Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 January 19

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From today's featured article

Hope is an 1886 Symbolist oil painting by the English artist George Frederic Watts. Radically different from previous treatments of the subject, it shows a lone blindfolded female figure sitting on a globe, playing a lyre which has only a single string remaining. Watts intentionally used symbolism not traditionally associated with hope to make the painting's meaning ambiguous. As reproductions began to circulate in large quantities worldwide, it became a widely popular image. Theodore Roosevelt displayed a copy at his Sagamore Hill home in New York, and a 1922 film was based on the painting. Although Watts was rapidly falling out of fashion by this time and Hope was increasingly seen as outdated and sentimental, it remained influential. Martin Luther King Jr. based a 1959 sermon on the theme of the painting, as did Jeremiah Wright in 1990. Among the congregation for the latter was the young Barack Obama, who took "The Audacity of Hope" as the theme of his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, and as the title of his 2006 book; he based his successful 2008 presidential campaign around the theme of "Hope". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Killenworth in 1915

... that the city of Glen Cove, New York, once tried to foreclose on the Soviet diplomatic retreat at Killenworth (pictured), and later denied its residents beach permits?
... that Augustus Constantine Sinclair conceived the idea for the Jamaica International Exhibition of 1891 but died on the day it opened?
... that the classical pianist Yara Bernette was praised for her interpretation of Variations on a Theme from the Northeast of Brazil by the composer, Camargo Guarnieri?
... that detrital zircon geochronology uses zirconium silicate to determine the age of sedimentary rock?
... that Akakio Tematereikura succeeded as regent of Mangareva after Queen Dowager Maria Eutokia Toaputeitou retired to the Rouru Convent on Mount Duff?
... that Mercedes-Benz intends to release ten models in the EQ family of battery electric vehicles by 2025?
... that Kjell Eriksson stated he was terrified to answer his telephone for fear that singer Carola would yell at him after an incident at Melodifestivalen 2008?

In the news

Yahya Jammeh

NASA, NOAA and the Met Office announce that 2016 was the warmest year in recorded history, due to anthropogenic climate change.
U.S. president Barack Obama commutes the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who is now expected to be released in May, instead of the original date of 2045.
An airstrike in Rann, Nigeria, kills more than 50 civilians after a refugee camp is mistaken for a Boko Haram encampment.
Yahya Jammeh (pictured) calls a 90-day state of emergency, after refusing to step down as President of the Gambia.
A Turkish cargo aircraft crashes near Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan, killing all 4 crew members and 33 people on the ground.

On this day...

January 19: Theophany (Julian calendar)

San Agustin Church, Manila

1607 – San Agustin Church (pictured) in Manila, the oldest extant church in the Philippines, was completed.
1795 – A day after William V, Prince of Orange, fled the Dutch Republic as a result of the Batavian Revolution, the Batavian Republic was established.
1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberated the Łódź Ghetto; only 877 Jews of the initial population of 164,000 remained at that time.
1972 – The French newspaper l'Aurore revealed that the Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon", had been found to be living in Peru.
2007 – Turkish-Armenian journalist and human rights activist Hrant Dink was assassinated by a Turkish nationalist.

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Today's featured picture

Petra Martić (b. 1991) is a tennis player from Split, Croatia. Beginning her career as a junior in 2006, Martić turned professional in 2008. She reached a career high of World No. 42 in 2012 in women's singles.

Photograph: David Iliff

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