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From today's featured article

Stanley Green (1915–1993) was a sandwich man who became a well-known figure in London during the latter part of the 20th century. For 25 years Green patrolled Oxford Street, carrying a placard that advocated "Less Lust, By Less Protein: Meat Fish Bird; Egg Cheese; Peas Beans; Nuts. And Sitting", with the wording and punctuation changing over the years. Arguing that protein made people lustful and aggressive, his solution was "protein wisdom", a low-protein diet for "better, kinder, happier people". For a few pence, passers-by could buy his 14-page pamphlet, Eight Passion Proteins with Care, which reportedly sold 87,000 copies over 20 years. He became one of London's much-loved eccentrics, though his campaign was not invariably popular, leading to two arrests for obstruction and the need to wear green overalls to protect himself from spit. When he died at the age of 78, his pamphlets, placards, and letters were passed to the Museum of London. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Lilium nobilissimum

... that the common Japanese name of Lilium nobilissimum (pictured) may refer to the sleeves used to carry it from the cliffs on which it grows?
... that the parked vehicle of one candidate in a 2024 Mexico City borough election was shot five times to "give her a scare"?
... that "The Man in the Yellow Tie", an episode of The Flash, concludes a plotline established two years earlier on a different TV series?
... that college football player Chad Brinker continued his career after undergoing brain surgery and eventually signed into the NFL?
... that Their Highest Potential shows the positive side of segregated schools, as written by a student who was taught in one?
... that Ann McMillan recalled "playing" a tape recorder for Déserts, a piece by Edgard Varèse?
... that an Iowa TV station, in one fell swoop, fired nearly a third of its staff and canceled a children's show that had been on the air for 32 years?
... that Henry A. Henry brought an extensive library of Jewish literature when he emigrated to the United States in 1849?
... that King Philip refused to give up Champagne?

In the news

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Ahmed al-Sharaa (pictured) is appointed president of the Syrian transitional government.
American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with a helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., United States, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.
In sumo, Hōshōryū Tomokatsu becomes the 74th yokozuna.
In an ongoing offensive, the Rwandan-supported March 23 Movement captures Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On this day...

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

Rōnin portraits by Utagawa Yoshitora

1703 – Forty-seven rōnin (depicted) attacked the home of Kira Yoshinaka and killed him in an act of revenge for Asano Naganori, their dead feudal lord.
1850 – Ute Wars: On behalf of Utah territorial governor Brigham Young, militia leader Daniel H. Wells drafted an order for the Utah Territorial Militia to exterminate Timpanogos men deemed hostile, leading to the Provo River Massacre.
1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not give up for five more years.
2000 – Alaska Airlines Flight 261, experiencing problems with its horizontal stabilizer system, crashed in the Pacific Ocean off Anacapa Island, California, killing all 88 people on board.
2010 – James Cameron's Avatar became the first film to earn over US$2 billion worldwide.

James G. Blaine (b. 1830)
Preity Zinta (b. 1975)
Moira Shearer (d. 2006)
Lizabeth Scott (d. 2015)

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From today's featured list

12th & I station

As of 2025, there are 53 stations in the SacRT light rail system, which serves portions of greater Sacramento in the U.S. state of California. The light rail network of the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) consists of three lines: the Blue Line and the Gold Line both opened in 1987, and the Green Line opened in 2012. Light rail service began on March 12, 1987, with the opening of 13 stations between Watt/I-80 and 8th & O. The second phase of the initial line opened on September 5, 1987, with 13 stations between Archives Plaza and Butterfield. In 1998, Mather Field/Mills opened at Rancho Cordova as the first extension to the original network. Between 2003 and 2007, 17 stations were opened as part of multiple expansion projects, resulting in the construction of stations in Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Gold River and Folsom. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A Sensation Novel is a comic musical play in three acts (described as "volumes" in the programme), one of a series written by the dramatist W. S. Gilbert for the Royal Gallery of Illustration, with music composed by Thomas German Reed, though much of the music is lost. The play premiered on 31 January 1871 and concerns an author suffering from writer's block who finds that the characters in his novel are dissatisfied when they come to life and complain about their fate. The piece satirises the sensation novels popular as pulp detective fiction in the Victorian era. This lithographic poster was designed by Robert Jacob Hamerton to advertise the premiere of A Sensation Novel.

Poster credit: Robert Jacob Hamerton; restored by Adam Cuerden

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