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From today's featured article

John Neal (1793–1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. He delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s. Neal advanced American art, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement. The first American author to use natural diction, he was also the first to use "son-of-a-bitch" in a work of fiction. He attained his greatest literary achievements between 1817 and 1835 as the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, America's first art critic, and a forerunner of the American Renaissance. One of the first men to advocate women's rights in the US, he affirmed intellectual equality between men and women, fought coverture laws, and demanded equal pay, better education and suffrage for women, declaring "I tell you there is no hope for woman, till she has a hand in making the law". (Full article...)

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Isaac Newton

... that the 2017 book Priest of Nature analyses theological writings of Isaac Newton (pictured) that were never published due to his heretical views?
... that virtuoso organist Frederick Swann was seen weekly on television by an estimated audience of 20 million viewers in 165 countries?
... that the exact date of establishment of the Philippine embassy in Cairo is unclear, despite the Philippines having first named an ambassador to Egypt in 1960?
... that the philosopher Andy Lamey challenges "new omnivorism", according to which it is permissible to eat animals even if they have moral status?
... that the IRT Powerhouse was intended to be the largest power generating station on earth when it was built in the 1900s?
... that Travancore Radio's first English-language broadcaster, Indira Joseph Venniyoor, was paid 69 rupees (then equivalent to US$14.50) for her broadcasts in 1949?
... that the Japanese-pop song "Snow Halation" by μ's has a music video animated by Sunrise?
... that more than 41 million hours of online chess have been watched on Twitch during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Yoweri Museveni

Yoweri Museveni (pictured) is re-elected as President of Uganda.
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet resign as a result of a child welfare fraud scandal.
An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi kills at least 92 people and injures more than 900 others.
Donald Trump becomes the first U.S. president to be impeached twice after the House of Representatives charges him with incitement of insurrection.

On this day

January 20: Day of Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan (1990)

Icelandic financial crisis protesters

1265 – Simon de Montfort summoned local representatives to the Palace of Westminster to attend a parliament, considered the forerunner of the House of Commons of England.
1877 – The Constantinople Conference concluded with the Great Powers declaring the need for political reforms, which the Ottoman Empire refused to undertake and later resulting in the Russo-Turkish War.
1969 – Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and killed by East Pakistani police, an event that led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
2009 – During a national financial crisis, thousands of people protested (pictured) at the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavík.

Li Jitao (d. 924)
Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (b. 1716)
Kirsty Gallacher (b. 1976)

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Today's featured picture

The Christchurch Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Opened in 2003, it replaced the previous building, the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which had opened seventy years earlier. Designed to withstand seismic events, the gallery's foundations rest on a concrete raft slab that lies on the surface of the ground. Nevertheless, the building sustained some damage in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake that devastated much of the city, and it subsequently served as the Civil Defence headquarters during reconstruction work.

Photograph credit: Michal Klajban

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