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Horseshoe bats are a family of more than 100 bat species. They are found throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. While many are brown, some species have black, reddish, or orange fur. They are small, weighing less than 30 g (1.1 oz), and are named after the horseshoe-shaped flap of skin on their noses, which helps them echolocate. They use echolocation to navigate and to forage for their prey of insects and spiders, maneuvering more slowly in flight than most bats. In colder regions, they hibernate during the winter months. Mating may occur in the spring or fall depending on the species, with gestation lasting about seven weeks before a single offspring is born. Typical lifespans are around six or seven years, though they can be as long as thirty years for some individuals. Dozens of SARS-related coronaviruses have been documented in horseshoe bats, which are hunted for food in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. (Full article...)

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In the news

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

United States Capitol

Rioters supporting Donald Trump storm the United States Capitol (pictured), disrupting certification of the presidential election and forcing Congress to evacuate.
In the United States, the Democratic Party wins control of the Senate, with victories in regular and special Senate elections in Georgia.
Saudi Arabia reopens its border with Qatar, ending a three-year diplomatic crisis.

On this day

January 7: Christmas (Eastern Christianity; Julian calendar); Victory over Genocide Day in Cambodia (1979)

Jerry Rawlings

1797 – The first official Italian tricolour was adopted by the government of the Cispadane Republic.
1904 – The Marconi International Marine Communication Company specified CQD as the distress signal to be used by its operators.
1939 – The French physicist Marguerite Perey identified francium, the last element first discovered in nature, rather than by synthesis.
1978 – An article entitled "Iran and Red and Black Colonization" was published in the newspaper Ettela'at attacking Ruhollah Khomeini, then in exile in Iraq.
1993 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana was inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings (pictured), the country's former military ruler, as president.

Anna Murray Vail (b. 1863)
Helena Válková (b. 1951)
Caster Semenya (b. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, succeeding to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of the incumbent Zachary Taylor. Born into poverty with little formal education, he became a successful attorney and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1832. Never an advocate of slavery, he felt duty-bound as president to support the Compromise of 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states. He sought election to a full term in 1852, but was passed over by the Whigs in favor of Winfield Scott. This line engraving of Fillmore was produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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