Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 17b

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From today's featured article

Apororhynchus hemignathi

Apororhynchus is a genus of small, parasitic spiny-headed (or thorny-headed) worms, the only genus in the order Apororhynchida. A lack of features commonly found in Acanthocephala suggests an evolutionary branching from the other three orders of class Archiacanthocephala. The distinguishing features of this order are a highly enlarged proboscis containing small hooks, and differently structured musculature around this proboscis in its receptacle and receptacle protrusor. The genus contains six species that are distributed globally, being collected sporadically in Hawaii, Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. These worms exclusively parasitize birds by attaching themselves around the cloaca using their hooks and adhesives secreted from cement glands. The bird hosts are of different orders, including owls, waders, and passerines. Infection by an Apororhynchus species may cause enteritis and anemia. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Salvador Dalí with his pet ocelot Babou

... that artist Salvador Dalí claimed that his pet ocelot (both pictured) was an ordinary domestic cat that he had "painted over in an op art design"?
... that Ralph Evans is the first Welshman to win an Olympic medal in boxing?
... that Hui Aloha ʻĀina was established in 1893 to promote Hawaiian independence and oppose the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom?
... that Marilyn Saviola, a polio survivor, attended Long Island University classes remotely by telephone from her hospital ward?
... that the 1864–65 Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem created the first "perfectly accurate" map of the city, and was the impetus for the new Palestine Exploration Fund?
... that taxi driver Pierre Mambele was credited with playing "a unique part in shaping coverage" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
... that according to a 2019 biography, R. N. Kao forewarned Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman about their assassinations?
... that Eastern Michigan University football head coach Chris Creighton has won American football games on three continents?

In the news

Murchison meteorite fragment

Scientists announce that presolar stardust grains in the Murchison meteorite (fragment pictured) formed five to seven billion years ago, and are the oldest solid material found on Earth to date.
In American football, the LSU Tigers defeat the Clemson Tigers to win the College Football National Championship.
Robert Abela replaces Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister of Malta in the wake of protests over the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

On this day

January 17

Raoul Wallenberg

1377 – Pope Gregory XI entered Rome after a four-month journey from Avignon, returning the papacy to its original city and effectively becoming the last Avignon pope.
1773 – On James Cook's second voyage, his ship HMS Resolution became the first vessel to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1920 – The Volstead Act went into effect, beginning the prohibition of alcohol in the United States.
1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg (pictured), who had saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, was taken into Soviet custody during the Siege of Budapest and was never seen in public again.
1948 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesian republicans was ratified, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to resolve disputes arising from the Linggadjati Agreement of 1946.

Thomas Linley the elder (b. 1733) · Alva Belmont (b. 1853) · Mateiu Caragiale (d. 1936)

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From today's featured list

LL Cool J

Between 1989 and 1999, 173 singles topped the Hot Rap Singles chart. Hot Rap Songs is a record chart published by the music industry magazine Billboard which ranks the most popular hip hop songs in the United States. With hip hop having greatly increased in mainstream popularity in the late 1980s, Billboard introduced the chart in their issue of March 11, 1989, under the name Hot Rap Singles. The inaugural number-one single on Hot Rap Singles was "Self Destruction" by the Stop the Violence Movement. From its 1989 inception until 2001, the chart was based solely on each single's weekly sales. "Hot Boyz", by Missy Elliott and featuring Nas, Eve and Q-Tip, was the final number-one single of the 1990s. The single's 18-week reign at the top spot extended into the next decade, and it holds the record for the most weeks at number one in the chart's history. LL Cool J (pictured) and Puff Daddy each attained nine number-one hits on the Hot Rap Singles chart during its first 11 years, the most for any artist during this period. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Scissors are hand-operated cutting tools consisting of two blades, each sharpened on one side, joined at a pivot that acts as a fulcrum. Scissors cut material by applying local shear stress that exceeds the material's shear strength at the cutting location. The earliest known scissors appeared in Mesopotamia some 3,000 to 4,000 years ago; they were of the "spring" type, the blades being connected at the handle end by a thin, flexible strip of metal. These spring scissors continued in use in Europe until the 16th century, but were then superseded by scissors with a central pivot, which had been invented by the Romans around AD 100. Modern scissors, with holes in the handles for finger control, come in a range of types designed for various purposes, with left-handed scissors being designed for use with the left hand. Larger tools tend to be called "shears".

Photograph credit: Chris Woodrich

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