Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 30

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From today's featured article

Benedetto Pistrucci (1783–1855) was an Italian gem-engraver, medallist and coin engraver, probably best known for his design of Saint George and the Dragon for the British sovereign coin. Born in Rome, he became prominent as a cameo carver. In 1815, he moved to Britain, where he would live for most of the rest of his life. His talent brought him to the attention of William Wellesley-Pole, Master of the Mint. Pole engaged Pistrucci to design new coinage, including the sovereign, which was first issued in 1817 to mixed reactions. In 1819 he was commissioned to create the Waterloo Medal, a huge piece some 5.3 inches (130 mm) in diameter that the British government planned to award to the generals and national leaders who had defeated Napoleon. He took thirty years to complete the design, but because of the coin's great size it could not be struck. After Pistrucci's death, the George and Dragon design was restored to the sovereign coin, and is still used today. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Obverse of a double florin

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... that Lieutenant-Colonel Johannes Wilhelm Colenbrander and two others died on camera during the filming of the 1918 war film Symbol of Sacrifice?
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... that Historia narodu polskiego, the first modern history of Poland, was never finished but was highly influential on emerging Polish historiography?
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In the news

Sergio Mattarella

Sergio Mattarella (pictured) is re-elected as president of Italy.
In Burkina Faso, a coup d'état led by military officer Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba deposes President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk and peace activist Thích Nhất Hạnh dies at the age of 95.
Belgian-British pilot Zara Rutherford becomes the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

On this day

January 30: Martyrs' Day in India (1948)

Attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson

1607 – Low-lying places around the coasts of the Bristol Channel of Britain were flooded, possibly by a tsunami, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths.
1835 – Richard Lawrence became the first person to attempt to assassinate a sitting US president when he failed to kill Andrew Jackson at the US Capitol (assassination attempt pictured) and was subdued by the crowd.
1939 – In a speech to the Reichstag, German leader Adolf Hitler threatened the "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".
1959 – On the return leg of her maiden voyage, the "unsinkable" Danish ocean liner Hans Hedtoft hit an iceberg and sank with the loss of all 95 passengers and crew.
1972 – The Troubles: On Bloody Sunday, members of the British Parachute Regiment shot 26 civil-rights protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing at least 13 people.

William More (b. 1520)
Angela of the Cross (b. 1846)
Abdullah II of Jordan (b. 1962)

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Today's featured picture

The swallow-tailed bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae, native to sub-Saharan Africa. About 20 centimetres (8 inches) in length, it feeds on insects, perching on a high branch and sallying forth to catch prey in mid-air. This swallow-tailed bee-eater of the subspecies M. h. chrysolaimus was photographed in Senegal.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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