...)

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October 31

First page of the autograph score

Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild ('God the Lord is sun and shield'), is a church cantata for Reformation Day by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in 1725 while Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and led the first performance on 31 October that year. It is possibly his first cantata for the occasion; the text was written by an unknown poet. Bach structured the work in six movements, with an aria following the opening chorus, and a recitative and duet following the first chorale. He scored the work for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble. He achieved a unity within the structure by using two horns not only in the opening but also as obbligato instruments in the two chorales, the first time even playing the same motifs. He performed the cantata again, probably in 1730. He later reworked the music of the opening chorus and a duet again for his Missa in G major and the music of an alto aria for his Missa in A major. (Full article...)

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