Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 January 4
From today's featured article
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Project Waler was an unsuccessful Australian defence procurement exercise which sought to replace the Australian Army's M113 armoured personnel carriers (example pictured) during the mid-1990s with between 500 and 1,000 armoured fighting vehicles optimised for Australian conditions. The vehicles were to be built in Australia to support the local manufacturing industry. After initial scoping work in 1980, proposals were submitted in 1982, and further studies were undertaken during 1983. A tender to acquire them was planned but not issued. Instead, Project Waler was cancelled by the Australian government in July 1985 due to concerns over the cost and capabilities of the proposed vehicles. Most of the M113s were upgraded, although the resultant vehicles were unfit for combat, and the Australian Government launched a new project in 2018 to replace them. Commentators have noted that Project Waler was over-ambitious, with not enough emphasis placed on keeping costs down. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
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- ... that after being made of reinforced concrete to conform with orders from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Monument to the Founders of Kyiv (depicted) partially collapsed?
- ... that Fuccbois' crew won awards, while Fuccboi's prose received both praise and criticism?
- ... that after fleeing the Nazis in 1938, Peter Strausfeld befriended the manager of London's top art house cinema and designed their posters until his death in 1980?
- ... that the Allman Brothers Band's well-known 1971 interpretation of "Done Somebody Wrong" had four songwriters listed in the credits, but not Eddie Kirkland, who wrote the original song?
- ... that Imam Munandar once proposed releasing prisoners to kill them?
- ... that although the third Onondaga County Courthouse was demolished in 1967, the hand-cut stones of its tower have been preserved?
- ... that King Albert Park MRT station and its adjoining stations Tan Kah Kee and Sixth Avenue are intended to represent the natural elements?
- ... that Aaron Stark's life may have been saved by a friend inviting him in for a blueberry-peach pie?
In the news
- Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area.
- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (pictured) dies at the age of 95.
- Brazilian footballer Pelé dies at the age of 82.
- A winter storm causes record-breaking low temperatures and leaves more than 90 people dead across North America.
On this day
January 4: Colonial Repression Martyrs' Day in Angola (1961)
- 1853 – Solomon Northup regained his freedom after having been sold into slavery in the American South; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later became a bestseller.
- 1909 – British explorer Aeneas Mackintosh (pictured), a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
- 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean troops captured Seoul from United Nations forces.
- 1973 – Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running sitcom in the world, premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
- 2020 – Sembawang Hot Spring Park in Singapore reopened after being redeveloped by the National Parks Board.
- Louis Braille (b. 1809)
- Johanna Westerdijk (b. 1883)
- David Berman (b. 1967)
Today's featured picture
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Chalcolestes viridis, also known as the willow emerald damselfly and the western willow spreadwing, is a species of damselfly in the family Lestidae. Featuring a metallic green body, it has an elongated abdomen and pale brown spots on its wings and resides in areas of still water with overhanging trees. This photograph of a male C. viridis damselfly perching on a twig was taken in Mannheim, Germany, in 2017. Photograph credit: Andreas Eichler
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