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Today's featured content

Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

Catharina Weiss

... that Catharina Weiss (pictured) used to play for the Rolling Chocolate?
... that King Minkhaung I of Ava lamented that King Razadarit of Hanthawaddy had invaded his country without "breaking a sword or a lance"?
... that Andreas Vogt yelled "Down with the government! Long live the republic!" at a session of the Landtag of Liechtenstein in 1919?
... that "Dark Avenger", a song from Manowar's album Battle Hymns, is narrated by actor Orson Welles?
... that real paramedics were hired to portray EMTs in Mongrel, and they responded to a medical emergency that occurred in a village where they were filming?
... that labor lawyer Dick Moss argued the 1975 case which resulted in the establishment of free agency in Major League Baseball?
... that Louis Vuitton helped to develop the visual arts programme for the School of the Arts, Singapore?
... that the University of Memphis football team posthumously retired Danton Barto's number following an online petition?
... that the 1935 Brussels Party Conference of the Communist Party of Germany took place in the outskirts of Moscow?

In the news
Yahya Sinwar Yahya Sinwar (pictured), the leader of Hamas, is killed in a firefight with Israeli forces in Gaza. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for their comparative studies of prosperity between nations. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is launched to investigate Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. Kenyan Ruth Chepng'etich breaks the women's marathon world record at the Chicago Marathon. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the Japanese atomic bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war Israel–Hezbollah conflict Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: Sukh Dev Robert Fulford Barbara Owen George Negus Philip Zimbardo Tylee Craft Nominate an article
On this day...
October 20 Pope Pius XII 1939 – Pope Pius XII (pictured) published his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, which critiqued ideologies such as racism, cultural superiority and totalitarianism. 1951 – African-American college football player Johnny Bright was the victim of an on-field assault, eventually leading to changes in NCAA football rules that mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards. 1967 – Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin filmed an unidentified subject, which they claimed was Bigfoot, at Six Rivers National Forest in California. 1984 – The Spanish trawler Sonia sank in British waters after a five-hour chase by the Irish Naval Service patrol vessel Aisling, during which almost 600 shots were fired. 1991 – An earthquake struck the Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing at least 768 people and destroying thousands of homes. Sennacherib (d. 681 BC) Bálint Balassi (b. 1554) Simon de Vos (b. 1603) Stéphane Hessel (b. 1917) More anniversaries: October 19 October 20 October 21 Archive By email List of days of the year About

Today's featured picture

The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. Originally native to Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and a large part of Asia, it is now found in most parts of the world and is the most widely distributed wild bird. It is closely associated with human habitation and resides in both urban and rural areas. The house sparrow is a small bird with a typical length of 16 cm (6.3 in) and a mass of 24–39.5 g (0.85–1.39 oz). Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. It is sometimes considered a pest but is also sometimes kept as a pet or used as a food item. This male house sparrow was photographed in Prospect Park, New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

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