Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 January 17b

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From today's featured article

Elizabeth Willing Powel (February 21, 1743 – January 17, 1830) was an American socialite and a prominent member of the Philadelphia upper class of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After the American Revolutionary War, she established a salon of the Republican Court of leading intellectuals and political figures. She corresponded widely, including with the political elite of the time. A close friend to George Washington, she was among those who convinced him to continue for a second term as president. She wrote extensively, but privately, on a wide range of subjects, including politics, the role of women, medicine, education, and philosophy. Powel is said to be the person who asked Benjamin Franklin "What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?", to which he replied "A republic ... if you can keep it"; over time the role played by Powel in this exchange has been all but removed. Hundreds of her letters and several of her portraits survive. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

The Burton Cooper

... that The Burton Cooper (pictured) was moved inside a shopping centre in 1994 despite objections from the Burton upon Trent civic society?
... that during the reigns of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani, attempts were made to change the constitution to grant women of the Hawaiian Kingdom the right to vote?
... that Iqbal Qureshi composed the music for the 1964 film Cha Cha Cha, the first Indian film to feature Western dance?
... that Vine-Glo sold during Prohibition carried a warning telling people how to make wine from it, and Al Capone allegedly threatened to force it out of Chicago?
... that the artist Thilagavathi teaches social interactions and facial expressions to children on the autism spectrum through Therukoothu folk-theatre performances?
... that Matt Czuchry, who plays Logan in Gilmore Girls, recommended season 5's "You Jump, I Jump, Jack" as a good episode for new viewers to begin with?
... that the Homeward Bound leadership program organized the largest all-woman expedition to Antarctica in 2019?
... that after 108-year-old Sarah Thomas woke up from a thirty-hour coma, she asked for her pipe and tobacco?

In the news

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

Mark Rutte

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte (pictured) and his cabinet resign as a result of a child welfare fraud scandal.
An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi kills at least 77 people and injures more than 800 others.
Donald Trump becomes the first U.S. president to be impeached twice after the House of Representatives charges him with incitement of insurrection.
In Ireland, an investigation into church-run homes for unwed mothers and their babies details the deaths of 9,000 children between 1922 and 1998.

On this day

January 17: World Religion Day (2021)

United Nations Security Council chamber

1377 – Pope Gregory XI, the last Avignon pope, entered Rome after a four-month journey from Avignon, returning the papacy to its original city.
1893 – Lorrin A. Thurston and the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety led the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani.
1946 – The United Nations Security Council (chamber pictured), the organ of the United Nations charged with the maintenance of international peace and security, held its first meeting at Church House, Westminster.
2002 – Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo began erupting, killing hundreds and leaving about 120,000 people homeless in the nearby town of Goma.

William Backhouse (b. 1593)
David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty (b. 1871)
Gauhar Jaan (d. 1930)

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Today's featured picture

Stitching the Standard is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English painter Edmund Leighton, who specialised in Regency and medieval subjects. Measuring 98 by 44 centimetres (39 by 17 in) and currently in a private collection, this is probably the work listed as The Device by Leighton's biographer Alfred Yockney among the paintings dating from 1911. Leighton's draughtsmanship and attention to detail were meticulous, and his work had a considerable influence on early filmmakers by providing his conception of the medieval world.

Painting credit: Edmund Leighton

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