Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 2b

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From today's featured article

Type 23 torpedo boat schematic

Albatros was the fourth of six Type 23 torpedo boats (schematic shown) built for the German Navy. Launched in July 1926 and commissioned in May 1927, she often served as a flagship of various torpedo boat units. The ship made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. After an attack by aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force that killed German sailors in 1937, Albatros participated in the retaliatory bombardment of Almería. At the beginning of World War II in 1939, she helped to lay minefields and made anti-shipping patrols before participating in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway in April 1940. Albatros fired the first shots of the campaign when she encountered and crippled a Norwegian patrol boat. She was lightly damaged during the Battle of Horten Harbor. Albatros then ran aground and was wrecked while maneuvering in an attempt to avoid Norwegian coastal artillery. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Limnological tower in Rutland Water, England

... that limnological towers (example pictured) can be used to predict algal blooms that may have an adverse effect on drinking water quality?
... that Ralph Mellanby's production of the 1988 Winter Olympics for CTV used a television lens described as the "world's longest", for the ski jumping events?
... that as recently as 2013, girls as young as six from landless families were sold each year as labour in Nepal?
... that Keanu Reeves's film roles include a time-travelling slacker, a computer hacker, an exorcist, and a dentist?
... that Missouri radio station KADY was the first ever recipient of a fine from the FCC for failing to illuminate its tower?
... that India's Mohan Samant managed the largest covert naval operation in history, which resulted in the destruction of around 100,000 tonnes of Pakistani shipping during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971?
... that the manga series Our Colors was inspired by author Gengoroh Tagame's desire to create a story about gay characters that was not centrally focused on romance or sex?
... that British teacher Joe Kirby has described marking homework as a hornet?

In the news

Peter Wright

In darts, Peter Wright (pictured) defeats Michael van Gerwen to win the PDC World Darts Championship.
More than 85 people are killed in a suicide truck bombing at a police checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.

On this day

January 2: Feast day of Saint Basil of Caesarea and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Catholicism, Anglicanism)

Replica of Luna 1

1492 – The Granada War, the last part of the Reconquista, ended with the surrender of Muslim forces in Granada to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain.
1865 – Uruguayan War: Brazilian and Colorado Party forces captured the city of Paysandú from its Uruguayan defenders.
1920 – Under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Department of Justice agents launched a series of raids against radical leftists and anarchists in more than 30 cities and towns across 23 states.
1959 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 (replica pictured), the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, was launched by a Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
1976 – An extratropical cyclone began affecting parts of western Europe, resulting in coastal flooding around the southern portions of the North Sea and leading to at least 82 deaths over the next few days.

Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza (b. 1566, d. 1614) · Bob Marshall (b. 1901) · Edgar Martínez (b. 1963)

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Today's featured picture

Vaxholm Fortress is a historic fortification on the island of Vaxholmen in the Stockholm archipelago just east of the Swedish town of Vaxholm. The first structure, a wooden blockhouse, was constructed by King Gustav I in 1548 as a defensive structure and customs post at this strategic site on the sea approach to Stockholm. It was replaced by a round stone tower during John III's reign. The present buildings date to 1833; their design was inspired by ideas on fortifications propounded by French engineers the marquis de Montalembert and Lazare Carnot. The fortress has been listed as a state monument since 1935 and now houses the Vaxholm Fortress Museum.

Photograph credit: Arild Vågen

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