Wikipedia:Main Page history/2024 January 26

Did you know ...

Ruins of the Abbey of Saint Winnoc

• ... that two towers remain (pictured) of the otherwise almost completely demolished Abbey of Saint Winnoc, because they were used as daymarks by sailors?
• ... that Michael Owens became the first mayor of Mableton, Georgia, in more than 100 years after winning the 2023 mayoral election?
• ... that Peckham Rock, a fake cave painting surreptitiously installed in the British Museum by Banksy, is actually concrete from Hackney?
• ... that biochemist Susan Berget was heavily involved in the discovery of split genes, but was excluded from credit and later the Nobel Prize for the research?
• ... that more than 150 years of documentary sources at the Central Archives of Gaza City were destroyed during the Israel–Hamas war?
• ... that for 25 years after an attempt to explode a whale went awry, the Oregon TV station that filmed it regularly fielded requests for its footage?
• ... that the fossil turtle Acherontemys was named for a "river of the fabled lower world"?
• ... that Tap Pryor saw a coral reef in Zanzibar that inspired him to spend his life "under water"?

Ingenuity on Mars

• Following damage to the helicopter's rotors, NASA ends the Ingenuity (pictured) mission on Mars after nearly 3 years and 72 flights.
• The Ram Mandir, a temple to Rama, is consecratedata disputed siteinAyodhya, India.
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's lunar module SLIM lands on the Moon.
• Protests break out in Bashkortostan, Russia, following the imprisonment of environmental activist Fail Alsynov.

On this day

The dome over the Hale Telescope

• 1564 – Livonian War: A Lithuanian surprise attack resulted in a decisive defeat of numerically superior Russian forces.
• 1808 – William Bligh, the governor of New South Wales, was deposed by the New South Wales Corps in the only military coup in Australian history.
• 1949 – The Hale TelescopeatPalomar Observatory (pictured) in California, the largest aperture optical telescope in the world for 28 years, saw first light.
• 1974 – Turkish Airlines Flight 301 crashed while taking off from İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport, killing 67 people.
• 2009 – Rioting broke out in Antananarivo, Madagascar, sparking a political crisis that led to the deposal of President Marc Ravalomanana.

Richard Dawkins Award trophy

The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual prize awarded by the Center for Inquiry (CFI), an American nonprofit organization. Established in 2003, it was initially awarded by the Atheist Alliance of America in coordination with Richard Dawkins and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The award was formally moved to CFI in 2019. The award was initially presented by the Atheist Alliance of America to honor an "outstanding atheist" who taught or advocated scientific knowledge and acceptance of nontheism, and raised public awareness. The award is currently presented by the Center for Inquiry to an individual associated with science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, and who "publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead". The recipient must be approved by Dawkins himself. The first Richard Dawkins Award was received by James Randi, a magician who investigated and debunked various paranormal claims. (Full list...)

Kenje Ogata (1919–2012) was a Japanese American who served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. Born in Gary, Indiana, he grew up in Sterling, Illinois, and went on to earn his pilot's license through the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Ogata applied to join the armed forces. Due to his Japanese heritage he was discouraged from joining, but he insisted, telling the recruitment office "I am here to serve". In 1943, Ogata was assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, training as a ball turret gunner. He rose to the rank of staff sergeant, completed thirty-five missions, and survived two crashes. For his service and injuries sustained in combat, he received the Air Medal with three bronze oak leaf clusters and the Purple Heart. This portrait of Ogata in uniform was taken in 1943. Photograph credit: unknown photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Lahaul and Spiti district Mac Junonia orithya Archive More featured pictures

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