Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 January 7

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From today's featured article

Upper Table Rock, viewed from Lower Table Rock

Upper and Lower Table Rock are two prominent volcanic plateaus just north of the Rogue River in Jackson County, Oregon, US. Created by a medium-grained lava flow around seven million years ago and shaped by erosion, they now stand about 800 feet (240 m) above the surrounding Rogue Valley. They are jointly owned by The Nature Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management. The Takelma tribe of Native Americans inhabited the Table Rocks for at least 15,000 years before being forced into reservations during a mid-19th-century gold rush. A post office was established nearby in 1872, an airstrip was built atop Lower Table Rock in 1948, and an aviation beacon was constructed on Upper Table Rock in the 1960s. These plateaus, which were not protected until the 1970s, are home to over 70 species of animals and 340 species of plants, including the dwarf woolly meadowfoam. They are popular hiking locations in the Rogue Valley, with over 45,000 visitors annually. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

A layer cake prepared with avocado

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In the news

Portrait of Nimr al-Nimr

Nimr al-Nimr

North Korea conducts its fourth nuclear test, claiming to have used a hydrogen bomb.
Saudi Arabia executes Nimr al-Nimr (portrait pictured) for his role in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests.
A terrorist attack at India's Pathankot Air Force Station kills at least seven members of the security forces.
Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay take their seats on the United Nations Security Council.
IUPAC and IUPAP confirm the discoveries of chemical elements 113, 115, 117 and 118.

Ongoing events:
- Syrian Civil War
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Pierre Boulez

On this day...

January 7: Christmas (Julian calendar); Victory Day in Cambodia; Flag Day in Italy

Francis, Duke of Guise

1558 – Francis, Duke of Guise (pictured), retook Calais, England's last continental possession, for France.
1610 – Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei made his first observation of the four Galilean moons through his telescope: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he was not able to distinguish the latter two until the following day.
1797 – The first official Italian tricolour was adopted by the government of the Cispadane Republic.
1948 – Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell fatally crashed his P-51 Mustang while in pursuit of a UFO near Fort Knox, Kentucky.
1979 – The Vietnam People's Army captured Phnom Penh, deposing Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, which marked the end of large-scale fighting in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
2010 – In Nag Hammadi, Egypt, Muslim gunmen opened fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians leaving church after celebrating a Christmas Mass, killing eight of them as well as one Muslim bystander.

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The Bonne projection is a pseudoconical equal-area map projection named after Rigobert Bonne (1727–1795). In the projection, parallels of latitude are concentric circular arcs, and the scale is true along these arcs. Shapes along the central meridian and the standard parallel are not distorted.

Map: Strebe, using Geocart

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