Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 31

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From today's featured article

Common house martin

Delichon is a genus of birds in the swallow family containing four species named as house martins. These are chunky, bull-headed and short-tailed birds, blackish-blue above, with a white rump and white or grey underparts. They have feathering on their toes and tarsi. They breed in Europe, Asia and the mountains of North Africa. The common (example pictured), Siberian and Asian house martins all migrate south in winter, while the Nepal house martin is resident in the Himalayas. House martins nest in colonies on cliffs or buildings. Both parents build the lined mud nest, incubate the three or four white eggs of a typical clutch and feed the chicks. Aerial hunters of small insects, they may be caught by fast birds of prey and may carry fleas or other parasites. None of the species are considered threatened, although common house martin numbers have declined in parts of Europe due to poor weather, poisoning by pesticides and nest-site competition with house sparrows. (This article is part of a featured topic: Delichon.)

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Did you know ...

Umar Zahir

... that Umar Zahir (pictured) built both an island of trash and an island of hope?
... that Kanye West originally wrote the chorus of "Gold Digger" from a female point of view?
... that in 2019, Paul Cosford and his colleagues found that lung cancer was more common in non-smokers than was generally thought?
... that the video game Pyongyang Racer was developed in North Korea for Koryo Tours, which organises tours to the country?
... that AI expert Tess Posner resigned her role as a CEO in order to concentrate on her music career?
... that the Syracuse House on Clinton Square was described by Charles Dickens as "the worst inn that ever was seen"?
... that Zimbabwean colonel Flint Magama, who was responsible for the killing of opposition politician Njini Ntuta, later received the country's highest award for military bravery?
... that at various secondary schools and universities, students eat entire heads of lettuce as quickly as possible?

In the news

Sergio Mattarella

Sergio Mattarella (pictured) is re-elected as president of Italy.
In Burkina Faso, a coup d'état led by military officer Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba deposes President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
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.

On this day

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

Doug Williams

1208 – King Sverker II of Sweden was defeated at the Battle of Lena by Eric Knutsson, who succeeded to the throne.
1578 – Eighty Years' War: Spain won a crushing victory at the Battle of Gembloux, which led to a breakup of the Seventeen Provinces into the Catholic Union of Arras and the Protestant Union of Utrecht.
1957 – A DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft collided in mid-air with a U.S. Air Force F-89 and crashed into a schoolyard in Pacoima, California.
1988 – Doug Williams (pictured) became the first African-American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, leading the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.
2010 – James Cameron's Avatar became the first film to earn over US$2 billion worldwide.

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby (b. 1607)
Manuel Alberti (d. 1811)
Eleanor Holm (d. 2004)

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From today's featured list

William Jennings Bryan

Utah has participated in 32 United States presidential elections since the state's admission to the Union in January 1896. In the 1896 presidential election, Utah was won by the Democratic Party candidate William Jennings Bryan (pictured), who received almost 83 percent of the popular vote. In the subsequent four years, however, the Republican Party dominated Utah politics, which continued until the 1932 election. In the four-way race in the 1912 election, Utah was one of only two states won by incumbent president William Howard Taft. In the 1932 election, the Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt won Utah amid a national political landslide victory. Democrats maintained their popularity in Utah politics until the 1952 election, after which the Republican Party regained influence. In the 1992 election, Utah was one of the two states in which the independent candidate Ross Perot finished in second place, ahead of the Democrat Bill Clinton. As of 2020, the Republican Party has won Utah in 17 of the last 18 elections. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Duke Humfrey's Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. It is named after Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, a connoisseur of literature who donated his collection of 281 books to the university at his death in 1447. Books were hand-written at the time and his legacy was considered an extraordinarily generous donation, since the university previously had only 20 books. Duke Humfrey's Library was used as the library of Hogwarts for the filming of the Harry Potter films.

Photograph credit: David Iliff

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