Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 January 31

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From today's featured article

Lambertia formosa is a shrub found in New South Wales, Australia, from the family Proteaceae. It is commonly named mountain devil, after the small devil-figures that were made from its horned woody follicles. Specimens were collected during Lieutenant James Cook's landing at Botany Bay in 1770. First described in 1798 by English botanist James Edward Smith, it is the type species of the small genus Lambertia. It is generally found in heathland or open forest, growing in sandstone-based soils. It grows as a multistemmed shrub to around 2 m (7 ft) with a woody base known as a lignotuber, from which it regrows after bushfire. It has stiff narrow leaves and pink to red flowerheads made up of seven individual tubular flowers that generally appear in spring and summer. The flowers hold profuse amounts of nectar and are pollinated by honeyeaters. Although L. formosa is uncommon in cultivation, it is straightforward to grow in soils with good drainage and a partly shaded to sunny aspect. It is readily propagated by seed. Unlike all other members of the genus Lambertia, L. formosa is resistant to the soil pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Jean-François Champollion's (pictured) first major publication on the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs was reviewed anonymously by Thomas Young, his main rival?
... that Deicke and Millbrig bentonite layers in eastern United States were formed by huge volcanic eruptions?
... that Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer, is the first biography of the producer/director known as the "Father of the Western"?
... that, during his 1903 campaign for Governor of Kentucky, Morris B. Belknap got to a speaking engagement on time by pumping a handcar?
... that a Parliament Square protest against a ban on depiction of certain sexual practices in streaming videos featured slogans such as "Urine for a shock if you expect us to stop"?
... that in 1998 Eleanor Robinson set a world record of 13 days, 1 hour, 54 minutes for a woman to run 1,000 miles (1,600 km)?
... that on parallel computers, processors can steal work from each other?

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In the news

Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) wins a plurality of seats in the Greek legislative election and forms a coalition government with the Independent Greeks.
Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front party is elected President of Zambia.
Sumo wrestler Hakuhō Shō (pictured) wins a record-breaking 33rd makuuchi championship.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah dies and is succeeded by his half brother, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, and the Yemeni cabinet resign after a coup d'état in Yemen by Shia insurgents.
At least 15 people are killed in protests against President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ongoing: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Charles H. Townes – R. K. Laxman – Demis Roussos

On this day...

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

314 – Sylvester I, during whose pontificate the great churches of Rome were built, began his reign as pope.
1862 – American astronomer Alvan Graham Clark first observed the faint white dwarf companion of Sirius (pictured), the brightest star in the night sky.
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.
1945 – Second World War: The British 3rd Commando Brigade's victory in the Battle of Hill 170 was crucial in causing the 28th Japanese Army to withdraw from the Arakan peninsula of Burma.
2001 – Scottish judges sitting in court in the Netherlands convicted Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of 270 counts of murder in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

More anniversaries: January 30 – January 31 – February 1

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Today's featured picture

The Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) is an East Asian freshwater bird of the heron family. Generally measuring 47 cm (19 in) in length, this heron feeds on insects, fish, and crustaceans. The specimen shown here, photographed in Laem Phak Bia, Thailand, is in its winter plumage.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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