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Final of the 2020 Masters

The 2020 Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament held from 12 to 19 January 2020 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It was the 46th Masters tournament, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2019–20 snooker season, following the 2019 UK Championship and preceding the 2020 World Snooker Championship. The knockout tournament involved the top 16 players in the snooker world rankings. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport in Europe. Judd Trump was the defending champion, but was eliminated in the first round. The previous year's finalist, Ronnie O'Sullivan, chose not to participate, thus giving his entry to Ali Carter, who reached the final (pictured) but lost to Stuart Bingham. Claiming his first Masters title, Bingham became the oldest Masters champion, at the age of 43 years and 243 days, beating the previous record set by Ray Reardon in 1976. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Snows

... that after architect Frà Antonio Cano died of a fall from scaffolding at his new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Snows (pictured), Alberto della Marmora accused him of destroying many former basilicas?
... that The Man Without Talent is an I-novel, a genre of semi-autobiographical confessional literature that has been popular in Japan since the early twentieth century?
... that Timo Meier became the first player in San Jose Sharks franchise history to score five goals in one game when he was 25?
... that electric organs are composed of stacks of specialised cells that can generate electricity?
... that the South Australian Labor politician Ernest Roberts served two tours in South Africa during the Second Boer War?
... that the founders of New York City's Circle in the Square Theatre had a total of $320 when they leased an inn in 1951?
... that Nina de Creeft Ward worked on art that resembles corpses of extinct and endangered species to show "how people have caused a scourge to the balance of nature"?
... that an old cookbook recommends eating tiger meat to ward off tigers?

In the news

The aircraft involved in the accident

A plane crash (aircraft pictured) in Pokhara, Nepal, kills all 72 people on board.
In elections to the parliament of Benin, the Progressive Union for Renewal–Republican Bloc alliance retains a majority, but the opposition Democrats win back parliamentary representation.
Constantine II, the last king of Greece, dies at the age of 82.
Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro invade the National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the Palácio do Planalto.
Michael Smith wins the PDC World Darts Championship.

On this day

January 19

Klaus Barbie

1419 – Hundred Years' War: The Siege of Rouen ended with English troops capturing the city from Norman French forces.
1511 – War of the League of Cambrai: Troops led by Pope Julius II captured Mirandola after a brief siege.
1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union was founded by the directors of the National Civil Liberties Bureau.
1972 – The French newspaper L'Aurore revealed that the former Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie (pictured), the "Butcher of Lyon", had been found to be living in Peru.
2012 – The Hong Kong–based file-sharing website Megaupload was shut down by the FBI.

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (d. 1636)
Arthur Morris (b. 1922)
Sarah Burke (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to around 1489 to 1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière, and the Mona Lisa. The painting now hangs in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland.

Painting credit: Leonardo da Vinci

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