Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 23b

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Suillus luteus is a bolete fungus common in its native Eurasia and widely introduced elsewhere. English names such as "slippery jack" refer to the brown cap, which is slimy in wet conditions. The mushrooms are edible, though not highly regarded, and are often eaten in soups, stews or fried dishes. The fungus grows in coniferous forests in its native range, and pine plantations where introduced. It forms symbiotic associations with living trees by enveloping the underground roots. The fungus produces spore-bearing mushrooms above ground in summer and autumn. The cap often has a distinctive conical shape before flattening with age. Instead of gills, the underside of the cap has pores with tubes extending downward that allow mature spores to escape. The pore surface is yellow, and covered by a membranous partial veil when young. The stalk is pale with small dots near the top. It bears a distinctive ring that is tinged brown to violet on the underside. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Cory Wong performing with Vulfpeck in 2017

... that guitarist Cory Wong (pictured, left) was mentored by Peruvian guitarist Andrés Prado and Prince's drummer Michael Bland?
... that Whittington Tump in Worcestershire was the site of a motte castle?
... that when Louisville, Kentucky's WKYW radio became religious station WFIA in 1965, it ceased accepting beer, wine and tobacco commercials?
... that only a few hundred Jews survived out of the more than 57,000 who were deported from Slovakia in 1942?
... that fashion model Kesewa Aboah is descended from British nobility?
... that the Mad About You episode "The Conversation" was filmed with a single camera in one take, and broadcast without interruption from commercials?
... that cricketer Khaya Majola rejected offers to play alongside white players and overseas because he believed that black Africans were "being used as stooges" to benefit white South Africans?
... that the Hong Kong restaurant Shia Wong Hip stores hundreds of live and venomous snakes on-site for its cuisine, and serves a soup made from lizards, silkworms, and seahorses?

In the news

Coronaviruses viewed under an electron microscope

In China, a new strain of coronavirus (examples pictured) infects more than six hundred people, killing at least eighteen.
Mikhail Mishustin is appointed Prime Minister of Russia following the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev 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 23

Artist's depiction of the Tottenham tram chase

1570 – James Hamilton killed James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, in the first recorded assassination of a head of government using a firearm.
1870 – American Indian Wars: The United States Army massacred a friendly band of Piegan Blackfeet in the Montana Territory, resulting in about 200 deaths.
1909 – Two men committed an armed robbery in Tottenham, London, and led police on a two-hour tram chase (illustration shown), ending in the perpetrators' suicides.
1942 – World War II: Japan began its invasion of the island of New Britain in the Australian Territory of New Guinea.
1993 – The first version of Mosaic, created by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, was released, becoming the first popular web browser and Gopher client.

Mary Ward (b. 1585) · Johann Wilhelm Ritter (d. 1810) · Guida Maria (b. 1950)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

This picture shows a United States Navy recruitment poster from 1917, based on a cartoon by William Allen Rogers (1854–1931) published in the New York Herald during World War I. It shows a personified Germany wading through a sea of dead bodies, with the slogan "Only the Navy Can Stop This" below the drawing, presumably a reference to the U-boat campaign and the sinking of civilian ships such as the Lusitania.

Rogers was a self-taught artist and began submitting political cartoons to Midwestern newspapers during his teens. He was employed for twenty-five years by Harper's Weekly to illustrate the magazine's editorials; this was followed by daily contributions of political cartoons to the New York Herald for twenty years.

Poster credit: William Allen Rogers; restored by Adam Cuerden

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.