Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 January 12

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From today's featured article

Hurricane Alex in 2016 was the first Atlantic hurricane in January since Alice in 1955. Alex originated as a non-tropical low near the Bahamas on January 7. It briefly acquired hurricane-force winds on January 10, then weakened slightly before acquiring more tropical weather characteristics. The system transitioned into a subtropical cyclone on January 12 well south of the Azores, becoming the first North Atlantic tropical or subtropical cyclone in January since Tropical Storm Zeta of 2006. Alex transitioned into a fully tropical cyclone on January 14. It peaked in strength as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale with reported maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h) and a central pressure of 981 mbar (hPa; 28.97 inHg). Alex weakened to a high-end tropical storm before making landfall on Terceira Island on January 15. After leaving the Azores, it reverted to a non-tropical cyclone. (Full article...)

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Aramaic document in the Khalili Collection

... that the Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents (example pictured) includes the earliest known use in Aramaic of the name "Alexandros" to refer to Alexander the Great?
... that the environmental journalist Swati Thiyagarajan investigated claims of interspecies communication made by the conservationist Anna Breytenbach?
... that six different dams were proposed for the lower Sanpoil River?
... that British businessman William Brooks Close and his two brothers started a colony in Iowa while owning at times almost 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of the best soil in the United States?
... that Atalanta reached the semifinals of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1988 while playing in the Italian second tier?
... that Olive Whitlock Klump was the first industrial nurse to work for the U.S. government?
... that the developers of Paper Mario: Sticker Star de-emphasized a proper story because fewer than one percent of players found the plot of the previous game interesting?
... that WhopperCoin attempted to turn a burger into an "investment vehicle"?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Aircraft involved in the accident

Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 (aircraft pictured), carrying 62 people, crashes north of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Rioters supporting Donald Trump storm the United States Capitol, disrupting certification of the presidential election and forcing Congress to evacuate.
In the United States, the Democratic Party wins control of the Senate, with victories in regular and special Senate elections in Georgia.

On this day

January 12

St Mary's Church, Reculver

475 – Basiliscus became Byzantine emperor after Zeno was forced to flee Constantinople.
1808 – John Rennie's scheme to defend St Mary's Church (pictured) in Reculver from coastal erosion was abandoned in favour of demolition, despite the church being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon architecture.
1916 – Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann became the first German aviators to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest military honour.
1967 – Seventy-three-year-old psychology professor James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
2007 – Comet McNaught reached perihelion, becoming the brightest comet in over 40 years, with an apparent magnitude of −5.5.

Godscall Paleologue (b. 1694)
Spyridon Louis (b. 1873)
Olga Ladyzhenskaya (d. 2004)

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Today's featured picture

Venus with a Mirror is an oil-on-canvas painting created around 1555 by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian. The pose may have been inspired by the classical statues of the Venus de' Medici in Florence or the Capitoline Venus in Rome; the painting is said to celebrate the ideal beauty of the female form, or to be a critique of vanity, or perhaps both. X-ray analysis has revealed that it was painted over an earlier double portrait that Titian had abandoned. He kept the red cloak of one of the previous figures and placed it under Venus's arm. The use of the cloak from the earlier painting probably played a large part in the composition of the new work. The work is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it is considered to be one of the highlights of the collection.

Painting credit: Titian

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