Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 November 2

The sea is the connected body of salty water that covers over 70 percent of the Earth's surface. It moderates the Earth's climate and has important roles in the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles. It has been travelled since ancient times, while scientific oceanography dates broadly from Captain James Cook's 18th-century voyages. Winds produce waves and surface currents, and deep-sea currents carry cold water to every ocean. Large events such as submarine earthquakes can cause destructive tsunamis. Tides are caused by the rotation of the Earth and the gravitational effects of the Moon and the Sun. A variety of organisms live in the sea's many habitats, from the sunlit surface to the cold, dark abyssal zone, and from the Arctic to colourful tropical coral reefs. Life itself may have started in the sea. The sea provides humans with food including fish and shellfish, and enables trade, travel, mineral extraction, power generation, naval warfare, and leisure, though often at the cost of marine pollution. The sea has been important in human culture since Homer's Odyssey, appearing in literature, mythology, marine art, cinema, theatre, classical music and dream interpretation. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Lie Kim Hok – Malkin Tower – Rudd Concession

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Ffordd Pen Llech (pictured) in the Snowdonia National Park is the steepest signed road in the United Kingdom?
• ... that the song "Volví a Nacer" by Carlos Vives reached number one in Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and the Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States?
• ... that after 82 years of silence, the mother of journalist Ahmet Abakay revealed her Armenian identity just weeks before she died?
• ... that the Nokia Lumia 1520's 6-inch (15 cm) display made it the largest Windows Phone at the time of its announcement in Abu Dhabi?
• ... that a review in The American Historical Review called Education for Extinction "the most comprehensive examination of all federal Indian boarding schools to date"?
• ... that Swedish railway worker Fritiof Enbom was accused and convicted of being a spy for the Soviet Union?
• ... that Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to allow Hermann Göring to stay at his Rominten Hunting Lodge, but Göring later forced Wilhelm's heirs to sell the property to the State of Prussia for his own use?

• In baseball, the Boston Red Sox defeat the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series.
• The Marmaray rail tunnel (pictured) under the Bosphorus opens, connecting the European and Asian parts of Turkey.
• The Front for Victory loses seats but retains its majority in the Argentine legislative election.
• Giorgi Margvelashvili is elected President of Georgia.
• In Formula One, Sebastian Vettel wins the Drivers' Championship for the fourth consecutive year, and Infiniti Red Bull Racing wins the Constructors' Championship.

Recent deaths: Tadeusz Mazowiecki – Lou Reed

November 2: All Souls' Day (Western Christianity); Day of the Dead in Mexico

• 619 – Emperor Gaozu allowed the assassination of a khagan of the Western Turkic Khanate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one the earliest events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.
• 1889 – The Dakota Territory, an organized incorporated territory of the United States, was split and became the states of North and South Dakota.
• 1917 – British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
• 1963 – President Ngo Dinh Diem (pictured) of South Vietnam was assassinated, marking the culmination of a coup d'état led by Duong Van Minh.
• 2007 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, 50,000–100,000 people demonstrated against the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili.

More anniversaries: November 1 – November 2 – November 3

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The Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea) is a small kingfisher found in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia. First described in 1802, seven subspecies are known.

Photo: JJ Harrison