Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 February 1

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Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1903?–1937) is Madagascar's national poet. He grew up impoverished and failed to complete secondary education, but taught himself the traditions of French literature and Malagasy poetry, and gained work in a publishing house as a proofreader and editor of its literary journals. He produced numerous poetry anthologies in French and Malagasy, as well as literary critiques, an opera, and two novels. After an early period of modernist-inspired poetry, the originality of his surrealist poetry garnered strong praise and drew attention in international poetry reviews. Nevertheless, Rabearivelo never gained support from colonial Madagascar's high society. He suffered personally and professionally: his three-year-old daughter died, the French authorities excluded him from the list of exhibitors at the Universal Exposition in Paris, and philandering and opium addiction worsened his debt. After his suicide by cyanide poisoning, he was hailed by literary figures including Léopold Sédar Senghor as Africa's first modern poet. A room has been dedicated to him in the National Library of Madagascar. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Gyaclavator kohlsi holotype

... that the extinct lace bug Gyaclavator (pictured) is named for its enlarged antennae?
... that Claire Giannini Hoffman was the first woman to serve on the boards of Bank of America and Sears, Roebuck & Company?
... that Theeb is Jordan's first nomination ever to the Academy Awards?
... that women's rights activist Shirin Fozdar was instrumental in the establishment of Singapore's Syariah Court and in the passage of the Women's Charter?
... that the U.S. Government spent $8.9 million preparing for the possible presidential transition of Mitt Romney in 2012?
... that the 12th century English nobleman Philip of Oldcoates was called one of King John of England's "evil counsellors" by the chronicler Roger of Wendover?
... that Hancock Bridge in Mumbai, built in 1879 and rebuilt in 1923, was demolished in 2016 to be rebuilt again?
... that Plato was once thought to have plagiarized a book by Timaeus of Locri?

In the news

Var. from average (17–24 January)

AlphaGo becomes the first computer program to defeat a professional human Go player.
Hilda Heine is elected President of the Marshall Islands.
A cold wave (temperature anomaly map pictured) across East Asia results in more than 100 deaths, primarily in Taiwan.
Amid an outbreak of the Zika virus, several countries in the Americas warn women to postpone pregnancy due to a suspected link to microcephaly in newborn babies.

Ongoing events:
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:

On this day...

February 1: Feast day of St. Brigit of Kildare (Western Christianity); Black History Month begins in Canada and the United States

Lunch counter from the Greensboro sit-ins

1327 – Fourteen-year-old Edward III became King of England, but the country was ruled by his mother, Queen Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer.
1896 – Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, eventually becoming one of the most frequently performed operas internationally.
1960 – Four African American students staged the first Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter (pictured) in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile and soon led the Iranian Revolution to overthrow the US-backed Pahlavi dynasty.
2009 – Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became Iceland's first female Prime Minister and the world's first openly gay head of government of the modern era.

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SMS Von der Tann, the first German battlecruiser

The battlecruisers of Germany were built in the first half of the 20th century by the Kaiserliche Marine, the navy of the German Empire. The battlecruiser type was an outgrowth of older armored cruiser designs; they were intended to scout for the main battle fleet and attack the reconnaissance forces of opposing fleets. Kaiser Wilhelm II maintained that the new battlecruisers be able to fight in the line of battle with battleships to counter Germany's numerical inferiority. SMS Von der Tann (pictured) was the first German battlecruiser, built in 1908–1910. The Kaiserliche Marine eventually built four more battlecruisers before the start of the First World War to serve with the High Seas Fleet, and another two were completed during the conflict. A further seven were planned, including four of the Mackensen and three of the Ersatz Yorck-class ships. Six of the seven battlecruisers completed before or during World War I saw relatively heavy combat, primarily in the North Sea. All of the ships, with the exception of Goeben, were assigned to the I Scouting Group under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper. (Full list...)

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Portrait of an African Man is a painting by the Netherlandish Renaissance painter Jan Mostaert from between c. 1520 and 1530. The exact subject of the painting has long been unclear. Suggestions include that the subject is Christophle le More (Christopher the Moor), a black archer at the court of Emperor Charles V, or Saint Maurice, who was typically portrayed as black. If it is a portrait of a specific real individual, it appears to be the earliest known portrait of a black man in European painting.

Painting: Jan Mostaert

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