Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 January 24

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From today's featured article

August Meyszner (3 August 1886 – 24 January 1947) was an Austrian gendarmerie officer, right-wing politician, and senior Ordnungspolizei (order police) officer of Nazi Germany. He held the post of Higher SS and Police Leader in the German-occupied territory of Serbia from January 1942 to March 1944, during World War II. During his tenure, he oversaw regular reprisal killings and sent tens of thousands of forced labourers to Germany and occupied Norway. His Gestapo detachment also used a gas van to kill as many as 8,000 Jewish women and children who had been detained at the Sajmište concentration camp. Meyszner's time in Belgrade was characterised by friction and competition with German military, economic and foreign affairs officials, and by his visceral hatred and distrust of Serbs; he was considered one of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's most brutal subordinates. Extradited by the Allies to Yugoslavia after the war, he was found guilty of war crimes by a military court, and was executed by hanging on 24 January 1947. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Ludwig II by Elisabet Ney

... that some historians believe Elisabet Ney's full-length statue (pictured) of "Mad King Ludwig" of Bavaria was created as part of a Prussian scheme to unify Germany?
... that gold was discovered on Cline Buttes in central Oregon in 1904, but proved uneconomic to mine?
... that Pecorino di Carmasciano cheese is produced only in a small cluster of towns in the Apennine Mountains of Italy?
... that the Lokrume helmet fragment was the first piece of a Viking helmet to be identified?
... that Merkel Landis, while a treasurer at a bank in Pennsylvania, originated the first Christmas Savings Club?
... that HMS Roebuck rescued HMS Rippon after the latter grounded during an attack on Basse-Terre in 1759?
... that in an attempt to catch Celia Cooney, the New York City Police Department launched what was at the time the largest manhunt in the city's history?
... that Isopogon mnoraifolius was named for the resemblance of its foliage to a menorah?

In the news

The Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul

Rocket Lab's Electron becomes the first rocket to reach orbit using an electric pump-fed engine.
An attack on a hotel (pictured) in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills at least 18 people and injures more than 20 others.
Turkey begins a military offensive against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
A bus fire in the Aktobe Region, Kazakhstan, kills 52 people.
Russell M. Nelson becomes President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The British construction and services company Carillion goes into compulsory liquidation.
The oil tanker MV Sanchi sinks with the loss of all 32 crew eight days after colliding with another ship.

On this day...

January 24

Sutter's Mill (reconstruction)

1458 – The 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus was unanimously proclaimed King of Hungary after the Estates were persuaded to do so by his uncle Michael Szilágyi.
1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill (reconstruction pictured) in Coloma, California, leading to the California Gold Rush.
1915 – First World War: British Grand Fleet ships surprised a German High Seas Fleet squadron in the North Sea, forcing the latter to retreat.
1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launched Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Binh and Biên Hòa.
1990 – Japan launched the Hiten spacecraft, the first lunar probe launched by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States.

George Rooke (d. 1709) · Charles Boardman Hawes (b. 1889) · Maximilian Bircher-Benner (d. 1939)

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Today's featured picture

A 40 shilling note from Connecticut Colony, the English colony that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. The Connecticut pound was introduced in 1709 to replace the British pound. Three series of paper money – known as "Old Tenor", "New Tenor", and "Lawful Money" – were issued before the pound was discontinued in favor of the United States dollar in 1793.

Banknote: Connecticut Colony (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection)

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