Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 January 27

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From today's featured article

The new wave of British heavy metal began in the late 1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Encompassing diverse mainstream and underground styles, the music often infused 1970s heavy metal music with the intensity of punk rock to produce fast and aggressive songs. The do-it-yourself ethic of the new metal bands led to the spread of raw-sounding, self-produced recordings and a proliferation of independent record labels. Song lyrics were usually about escapist themes from mythology, fantasy, horror or the rock lifestyle. The movement involved mostly young, white, male musicians and fans of the heavy metal subculture, whose behavioural and visual codes were quickly adopted by metal fans worldwide after the spread of the music to continental Europe, North America and Japan. The movement spawned perhaps a thousand bands, but only a few survived the rise of MTV and glam metal. Among them, Motörhead and Saxon had considerable success, and Iron Maiden and Def Leppard became international stars. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Sun helmet

... that during World War II, International Hat Company was one of the two main manufacturers of the sun helmet (pictured), one of the longest-used helmets of the United States military?
... that the part-Hawaiian Carlos A. Long was unanimously elected captain of the 1899 Georgetown Hoyas football team at Georgetown University?
... that Gufran-Ullah Beig is the first Indian scientist to receive the Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award of the World Meteorological Organization?
... that Francis Poulenc composed the four motets Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence at different times, three of them on responsories for the Holy Week?
... that when the theologian Patrick Dehm was suspended by the Bishop of Limburg, he founded an ecumenical association to continue the work for contemporary church music?
... that there are eight churches on Antarctica?

In the news

Yokozuna Kisenosato Yutaka

In sumo, Kisenosato Yutaka (pictured) is promoted as the 72nd yokozuna, becoming the first Japanese wrestler to earn the title in 19 years.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom issues a ruling that an Act of Parliament is needed before the government can trigger Article 50 to leave the European Union.
Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms kill at least twenty people across the Southeastern United States.
A train derailment in Andhra Pradesh, India, kills forty-one people and injures sixty-eight others.

On this day...

January 27

Grissom, White, and Chaffee of Apollo 1

1142 – Despite having saved the Southern Song dynasty from attempts by the northern Jin dynasty to conquer it, Chinese general Yue Fei was executed by the Song government.
1945 – The Soviet Red Army liberated more than 7,500 prisoners left behind by Nazi personnel in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland.
1967 – The Apollo 1 fire killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger Chaffee (pictured) at Cape Kennedy Launch Complex 34, and destroyed the spacecraft.
1996 – Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was deposed by Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara in a military coup d'état.
2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution began as more than 16,000 protesters demonstrated in Sana'a to demand governmental changes.

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From today's featured list

Flag of Indiana

The U.S. state of Indiana has 12 official state emblems, as well as other designated official and unofficial items. The majority of the symbols in the list are officially recognized and created by an act of the Indiana General Assembly and signed into law by the governor. They are listed in Indiana Code Title 1, Article 2, State Emblems, which also regulates the appearance and applicable use of the items. The first symbol was the Seal of Indiana, which was made official in 1801 for the Indiana Territory and again in 1816 by the state of Indiana. It served as the state's only emblem for nearly a century until the adoption of the state song in 1913. For many years, Indiana was the only state without a flag. The official state banner (pictured) was adopted in 1917, and renamed the state flag in 1955. The newest symbol of Indiana is the state rifle, the Grouseland Rifle, assigned in 2012 during the second regular session of the 117th Indiana General Assembly. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

An infrared photograph of the Horsehead Nebula, a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion. Located approximately 1,500 light years from Earth, it is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of the shape of its swirling cloud of dark dust and gases, which bears some resemblance to a horse's head.

Photograph: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

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