Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 November 24

The Haflinger is a horse breed developed in Austria and northern Italy during the late 19th century. Relatively small and chestnut in color, they were developed for use in mountainous terrain and are known for their hardiness. The breed traces its ancestry to the Middle Ages, and their current conformation and appearance come from infusions of bloodlines from Arabian and various European breeds into the original native Tyrolean ponies. All Haflingers can trace their lineage to a foundation sire born in 1874. The two World Wars and the Great Depression had a detrimental effect on the breed. In the postwar era the Haflinger was indiscriminately crossed with other breeds, but from 1946 breeders focused on producing purebred Haflingers. Interest in the breed increased in other countries, and numbers grew. In 2003 a Haflinger became the first horse to be cloned, resulting in a filly named Prometea. Haflingers have many uses, including light draft, harness work, and various under-saddle disciplines. They are also used by the Austrian and German armies in rough terrain. The World Haflinger Federation, a confederation of 22 national registries, controls breed standards. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that hundreds of people in Salé stole goods salvaged from a capsized French ship, leading to the city's bombardment (representation pictured)?
• ... that Connie Dion was the winning goalie during the most lopsided shutout in NHL history?
• ... that the reverse of the 50,000 Colombian peso note features an image of writer Jorge Isaacs' house "El Paraiso"?
• ... that among Confucius' disciples, Yan Yan was considered the most distinguished in the study of the classics?
• ... that Vespula austriaca is an obligate parasite wasp with a large stinger and very curved sting shafts?
• ... that "the child welfare system failed Phoenix Sinclair"?
• ... that while a hypothetical coup in South Vietnam was being played in the Sigma II-64 war game, a real coup was staged against General Nguyễn Khánh?

• In motor racing, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (pictured) wins the Formula One championship.
• Opposition candidate Klaus Iohannis is elected President of Romania.
• The 9th G-20 summit concludes in Brisbane, following discussions focusing primarily on economic issues.
• With world leaders from 21 Pacific Rim countries attending, the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting concludes in Beijing.
• The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
• In Mexico City, thousands protest the disappearance of 43 students after the discovery of mass graves.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Mike Nichols – Alexander Grothendieck – Ken Takakura

November 24: Feast day of Vietnamese Martyrs (Roman Catholicism)

• 1642 – A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached present-day Tasmania, Australia.
• 1859 – On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
• 1906 – A local newspaper accused members of two teams of conspiring to deliberately lose games, the first major scandal in American football.
• 1962 – The influential television programme That Was the Week That Was, a significant element of the British satire boom, was first broadcast.
• 1974 – A group of paleoanthropologists discovered a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it "Lucy" (reconstruction pictured).

More anniversaries: November 23 – November 24 – November 25

There are eighteen official symbols of the U.S. state of Minnesota, as designated by the Minnesota Legislature. The state's motto and seal were both appointed in 1861. Minnesota did not designate another official symbol until 1945, when "Hail! Minnesota", then the official song of the University of Minnesota, was designated as state song. Minnesota schoolchildren have been the force behind the successful promotion of four official symbols: the blueberry muffin, the monarch butterfly, the Honeycrisp apple, and ice hockey. The 1918 black-and-white photograph Grace, taken by Eric Enstrom in Bovey and later reproduced as a color painting (pictured) by his daughter, was named state photograph in 2002. Through the years, the state legislature has also voted on unsuccessful bills to designate the Tilt-A-Whirl as official amusement ride, the works Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek as state book, and "Minnesota Blue" as official poem. (Full list...)