Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 September 28

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From today's featured article

Gods' Man is a wordless novel by American artist Lynd Ward (1905–1985) published in 1929. In 139 captionless woodblock prints it tells the Faustian story of an artist who signs away his soul for a magic paintbrush. It was the first American wordless novel, and is seen as a precursor of, and influence on, the graphic novel. Ward first encountered the wordless novel with Frans Masereel's The Sun (1919) while studying art in Germany in 1926. He returned to the United States in 1927 and established a career for himself as an illustrator. He found Otto Nückel's wordless novel Destiny (1926) in New York City, and it inspired him to create a similar work. Gods' Man appeared a week before the Wall Street Crash of 1929; it nevertheless enjoyed strong sales and remains the best-selling American wordless novel. Its success inspired other Americans to experiment with the medium, including cartoonist Milt Gross, who parodied it in He Done Her Wrong (1930). In the 1970s Ward's example inspired cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Will Eisner to create their first graphic novels. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

John Ford in a rare acting role

... that John Ford (pictured) portrayed an Office of Strategic Services officer in an OSS training film that he directed in 1943?
... that the Yarkand hare is hunted as game and, between 1958 and 1981, about 10,000 furs annually were produced from the species?
... that American soprano Pamela Coburn appeared as Mozart's Countess in Vienna and New York, and as Ellen, the friend of Peter Grimes, in Munich and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino?
... that Farrakhan v Home Secretary was the first court case to successfully overturn a client's ban on entry to the United Kingdom—only to be overturned itself on appeal?
... that illustrator Ida Waugh met her life partner Amy Ella Blanchard when the latter was hired as a tutor for her younger brother, future painter Frederick Judd Waugh?
... that in 1989, the Institute of Party History of the Communist Party of Estonia denounced the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact?
... that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been accused of plagiarizing his PhD thesis?
... that the Delaware Railroad was sued in 1863 because it didn't have enough freight cars to transport a bumper crop of peaches?

In the news

German Chancellor
Angela Merkel

In Saudi Arabia, King Salman decrees that women will be allowed to obtain driver's licenses from June 2018, effectively removing the ban on women driving in the state.
Iraqi Kurdistan votes in favour of independence, though the vote is dismissed as unconstitutional by the Iraqi federal government.
The CDU/CSU, led by Angela Merkel (pictured), wins the most seats in the German federal election.
The National Party, led by Bill English, wins the most seats in the New Zealand general election.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes central Mexico, killing more than three hundred people.

On this day...

September 28

Edward Carson signing the Ulster Covenant

1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain was drafted in the National Palace in Mexico City.
1891 – Railway workers in Montevideo founded the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club, which later changed its name to Peñarol, now Uruguay's most successful football club.
1912 – Over 470,000 people from Ulster, Ireland, signed the Ulster Covenant in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill (Edward Carson pictured).
1972 – Against the backdrop of the Cold War, the Canadian ice hockey team defeated the Soviet team in the Summit Series.
2012 – War in Somalia: Somali National Army forces and their AMISOM and Raskamboni allies launched an offensive against Al-Shabaab in the latter's last major stronghold of Kismayo.

Prosper Mérimée (b. 1803) · Florence Violet McKenzie (b. 1890) · Patsy Mink (d. 2002)

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Today's featured picture

A panoramic view of Toledo, as seen from the Parador Hotel in 2014. This central Spanish city is the capital of the province of the same name. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage. It has historically been influenced by the co-existence of Christians, Muslims and Jews. As of 2015^[update], the city has a population of 83,226 and an area of 232.1 km² (89.6 sq mi).

Photograph: Chensiyuan

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