Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 January 30

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From today's 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 Majapahit mummies and an Assyrian relief of a master of animals. Other possible influences include preserved skulls from the Marquesas Islands, figures found at Borobudur, and a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in central Java. Gauguin made three casts, each in partially glazed stoneware. The original is housed at the Musée d'Orsay, in France. It was exhibited at the 1906 Salon d'Automne where it was seen by Pablo Picasso, who used it as the basis for one of the figures in his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Blossom's Inn, by Thomas H. Shepherd, 1850

... that a porter at Blossom's Inn (pictured) was revived by treatment that included bleeding, brandy, and a turpentine enema?
... that while chief justice of the Colony of Cape Breton, Richard Gibbons founded a group that was later banned as being a possible "Seed of Rebellion"?
... that Cider with Rosie could not be filmed in Slad, where the story takes place, as the village had changed too much?
... that Sciota Brook is only 2 miles (3.2 km) long but flows through three counties in Pennsylvania?
... that the elm seed bug produces an unpleasant smell reminiscent of bitter almonds?
... that during the height of the Cold War, an American visiting Russia received a seven-year sentence for spying?
... that Chen Junsheng's investigative report resulted in his superior losing his job and getting "promoted"?
... that horse carcasses, and trash from three of New York City's boroughs, were once processed at Barren Island, Brooklyn?

In the news

Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi

In Yemen, separatists from the Southern Transitional Council seize government buildings in Aden from President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi's (pictured) forces.
Miloš Zeman is re-elected for a second term in the Czech presidential election.
A bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills at least 103 people and injures more than 200 others.
In Miryang, South Korea, a hospital fire kills 37 people and injures more than 130 others.
Chinese scientists announce the creation of two identical monkeys, the first primates to be cloned using the SCNT technique.
The former team doctor for USA Gymnastics, Larry Nassar, is sentenced to at least 40 years in prison for sexually abusing more than 150 gymnasts.

On this day...

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 in an estimated 2,000 deaths.
1948 – Nathuram Godse fatally shot Mahatma Gandhi (pictured), the political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement, at Birla House in Delhi.
1968 – Vietnam War: Forces of the Viet Cong and the Vietnamese People's Army launched the Tet Offensive to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam.
2000 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Côte d'Ivoire shortly after takeoff, killing 169 on board.

Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis (d. 1770) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (b. 1882) · Barbara La Marr (d. 1926)

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Today's featured picture

Sinking of the Linda Blanche out of Liverpool, Willy Stöwer's 1915 depiction of SM U-21's attack on the steamer Linda Blanche. This U-boat was built for the Imperial German Navy shortly before World War I and served in the English Channel, Irish Sea, and Mediterranean Sea. It survived the war and sank while under tow by a British warship in 1919. Over its career, SM U-21 sank 42 ships, and in 1914 it became the first submarine to sink a ship with a self-propelled torpedo.

Painting: Willy Stöwer

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