Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 January 31b

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From today's featured article

Plains zebras

Zebras are African equines with black-and-white striped coats and share the genus Equus with horses and asses. Zebras inhabit eastern and southern Africa and can be found in savannahs, grasslands, woodlands, shrublands and mountainous areas. They are primarily grazers, but can subsist on lower-quality vegetation. They are preyed on mainly by lions, typically fleeing when threatened but they may bite and kick. Several theories have been proposed for the function of their stripes, with evidence suggesting they are a form of protection from biting flies. Of the three extant species, Grévy's zebra is endangered, the mountain zebra is vulnerable and the plains zebra (examples pictured) is near-threatened; the quagga, a type of plains zebra, was driven to extinction in the 19th century. Zebras communicate with vocalisations, body postures and facial expressions. Plains and mountain zebras practice social grooming, which strengthens social bonds. Zebras have featured in art and stories in Africa and beyond. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Veiled Vestal

... that the sacred flame carried by the Veiled Vestal (pictured) in the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice has been described as representing Elizabeth Bennet's "virginal sexual desire"?
... that Joseildo da Silva beat Roy Dooney at the 1991 Chicago Marathon by six seconds in the slowest winning time for 10 years?
... that the British design historian Cheryl Buckley claimed in an influential 1986 article that women's contributions to design have been "consistently ignored"?
... that Astoria Park was intended to be New York City's first large park with active recreational facilities?
... that the tomb of Muhammad Ahmad in Sudan was desecrated by British forces after the Battle of Omdurman in 1898?
... that "Lobpreiset all zu dieser Zeit", for New Year in the current Catholic hymnal Gotteslob, takes two stanzas from a 1851 song by Heinrich Bone, a third stanza and refrain from 1969, and a 1529 popular melody by Luther?
... that the Strax affair started in the library?
... that the phrase "landfill indie", coined in 2008 by the English music journalist Andrew Harrison, was intended as a pejorative term to describe the perceived bland guitar rock that dominated the UK charts in the early 2000s?

In the news

Kaja Kallas

A coordinated short squeeze targeting American hedge funds causes GameStop's stock price to spike.
Kaja Kallas (pictured) becomes the first female prime minister of Estonia, following the resignation of Jüri Ratas.
In Russia, protests against the arrest of Alexei Navalny occur in more than 120 towns and cities.

On this day

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

Ham the Chimp

314 – Sylvester I, during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Constantine the Great, began his reign as pope.
1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first voluntary hospital specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.
1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not give up for five more years.
1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp (pictured) became the first hominid launched into outer space.
2013 – A gas leak underneath the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City caused an explosion that killed at least 37 people and injured another 121.

John Francis Regis (b. 1597)
Zina D. H. Young (b. 1821)
Adelaide Tambo (d. 2007)

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Today's featured picture

Mycena epipterygia, the yellowleg bonnet, is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae, native to Europe. It grows on the floor of deciduous and coniferous woodland as well as on acid grassland, and among mosses, as seen here at Erbach an der Donau, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The sticky, bell-shaped cap becomes more convex with age, and varies in colour, the slender cylindrical stem being yellowish-green, which helps to distinguish this fungus from other species. Some parts of the fungus, including the mycelium, are bioluminescent.

Photograph credit: Holger Krisp

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