Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 February 9

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Alan Shepard on the Moon

Apollo 14 (January 31 – February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. Commander Alan Shepard (pictured), Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell overcame a series of malfunctions en route to the Moon that, after the failure of Apollo 13, might have resulted in a second consecutive aborted mission, and possibly the premature end of the Apollo program. Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro formation, where they undertook two extravehicular activities (EVAs or moonwalks). In Apollo 14's most famous incident, Shepard hit two golf balls he had brought with him with a makeshift club. Roosa remained in lunar orbit, where he took photographs of the Moon and performed experiments. After liftoff from the surface and a successful docking, the mission returned to Earth, splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Bottle of Un Jardin sur le Nil

... that the perfume Un Jardin sur le Nil (pictured) was inspired by green mangoes?
... that comedian Atsugiri Jason became the first non-Japanese finalist on the R-1 Grand Prix in 2014?
... that the Cook Islands Local Defence Force was expected to "uphold the prestige of the Cook Islands" by putting up a token resistance if the islands were invaded?
... that Liolaemus sarmientoi is one of the two southernmost species of lizard in the world?
... that Zeyan Shafiq developed KashBook during an Internet ban in the Kashmir Valley, operating without a virtual private network?
... that Sucker Punch Productions had trouble finding a publisher for their debut video game, Rocket: Robot on Wheels?
... that Anne Bierwirth has performed the alto part in Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and in a recording of the first Passion oratorio in German by Reinhard Keiser?
... that all dialogue in the film Nostos: The Return is in a made-up language based on ancient Greek, Sanskrit and Latin?

In the news

Tom Brady

A glacial outburst flood in Uttarakhand, India, leaves 26 people dead and more than 200 others missing.
In American football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl (MVP Tom Brady pictured).
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 9

Participants in the Mud March

1799 – Quasi-War: USS Constellation captured the French frigate Insurgente in a single-ship action in the Caribbean Sea.
1855 – A series of hoof-like marks were discovered in the snow in Devon, England, continuing throughout the countryside for some 40 to 100 miles (60 to 160 km).
1907 – More than 3,000 women in London participated in the Mud March (pictured), the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
1971 – A 6.6 M_w earthquake struck the northern San Fernando Valley near the Los Angeles district of Sylmar, killing 65 people.
1996 – Breaking a seventeen-month ceasefire, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a powerful truck bomb in Canary Wharf, London, killing two people and injuring more than a hundred others.

John Frederick, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1600)
Adele Spitzeder (b. 1832)
Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda (d. 2003)

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William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841. He died of typhoid, pneumonia or paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term, becoming the first president to die in office. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency. Vice President John Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to become the new president and took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of the presidency and its full powers when the previous president fails to complete the elected term.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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