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Zhou Youguang

Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang (pictured), creator of the pinyin system for
writing Chinese in Latin letters, dies at the age of 111.

Passenger services are inaugurated on the Addis AbabaDjibouti Railway, a

fast electric railway connecting the Ethiopian capital to the Red Sea.

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 Globe

Awards.
Ongoing:
Battle of Mosul
Recent deaths:
Magic Alex
Lord Snowdon
William Peter Blatty
Anthony King

On this day...
January 15: World Religion Day (2017); John Chilembwe Day in Malawi; Korean
Alphabet Day in North Korea

The British Museum

1759 The British Museum (pictured) in London, today containing one of

the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world, opened to the public
in Montagu House, Bloomsbury.

1865 American Civil War: The Union Armycaptured Fort Fisher, the last
seaport of the Confederacy.

1937 Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republican forces both withdrew
after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.

1967 The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in
the American football championship game now known as Super Bowl I.

1991 Elizabeth II, as Queen of Australia, signed letters patent allowing

Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own
separate Victoria Cross award in its own honours system.
More anniversaries:
January 14

Emperor is the ninth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson, released on January 15, 2015. In
place of their usual industrial rock style, the album features a sparser, blues-rock-influenced sound. It was the
band's first album to be co-produced by score composer Tyler Bates, who had met frontman Marilyn
Manson (pictured) through their mutual involvement in the television series Californication. It was released
through the singer's Hell, etc. label to generally positive reviews, with several publications referring to it as the
band's best album in over a decade. It went on to appear on multiple best-album lists for 2015. It was also a
commercial success, debuting at number eight on the Billboard 200 with the band's highest opening week sales
since 2007. The album was dedicated to Manson's mother, who died of Alzheimer's disease during its
production. To promote the record, the band embarked on The Hell Not Hallelujah Tour, which ran for almost
two years along with two co-headlining tours: The End Times with The Smashing Pumpkins, and a summer
2016 tour with Slipknot. (Full article...)

Recently featured:
Interstate 275 (Michigan)

Jersey Act
The Monster (novella)

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Did you know...

Martin Luther

... that Martin Luther (pictured) paraphrased in his hymn "Mitten wir im Leben sind mit dem Tod
umfangen" the Latin "Media vita in morte sumus" (In the midst of life we are in death), including
its Trisagion?

... that Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar killed Umayyad commander Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad at the Battle of
Khazir?

... that after the Bolshevik Party of India leader Barada Mukutmoni was named Tourism Minister in
the Second United Front Cabinet of West Bengal, there was a split in his party?

... that drag queen Violet Chachki's EP Gagged was inspired by her time working as an assistant to
a dominatrix?

... that Gui Minhai, whose four bookseller colleagues also disappeared in mysterious circumstances,
reappeared three months later on Chinese television confessing to killing a girl in a 2003 DUI accident?

... that the titular character from Bug! was one of three candidates to be the mascot for the Sega
Saturn console, due to the lack of a Sonic the Hedgehog video game?

... that epidemiologist Yasmin Altwaijri encourages other Saudi Arabian women to become scientists,
arguing that this need not "cross the boundaries of our societal norms and customs"?

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Today's featured picture

A view of the Taj Mahal fro

also includes subsidiary tom
"moonlight garden". Its origi
the circumstances of its com
Islamic Mughal Empire in In

Photograph: Yann; edit: Jim Cart

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