Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 January 21

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From today's featured article

The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the state government of New Jersey in the United States. The person elected to this position is the second highest-ranking official in the state government. Before 2010, New Jersey was one of a few U.S. states that did not have a lieutenant governor. Two men were appointed to the office during brief periods in New Jersey's colonial era (1664–1776), but for most the state's history, the senate president would become "acting governor" during vacancies in the governor's office. After the resignations of Governors Christine Todd Whitman in 2001 and Jim McGreevey in 2004, the state had several acting governors in the span of a few years. Popular sentiment and political pressure from the state's residents and news media outlets sought a better rule for gubernatorial succession. In a referendum, the state's voters authorized a 2006 amendment of the State Constitution to create the position. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, voters elected Republican Kim Guadagno (pictured) to be the first to serve in the post in its modern form. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Andrew Stevovich's work (example pictured) has been described by art critic Carol Diehl as a marriage of simplicity and complexity?
... that the Aurora Film Corporation, founded in 1906, produced India's first newsreel and first children's film?
... that Bill Hooper scored Darlington's first Football League goal, which was "in all probability" the first goal scored in the Third Division North?
... that the navigator was the sole survivor of Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 which crashed near Sharjah, killing 85 people?
... that during World War II, Otto Busse provided the partisans of Białystok with weapons, clothing and medicines at his own expense?
... that the Indonesian wayang theatre developed from the Ravana Chhaya puppet theatre of Odisha, India?
... that the Yamaha NS-10 sounded so bright that Bob Clearmountain had to hang tissue paper over the tweeter?

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In the news

Scientists measure the optical spectrum of ball lightning for the first time.
Egypt approves a new constitution.
Archaeologists discover the tombs of Sobekhotep I and the previously unknown Abydos Dynasty pharaoh, Seneb Kay.
During heavy fighting over Malakal, South Sudan, a Nile ferry carrying refugees sinks, drowning more than 200 people.
In association football, Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured) wins the FIFA Ballon d'Or and Nadine Angerer wins the Women's World Player of the Year award.
Israeli politician and general Ariel Sharon dies after being in a permanent vegetative state for eight years.

Recent deaths: Claudio Abbado – Suchitra Sen – Hiroo Onoda

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On this day...

January 21: Feast Day of Saint Agnes (Christianity); Flag Day in Quebec

763 – The Abbasid Caliphate crushed the Alid Revolt when one of the rebellion leaders was mortally wounded in battle near Basra in what is now Iraq.
1525 – The Anabaptist Movement was born when founders Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock re-baptized each other and other followers in Zürich, Switzerland, believing that the Christian religious practice of infant baptism is invalid because a child cannot commit to a religious faith.
1912 – Raymond Poincaré (pictured), who would pursue hardline anti-German policies, began his first term as Prime Minister of France.
1968 – Vietnam War: The Vietnam People's Army attacked Khe Sanh Combat Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.

More anniversaries: January 20 – January 21 – January 22

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It is now January 21, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

The R Coronae Australis region, imaged with the Wide Field Imager at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory. R Coronae Australis is a star located in the Corona Australis constellation. According to ESO, "the light blue nebulosity seen in this picture is mostly due to the reflection of starlight off small dust particles."

Photograph: ESO

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