From today's featured article
The 2021 Masters (officially the 2021 Betfred Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 10 to 17 January 2021 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. It was the 47th staging of the Masters, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2020–21 season. The top sixteen players from the snooker world rankings were invited to compete in a knockout tournament, organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. It was played behind closed doors because of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom. The defending champion, Stuart Bingham, had defeated Ali Carter 10–8 in the 2020 Masters final. Bingham lost 6–5 to Yan Bingtao (pictured) in the semi-finals. Yan (one of three debutants at the event, alongside Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Gary Wilson) met John Higgins in the final. Yan completed a 10–8 victory to win his first Triple Crown tournament. ( Full article... )
Did you know ...
- ... that dinosaur tracks near Lommiswil (examples pictured) were studied with a helicopter?
- ... that actor Toru Watanabe ate six meals a day?
- ... that a former New York City morgue later became an emergency children's shelter?
- ... that soprano Sherry Zannoth was the assistant to the director of the Mystery Writers of America when not working as an international opera star?
- ... that the title of the 2025 book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This comes from a viral tweet about the Gaza genocide?
- ... that Bagas Hapsoro , despite not knowing music notation, composed a song to raise awareness for the 2009 earthquake in Padang?
- ... that Perfectly Imperfect's social media platform has a main feed that is presented in reverse chronological order and is not algorithmically curated?
- ... that Arthur Honegger's only cello concerto was premiered by its dedicatee and the Boston Symphony Orchestra?
- ... that Roman and Byzantine Old Haifa, Medieval Old Haifa, and the Old City of Haifa are all different places?
In the news
- Faustin-Archange Touadéra (pictured) is re-elected as president of the Central African Republic.
- Delcy Rodríguez is sworn in as interim president of Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro during United States strikes on the capital .
- Luke Littler wins the PDC World Darts Championship .
- A fire at a bar during New Year's Eve celebrations in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, kills 40 people.
On this day
- 976 – After the death of his guardian John I Tzimiskes, Basil II became the effective ruler and senior emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1430 – Philip the Good established the Order of the Golden Fleece , referred to as the most prestigious, exclusive, and expensive order of chivalry in the world.
- 1917 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party were rescued after being stranded for several months.
- 1941 – Greco-Italian War: The Greek army captured the strategically important Klisura Pass in Albania.
- 1985 – Sir Clive Sinclair launched the Sinclair C5 personal electric vehicle, "one of the great marketing bombs of postwar British industry", which later became a cult collectable despite its commercial failure.
- Carl Linnaeus (d. 1778)
- Rod Stewart (b. 1945)
- Kalki Koechlin (b. 1984)
- Tao Li (b. 1990)
Today's featured picture
 | The blue monkey (Cercopithecus mitis) is a species of Old World monkey native to Central and East Africa, ranging from the upper Congo River basin east to the East African Rift and south to northern Angola and Zambia and populations further south down to South Africa. The taxonomy of this species has been disputed and Sykes' monkey, the silver monkey and the golden monkey are often regarded as subspecies. The blue monkey is found in evergreen forests and montane bamboo forests, and lives largely in the forest canopy, coming to the ground infrequently. Its diet consists of fruits, figs, insects, leaves, twigs, and flowers and it lives in philopatric social systems where females stay in their natal groups, while males disperse once they reach adulthood. This photograph shows a blue monkey from the subspecies C. m. labiatus (sometimes called the Samango monkey), in Mount Sheba Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: |