Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 28b

From today's featured article

Challenger breaking up after the explosion

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard. Challenger disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC), 73 seconds into its flight. The disaster was caused by the failure of the two O-ring seals in a joint in the Space Shuttle's right solid rocket booster in record-low temperatures. Several crew members are known to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft, but the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable, and the orbiter had no escape system. President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident; it criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. There was a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. To replace Challenger, the construction of Endeavour was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. (Full article...)

Did you know ...

St. James Theatre

• ... that a 40-foot-tall (12 m) mural outside Broadway's St. James Theatre (pictured) was painted over due to a broken foot?
• ... that in 1887, after spending three nights on the summit of Mont Blanc, scientist Joseph Vallot and his party were greeted with flowers by the mayor and all the inhabitants of Chamonix?
• ... that staff at the vegan food brand VFC interact with internet trolls on social media platforms to grow their online brand?
• ... that American musician Kenneth Kilgore, who was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, had a bridge posthumously named after him?
• ... that in 1951, 22 Greenlandic children were sent to foster families in Denmark to be re-educated as "little Danes"?
• ... that Kate Foster is the British ambassador to Somalia, but there are no consular services at the embassy in Mogadishu?
• ... that a billion dollars' worth of coal power in Turkey could be stranded?
• ... that the play-by-mail game Victory! The Battle for Europe takes about three years to play?

In the news

Roch Marc Christian Kaboré

• In Burkina Faso, a coup d'état led by military officer Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba deposes President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (pictured).
• 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.
• Microsoft announces its forthcoming acquisition, pending regulatory approvals, of video game company Activision Blizzard.

On this day

Aftermath of the Knickerbocker Theatre collapse

• 1393 – King Charles VI of France was nearly killed when several dancers' costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball.
• 1547 – Nine-year-old Edward VI, the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant, became king.
• 1813 – English author Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice was published, using material from an unpublished manuscript originally written between 1796 and 1797.
• 1922 – The largest recorded snowstorm in the history of Washington, D.C., collapsed the Knickerbocker Theatre (damage pictured), killing 98 people.
• 1984 – Tropical Storm Domoina made landfall in southern Mozambique, causing some of the most severe flooding recorded in the region.