Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 February 1b

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From today's featured article

Haane Manahi (28 September 1913 – 29 March 1986) was a New Zealand Māori soldier who served in the Second World War with the Māori Battalion. He joined the battalion in 1939 and fought in Greece, in Crete and in North Africa. In April 1943, during the Tunisian campaign, his gallantry in an action at Takrouna resulted in a recommendation, supported by four generals, that he be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC). This was downgraded to an award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal, which disappointed many of his fellow soldiers. After his death in a car crash in 1986, representations were made for a posthumous award of the VC for his valour at Takrouna. These representations were unsuccessful but eventually resulted in a special award in 2007 of an altar cloth for use in a local church, a ceremonial sword and a personal letter from Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his gallantry. (Full article...)

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The Troopie

... that the Rhodesian Light Infantry's statue The Troopie (pictured) was smuggled out of Rhodesia following the establishment of Zimbabwe prior to the regiment's disbanding?
... that Canadian citizen Susan Thomson had her passport confiscated and spent five weeks in "re-education" in 2006 due to her ethnographic research in Rwanda?
... that one student's entire semester at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay in 1979 consisted of programming its student radio station WGBW?
... that children's writer Israel Wachser died in Kryve Ozero while defending the local Jewish population from a pogrom?
... that the men of Wood's Missouri Cavalry Battalion made defenses out of cotton during the Battle of Pine Bluff?
... that Aicha Mekki was one of the very few crime reporters and female journalists in Morocco during the Years of Lead in the latter half of the 20th century?
... that cricketer Hasan Ali was picked as a wildcard at the 2021 Pakistan Super League players draft?
... that the 1.5 million cubic yards (1.1 million m³) of asbestos waste at the BoRit Asbestos Superfund site in Ambler, Pennsylvania, was known colloquially as the "White Mountains" by local residents?

In the news

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured), 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.
Kaja Kallas becomes the first female prime minister of Estonia, following the resignation of Jüri Ratas.
In Russia, protests against the arrest of Alexei Navalny occur in more than 120 towns and cities.

On this day

February 1: Feast day of Saint Brigid of Kildare (Western Christianity); the Fajr decade begins in Iran; Black History Month begins in North America

Mayon

1329 – The Teutonic Knights successfully besieged the hillfort of Medvėgalis in Samogitia, Lithuania, and baptised the defenders in the Catholic rite.
1411 – The First Peace of Thorn was signed, ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
1814 – More than 1,200 people died in the most destructive recorded eruption of Mayon (pictured) in the Philippines.
1884 – The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary, a 352-page volume that covered words from A to ant, was published.
2001 – The Timor Leste Defence Force was established from the erstwhile anti-Indonesian independence movement Falintil.

Alexios I of Trebizond (d. 1222)
Ștefan Luchian (b. 1868)
Stanley Matthews (b. 1915)

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Ali Daei

Ali Daei, a former Iranian professional association-football forward, scored 109 goals in 149 international appearances between 1993 and 2006. He is the all-time top international men's goalscorer. He made his debut for the Iran national football team in a match against Pakistan. His first international goal came in a 6–0 victory over Chinese Taipei on 25 June 1993 during qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. His final goal came in a 3–2 victory over Costa Rica match on 1 March 2006, and his final appearance for Iran was in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Angola on 21 June 2006 in the group stage. He has scored eight international hat-tricks; the first was on 10 June 1996 in an 8–0 win over Nepal at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, and the last was on 17 November 2004 against Laos in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match, which made him the first male player to score 100 goals in international football. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Robinson projection is a projection of a world map showing the entire Earth at once. It was specifically created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of showing the whole globe as a single flat image. The projection was devised by Arthur H. Robinson in 1963; distortion is severe close to the poles, but quickly declines to moderate levels as latitudes decrease. This Robinson-projection map, with standard parallels of 38°N and 38°S, was produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and shows the world as of February 2016.

Map credit: Central Intelligence Agency

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