Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 February 1

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Haane Manahi (28 September 1913 – 29 March 1986) was a New Zealand Māori soldier who served in the Second World War with the Māori Battalion. He joined the battalion in 1939 and fought in Greece, in Crete and in North Africa. In April 1943, during the Tunisian campaign, his gallantry in an action at Takrouna resulted in a recommendation, supported by four generals, that he be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC). This was downgraded to an award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal, which disappointed many of his fellow soldiers. After his death in a car crash in 1986, representations were made for a posthumous award of the VC for his valour at Takrouna. These representations were unsuccessful but eventually resulted in a special award in 2007 of an altar cloth for use in a local church, a ceremonial sword and a personal letter from Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his gallantry. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

... that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (pictured) is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress?
... that in Denial of Violence, Fatma Müge Göçek argues that Armenian Genocide denial is one of the ideological foundations of the Turkish nation-state?
... that the Septet for trumpet, strings and piano was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns for a mathematician?
... that Senegalese turtle biologist Tomas Diagne drove 1,200 miles (1,900 km) to pick up the carcass of a Nubian flapshell turtle?
... that despite a $34 million advertising campaign in the United States by General Mills, their breakfast cereal snack Fingos only lasted from 1993 to 1994?
... that the northern water dragon migrated from New Guinea into Wallacea less than one million years ago?
... that American educator Alan T. Busby was the first African-American student to attend the University of Connecticut, graduating in 1918?
... that a journalist lived for a year using only goods made in Canada?

In the news

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured), the State Counsellor of Myanmar, is detained by the military in a coup d'état.
A coordinated short squeeze targeting American hedge funds causes GameStop's stock price to spike.
Kaja Kallas becomes the first female prime minister of Estonia, following the resignation of Jüri Ratas.
In Russia, protests against the arrest of Alexei Navalny occur in more than 120 towns and cities.

On this day

February 1: Feast day of Saint Brigid of Kildare (Western Christianity); the Fajr decade begins in Iran; Black History Month begins in North America

Mayon

1329 – The Teutonic Knights successfully besieged the hillfort of Medvėgalis in Samogitia, Lithuania, and baptised the defenders in the Catholic rite.
1411 – The First Peace of Thorn was signed, ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
1814 – More than 1,200 people died in the most destructive recorded eruption of Mayon (pictured) in the Philippines.
1884 – The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary, a 352-page volume that covered words from A to ant, was published.
2001 – The Timor Leste Defence Force was established from the erstwhile anti-Indonesian independence movement Falintil.

Alexios I of Trebizond (d. 1222)
Ștefan Luchian (b. 1868)
Stanley Matthews (b. 1915)

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Ali Daei

Ali Daei, a former Iranian professional association-football forward, scored 109 goals in 149 international appearances between 1993 and 2006. He is the all-time top international men's goalscorer. He made his debut for the Iran national football team in a match against Pakistan. His first international goal came in a 6–0 victory over Chinese Taipei on 25 June 1993 during qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. His final goal came in a 3–2 victory over Costa Rica match on 1 March 2006, and his final appearance for Iran was in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Angola on 21 June 2006 in the group stage. He has scored eight international hat-tricks; the first was on 10 June 1996 in an 8–0 win over Nepal at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, and the last was on 17 November 2004 against Laos in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match, which made him the first male player to score 100 goals in international football. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Robinson projection is a projection of a world map showing the entire Earth at once. It was specifically created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of showing the whole globe as a single flat image. The projection was devised by Arthur H. Robinson in 1963; distortion is severe close to the poles, but quickly declines to moderate levels as latitudes decrease. This Robinson-projection map, with standard parallels of 38°N and 38°S, was produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and shows the world as of February 2016.

Map credit: Central Intelligence Agency

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