Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 20

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From today's featured article

Buzz Aldrin (born January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut and fighter pilot. As lunar module pilot on the Apollo 11 mission, he and Neil Armstrong were the first humans to land on the Moon. A graduate of West Point and MIT, where he earned a doctorate in astronautics, Aldrin served as an Air Force fighter pilot during the Korean War, flying 66 combat missions and shooting down two MiGs. He was selected as an astronaut with NASA's third group in 1963. His first spaceflight was in 1966 on Gemini 12, during which he spent over five hours outside the spacecraft. He set foot on the Moon on July 21, 1969 (UTC), nine minutes after Armstrong. He left NASA in 1971 and became commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. His autobiographies Return to Earth and Magnificent Desolation recount his struggles with depression and alcoholism. He developed the Aldrin cycler, a Mars spacecraft trajectory, and continues to advocate for space exploration, particularly a human mission to Mars. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Emily Hale at Phillips Academy in 1956

... that T. S. Eliot defended himself from the grave after 1,131 of his letters to Emily Hale (pictured) were released in January 2020, stating that he "never at any time had sexual relations" with her?
... that the Dęblin–Irena forced-labor camp was one of the last forced-labor camps for Jews in the Lublin District?
... that Willard Ryan was the first head coach of the Green Bay Packers, even though the team claims that Curly Lambeau was actually the first?
... that following the annexation of the Leeward Islands, the people of Bora Bora appointed a blind man to raise the flag of France?
... that in 1988, Columbia Villa was the site of the first known drive-by shooting in Portland, Oregon?
... that after Mexican drug lord Ediel López Falcón was ordered to forfeit US$15 billion in the U.S., Mexican authorities wanted to keep fifty percent of it?
... that Dreamer's Bay on the island of Cyprus is considered "one of the best-preserved ancient ports in the Mediterranean"?
... that 23 of the 25 disc jockeys of Utah radio station KJQN-FM defected and started their own station, taking with them a converted truck called the "Milk Beast"?

In the news

Dmitry Medvedev

In China, a new strain of coronavirus infects over two hundred people, killing three.
Mikhail Mishustin is appointed Prime Minister of Russia following the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev (pictured) and his cabinet.
Scientists announce that presolar stardust grains in the Murchison meteorite formed five to seven billion years ago, and are the oldest solid material found on Earth to date.

On this day

January 20: Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States (2020)

Simon de Montfort

1265 – Summoned by Simon de Montfort (drawing shown), the first English parliament convened at the Palace of Westminster.
1945 – World War II: Germany began the evacuation of at least 1.8 million people from East Prussia in anticipation of the advancing Soviet Red Army, an operation that took nearly two months to complete.
1968 – The Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins in what became known as the "Game of the Century", ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak, and establishing college basketball as a sports commodity on American television.
2018 – A group of Taliban gunmen attacked the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle that left 42 people dead and more than 14 others injured.

Sebastian Münster (b. 1488) · Myles Coverdale (d. 1569) · Mary Watson Whitney (d. 1921)

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From today's featured list

Hurricane Michael making landfall in Florida on October 10

The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season was an above-average season for Atlantic hurricanes for the third consecutive year. Though the season officially began on June 1 and continued until November 30, dates which are adopted by convention and historically describe the period during each year when most tropical cyclones form, it effectively started with the formation of Tropical Storm Alberto on May 25. The year produced sixteen tropical depressions, all but one of which further intensified into named tropical storms. Of the fifteen named storms, eight developed into hurricanes, and two further intensified into major hurricanes, which are rated Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson scale. These two major hurricanes, Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael (pictured), contributed to a majority of the season's severe destruction and loss of life, mainly in the United States. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

In architecture, a bracket is a structural or decorative member that attaches a smaller object to a larger one. It projects from a wall, usually to carry weight and sometimes to strengthen an angle. Corbels and consoles are types of brackets. This picture shows a classical decorative bracket, attaching the base of a balcony to the walls of the chapel at Greenwich Hospital, London. The plasterwork was created by hand in situ by the eminent stuccoist John Papworth.

Greenwich Hospital (originally the Royal Hospital for Seamen) was founded in 1694 to provide a home for retired seamen of the Royal Navy, support for their widows and education for their children. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the chapel was not completed until 1742. The present chapel dates from 1779 to 1789, having been rebuilt to a design by James Stuart following a devastating fire that gutted the previous structure. The buildings of the hospital were later used by the Royal Naval College and the University of Greenwich, and are now known as the Old Royal Naval College, a World Heritage Site.

Photograph credit: Daniel Case

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