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Today's featured article

Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of Tongwynlais in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff. The castle's earth motte was reused by Gilbert de Clare as the basis for a new stone fortification, built between 1267 and 1277. John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, inherited the castle ruins in 1848. One of Britain's wealthiest men, he employed the architect William Burges to reconstruct the castle as a summer residence. Burges rebuilt the outside before his death in 1881, and the interior work was finished by his team in 1891; it featured elaborate decorations including extensive use of symbolism drawing on themes from classical mythology and legend. Crichton-Stuart planted a vineyard just below the castle, where wine production continued until the First World War. Castell Coch is considered to be one of the best surviving examples of Victorian architecture. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

January 23: Little New Year in southern China (2025)

Hongwu Emperor

1368 – The Hongwu Emperor (pictured) ascended to the throne, initiating the Ming dynasty, which would rule China for three centuries.
1571 – Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange in London, giving it its royal title.
1846 – Ahmad Bey declared the legal abolition of slavery in Tunisia.
1870 – American Indian Wars: The United States Army killed about 200 Piegan Blackfeet, mostly women, children, and the elderly, in the Marias Massacre.
1915 – Rebels led by John Chilembwe attacked local plantation owners, beginning an uprising regarded as a key moment in the history of Malawi.
2003 – The final signal was detected from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10, then about 12 billion kilometres (7.5 billion miles) from Earth.

Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama (b. 1880)
Guida Maria (b. 1950)
Hsu Tain-tsair (b. 1953)

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In the news

Grand Kartal Hotel in 2007

A fire at a ski resort hotel (pictured) in Kartalkaya, Turkey, leaves at least 79 people dead and 51 others injured.
A series of attacks by the National Liberation Army in the Catatumbo region of Colombia leaves more than a hundred people dead.
A ceasefire agreement suspends the Israel–Hamas war, involving the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Two Supreme Court judges are assassinated in a shooting at the Supreme Court of Iran in Tehran.

Did you know...

"Poor Maria" from A Sentimental Journey

... that one 18th-century reader was so offended by some chapters of Laurence Sterne's 1768 novel A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (scene pictured) that they glued the pages shut?
... that only two people are known to have seen Du Toit's torrent frog alive?
... that Jeanne Trevor's name was misspelled on the cover of her first album?
... that the Sitaleshwar Temple remained a place of worship even when it was in ruins?
... that the comet C/1975 T2 (Suzuki–Saigusa–Mori) was independently discovered by five observers within the span of half an hour?
... that viewers of an Indiana TV station's newscast in 1995 could send emails to the presenter live on air?
... that the diary of Erich Lassota von Steblau is an important primary source on the 16th-century Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine?
... that nearly half of the wins achieved in 2024 by the San Jose State Spartans women's volleyball team were by forfeit?
... that Japan's oldest expressway is intended to be transformed into a park?

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