Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 February 10

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From today's featured article

Jacobo Árbenz

Operation PBHistory was a covert operation carried out in Guatemala by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It followed Operation PBSuccess, which led to the overthrow of Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz (pictured) in June 1954 and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. PBHistory attempted to use documents left behind by Árbenz's government, police agencies, trade unions and the communist Guatemalan Party of Labour to demonstrate that the Guatemalan government had been under the influence of the Soviet Union. The documents uncovered by the operation proved useful to the Guatemalan intelligence agencies, enabling the creation of a register of suspected communists. The operation did not find evidence that the Guatemalan communists were controlled by the Soviet government, and could not counter the narrative that the United States had toppled the Árbenz government to serve the interests of the United Fruit Company. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Plate of the Sèvres Egyptian Service

... that Empress Joséphine rejected the second Sèvres Egyptian Service (plate pictured), given as a divorce gift by Napoleon?
... that while held in a concentration camp, Zhu Min sabotaged Nazi cartridge boxes by spitting into them?
... that "People" by the 1975 was written as a response to the passing of Alabama's controversial abortion ban?
... that Philip Seymour Hoffman's roles included a storm chaser, an arms dealer, and a cult leader?
... that surgeon Herbert Haxton proved that the kneecap was not just to protect the knee but also important for straightening the leg?
... that the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden, a Baroque church completed in 1739, was bombed in 1945, not restored until 1984, and served as the seat of the state parliament from 1990?
... that John C. England, who died heroically after saving three sailors from the sinking USS Oklahoma, only received a Purple Heart, but had two ships named for him?
... that the young of Coquerel's coua leave the nest after about nine days when still covered with down and unable to fly?

In the news

Tom Brady

In American football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl (MVP Tom Brady pictured).
A glacial outburst flood in Uttarakhand, India, leaves at least 30 people dead and more than 200 others missing.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the State Counsellor of Myanmar, is detained by the military in a coup d'état.
A coordinated short squeeze targeting American hedge funds causes GameStop's stock price to spike.

On this day

February 10

HMAS Melbourne

1355 – A tavern dispute between University of Oxford students and townspeople became a riot that left about 90 people dead.
1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: A French army led by Napoleon effectively destroyed a small Russian corps commanded by Zakhar Dmitrievich Olsufiev.
1919 – The Inter-Allied Women's Conference opened as a counterpart to the Paris Peace Conference, marking the first time that women were allowed formal participation in an international treaty negotiation.
1964 – The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier Melbourne (pictured) collided with and sank the destroyer Voyager in Jervis Bay, killing 82 crew members aboard the latter ship.
2008 – The Namdaemun gate in Seoul, the first of South Korea's National Treasures, was severely damaged by arson.

Clare of Rimini (d. 1346)
Ira Remsen (b. 1846)
Trevor Bailey (d. 2011)

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Today's featured picture

Bird eggs are laid by females and incubated for a variable duration depending on the species. This diagram shows a cross-section of a chicken egg on its ninth day of incubation. The embryo is surrounded by the amnion, a membrane that fills with amniotic fluid and cushions it against shock; the allantois helps the embryo obtain oxygen and handles metabolic waste; the vitellus, or yolk, is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg, containing most of its fat, minerals, and many of its proteins and blood vessels; the chorion forms the amniotic sac and encloses the other structures; the albumen protects the yolk and embryo and provides additional nutrients; the porous shell allows oxygen to enter while keeping unwanted fluids and contaminants out.

Diagram credit: KDS4444

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