Wikipedia:Today's featured list/October 2019
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October 4
The Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – from 1929, the Royal Yugoslav Navy – included a wide range of vessels during its existence from 1920 to 1945, including sea-going warships and river monitors that operated on the Danube and other rivers. In 1921, the only modern warships were twelve torpedo boats. Early in its history, little was done to improve the fleet, but modernisation was underway from the early 1930s, with a British-made flotilla leader followed by a class of modern French-designed destroyers. Almost all of the fleet was captured by Italy during the April 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, but a few vessels escaped to form a navy-in-exile, which operated under British supervision. Later in the war, several vessels that had been in Italian service were returned to the navy-in-exile, and these were joined by a British corvette. At the end of the war, these vessels were transferred to the fledgling Yugoslav Navy. (Full list...)
October 7
Fruit bats, also known as megabats, are the 197 species of bats that make up the suborder Megachiroptera, found throughout the tropics of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, of which 186 are extant. The suborder is part of the order Chiroptera (bats), and contains a single family, Pteropodidae. The family is divided into between two to six subfamilies, with recent phylogenetic analysis suggesting a different classification structure of the known species than before. Bats have been traditionally thought to be a monophyletic group; according to this model, all living fruit bats and microbats (Microchiroptera) are descendants of a common ancestor species that was already capable of flight. However, there are alternate hypotheses which conclude that bats are paraphyletic. The flying primate hypothesis was created in the 1980s, stating that, based on morphological evidence, the Megachiroptera evolved flight separately from the Microchiroptera, although genetic evidence supports the monophyly of bats. (Full list...)
October 11
Pope John XXIII issued eight papal encyclicals during his five-year reign as pope of the Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963. An encyclical is a letter issued by the pope that is usually addressed to Catholic bishops or laity in a particular area or of the whole world. Encyclicals may condemn errors, point out threats to faith and morals, exhort faithful practices or provide remedies for present and future dangers to the church. Pope John XXIII's first encyclical, Ad Petri Cathedram, was issued eight months into his pontificate. The second, Sacerdotii nostri primordia, commemorated the centenary of the death of St. John Vianney, while Grata recordatio considered the use of the Rosary. Mater et magistra, the fifth encyclical, carried forward ideas from Leo XIII's Rerum novarum (1891), which had been issued 70 years prior, as well as from Pius XI's Quadragesimo anno (1931). It is one of the longest encyclicals, at more than 25,000 words. John XXIII's final encyclical, Pacem in terris, was written two months before his death. It was the first in history to have been addressed to "all men of good will", rather than only the clergy and laity of the church, as well as hailed as "one of the most profound and significant documents of our age". (Full list...)
October 14
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for quality rock music albums. The Grammy Awards are presented at a ceremony annually by The Recording Academy of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". The Best Rock Album honor was first presented to The Rolling Stones at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards (1995) for the album Voodoo Lounge. The band Foo Fighters (pictured) holds the records for the most wins, with four. Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Muse and U2 have each received the award twice. Neil Young holds the record for the most nominations without a win, with seven. The band Greta Van Fleet most recently won the award for their album From the Fires at the 2019 ceremony. (Full list...)
October 18
Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray received numerous awards and honours, including India's highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1984) and India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna (1992). He was also awarded the Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France (1987) and an Honorary Award at the 64th Academy Awards (1991). Ray won thirty-five National Film Awards during his four-decade career. Six of his films – Pather Panchali (1955), Apur Sansar (1959), Charulata (1964), Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1968), Seemabaddha (1971) and Agantuk (1991) – won Best Feature Film. Three films – Jalsaghar (1958), Abhijan (1962) and Pratidwandi (1970) – were awarded with Second Best Feature Film and Mahanagar (1963) was awarded the Third Best Feature Film. Ray won 21 awards for his direction, including seven Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, six Indian National Film Awards, two Silver Bear awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and two Golden Gate Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival. (Full list...)
October 21
![Trevor Hoffman, the number seven pick](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Trevor_Hoffman_01.jpg/125px-Trevor_Hoffman_01.jpg)
The 1992 Major League Baseball expansion draft was held by Major League Baseball (MLB) to allow two expansion teams, the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies, to build their rosters prior to debuting in the National League's (NL) East and West divisions, respectively, in the 1993 MLB season. The 1990 collective bargaining agreement between MLB owners and the MLB Players Association allowed the NL to expand by two members to match the American League (AL). In June 1991, MLB accepted bids of groups from Miami, Florida, and Denver, Colorado, with debuts set for 1993. The Marlins and Rockies used the expansion draft to build their teams using different strategies. As the Rockies had a smaller operating budget than the Marlins, the Rockies targeted prospects with low salaries, while the Marlins selected older players intended to provide more immediate impact. (Full list...)
October 25
There are 29 counties in the U.S. state of Utah. There were originally seven counties established under the provisional State of Deseret in 1849: Davis, Iron, Sanpete, Salt Lake, Tooele, Utah, and Weber. The Territory of Utah was created in 1851 with the first territorial legislature meeting from 1851–1852. The first legislature re-created the original counties from the State of Deseret under territorial law as well as establishing three additional counties: Juab, Millard, and Washington. All other counties were established between 1854 and 1894 by the Utah Territorial Legislature under territorial law except for the last two counties formed, Daggett and Duchesne. They were created by popular vote and by gubernatorial proclamation after Utah became a state. Based on 2010 United States Census data, the population of Utah was 2,763,885. Just over 75 percent of Utah's population is concentrated along four Wasatch Front counties: Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, and Weber. (Full list...)
October 28
The recording career of Russian pianist and composer Daniil Trifonov initially focused on the music of Frédéric Chopin. Trifonov's first three albums, recorded in 2010 and released in 2011, exclusively consisted of works of Chopin. His next album, Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, released in 2012, included a performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. In February 2013, Trifonov signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG). His first album for DG, The Carnegie Recital, is a live recording of a recital he had given in Carnegie Hall that month. Trifonov's 2016 album for DG, Transcendental, consisting of the complete piano études of Franz Liszt, reached the number one position in the Specialist Classical Albums Chart in the United Kingdom in October 2016. It was designated one of "The Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016" by The New York Times, and won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. (Full list...)