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From today's featured article

Grapple 1 nuclear test, 15 May 1957

Operation Grapple was a series of British nuclear weapons tests carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Christmas Island in what is now Kiribati. Britain had successfully tested an atomic bomb in October 1952, and in July 1954, decided to develop a hydrogen bomb. In the first test, Grapple 1 (pictured), the bomb's yield was below its designed capability. The second, Grapple 2, was the largest ever achieved by a single-stage device. The third, Grapple 3, also had a low yield. A further test, Grapple X, exceeded expectations. Grapple Y, in April 1958, yielded about three megatonnes and remains the most powerful British nuclear weapon ever tested. Much of its yield came from its thermonuclear reaction, making it a true hydrogen bomb, and the United Kingdom became the third nation to possess one. A final series of four tests, Grapple Z, tested techniques for making bombs immune to predetonation by nearby nuclear explosions. (This article is part of a featured topic: Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom.)

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Did you know ...

Lesley Akyaa Opoku Ware

... that Lesley Akyaa Opoku Ware (pictured), daughter of Asante ruler Opoku Ware II, simultaneously served as Ghana's ambassador to six countries?
... that there are three hydroelectric generating stations on the White River in Northern Ontario, Canada, all part-owned by First Nations?
... that Iranian-American aerospace engineer Joe Youssefi was posthumously awarded a gold medal for his collection of Persian stamps?
... that actor Frankie Muniz praised the Blackstarkids for their track "Frankie Muniz"?
... that the English botanists Jane Ingham and Joseph Hubert Priestley were the first to separate cell walls from meristematic tissues in broad beans?
... that KMXO near Abilene, Texas, aired the region's first Spanish-language radio program and later became its first full-time Spanish-language station?
... that hinges on arch bridges were introduced in 1858 and remain popular in modern civil engineering?
... that a branch line of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad was so difficult to build, the area was nicknamed "Satan's Kingdom"?

In the news

Kyle Larson

In stock car racing, Kyle Larson (pictured) wins the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Kenyans Albert Korir 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.

On this day

November 10: Noor Hossain Day in Bangladesh (1987)

Getúlio Vargas

1202 – Fourth Crusade: The Siege of Zara (present-day Zadar, Croatia), the first attack on a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders, began.
1865 – Henry Wirz, the Confederate superintendent of Andersonville Prison, was hanged after a controversial conviction, becoming the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes.
1937 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas (pictured) led a coup against his own constitutional government, establishing the dictatorial Estado Novo regime.
1969 – The children's television series Sesame Street premiered in the United States.
2009 – Ships of the South Korean and North Korean navies skirmished off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea.

Isabel de Forz, 8th Countess of Devon (d. 1293)
Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (b. 1887)
Ken Kesey (d. 2001)

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Today's featured picture

Landscape near Arles is an 1888 oil-on-canvas by the French artist Paul Gauguin. It depicts a rural scene in Provence, southern France, featuring a haystack with a traditional farmhouse and cypress trees in the background. At the time, Gauguin was living with Vincent van Gogh in Arles; they had a stormy relationship, but it proved to be a productive period for both artists. The painting is in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Painting credit: Paul Gauguin

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