Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 4

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Venture Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine published from 1957 to 1958, and revived for a brief run in 1969 and 1970. There were ten issues of the 1950s version, and six in the second run. Robert P. Mills edited the 1950s version, and Edward L. Ferman was editor for the second run. A British edition ran for 28 issues between 1963 and 1965 reprinting material from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as well as from the US edition of Venture. An Australian edition was identical to the British version but dated two months later. The 1950s version was only moderately successful, failing due to poor sales within two years. The publisher, Joseph W. Ferman, said that he wanted well-told stories of action and adventure; the resulting fiction contained more sex and violence than was usual for the genre in the late 1950s, and science fiction historian Mike Ashley has noted that the magazine was ahead of its time. The second US version was also unsuccessful, with poorer cover art and little in the way of notable fiction. By the end of 1970, Venture had ceased publication permanently. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Byblos figurines at the National Museum of Beirut

... that more than 1,500 Byblos figurines (examples pictured) found in the Temple of the Obelisks and the Temple of Baalat Gebal have become the "poster child" of the Lebanese tourism ministry?
... that William J. Devlin was called the "builder of the super-structures" at Boston College, despite his fundraising campaign falling short of its goal?
... that the Paradise High School football team had an undefeated regular season in 2019, even though most of the players had been burned out of their homes the year before?
... that electronics engineer Chen Xingbi was inducted into the ISPSD Hall of Fame for his invention of superjunction power semiconductor devices?
... that New Jersey's Big Snow American Dream became the first indoor ski park in North America when it opened last month?
... that British medieval historian Isobel D. Thornley died when her home was hit by a bomb during the London Blitz?
... that the design of Totzeret HaAretz Tower 1 in Tel Aviv, Israel, was inspired by an iceberg?
... that The Idea of Pakistan attempts to answer the question "What is Pakistan"?

In the news

Qasem Soleimani

In Baghdad, Iraq, an American airstrike kills General Qasem Soleimani (pictured), commander of the Iranian Quds Force.
In darts, Peter Wright 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 4: Colonial Martyrs Repression Day in Angola (1961)

Samuel Colt

1847 – American gun inventor Samuel Colt (engraving shown) sold the first thousand of his Colt Walker revolvers to the Texas Rangers.
1885 – Sino-French War: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeated a larger Qing Chinese force at the Battle of Núi Bop in northern Vietnam.
1936 – Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade.
1972 – Rose Heilbron became the first female judge to sit at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales.
2004 – Spirit, the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, successfully landed on Mars.

Moses Mendelssohn (d. 1786) · Clara Emilia Smitt (b. 1864) · Brian Horrocks (d. 1985)

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Today's featured picture

A Louis d'or is a French gold coin, first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640, featuring a depiction of the head of a King Louis on one side of the coin, from which its name derives. The coin was replaced by the French franc at the time of the revolution and later by the similarly valued Napoléon.

This picture shows a coin worth one Louis d'or, minted in 1709, during the reign of Louis XIV. Like its predecessor under Louis XIII, it was made of 22-carat gold, was 25 mm (1 in) in diameter and weighed 6.75 g (0.24 oz). The obverse (left) features the king's head in profile and an abbreviated Latin inscription translating to 'Louis XIV, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre', while the reverse (right) features four royal monograms (double "L"s surmounted by a crown) and four fleurs-de-lis, with the abbreviated Latin for 'Christ reigns, conquers, commands'. This coin is part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Other Louis d'or coins: Louis XIII, Louis XV, Louis XVI

Coin design credit: Jean Varin; photographed by the National Numismatic Collection

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