Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 November 9

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Frederick the Great (1712–1786) was King of Prussia from 1740 until his death. His most significant accomplishments included his military successes in the Silesian wars, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and culture. Prussia became a major power in Europe under his rule. Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy, reformed the judicial system, encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, and increased freedom of the press in Berlin. Frederick was also an accomplished musician, writer, and philosopher. He played the flute, and wrote over 100 scores, including flute sonatas and opera libretti. His collected works of poetry, histories, and philosophy spans 30 volumes and his political correspondence spans 46 volumes. He remains an important symbol of modern Germany to this day. (Full article...)

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R. fuliginosa resting on a lotus flower

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In the news

Albert Korir

Kenyans Albert Korir (pictured) and Peres Jepchirchir win the New York City Marathon men's and women's races.
Daniel Ortega is re-elected as President of Nicaragua.
A crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, leaves eight people dead and hundreds of others injured.
More than a hundred people are killed in a fuel tanker explosion in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

On this day

November 9:

Mary Jane Kelly

1729 – Great Britain, France and Spain signed the Treaty of Seville to end the Anglo-Spanish War, despite the underlying tensions being left unresolved.
1888 – Mary Jane Kelly (pictured) was murdered in London; she was widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.
1918 – The government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic adopted a tricolour national flag that remains in use today with slight modifications by the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan.
1967 – The first issue of Rolling Stone, an American magazine focusing on music, politics and popular culture, was published.
2019 – Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free border crossing connecting the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib to the Indian border.

Johannes Narssius (b. 1580)
Nadezhda Alliluyeva (d. 1932)
Miriam Makeba (d. 2008)

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Fredrikke Mørck (9 November 1861 – 14 October 1934) was a Norwegian feminist, editor and school teacher. Born in Trondheim, she started her own school, Fredrikke Mørcks Pigeskole, around 1905. She contributed to the feminist magazine Nylænde from its inception in 1893, and served as its editor from 1916 to 1927. Mørck chaired the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights from 1926 to 1930.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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