Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 January 31

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Today's featured article
The Liberty Head nickel was an American five-cent piece. It was struck for circulation from 1883 until 1912, with at least five pieces being surreptitiously struck dated 1913. The original copper–nickel five-cent piece, the Shield nickel, had longstanding production problems, and in the early 1880s, the United States Mint was looking to replace it. Mint Chief Engraver Charles Barber was instructed to prepare designs for proposed one-, three-, and five-cent pieces, which were to bear similar designs. Only the new five-cent piece was approved, and went into production in 1883. For almost thirty years large quantities of coin of this design were produced to meet commercial demand, especially as coin-operated machines became increasingly popular. Beginning in 1911, the Mint began work to replace the Liberty head design, and a new design, which became known as the Buffalo nickel, went into production in February 1913. Although no 1913 Liberty head nickels were officially struck, five are known to exist. While it is uncertain how these pieces originated, they have come to be among the most expensive coins in the world, with one selling in 2010 for $3,737,500. (more...) Recently featured: Cyathus – Battle of Rennell Island – Otto Julius Zobel Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Irish plasterer John Henry Devereux became a noted architect in South Carolina, designing a church (pictured) that was the state's tallest building for 101 years? ... that award-winning film The Dancer, about a traditional dancer, is one of only three Indonesian films addressing the country's anticommunist purges of 1965–66? ... that the 17th-century Swedish scholars Olaus Verelius and Johannes Schefferus disputed bitterly over the location of the heathen temple at Uppsala? ... that one of Aeroflot's worst accidents occurred in August 1979 (1979-08), when two Tupolev Tu-134s collided over Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Ukrainian SSR, claiming 178 lives? ... that the Derg military junta supported the formation of the Union of Ethiopian Marxist-Leninist Organizations, but eventually crushed or disbanded its member organizations (Meison, Seded, Echat, Waz and Malerid)? ... that racing legend Bobby Allison's sons, Davey and Clifford Allison, both died within the span of eleven months in 1992–1993? ... that Jean-Paul Sartre did not know that his existentialist play No Exit was adapted to a 1962 film, which featured "surprisingly overt" lesbianism? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Cyclone Funso The European Men's Handball Championship concludes with Denmark defeating Serbia in the final. The European Union and 22 member nations sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, resulting in the resignation of the treaty's rapporteur and protests across Poland. Intense Tropical Cyclone Funso (pictured) stalls off the coast of Mozambique, killing 15 people at sea and at least 14 others through inland flooding. The European Union imposes an embargo on future oil contracts with Iran. British novelist Salman Rushdie cancels an appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India, and four other writers leave the city after reading excerpts from The Satanic Verses, which is banned in the country. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968) 1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first clinic specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened. 1919 – Intense rioting over labour conditions broke out in Glasgow, Scotland, and was only quelled when the British government sent tanks to restore order. 1942 – Second World War: Allied forces retreated from British Malaya to Singapore, ceding control of the country to Japan. 1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham, a chimpanzee (pictured), became the first hominid launched into outer space. 1996 – Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake discovered Comet Hyakutake, which was one of the closest cometary approaches of the previous 200 years. 2001 – Scottish judges sitting in court in the Netherlands convicted Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of 270 counts of murder in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. More anniversaries: January 30 – January 31 – February 1 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now January 31, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A light microscope image of tissue paper. The tissue was illuminated with ultraviolet light making it glow blue due to natural autofluorescence, the same effect which makes paper glow with a black light. The tangled network of fibres are cellulose fibres which are derived from wood and make up all types of paper and cardboard. It is a combination of the properties of cellulose and additional optical brightening agents which makes the tissue glow.

Photo: Richard Wheeler

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