Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 January 26

AAC Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 fighter

The Australian Air Corps (AAC) was a temporary military formation that existed in the interval between the disbandment of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) of World War I and the establishment of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in March 1921. Raised in January 1920, the AAC was commanded by Major William Anderson, a former AFC pilot. Many members of the AAC were also from the AFC and went on to join the RAAF. Although part of the Australian Army, the AAC was overseen by a board of senior officers that included members of the Royal Australian Navy. The primary purpose of the corps was to maintain assets of the Central Flying School at Point Cook, Victoria, but it also undertook several pioneering activities: AAC personnel set an Australian altitude record that stood for a decade, made the first non-stop flight between Sydney and Melbourne, and took the country's initial steps in the field of aviation medicine. The RAAF inherited Point Cook and most of its initial equipment from the AAC. (Full article...)

Jessen's icosahedron

• ... that Jessen's icosahedron (pictured) has been used for both the "Skwish" children's toy and a NASA proposal for a "super ball bot" to cushion space landers on other planets?
• ... that after a dispute emerged over the terms of its lease, the owner of its broadcast tower forced Wyoming radio station KNWT off the air by disconnecting its power?
• ...that the Yamashiro ikki has been characterized as the "people's parliament of the Warring States period"?
• ... that in 1848, the Hartford and New Haven Railroad was "regularly run with greater speed than any other railroad in the United States"?
• ... that Ludwig Zottmayr, who created the role of King Marke in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, was not the composer's first choice?
• ... that referee Jan Verhaas was informed of an error he made at the 2022 Masters by a member of the crowd?
• ... that Cody Bellinger made a motion capture appearance in Assassin's Creed Valhalla as the Viking Otta Sluggasson, with Bellinger's own baseball bat serving as Sluggasson's weapon?
• ... that Uvariopsis dicaprio was the first new plant species described in 2022?

Roch Marc Christian Kaboré

• In Burkina Faso, a coup d'état led by military officer Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba deposes President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (pictured) and announces the dissolution of the parliament, government and constitution.
• Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk and peace activist Thích Nhất Hạnh
  dies at the age of 95.
• Belgian-British pilot Zara Rutherford becomes the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

January 26: Australia Day (1788); Republic Day in India (1950)

Cullinan Diamond

• 661 – Ali, the fourth Islamic caliph, was assassinated, effectively ending the Rashidun Caliphate.
• 1700 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.0 occurred off the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records of tsunamis.
• 1905 – The 3,107-carat (621 g; 1.37 lb) Cullinan Diamond (pictured), the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, was discovered at the Premier Mine in Gauteng, South Africa.
• 1952 – Spontaneous anti-British riots erupted in Cairo following the killings of 50 Egyptian auxiliary police officers the previous day.
• 1972 – JAT Flight 367 exploded in mid-air over Czechoslovakia; the only survivor of the 28 on board, flight attendant Vesna Vulović, fell 10,160 m (33,330 ft), setting the record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute.