Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 1b

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From today's featured article

The Battle of Calais took place in the early morning of 1 January 1350, during the Hundred Years' War. English troops in the occupied French city of Calais ambushed and defeated an unsuspecting French force which was attempting to take the city. Despite a truce being in effect, the French commander Geoffrey de Charny had planned to take the city by subterfuge, and bribed Amerigo of Pavia, an Italian officer of the city garrison, to open a gate for them. The English king, Edward III, became aware of the plot and personally led his household knights and the Calais garrison in a surprise counter-attack. The French were routed by this smaller force, with significant losses and all of their leaders captured or killed. Later that day, Edward dined with the highest-ranking captives, treating them with royal courtesy except for Charny, whom he taunted for having abandoned his chivalric principles by both fighting during a truce and attempting to purchase his way into Calais rather than fight. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

View of Auvers-sur-Oise (c. 1879) by Cézanne

... that the theft of Paul Cézanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise (pictured) from Oxford's Ashmolean Museum 20 years ago today used the noise of fireworks from the millennium celebrations as a distraction?
... that Olivia Salamanca, one of the founding members of the Philippine Anti-Tuberculosis Society, died from the disease at the age of 24?
... that Ave Maria, an obscure piece for two men's choirs by Franz Biebl, became a choral standard after Chanticleer made it part of their holiday programs?
... that Dogor, an 18,000-year-old canine puppy, may represent a common ancestor of the dog and the wolf?
... that the STIR/SHAKEN protocols aim to end the "epidemic" of robocalls, of which there were an estimated 5.7 billion in the U.S. placed in October 2019 alone?
... that the name of the Japanese band Spira Spica comes from a Latin word meaning "having hopes as long as one lives", and the star Spica?
... that the Revolutionary Party of Mozambique initially relied on sticks, axes, machetes and spears to fight its insurgency in the late 1970s?
... that Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz approved every line and footnote of the English translation of the Talmud in the 73-volume Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud?

In the news

Jamal Khashoggi

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentences five people to death for the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi (pictured).
In the Netherlands, the supreme court upholds a ruling that the government must meet established emissions reduction milestones, creating the first legal precedent on the impact of climate change on human rights.

On this day

January 1: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Catholicism)

"Am I not a man and a brother", emblem used by abolitionists

1785 – The Times began publication in London as The Daily Universal Register.
1808 – As a result of the lobbying efforts by the abolitionist movement (emblem pictured), the importation of slaves into the United States was officially banned, although slavery itself was not yet abolished.
1928 – Joseph Stalin's personal secretary, Boris Bazhanov, crossed the Iranian border and defected from the Soviet Union.
1965 – The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, which later helped the country become a republic, was founded.
2009 – A nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand, killed 66 patrons celebrating the New Year.

Marie-Louise Lachapelle (b. 1769) · J. D. Salinger (b. 1919) · Lhasa de Sela (d. 2010)

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Today's featured picture

Mantella baroni, commonly known as Baron's mantella, variegated golden frog or Madagascar poison frog, is a species of frog in the family Mantellidae. It is native to Madagascar and is seen here in Ranomafana National Park in the southeastern part of the country. The species was described in 1888 by George Albert Boulenger, who named it after its collector, Richard Baron. It has been classified as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to its relatively wide distribution, but is threatened by habitat loss. The frog's diet includes mites, which cause it to accumulate a high alkaloid concentration in its skin, making it toxic. The bright colours may serve as a warning sign to potential predators of the frog's toxicity.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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