Quatermass II is a British science-fiction serial, originally broadcast by BBC Television in 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel Kneale, and the first of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives. It is also the earliest surviving complete British science-fiction television production. The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind. Although sometimes compared unfavourably to the first and third Quatermass serials, Quatermass II was praised for its allegorical concerns of the damaging effects of industrialisation and the corruption of governments by big business. It is described on the British Film Institute's " Screenonline" website as "compulsive viewing." ( Full article...)

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• ... that according to one Roman historian, the Parthian war of Caracalla started after the Roman emperor Caracalla (pictured) massacred his would-be bride and wedding guests?
• ... that public services in Crawley New Town could have included heating for the whole town, but the Development Corporation decided against it?
• ... that DeKalb County commissioner and former Georgia State Senator Connie Stokes was abandoned by her alcoholic mother as a child?
• ... that Friedrich Nietzsche, author of The Antichrist, gave a set of essays including On the Pathos of Truth as a Christmas gift to the daughter of Franz Liszt?
• ... that Nawab Faizunnesa was the first woman in south Asia to be awarded the title of "Nawab" by Queen Victoria, for her campaign for female education and other social issues?
• ... that Vaksala Church was built next to a thing?

• Chad, Nigeria, Chile, Lithuania, and Saudi Arabia are elected to the United Nations Security Council, but Saudi Arabia declines its seat.
• Lao Airlines Flight 301 (aircraft type pictured) crashes on approach to Pakse Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on board.
• U.S. President Barack Obama signs a bill passed by Congress to reopen the federal government and raise the debt limit.
• New Zealand author Eleanor Catton becomes the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize.
• A 7.2- magnitude earthquake strikes the Philippines, resulting in more than 100 deaths.

October 22

• 1740 – A two-week massacre of ethnic Chinese in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, came to an end with at least 10,000 people killed.
• 1797 – Dropping from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet (980 m) above Paris, André-Jacques Garnerin carried out the first descent using a frameless parachute ( schematic pictured).
• 1877 – The Blantyre mining disaster, Scotland's worst mining accident, occurred when an explosion at a colliery in Blantyre killed 207 miners.
• 1907 – A bank run forced New York's Knickerbocker Trust Company to suspend operations, which triggered the Panic of 1907.
• 1962 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that Soviet nuclear weapons had been discovered in Cuba and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

More anniversaries: October 21 – October 22 – October 23

Mona Lisa (La Joconde) is a half-length portrait of a woman by Leonardo da Vinci which was probably completed between 1503 and 1506, with further refinement continuing until 1517. Though the painting is thought to be of Lisa del Giocondo, a lack of definitive evidence has long fueled alternative theories as to the sitter's identity, including that it may represent Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory. It has been held in the Louvre in Paris since 1797 and is acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world." Painting: Leonardo da Vinci Recently featured: England expects that every man will do his duty – Sandboarding – Australasian Grebe Archive – More featured pictures...