Wikipedia:Main Page queue

January 19

Edward III outside a walled town

King Edward III of England led a campaign in the Duchy of Brittany in 1342 and 1343. England, at war with France since 1337 in the Hundred Years' War, had sided with John of Montfort's faction in the Breton Civil War soon after it broke out in 1341. An English fleet broke the blockade of Brest on 18 August, and on 30 September a numerically inferior English army inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the battle of Morlaix. After logistical difficulties, Edward abandoned his siege train and landed in Brittany on 26 October after a storm-wracked three-week passage. The English then advanced on the major Breton town of Vannes. The French garrison repelled an immediate assault and the English began a siege. English raiding parties devastated large parts of eastern Brittany, but attempts to reinforce or supply Edward from England failed. Philip VI of France moved his court to Brittany and entered into negotiations with Edward; they rapidly agreed the Truce of Malestroit, which is widely seen as favouring the English. (Full article...)

January 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States (2026)

Depiction of the aftermath of the Siege of Mirandola

• 1511 – War of the League of Cambrai: Troops led by Pope Julius II captured Mirandola (depicted) after a brief siege.
• 1915 – World War I: The first major attack of the German bombing campaign against Britain took place when Zeppelins bombed several towns in Norfolk.
• 1972 – The French newspaper L'Aurore revealed that the former Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon", had been found to be living in Peru.
• 1975 – An earthquake registering 6.8 M_s struck northern Himachal Pradesh in India, causing extensive damage to the region.
• 2007 – A four-man team, using only skis and kites, completed a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, the first people to get there since 1967, and the first to do so on foot.

January 19

English actor Josette Simon's first theatrical role was as a chorus member in the Leicester Haymarket Theatre production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which was followed by several minor roles in other productions at the same venue. Her first television role was as Dayna Mellanby in the third and fourth series of the television sci-fi series Blake's 7 from 1980 to 1981. In 1984 she starred as Dorcas Ableman in Golden Girls, directed by Barry Kyle, which became a breakthrough role for her. Later that year she landed her first leading role at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the first for a black actress, when she was cast by Kyle as Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost. She won the Evening Standard's Best Actress award, a Critics' Circle Theatre Award, and Plays and Players Critic Awards for Arthur Miller's After the Fall, in which she played Maggie, thought to have been based on Marilyn Monroe. (Full list...)

January 19

The Lingnan School was an art movement active in the late Qing dynasty and Republic of China that sought to modernize Chinese painting through borrowing from other artistic traditions. Established by the brothers Gao Jianfu and Gao Qifeng, together with Chen Shuren, the Lingnan School has been considered one of the major art movements of 20th-century Chinese painting. Stylistically, the Lingnan School was marked by a blending of traditional Chinese approaches and Western techniques, as mediated by Japanese understandings. These included matters of lighting and atmosphere, as well as depictions of subjects rarely found in earlier Chinese works. This 1916 work is by Gao Qifeng and is titled The Roar of the Tiger. Painting credit: Gao Qifeng Recently featured: His Girl Friday Aglais io Narbonne Cathedral Archive More featured pictures

January 20

The volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) is a small species of rabbit that lives in pine and alder forests on several volcanic slopes in Mexico. It is the sole member of the genus Romerolagus and considered the most primitive species among the rabbits and hares. One of the smallest rabbits in the world, it has an adult weight ranging from 390 to 600 g (14 to 21 oz) and a total body length of 23 to 31 cm (9.1 to 12.2 in). Dense, short, yellowish brown fur covers its body, helping it to blend in with volcanic soil. It has short, rounded ears, and its short tail becomes hidden in adulthood. The volcano rabbit has a highly restricted habitat, being found only on the slopes of four volcanoes to the southeast of Mexico City. Human activities, including urban and agricultural expansion, have caused its habitat to become more fragmented, and hunting, livestock grazing, and fires threaten rabbit populations even inside protected areas. (Full article...)

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

"Game of the Century"

• 1156 – According to legend, Lalli slew Bishop Henry of Finland with an axe on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi in Köyliö.
• 1356 – Edward Balliol, whose father John was briefly King of Scotland, gave up his claim to the throne in exchange for an English pension.
• 1726 – J. S. Bach led the first performance of his cantata Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen on the second Sunday after the Epiphany.
• 1968 – The Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins in what became known as the "Game of the Century" (pictured), ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak and establishing college basketball as a sports commodity on American television.
• 2009 – In Washington, D.C., Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African-American president of the United States.

January 20

January 21

Radar timelapse of the Greensburg tornado

The Greensburg tornado struck on May 4, 2007, in Kiowa County, Kansas, heavily damaging the town of Greensburg. It tracked 28.8 miles (46.3 km) through the area, killing 12 people and injuring 63. The tornado was the first to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The tornado heavily damaged Greensburg; 662 structures in the town sustained some form of damage and 95 percent of the town was damaged or destroyed. It dissipated northwest of Greensburg after being on the ground for just over an hour. The tornado left monetary losses of $250 million (2007 USD) in its wake. Kiowa County was declared a federal disaster area in the immediate aftermath. Rebuilding efforts were intensive, and several major federal government agencies collaborated with state agencies to help restore the town with the goal of making it a "green town" using a long-term community recovery (LTCR) plan. (This article is part of a featured topic: Tornado outbreak of May 4–6, 2007.)

January 21: Feast day of Saint Agnes (Christianity); National Hugging Day (United States)

Isaac Isaacs

• 1326 – King Edward II of England issued a royal charter confirming Adam de Brome's foundation of Oriel College, Oxford.
• 1931 – Isaac Isaacs (pictured) became the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: The People's Army of Vietnam attacked Khe Sanh Combat Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quảng Trị province, South Vietnam, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
• 1976 – The Concorde supersonic transports began scheduled commercial flights to London, Paris, Bahrain, and Rio de Janeiro.
• 2011 – Demonstrations in Tirana against alleged corruption in the Albanian government led to the killings of four protesters by the Republican Guard.

January 21

Pysanky, traditional Ukrainian decorated eggs

As of 2026, there are 120 Intangible Cultural Heritage elements listed on Ukraine's national register, seven of which are also recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Under the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO defines intangible cultural heritage as non-physical traditions and practices performed by a people. Ukraine ratified the convention on 27 May 2008, and since 2012 its Ministry of Culture has maintained a national register to protect the traditions and make them eligible for inclusion on UNESCO's lists. Petrykivka decorative painting became Ukraine's first internationally recognized Intangible Cultural Heritage element in 2013. The egg-painting tradition of pysanka (example pictured) – the only transnational element, shared with Estonia – and the safeguarding programme for the kobza and wheel lyre musical-instrument tradition were most recently inscribed in 2024. (Full list...)

January 21

Nohkalikai Falls is a 340-foot-tall (100 m) plunge waterfall located in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya. It is the tallest plunge waterfall in India and is situated near Cherrapunji, one of the wettest places on earth. Nohkalikai Falls are fed by the rainwater collected on the summit of a relatively small plateau. Below the falls is a plunge pool. Photograph credit: Vikram Kakati Recently featured: Plum-headed parakeet Lingnan School His Girl Friday Archive More featured pictures

January 22

Mariah Carey

The First Vision is the debut video album by Mariah Carey (pictured), released on January 22, 1991. It is a collection of music videos, live performances, and film footage detailing the development and promotion of Carey's first studio album Mariah Carey. It features music videos of "Vision of Love", "Love Takes Time", and "Someday", as well as snippets of future singles "I Don't Wanna Cry" and "There's Got to Be a Way". The collection presents Carey performing at Club Tatou and rehearsal footage for Saturday Night Live and It's Showtime at the Apollo. During an interview segment, Carey answers questions about her life and music. Critics considered the album insightful and praised the showcase of her live vocal abilities; others opined that it projected her in a sexual manner. The video peaked at numbers 2 and 24 respectively on US and UK music video charts. The Canadian Recording Industry Association certified it gold and the Recording Industry Association of America certified it platinum. (Full article...)

January 22: Day of Unity of Ukraine (1919)

Cetshwayo

• 565 – Eutychius of Constantinople was arrested after he refused Byzantine emperor Justinian I's order to adopt the tenets of the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of non-Chalcedonian Christians.
• 1273 – Muhammad II became Sultan of Granada after his father's death in a riding accident.
• 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Zulu forces of King Cetshwayo (pictured) achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Isandlwana.
• 1973 – The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade struck down laws restricting abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
• 2006 – Evo Morales was inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.
• 2012 – Croatia held a referendum in which it voted to become a member of the European Union.

January 22

The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen.

In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.

January 23

Tiananmen Square

A self-immolation incident took place in Tiananmen Square (pictured) in central Beijing on the eve of Chinese New Year on 23 January 2001. The official Chinese press agency, Xinhua News Agency, stated that five members of Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement, had set themselves on fire to protest the unfair treatment of Falun Gong by the Chinese government. The Falun Dafa Information Center stated the incident was a hoax staged by the Chinese government to turn public opinion against the group and to justify the torture and imprisonment of its practitioners. The incident received international news coverage, and video footage was broadcast later in the People's Republic of China by China Central Television. The campaign of state propaganda that followed the event eroded public sympathy for Falun Gong, and the government began sanctioning the "systematic use of violence" against the group. (Full article...)

January 23

Hongwu Emperor

• 1368 – The Hongwu Emperor (pictured) ascended to the throne, initiating the Ming dynasty, which would rule China for three centuries.
• 1571 – Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange in London, giving it its royal title.
• 1870 – American Indian Wars: The United States Army killed about 200 Piegan Blackfeet, mostly women, children, and the elderly, in the Marias Massacre.
• 1915 – Rebels led by John Chilembwe attacked local plantation owners, beginning an uprising regarded as a key moment in the history of Malawi.
• 2003 – The final signal was detected from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10, then about 12 billion kilometres (7.5 billion miles) from Earth.

January 23

Medina of Fez

There are nine World Heritage Sites in Morocco, all selected for their cultural significance. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. Cultural heritage consists of monuments (such as architectural works, monumental sculptures, or inscriptions), groups of buildings, and sites (including archaeological sites). The Kingdom of Morocco accepted the convention on 28 October 1975, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. Morocco's first site, Medina of Fez (pictured), was inscribed on the list at the 5th Session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Paris, France in 1981. The most recent inscription, Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage, was added to the list in 2012. (Full list...)

January 23

Amanda Smith (January 23, 1837 – February 24, 1915) was an American Methodist preacher and former slave who funded the former Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children in Harvey, Illinois. She was a leader in the Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world. This photograph shows Smith c. 1885. Photograph credit: T. B. Latchmore; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Nohkalikai Falls Plum-headed parakeet Archive More featured pictures

January 24

Musidora: The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed', also known as The Bather, is a name given to four nearly identical oil paintings on canvas by English artist William Etty. The paintings illustrate a scene from James Thomson's 1727 poem Summer in which a young man accidentally sees a young woman bathing naked and is torn between his desire to look and his knowledge that he ought to look away. The scene was popular with English artists as it was one of the few legitimate pretexts to paint nudes at a time when the display and distribution of nude imagery was suppressed. Musidora was extremely well received when first exhibited and considered one of the finest works by an English artist. Etty died in 1849 and his work rapidly went out of fashion. At that time, the topic of Musidora itself became a cliche, and from the 1870s Thomson's writings faded into obscurity. Etty's Musidora is likely to have influenced The Knight Errant by John Everett Millais, but otherwise has had little effect. (Full article...)

January 24: Alasitas (La Paz, Bolivia); Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities (1859)

Sutter's Mill

• 1458 – The Estates unanimously proclaimed 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary after being persuaded to do so by his uncle Michael Szilágyi.
• 1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill (reconstruction pictured) in Coloma, California, leading to the California gold rush.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launched Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong.
• 1977 – Spanish transition to democracy: Neo-fascists attacked an office in Madrid, killing five people and injuring four others.
• 1987 – About 20,000 protestors marched in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States.

January 24

The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen.

In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.

January 25

CSS General Earl Van Dorn at Fort Pillow

CSS General Earl Van Dorn was a cottonclad warship used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. She was purchased for Confederate service in New Orleans, in early 1862 to serve with the River Defense Fleet. She was converted into a cottonclad warship by installing an iron-covered framework of timbers on her bow that served as a ram, and protecting her machinery with timber bulkheads packed with cotton. A sidewheel steamer, she was 182 feet (55 m) long and was armed with a single 32-pounder cannon on the bow. Initially assigned to defend the Mississippi River, General Earl Van Dorn arrived at Memphis, Tennessee in April 1862. On May 10, she fought with the River Defense Fleet against the Union navy in the Battle of Plum Point Bend, where she rammed and sank the USS Mound City. After withdrawing up the Yazoo River to Liverpool Landing, Mississippi, General Earl Van Dorn, along with two other warships, was burnt by to prevent her capture by approaching Union vessels. (Full article...)

January 25: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus in Eastern Christianity and of Dwynwen in Wales; Tatiana Day in Russia

Nellie Bly

• 1515 – Francis I, a great-great-grandson of Charles V, was crowned king of France in the Reims Cathedral.
• 1725 – Privateer Amaro Pargo was declared a hidalgo, a member of the Spanish nobility.
• 1765 – Port Egmont, the first British colony in the Falkland Islands, was founded.
• 1890 – American journalist Nellie Bly (pictured) completed a circumnavigation of the globe by land and sea in a then-record-breaking 72 days.
• 1998 – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam detonated a truck bomb at the sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, killing 17 people.

January 25

Hermann Schwarz (25 January 1843 – 30 November 1921) was a German mathematician, known for his work in complex analysis. Between 1867 and 1869 he worked at the University of Halle, then at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic. From 1875 he worked at Göttingen University, dealing with the subjects of complex analysis, differential geometry, and the calculus of variations. In 1892 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Science and a professor at the University of Berlin, where his students included Lipót Fejér, Paul Koebe and Ernst Zermelo. His name is attached to many ideas in mathematics. This photograph of Schwarz was taken c. 1890. Photograph credit: Louis Zipfel; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Amanda Smith Archive More featured pictures

January 26

Leblanc in 2011

Louis Leblanc (born January 26, 1991) is a former professional ice hockey player. A centre, Leblanc played minor hockey in the Montreal region before playing one season with the Omaha Lancers and becoming Rookie of the Year. At the 2009 NHL entry draft he was selected 18th overall by the Montreal Canadiens. He then spent one season with Harvard Crimson, being named Ivy League rookie of the year, before signing a contract with the Canadiens in 2010. Later that year Leblanc joined the Montreal Juniors. He spent three seasons with the Canadiens, mainly playing for their American Hockey League affiliate, before being traded in 2014 to the Anaheim Ducks, who kept him in the AHL. In 2015, Leblanc moved to Europe, joining HC Slovan Bratislava, playing seven games before being released. He appeared in four games for Lausanne HC, then retired from hockey. Internationally, Leblanc played in the 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament and the 2011 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. (Full article...)

January 26: Australia Day; Laba Festival in China (2026); Republic Day in India

Photograph of a television picture of Hutchinson

• 1926 – Oliver Hutchinson (pictured) appeared on television in inventor John Logie Baird's first successful demonstration of using the technology to show humans.
• 1972 – JAT Flight 367 exploded in mid-air over Czechoslovakia; the only survivor of the 28 on board, flight attendant Vesna Vulović, fell 10,160 m (33,330 ft), setting the record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.
• 1974 – Turkish Airlines Flight 301 crashed while taking off from İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport, killing 67 people.
• 2015 – A jet fighter crashed at Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete, Spain, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others.
• 2020 – A Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, killing all nine people on board, including former basketball player Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.

January 26

Coretta Scott King

The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Coretta Scott King Book Award Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award recognizes outstanding books for young adults and children by African Americans that reflect the African American experience. Awards are given both to authors and to illustrators for universal human values. The first author award was given in 1970. In 1974, the award was expanded to honor illustrators as well as authors. Starting in 1978, runner-up Author Honor Books have been recognized. Recognition of runner-up Illustrator Honor Books began in 1981. In addition, the Coretta Scott King Awards committee has given the Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, starting in 2010, and beginning in 1996 an occasional John Steptoe Award for New Talent. (Full list...)

January 26

Partially frozen Gurudongmar Lake, a glacial lake located to the north of the Himalayas in the northeast Indian state of Sikkim at an altitude of over 5,150 metres (16,900 ft). The lake is fed by glaciers of the Khangchengyao massif and forms the headwaters of the Teesta River. It is considered sacred by Buddhists and Sikhs. Photograph credit: Yoghya; edited by UnpetitproleX Recently featured: Hermann Schwarz Amanda Smith Archive More featured pictures