Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 9

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Reed beds in Ham Wall

Ham Wall is an English wetland and National Nature Reserve located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which helps coordinate conservation issues across the Somerset Levels as part of the Avalon Marshes Partnership. The reserve was constructed originally to provide reed bed habitat for the bittern, which in 1997 was at a low population level in the UK. The site is divided into sections with independently controllable water levels, and machinery and cattle are used to maintain the quality of the reed beds. The reserve hosts important breeding populations of the rare little bittern and great white egret, and has other uncommon animals and plants. Potential future threats may include heavy summer rains and extensive flooding. Sea level rise may make drainage more difficult, and current water pumping facilities may become inadequate. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Equatorium indicating the orbit of Saturn, 1551

... that the 14th-century manuscript The equatorie of the planetis, sometimes ascribed to Chaucer, describes an equatorium (example pictured)?
... that Russian historian Inna Lubimenko wrote about the letters between Queen Elizabeth I and Ivan the Terrible?
... that the Superior Craton covers central Canada?
... that WWNN (980 AM) in Pompano Beach, Florida, was the first radio station in the United States to adopt a format consisting of motivational speeches?
... that Ivan Borkovský, under Nazi German pressure, identified the Prague Castle skeleton as a Nordic burial and then later, under Soviet pressure, as a Slavic burial?
... that a severe infestation of the palm weevil borer can kill its host palm?
... that after American baritone Raymond Wolansky appeared as a guest at the Staatsoper Stuttgart as Verdi's Rigoletto, he remained at the theatre for more than 30 years and made an international career?
... that Czech fictional outlaw Rumcajs was so popular in Poland that a brand of detergent was named after his son?

In the news

UIA Flight 752 aircraft

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (aircraft pictured) crashes shortly after takeoff from Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 people on board.
After a U.S. airstrike kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, at least 56 people die in a stampede during his burial procession in Kerman, and Iranian forces attack two military bases in Iraq.
Seventeen inmates are killed in two prison riots at a rehabilitation center in Cieneguillas, Mexico.

On this day

January 9

RMS Queen Elizabeth in 1966

1857 – An earthquake registering 7.9 M_w ruptured part of the San Andreas Fault in central and southern California.
1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition, planted the British flag 97.5 nautical miles (180.6 km; 112.2 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest south explorers had reached at the time.
1972 – Seawise University, formerly RMS Queen Elizabeth (pictured), an ocean liner that sailed the Atlantic for Cunard Line, caught fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.
1991 – Representatives from the United States and Iraq met at the Geneva Peace Conference to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
2015 – Contaminated beer served at a funeral in Tete Province, Mozambique, killed 75 people and made at least 230 others ill.

Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon (b. 1818) · Samuel Gridley Howe (d. 1876) · Brigitte Askonas (d. 2013)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Caleb Strong (January 9, 1745 – November 7, 1819) was an American lawyer and politician who twice served as Governor of Massachusetts, once from 1800 to 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. He assisted in drafting the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1779, and served in the Massachusetts Senate and on the Massachusetts Governor's Council, before being elected to the inaugural United States Senate in 1789. The War of 1812 influenced Strong to come out of retirement and stand again for governor. It was largely his policies during the war that aroused secessionist sentiment in Maine, when Massachusetts's pro-British merchants opposed the war and refused to defend Maine from British invaders.

Engraving credit: James Bannister of the American Bank Note Company; restored by Andrew Shiva

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.