Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 January 1

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From today's featured article

Phoenix is a constellation in the southern sky that stretches from roughly −39° to −57° declination, and from 23.5h to 2.5h of right ascension. Named after the mythical phoenix, it was first depicted on a celestial atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter stars and gave their Bayer designations in 1756. The brightest star, Alpha Phoenicis, or Ankaa, is an orange giant of apparent magnitude 2.4. Nu Phoenicis has a dust disk, while the constellation boasts ten star systems with known planets, and HE0107-5240, possibly one of the oldest stars yet discovered. It has around 1/200,000 the metallicity that the Sun has and hence must have formed very early in the history of the universe. The recently discovered galaxy clusters El Gordo and the Phoenix Cluster—located 7.2 and 5.7 billion light years away respectively, are two of the largest objects in the visible universe. Phoenix is the radiant of two annual meteor showers: the Phoenicids in December, and the July Phoenicids. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that after the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, it took its first space selfie (pictured), which was posted on its Facebook account the following day?
... that while pitcher Noodles Hahn was still playing baseball, he received a job offer to become the Dallas city veterinarian?
... that in 1958, No. 486 Squadron became responsible for maintaining the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, the first turboprop aircraft operated by the RAAF?
... that Elizabeth Hussey allowed the first of the tracts by the anonymous satirist Martin Marprelate to be printed on a secret press at her home at East Molesey in October 1588?
... that the Lydia Pinkham House, on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places since 2012, is being reviewed for selection as a National Historic Landmark for its association with the Pinkhams?
... that Randall Carver portrayed taxi driver John Burns in the television series Taxi for only the first season (1978–79)?
... that Stoke sub Hamdon Priory is not, and never has been, a priory?

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In the news

Latvia becomes the 18th EU member state to adopt the euro.
More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On its maiden flight, a Russian Soyuz-2-1v rocket launches Aist 1 and two radar calibration satellites.
Two suicide bombings kill more than 30 people in Volgograd, Russia (Volgograd-1 railway station pictured).
Amidst fears of civil war, the United Nations Security Council agrees to send more UNMISS soldiers to South Sudan.
Pioneering British computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing, convicted in 1952 of gross indecency for homosexual activity, is granted a posthumous royal pardon.

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On this day...

January 1: New Year's Day (Gregorian calendar); Independence Day in Brunei (1984) and Haiti (1804)

1773 – The hymn "Amazing Grace" was probably first used in a prayer meeting in Olney, England, without the music familiar to modern listeners.
1800 – Quasi-War: An American convoy of four merchant vessels escorted by a schooner was attacked by a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitians.
1945 – Second World War: The German Luftwaffe executed Operation Bodenplatte in an attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries.
1959 – Cuban President Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican Republic as forces under Fidel Castro (pictured) took control of Havana, marking the end of the Cuban Revolution.
1983 – The ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP, marking the beginning of the Internet as we know it today.

More anniversaries: December 31 – January 1 – January 2

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Today's featured picture

The Plumbeous Water Redstart (Rhyacornis fuliginosa, male pictured) is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae which is found in South Asia, Southeast Asia and China. The bird's common name refers to its colour, resembling lead. The bird tends to be found near running water, often at higher altitudes, though it will go to lower altitudes during the winter.

Photo: JJ Harrison

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