Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 January 12

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From today's featured article

First edition of The Monster and Other Stories

The Monster is an 1898 novella by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900), a study of prejudice, fear and isolation in a small town. In the fictional Whilomville, New York, an African-American coachman named Henry Johnson, who is employed by the town's physician, Dr. Trescott, becomes horribly disfigured after he saves Trescott's son from a fire. When Henry is branded a "monster" by the town's residents, Trescott vows to shelter and care for him, resulting in his family's exclusion from the community. Whilomville, which is used in 14 other Crane stories, was based on Port Jervis, New York, where he spent part of his youth. He probably took inspiration from several local men who were similarly disfigured. Modern critics have connected themes of racial division in the story to the 1892 lynching in Port Jervis of an African-American man named Robert Lewis. The novella was included in The Monster and Other Stories—the last collection of Crane's work to be published during his lifetime. Both the novella and the collection received mixed reviews from critics, but The Monster is now considered one of Crane's best works. (Full article...)

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European Hansemuseum

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In the news

Reina nightclub

A cold wave affecting Eastern and Central Europe causes more than 60 deaths.
La La Land wins a record-breaking seven awards at the Golden Globes Awards.
An attack on a nightclub (pictured) in Istanbul, Turkey, during New Year's celebrations, kills at least 39 people and injures more than 70 others.
American actress, screenwriter, and author Carrie Fisher dies at the age of 60, and her mother, actress and singer Debbie Reynolds, dies one day later at the age of 84.

On this day...

January 12: Zanzibar Revolution Day in Tanzania (1964)

Mission Santa Clara

1554 – Bayinnaung, who later assembled the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, was crowned king of the Burmese Taungoo Dynasty.
1777 – Mission Santa Clara de Asís (pictured), a Spanish mission that formed the basis of both the city of Santa Clara, California and Santa Clara University, was established.
1911 – The University of the Philippines College of Law was founded; many leading Filipino political figures have since graduated from it.
1967 – Seventy-three-year-old psychology professor James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically frozen with intent of future resuscitation.
2007 – Comet McNaught reached perihelion and became the brightest comet in over 40 years with an apparent magnitude of −5.5.

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Today's featured picture

Oecophylla smaragdina is a species of arboreal ant found in Asia and Australia. Ants of this species make nests made of leaves stitched together using the silk produced by their larvae.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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