Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 January 26

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From today's featured article

Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on January 26, 2010, and for PlayStation 3 a year later. This sequel to Mass Effect is set in our galaxy in the 22nd century, when humanity is threatened by the insectoid Collectors. BioWare emphasized third-person shooter aspects in the sequel, including limited ammunition and regenerable health. A variety of downloadable content packs extend the game with new character outfits and missions. Mass Effect 2 was a commercial success and received considerable acclaim from video game publications, including a score of 96 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version at the review aggregate website Metacritic. Critics praised the interactive storytelling, characterization, and combat, but some reviewers expressed concerns about the sequel's simplified gameplay. The game received numerous year-end awards, including Game of the Year at the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and the 2011 BAFTA Games Award. It is frequently cited in top-100 lists of video games. (Full article...)

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Isopogon anemonifolius

... that the Australian shrub Isopogon anemonifolius (pictured) was first cultivated in the UK in 1791?
... that until 1989 a wide downtown Yangon street was named after Htaw Lay, a 19th-century defector to the British and principal restorer of the Shwedagon Pagoda?
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... that Edmund Wainwright was considered to be amongst those who resurrected South Australian cricket?
... that many Iranian women chose not to leave their houses, and a few even committed suicide, to avoid removing their hijabs due to Reza Shah's Kashf-e hijab decree?
... that Bridget Tan, who founded the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics to provide services to abused migrant workers, was honored for her work by Hillary Clinton?
... that Project Copper began and ended military cooperation between the Khmer Republic and the Kingdom of Laos?
... that contemporaries of the American artist Adelaide Lawson saw her as a lovably gypsy-like young woman who "had never been taught to wash her ears and neck"?

In the news

U.S. winter storm on January 23

A cold wave across East Asia results in at least ninety deaths, primarily in Taiwan.
A number of countries warn women in the Americas to postpone pregnancy due to the possible threat of microcephaly in newborn babies from the Zika virus.
A winter storm (satellite image pictured) causes at least forty deaths and paralyzes travel across the Eastern United States.
Caltech researchers discover evidence of a hypothetical Planet Nine, about ten times the mass of Earth, in the outer Solar System.

Ongoing events:
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths

On this day...

January 26: Australia Day (1788); Republic Day in India (1950); Liberation Day in Uganda (1986)

Siad Barre

1699 – The signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz to conclude the Austro-Ottoman War marked the end of Ottoman control in much of Central Europe and the rise of the Habsburg Monarchy as the dominant power in the region.
1856 – Puget Sound War: United States Marines from the USS Decatur defeated Native American forces after an all-day battle with settlers in Seattle, Washington.
1918 – A group of Red Guards hung a red lantern atop the tower of Helsinki Workers' Hall to symbolically mark the start of the Finnish Civil War.
1966 – The three Beaumont children disappeared from a beach in Glenelg, South Australia, resulting in one of the country's largest-ever police investigations.
1991 – Factions led by warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his rebel group, the United Somali Congress, ousted President of Somalia Siad Barre (pictured) from office.

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Today's featured picture

The pin-tailed snipe (Gallinago stenura) is a small stocky wader. It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season in southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia. These birds forage in mud or soft soil, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and earthworms, but also some plant material.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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