User:HiDrNick/TFA blurbs

Gold dinar minted with al-Musta'li's name

Al-Mustaʿlī biʾllāh (15/16 September 1074 – 1101) was the ninth Fatimid caliph and the nineteenth imam of Musta'li Ismailism. He became caliph through the machinations of his brother-in-law al-Afdal Shahanshah. In response, his oldest brother, Nizar, revolted in Alexandria; his defeat and execution split the Isma'ili movement. Al-Musta'li remained subordinate to al-Afdal, who was the de facto ruler of the Fatimid Caliphate. The Caliphate's territory in Egypt experienced good government and prosperity, but the Fatimids suffered setbacks in Syria, where they faced the advance of the Seljuk Turks. Al-Afdal recovered the port city of Tyre and recaptured Jerusalem in the turmoil caused by the arrival of the First Crusade. Despite Fatimid attempts to make common cause with the Crusaders against the Seljuks, the Crusaders advanced south and captured Jerusalem in July 1099 and defeated the Fatimid army at the Battle of Ascalon. Al-Musta'li died in 1101 and was succeeded by his son al-Amir. (Full article...)

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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 16, 2024 (edit | [[Talk:Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 16, 2024|talk]] | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) Jeremy Thorpe (1929–2014) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979, and as leader of the Liberal Party between 1967 and 1976. After graduating from Oxford University, he became one of the Liberals' brightest stars in the 1950s. Thorpe capitalised on the growing unpopularity of the Conservative and Labour parties to lead the Liberals through a period of electoral success. This culminated in the general election of February 1974, when the party won 6 million votes. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder, arising from an earlier relationship with Norman Scott, a former model. Thorpe was acquitted on all charges, but the case, and the scandal, ended his political career. By the time of his death he was honoured for his record as an internationalist, a supporter of human rights, and an opponent of apartheid and all forms of racism. (Full article...)

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Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning (1896–1965) was a British Army general who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1915 and served on the Western Front in the First World War. During the Second World War, Browning commanded the I Airborne Corps in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, he was alleged to have said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." In December 1944 he became chief of staff of Admiral Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. After the war Browning was comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, Browning became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. (Full article...)

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Two dresses from The Girl Who Lived in the Tree

The Girl Who Lived in the Tree is the 32nd collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, made for the Autumn/Winter 2008 season. The primary inspirations were British culture and national symbols, particularly the British monarchy, as well as the clothing of India during the British Raj. It was presented through the narrative of a fairy tale about a feral girl who lived in a tree before falling in love with a prince and descending to become a princess. The collection's runway show was staged on 29 February 2008 at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris. Forty-two looks were featured in two phases: during the first the ensembles were all in black and white, with most having a slim, tailored silhouette; those from the second were richly coloured, with luxurious materials and embellishments (examples pictured). Critical response was positive, and in retrospect it is regarded as one of McQueen's best collections. Garments from the collection are held by various museums. (Full article...)

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New Brompton F.C. in 1894

During their 1894–95 season, New Brompton F.C. (known as Gillingham F.C. since 1912) competed in the Southern Football League Division Two. The club had been formed a year earlier but in the inaugural season played only friendly matches and games in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup and FA Amateur Cup. In 1894, New Brompton turned professional and joined the newly formed Southern League. The team dominated Division Two of the new league, winning all but one of their matches, and gained promotion to Division One by winning an end-of-season "test match" against Swindon Town, who had finished bottom of the higher division. New Brompton also entered the FA Cup, reaching the third qualifying round. The team played 15 competitive matches, winning 13, drawing none, and losing two. Arthur Rule was the team's top goalscorer for the season. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home, the Athletic Ground, was approximately 8,000 for the visit of Chatham in the FA Cup. (Full article...)

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Addie Viola Smith (1893–1975) was an American attorney who served as the U.S. trade commissioner to Shanghai from 1928 to 1949, the first female Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Foreign Service to work under the Commerce Department, and the first woman to serve as trade commissioner. Smith was born and raised in Stockton, California. She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1917. While working for the United States Department of Labor, she attended the Washington College of Law part-time, earning a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1920. She joined the Foreign Service in October that year. Posted to Beijing as a clerk, she was promoted to assistant trade commissioner in Shanghai in 1922, and to trade commissioner in 1928. She later held roles in the U.S. government, world organizations, and the United Nations. Smith met her life partner, Eleanor Mary Hinder, in Shanghai in 1926. Both were memorialized by their friends with stone seats at the E. G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens in Caringbah. (Full article...)

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Artur Phleps (29 November 1881 – 21 September 1944) was an Austro-Hungarian, Romanian and Nazi officer who was an SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS in the Waffen-SS during World War II. He was an Austro-Hungarian Army officer before and during World War I. During the interwar period, he joined the Romanian Army and became an adviser to King Carol. After he spoke out against the government, he was made to leave the army. In 1941 he joined the Waffen-SS. He saw action on the Eastern Front before raising two Waffen-SS mountain divisions and one corps in occupied Yugoslavia. Units under his command committed many crimes against the civilian population of the Independent State of Croatia. This became controversial when his onetime translator, Kurt Waldheim, successfully ran for the Austrian presidency in the 1980s. In addition to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Phleps was awarded the German Cross in Gold, and, posthumously, was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross. (Full article...)

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