Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 January 19

No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit (No. 2 OCU) is a fighter training unit of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Located at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales, it trains pilots to operate the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (pictured), conducts refresher courses, and trains future Hornet instructors. Pilots new to the Hornet enter No. 2 OCU after first qualifying to fly fast jets at No. 79 Squadron and undertaking initial fighter combat instruction at No. 76 Squadron. Once qualified on the F/A-18, they are posted to one of the RAAF's operational Hornet squadrons. No. 2 OCU was established as No. 2 (Fighter) Operational Training Unit in April 1942. During World War II it provided training on a wide range of aircraft, including P-40 Kittyhawks, Vultee Vengeances, Avro Ansons, CAC Boomerangs, Supermarine Spitfires and Airspeed Oxfords. Disbanded in March 1947, the unit was re-formed at Williamtown in March 1952 in response to the demand for more highly trained pilots in the Korean War. It was renamed No. 2 (Fighter) Operational Conversion Unit in September 1958, and before the Hornet it conducted training with the CAC Sabre, Dassault Mirage III, and Macchi MB-326. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Nigersaurus – Slay Tracks (1933–1969) – Steamtown, U.S.A.

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the Mangrove Robin (pictured) consumes a significant amount of crab in its diet, in addition to its primary prey of insects?
• ... that John Mohardt played baseball for the Detroit Tigers with Ty Cobb and football for the Chicago Bears with Red Grange?
• ... that a Light Elf can carry 1,250 kilograms (2,800 lb)?
• ... that St John's Church, Egremont, has the largest unsupported ceiling in Merseyside?
• ... that the Minar-i Pakistan was designed by Russian-born Pakistani architect Nasreddin Murat-Khan?
• ... that in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, Dr. Watson was first told about Holmes in the Criterion Bar?
• ... that the four lions surrounding the Obelisk Commemorating Roger Barnston have been described as either mourning or snoozing?

• Archaeologists discover the tombs of Sobekhotep I and the previously unknown Abydos Dynasty pharaoh, Seneb Kay.
• During heavy fighting over Malakal, South Sudan, a Nile ferry carrying refugees sinks, '''drowning more than 200 people.
• In association football, Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured) wins the FIFA Ballon d'Or and Nadine Angerer wins the Women's World Player of the Year award.
• Israeli politician and general Ariel Sharon dies after being in a permanent vegetative state for eight years.
• Amid civil conflict, Michel Djotodia resigns as President of the Central African Republic.
• Heritage Auctions sells a $1,000 United States Treasury Note for $3,290,000, setting a new world record price for a banknote.

Recent deaths: Hiroo Onoda – Suchitra Sen

January 19: Theophany (Julian calendar)

• 649 – War against the Western Turks: The forces of Kucha surrendered after a siege led by Tang Dynasty general Ashina She'er, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in Xinjiang.
• 1746 – During the Second Jacobite Rising, Bonnie Prince Charlie (pictured) occupied the town of Stirling, Scotland, but failed to capture its castle.
• 1862 – American Civil War: In their first significant victory, Union forces defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Mill Springs near modern Nancy, Kentucky.
• 1917 – Approximately 50 tons of TNT exploded at a munitions factory in Silvertown in West Ham, present-day Greater London, killing over 70 people and injuring over 400 others.
• 1996 – A tank barge and a tug grounded on a beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, US, spilling an estimated 828,000 US gallons (3,130,000 l) of home heating oil.

More anniversaries: January 18 – January 19 – January 20

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St. Francis in Ecstasy is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, started in 1475 and completed around 1480. The 124 cm × 142 cm (49 in × 56 in) oil on panel painting depicts Francis of Assisi in ecstasy, although academics disagree upon the reason. The painting is now housed in the Frick Collection in New York City.

Painting: Giovanni Bellini