Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 January 2

Gagak Item (Indonesian for Black Raven) is a 1939 film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) written by Saeroen and directed by Joshua and Othniel Wong for Tan's Film. Starring long-time screen couple Rd Mochtar and Roekiah (pictured), with another role held by Eddy T. Effendi, the black-and-white film followed a masked bandit known only as "Gagak Item". The film was shot in rural Bogor (then known by the Dutch name Buitenzorg). It featured the cast and crew from the 1937 hit Terang Boelan, who were hired by Tan's so that the company could better imitate the earlier film's success. Gagak Item was part of the recovery of a domestic film industry which had been severely affected by the Great Depression; in 1939 four domestic productions were released in the Indies. Recorded as a commercial success and receiving positive reviews for its kroncong music and the leading actress' "demure" performance, the film was last shown sometime after 1951, and is now thought to be likely lost. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the first elevator in Northern California was installed in the E. Janssen Building (pictured) in Eureka?
• ... that Stefan Vladislav of Serbia founded the Mileševa monastery?
• ... that Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux orchestrated her husband's release from a concentration camp after he was captured by the Gestapo?
• ... that the Argentine telenovela Mis amigos de siempre features actors Osvaldo Laport and Soledad Silveyra as a couple, as in the older telenovela Campeones de la vida?
• ... that octogenarian poet Joyce La Mers donated $500,000 to Light Quarterly, the US's only literary magazine devoted to light verse?
• ... that Cossinia trifoliata trees endemic to New Caledonia have become vulnerable to extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 1998 assessment?
• ... that in 1935, Ole Fahlin produced the Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe which was classified as a "flying automobile"?

• Latvia becomes the 18th EU member state to adopt the euro.
• More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• On its maiden flight, a Russian Soyuz-2-1v rocket launches Aist 1 and two radar calibration satellites.
• Two suicide bombings kill more than 30 people in Volgograd, Russia (Volgograd-1 railway station pictured).
• Amidst fears of civil war, the United Nations Security Council agrees to send more UNMISS soldiers to South Sudan.
• Pioneering British computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing, convicted in 1952 of gross indecency for homosexual activity, is granted a posthumous royal pardon.

January 2: Feast Day of Gregory of Nazianzus (Roman Catholic Church)

• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
• 1941 – Second World War: Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales, was severely damaged by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
• 1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong won its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
• 1967 – Former actor Ronald Reagan (pictured) began his career in government when he was sworn in as the 33rd Governor of California.
• 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 began, which resulted in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, leading to at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage.

More anniversaries: January 1 – January 2 – January 3

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The larva of Cydalima perspectalis, a species of moth native to eastern Asia but also found in Europe. Larvae, such as this specimen photographed in Dornbirn, Austria, feed on the leaves and shoots of Buxus species.

Photo: Böhringer Friedrich