Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 November 21

The Sega 32X is an add-on for the Sega Genesis video game console. It was designed to expand the power of the Genesis and serve as a transitional console into the 32-bit era until the release of the Sega Saturn. Unveiled at June 1994's Consumer Electronics Show, Sega presented the 32X as a low-cost option for playing 32-bit games. Developed in response to the Atari Jaguar and concerns that the Saturn would not be ready by the end of 1994, the product was originally conceived as an entirely new console, but was converted into an add-on to the existing Genesis and made more powerful. To meet the release date of November 1994, development of the new system and its games were rushed. Ultimately, the console failed to attract third-party video game developers and sufficient consumers due to the announcement of the Sega Saturn's simultaneous release in Japan. By the end of 1994, the 32X had sold 665,000 units; it was discontinued in 1996. Initial reception was positive, highlighting the low price and power expansion to the Genesis, but later reviews were mostly negative because of its shallow game library, poor market timing and the resulting market fragmentation for the Genesis. (Full article...)

Part of the Sega Genesis series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

Recently featured: Vijayanagara literature in Kannada – Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar – Siege of Godesberg

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that both dancers in the cendrawasih dance (pictured), depicting the mating ritual of the "bird of the gods", are women?
• ... that Sir Robert Risson is credited as "the man who saved Melbourne's trams"?
• ... that the 1845 University Boat Race was the first time the event was contested along The Championship Course?
• ... that the completed English localization of 1989 video game Mother was abandoned only to be rediscovered and later uploaded to the Internet?
• ... that the literary motif of "forced seduction" was called a male rape fantasy, an attempt by the hero to get to know the heroine, a useful lesson for women to not dress sexy, and an enjoyable fantasy?
• ... that Shirley Clarke called Goodbye in the Mirror the first "real woman's film"?
• ... that drinking from the Hoofprint of Einion's Horse, a petrosomatoglyph in Wales, was thought to cure what ailed you?

• The 9th G-20 summit concludes in Brisbane, following discussions focusing primarily on economic issues.
• Opposition candidate Klaus Iohannis (pictured) is elected President of Romania.
• 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.
• The ALMA radio telescope array shows a protoplanetary disk around the star HL Tauri.

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

November 21: Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh

• 1386 – Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, forcing King Bagrat V to convert to Islam.
• 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the city of Lüshunkou, the Japanese Second Army killed more than 1,000 Chinese servicemen and civilians.
• 1918 – Polish troops and civilians began a three-day pogrom against Jews and Ukrainian Christians in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine).
• 1964 – The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge (pictured), connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.
• 1974 – Explosives placed in two central pubs in Birmingham, England, killed 21 people and injured 182 others, and eventually led to the arrest and imprisonment of six people who were later exonerated.

More anniversaries: November 20 – November 21 – November 22

The bibliography of Fyodor Dostoyevsky comprises novels, novellas, short stories, essays and other literary works. Dostoyevsky started his writing career after finishing university. He started translating literature from French—which he learnt at a noble school—into Russian, and then wrote short stories. With the success of his first novel Poor Folk, he became known throughout Saint Petersburg and Russia. This success did not continue with his second novel The Double, and other short stories published mainly in left-wing magazines. Because of his participation in the Petrashevsky Circle, Dostoyevsky was imprisoned in Siberia for four years, during which time he wrote several works, including the autobiographical The House of the Dead. Following his release, Dostoyevsky wrote his most important works, including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Gambler and The Brothers Karamazov. Several drafts and plans, especially those begun during his honeymoon, remain unfinished. (Full list...)