Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 January 31

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From today's featured article

Plains zebras

Zebras are African equines with black-and-white striped coats and share the genus Equus with horses and asses. Zebras inhabit eastern and southern Africa and can be found in savannahs, grasslands, woodlands, shrublands and mountainous areas. They are primarily grazers, but can subsist on lower-quality vegetation. They are preyed on mainly by lions, typically fleeing when threatened but they may bite and kick. Several theories have been proposed for the function of their stripes, with evidence suggesting they are a form of protection from biting flies. Of the three extant species, Grévy's zebra is endangered, the mountain zebra is vulnerable and the plains zebra (examples pictured) is near-threatened; the quagga, a type of plains zebra, was driven to extinction in the 19th century. Zebras communicate with vocalisations, body postures and facial expressions. Plains and mountain zebras practice social grooming, which strengthens social bonds. Zebras have featured in art and stories in Africa and beyond. (Full article...)

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Cortinarius ainsworthii

... that among Kew's highlights of species described in 2020 were six British webcaps: Cortinarius ainsworthii (example pictured), C. heatherae, C. britannicus, C. scoticus, C. aurae, and C. subsaniosus?
... that "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, was almost scrapped?
... that Kafilur Rahman Nishat Usmani translated the Islamic law book Fatawa 'Alamgiri from Arabic into Urdu?
... that the development of Thomas Jefferson Park was intended to help Italian Harlem, described as "for many years the black spot of Harlem"?
... that the 9th-century Abbasid caliph al-Wathiq, whose five-year reign is considered by historians to be unremarkable, was heavily fictionalized in the 18th-century Gothic fantasy novel Vathek?
... that both the Mayotte Marine Natural Park and the Glorioso Islands Marine Natural Park entirely cover the exclusive economic zones of the islands within them?
... that Millicent Taplin left school at 13 and never studied art full time, yet became one of Wedgwood's main ceramics designers?
... that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a frustrated high-school student who Snapchatted "fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything" can be suspended from cheerleading for a year?

In the news

Kaja Kallas

A coordinated short squeeze targeting American hedge funds causes GameStop's stock price to spike.
Kaja Kallas (pictured) 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

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

Ham the Chimp

314 – Sylvester I, during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Constantine the Great, began his reign as pope.
1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first voluntary hospital specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.
1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not give up for five more years.
1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp (pictured) became the first hominid launched into outer space.
2013 – A gas leak underneath the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City caused an explosion that killed at least 37 people and injured another 121.

John Francis Regis (b. 1597)
Zina D. H. Young (b. 1821)
Adelaide Tambo (d. 2007)

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Today's featured picture

Mycena epipterygia, the yellowleg bonnet, is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae, native to Europe. It grows on the floor of deciduous and coniferous woodland as well as on acid grassland, and among mosses, as seen here at Erbach an der Donau, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The sticky, bell-shaped cap becomes more convex with age, and varies in colour, the slender cylindrical stem being yellowish-green, which helps to distinguish this fungus from other species. Some parts of the fungus, including the mycelium, are bioluminescent.

Photograph credit: Holger Krisp

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