January 31 Wikipedia featured article

The Cape sparrow (Passer melanurus) is a southern African bird. A medium-sized sparrow at 14–16 centimetres (5.5–6.3 in), it has distinctive grey, brown, and chestnut plumage, with large pale head stripes in both sexes. The male has some bold black and white markings on its head and neck. The species inhabits semi-arid savannah, cultivated areas, and towns, from the central coast of Angola to eastern South Africa and Swaziland. Cape sparrows...

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On this day: January 31

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968) Damage caused by the Pemex explosion 314 – Sylvester I, during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Emperor Constantine I, began his reign as pope. 1578 – Eighty Years' War: Spain won a crushing victory in the Battle of Gembloux, leading to a break up of the United Seventeen Provinces, leading to a division of the Netherlands in the Union of Arras (Catholic South) and Union...

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On this day: January 30

January 30: Martyrs' Day in India Mahatma Gandhi 1018 – The German–Polish War ended with the signing of the Peace of Bautzen between Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Piast ruler of Poland, Bolesław I. 1607 – Low-lying places around the coasts of the Bristol Channel of Britain were flooded, possibly by a tsunami, resulting an estimated 2,000 deaths. 1948 – Nathuram Godse fatally shot Mahatma Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of...

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January 30 Wikipedia featured article

Oviri is an 1894 ceramic sculpture by the French artist Paul Gauguin. It depicts a Tahitian goddess of mourning, with long pale hair, large breasts, and wild eyes. She smothers a wolf with her feet, while clutching a cub in her arms. Art historians have suggested multiple complex interpretations; its alternative title, "Savage", may refer to Gauguin's own view of himself. The work's form and tone was inspired by a number of ancient sources, including...

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On this day: January 29

January 29 Illustration of The Raven by John Tenniel 1845 – American poet Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" (illustrated) appeared in the The Evening Mirror, its first publication attributed to Poe. 1856 – Queen Victoria established the Victoria Cross, originally to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War. 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Rennell Island, the last major naval engagement between the United...

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January 29 Wikipedia featured article

In the Baltimore railroad strike of 1877, at least ten people were killed and more than 150 were injured. The unrest in Baltimore, Maryland, was part of a national railroad strike, following the global depression and economic downturns of the mid-1870s. On July 16, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) scheduled 10 percent wage reductions, strikes broke out. Violence erupted in Baltimore on July 20, and police and soldiers of the Maryland...

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On this day: January 28

January 28 Lego bricks 1568 – Delegates of the Three Nations of Transylvania adopted the Edict of Torda, allowing local communities to freely elect their preachers in an unprecedented act of religious tolerance. 1813 – The novel Pride and Prejudice by English author Jane Austen was published, using material from an unpublished manuscript that she originally wrote between 1796 and 1797. 1933 – Choudhry Rahmat Ali published a pamphlet entitled...

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January 28 Wikipedia featured article

Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi is a fourth-century Latin poem arranged by Faltonia Betitia Proba after her conversion to Christianity. A cento rearranges verses written by other poets; this one repurposes Virgil to tell stories from the Old and New Testament of the Christian Bible. Much of the work focuses on the story of Jesus Christ. The poem was widely circulated, eventually being used in schools to teach the tenets of Christianity, often...

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January 27 Wikipedia featured article

Tampere's civilian buildings destroyed in the Civil War The Finnish Civil War (27 January – 15 May 1918) marked the transition from the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire, to an independent state. Arising during World War I, it was fought between the Reds, led by the Social Democratic Party, and the Whites, led by the conservative Senate. In February 1918, the Reds carried out an unsuccessful offensive, supplied with weapons...

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On this day: January 27

January 27 Bust of Trajan 98 – Trajan (bust pictured) succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire reached its maximum extent. 1343 – Pope Clement VI issued the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. 1974 – The Brisbane River, which runs through the heart of Brisbane, broke its banks and flooded the surrounding areas. 1980 – With the assistance of Canadian...

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On this day: January 26

January 26: Australia Day (1788); Republic Day in India (1950) div id="mwe_player_0" class="PopUpMediaTransform" style="width:133px;" videopayload="">Play media Bill Clinton's press conference 661 – The Rashidun Caliphate was effectively ended with the assassination of Ali, the last Rashidun caliph. 1700 – The Cascadia earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 9.0, took place off the Pacific coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by...

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January 26 Wikipedia featured article

The Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Canberra The Australian Defence Force (ADF) comprises all of the country's armed forces, including the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army, and Royal Australian Air Force. With a strength of just under 80,000 full-time personnel and active reservists, it is supported by the Department of Defence and other civilian agencies. During the first decades of the 20th century, the Australian Government established...

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January 25 Wikipedia featured article

Lycoperdon perlatum, the common puffball, is a widespread species of fungus in the family Agaricaceae. It forms an off-white medium-sized puffball tapering to a wide stalk, 1.5 to 6 cm (0.6 to 2.4 in) wide by 3 to 10 cm (1.2 to 3.9 in) tall. Its top is covered in short spiny bumps that are easily rubbed off to leave a net-like pattern on the surface. When mature it becomes brown, and a hole in the top opens to release spores...

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On this day: January 25

January 25: Feast day of Gregory of Nazianzus (Eastern Orthodox Church); Tatiana Day in Russia Artist's concept of rover on Mars 1533 – Anne Boleyn, already pregnant with future queen Elizabeth, secretly married Henry VIII of England, the second of his six marriages. 1890 – American journalist Nellie Bly completed a circumnavigation of the globe, inspired by Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, in a then-record 72 days. 1971...

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On this day: January 24

January 24 Sutter's Mill (reconstruction) 1458 – The 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus was unanimously proclaimed King of Hungary after the Estates were persuaded to do so by his uncle Michael Szilágyi. 1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill (reconstruction pictured) in Coloma, California, leading to the California Gold Rush. 1915 – First World War: British Grand Fleet ships surprised a German High Seas Fleet squadron in the...

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January 24 Wikipedia featured article

August Meyszner (3 August 1886 – 24 January 1947) was an Austrian gendarmerie officer, right-wing politician, and senior Ordnungspolizei (order police) officer of Nazi Germany. He held the post of Higher SS and Police Leader in the German-occupied territory of Serbia from January 1942 to March 1944, during World War II. During his tenure, he oversaw regular reprisal killings and sent tens of thousands of forced labourers to Germany and occupied...

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On this day: January 23

January 23 USS Pueblo 1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history killed about 830,000 people in Shaanxi Province, China. 1793 – The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia partitioned the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for the second time. 1915 – The Chilembwe uprising, regarded as a key moment in the history of Malawi, began as rebels, led by a minister, attacked local plantation owners. 1942 – World War II: Japan began its invasion of the...

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January 23 Wikipedia featured article

Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed is a painting by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1830. It shows a scene from the Histories by Herodotus, in which Candaules, king of Lydia, invites his bodyguard Gyges to hide in the couple's bedroom and watch his wife Nyssia undress. After Nyssia notices Gyges, he kills Candaules and takes his place as king. The painting shows...

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On this day: January 22

January 22: Day of Unity of Ukraine in Ukraine (1919) Pan Am Boeing 747 565 – Justinian the Great deposed Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, after the latter refused the Byzantine Emperor's order to adopt the tenets of the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of Monophysites. 1689 – The Convention Parliament convened to justify the overthrow of James II, the last Roman Catholic King of England, who had vacated the throne when he fled to France in...

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January 22 Wikipedia featured article

The S-50 Project was the Manhattan Project's effort to produce enriched uranium by liquid thermal diffusion during World War II. The process was developed by Philip H. Abelson and other scientists at the United States Naval Research Laboratory, and was one of three technologies for uranium enrichment pursued by the Manhattan Project. Pilot plants were built at the Anacostia Naval Air Station and the Philadelphia Navy Yard. A facility at the Clinton...

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January 21 Wikipedia featured article

Saguaro National Park is a United States national park in southeastern Arizona that preserves Sonoran Desert landscapes, fauna, and flora, including the giant saguaro cactus. The 92,000-acre (37,000 ha) park has two separate areas—the Tucson Mountain District (TMD) about 10 miles (16 km) west of the city of Tucson and the Rincon Mountain District about 10 miles (16 km) east of the city. The Rincon Mountains are part of the Madrean...

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On this day: January 21

January 21: World Religion Day (2018) U.S. Army soldiers moving towards Khe Sanh Combat Base 763 – The Abbasid Caliphate crushed the Alid revolt when one of the rebel leaders was mortally wounded in battle near Basra in what is now Iraq. 1789 – The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown, widely considered to be the first American novel, was published. 1941 – Sparked by the murder of a German officer the previous day in Bucharest, Romania,...

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