Wikipedia:Main Page history/2024 October 7

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Model of Thunderbird 2

Thunderbirds is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It was their fifth series to be made using Supermarionation (a form of electronic marionette puppetry) combined with scale model effects sequences. Two series were made, totalling 32 episodes. Thunderbirds follows the exploits of International Rescue, a lifesaving organisation led by ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy. Its missions are carried out using the Thunderbird machines (one pictured), a fleet of five vehicles piloted by Jeff's sons. Thunderbirds premiered on the ITV network on 30 September 1965 and has aired in at least 66 countries. Widely considered the Andersons' most popular and commercially successful series, it has been praised for its effects, music and title sequence. A real-life search and rescue service, the International Rescue Corps, took its name from the series. Thunderbirds was followed by two feature films in the 1960s, a live-action film in 2004 and a remake, Thunderbirds Are Go, in 2015. (Full article...)

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Asik-Asik Falls
Asik-Asik Falls

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Shigeru Ishiba in October 2024
Shigeru Ishiba

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October 7

Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
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Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford
Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford

The Rumford Medal is an award bestowed by the Royal Society for "outstanding contributions in the field of physics". The award is named in honour of British scientist Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (pictured), who is noted for his works on thermodynamics and for establishing the Royal Institution. Thompson received the inaugural award in 1800. Since its inception, the Rumford Medal has been granted to 108 scientists as of 2024. It has been awarded sixty-seven times to a citizen of the United Kingdom, seven times to a Dutch citizen, and four times to a Swedish citizen. The medal has been jointly awarded to multiple individuals on two occasions: to Philipp Lenard and Wilhelm Röntgen in 1896, and to Charles Fabry and Alfred Perot in 1918. From 1800 to 2018, the Rumford Medal was awarded biennially; since then it has been awarded annually. The most recent recipient is British physicist Tony Bell, who received it in 2024. (Full list...)

Iolanthe

Iolanthe is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed in 1882 as the seventh Gilbert and Sullivan operatic collaboration, it tells the story of Iolanthe, a fairy banished from fairyland because she married a mortal. Her son Strephon, half a fairy, loves Phyllis, whom all the members of the House of Peers wish to marry. Phyllis sees Strephon embracing Iolanthe (as fairies never age, she appears to be seventeen) and assumes that he is unfaithful, not realizing that Iolanthe is his mother, setting off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. Iolanthe was the first new theatre production in the world to be illuminated entirely by electric lights. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre and ran there for 398 performances, with a simultaneous production in New York. It is still played throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. This poster by H. M. Brock was produced for an early-20th-century tour production of Iolanthe by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Poster credit: H. M. Brock; restored by Adam Cuerden

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