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Today's featured article Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 19 November 1991. Stung by the criticism of their 1988 release Rattle and Hum, U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music into their sound. Thematically, the album is darker, more introspective, and more flippant than their previous work. Recording began at Berlin's Hansa Studios in October 1990, but the sessions were fraught with conflict, as the band argued over the direction and quality of their music. After nearly breaking up, they made a breakthrough with the improvisation of the song "One". Morale improved during the subsequent recording sessions in Dublin in 1991. Achtung Baby received favourable reviews and went to number one in several countries. It spawned five hit singles, including "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "The Fly". The album has sold 18 million copies, and in 1993, it won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The record and the multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to U2's 1990s reinvention. Achtung Baby has regularly appeared on critics' lists of the greatest albums of all time. (more...) Recently featured: Battle of Vukovar – William de St-Calais – Ming Dynasty Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that St. Andrew's Episcopal Church (pictured) in Albany, New York, has a Roman brick from the site of its model, St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire? ... that with The Half Brother, Lars Saabye Christensen became the first novelist to win the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize twice? ... that the Pulangi IV Hydroelectric Power Plant provides Mindanao's electrical grid with 23% of its hydropower? ... that Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate is a Japanese visual novel video game that was the No. 1 best-selling PC game in Japan in October 2010? ... that Julianne Adams was recruited as a wheelchair basketball player while still in a hospital bed following the accident that severed her spine? ... that the largest political faction in the Frankfurt Parliament was called the Casino?

In the news Soyuz TMA-22, carrying a crew of two Russians and one American, docks with the International Space Station. Following the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi, Mario Monti (pictured) becomes Prime Minister of Italy. The Arab League suspends Syria's membership amid a violent crackdown on an internal uprising. Mexican Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora is killed in a helicopter crash near Mexico City. Sébastien Loeb wins the World Rally Championship for a record eighth consecutive year. On this day... November 19: International Men's Day; Liberation Day in Mali 1493 – Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Puerto Rico, naming it San Juan Bautista after John the Baptist. 1794 – The United States and Great Britain concluded the Jay Treaty, which was the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations. 1863 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 1941 – Second World War: The Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney (pictured) and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran destroyed each other off the coast of Western Australia in the Indian Ocean. 2005 – Iraq War: A group of United States Marines allegedly massacred twenty-four people in the town of Haditha in Iraq. More anniversaries: November 18 – November 19 – November 20 It is now November 19, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture A species of assassin bug (Gminatus australis shown) feeding on a beetle. Assassin bugs use their long rostrum to inject a lethal saliva that liquefies the insides of the prey, which are then sucked out. The most distinctive feature of the assassin bug family is that the tip of the rostrum fits into a groove in the prosternum, where it is rasped against ridges there to produce sound, a tactic often used to intimidate predators. Photo: JJ Harrison Recently featured: George V of Hanover and his family – White-faced Heron – Northern Curly-tailed Lizard

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