Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 January 15

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From today's featured article

Crucifixion of the rebel leaders

The Mercenary War, also known as the Truceless War, was a mutiny by troops employed by Carthage at the end of the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC), backed by an uprising of African settlements against Carthaginian control. The war began in 241 BC as a dispute over wages owed to 20,000 foreign soldiers. It erupted into a full-scale mutiny that included 70,000 Africans from Carthage's oppressed dependent territories, bringing supplies and finance. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca initially demonstrated leniency to woo the rebels over, but pursued the war with great brutality after they tortured 700 Carthaginian prisoners to death. It ended in late 238 or early 237 BC with a Carthaginian victory. An expedition was then prepared to reoccupy Sardinia, where all Carthaginians had been killed. However, Rome declared that this would be an act of war and occupied both Sardinia and Corsica, in contravention of the recent peace treaty. (This article is part of a featured topic: Punic Wars.)

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Did you know ...

Patent diagram for the Deats plow

... that a Deats plow (illustrated), patented by John Deats in 1828 and manufactured by his son Hiram Deats, was donated by his grandson Hiram Edmund Deats to Rutgers University for an agricultural museum in 1929?
... that the Argentine government took over operations of television channel 8 at Mar del Plata in 1973, only to privatize it again a decade later?
... that actress and tennis player Filiz Taçbaş, tired of city life, purchased agricultural land and obtained a farming certificate, and now grows olives and lemons?
... that in The Autistic Brain, Temple Grandin suggests that the rise in autism diagnoses has been due to an inaccurate definition in the DSM-5 which groups other conditions under the term?
... that it is popularly believed that the Pointer descends from Old Spanish Pointers introduced to England in 1713 by soldiers returning from Spain after the Peace of Utrecht?
... that Södermanland runic inscription 140 has a runic cross that is either a pagan invocation of the Norse god Thor or one of the earliest mentions of Sweden?
... that the Nukegate scandal was precipitated by the largest business failure in the history of South Carolina?
... that during Francis Reynolds's command of HMS Augusta, the ship ran aground and exploded with such force that the blast was heard 30 miles (48 km) away?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Donald Trump

Donald Trump (pictured) becomes the first U.S. president to be impeached twice after the House of Representatives charges him with incitement of insurrection.
In Ireland, an investigation into church-run homes for unwed mothers and their babies details the deaths of 9,000 children between 1922 and 1998.
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, carrying 62 people, crashes north of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Twenty-three people are killed during a police operation in Caracas, Venezuela.

On this day

January 15: John Chilembwe Day in Malawi

Regent's Park skating disaster

1867 – In Regent's Park, London, the ice on the lake broke (depicted), plunging skaters into the water and causing 40 deaths from drowning or hypothermia.
1934 – At least 10,700 people died when an earthquake registering 8.0 M_w struck Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar.
1951 – Ilse Koch, the wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a West German court.
1981 – The American serial police-procedural television show Hill Street Blues aired its pilot episode, "Hill Street Station".
1991 – Queen Elizabeth II signed letters patent instituting the Victoria Cross for Australia; the country became the first Commonwealth realm with a separate Victoria Cross award in its honours system.

Wang Jingchong (d. 950)
Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929)
Regina Margareten (d. 1959)

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From today's featured list

Sandister Tei, the 2020 Wikimedian of the Year

The Wikimedian of the Year is an annual award that honors Wikipedia editors and other contributors to Wikimedia projects to highlight major achievements within the Wikimedia movement. The award was established in August 2011 by Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales, who selects the recipients and honors them at Wikimania, an annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation. From 2011 to 2017, the award was named Wikipedian of the Year. In 2011, the first title was given to Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, a Kazakh entrepreneur, for his work on the Kazakh Wikipedia. In 2016, the first joint award was presented to Emily Temple-Wood and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight for their efforts to combat harassment on Wikipedia and increase its coverage of women. Other recipients include Felix Nartey, Farhad Fatkullin, and Emna Mizouni. In addition to the main award, Susanna Mkrtchyan and Satdeep Gill were the first to receive honorable mentions in 2015. Since then, seven honorable mentions have been conferred. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Loie Fuller (January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928) was an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of techniques in both modern dance and theatrical lighting. She created the serpentine dance, but upon finding that her talents were unappreciated in the United States, she moved to Paris and received a warm reception there. She regularly performed at the Folies Bergère, and began adapting and expanding her costume and lighting, so that they became the principal features of her performance. Fuller unsuccessfully applied for a patent on the serpentine dance, to prevent imitators from copying her choreography. This 1901 film, entitled Loie Fuller, shows another dancer performing the dance.

Film credit: Segundo de Chomón

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