Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 January 30

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From today's featured article

The Mascarene grey parakeet (Psittacula bensoni) was a parrot from the Mascarene islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the western Indian Ocean that became extinct by the 1760s. It has been classified as a member of the tribe Psittaculini, along with other parrots from the islands. Subfossil bones of this parakeet found on Mauritius were very similar to those of other Mascarene parrots. The subfossils were connected with 17th- and 18th-century descriptions of small grey parrots on Mauritius and Réunion, together with a single illustration published in a journal describing a voyage in 1602. The Mascarene grey parakeets had long tails and were larger than the many green species of the genus Psittacula. They were hunted for their meat, and were considered to be crop pests. Captured individuals would call out to summon a whole flock, a behaviour that may have contributed to their rapid annihilation. Deforestation was also a factor in their extinction. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Funeral procession of Winston Churchill

... that Operation Hope Not was the codename for planning Winston Churchill's funeral (procession pictured), the largest state funeral in British history?
... that a clinic in Mopti, Mali, is named after Werner Bardenhewer, born 90 years ago today, who was for decades priest of St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden, and then founded a charity group?
... that astronaut Buzz Aldrin discovered the Aldrin cycler, a means of repeatedly traveling between Earth and Mars?
... that the Qarmatian movement began when Hamdan Qarmat denounced the claims of Abdallah, the future founder of the Fatimid Caliphate, to be the Islamic Messiah?
... that in a music video for Belgian singer Loïc Nottet's "Rhythm Inside", several people are taken to a warehouse, possibly for human experimentation?
... that Dave Pickerell was known as the "Johnny Appleseed" of craft distilling?
... that video game magazine GameStar called Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne the best add-on in PC gaming history?
... that physician Fulke Rose treated the privateer Henry Morgan with millipede powder and oil of scorpion?

In the news

Aftermath of the Jolo Cathedral bombings

Two bombs at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (aftermath pictured) in Jolo, Philippines, kill at least eighteen people and leave more than eighty others injured.
A mining dam collapses in Brumadinho, Brazil, leaving more than sixty people dead and hundreds of others missing.
More than sixty people are killed in flooding across South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

On this day

January 30: Martyrs' Day in India

King Charles I

1287 – Wareru created the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in today's Lower Burma and declared himself king following the collapse of the Pagan Empire.
1649 – King Charles I (pictured), who was defeated in both the First and the Second English Civil Wars, was beheaded for high treason in front of the Banqueting House in London.
1835 – Richard Lawrence became the first person to make an assassination attempt on a sitting U.S. president when he failed to kill Andrew Jackson and was subdued by the crowd.
1959 – On the return leg of her maiden voyage, the "unsinkable" Danish ocean liner Hans Hedtoft hit an iceberg and sank with all 95 passengers and crew lost.
2000 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ivory Coast shortly after takeoff, killing 169 on board.

Everard Digby (d. 1606) · Johannes Fibiger (d. 1928) · Arthur Chu (b. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

A video of the aurora australis, as seen from the International Space Station. Aurorae are natural light displays in the sky caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude thermosphere. The particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere.

Photo: NASA/ISS Expedition 28 crew

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