Wikipedia:Today's featured list/January 2012

January 23

Sonja Henie, three-time Olympic figure skating champion, won her last Olympic medal in 1936.

Ninety-five athletes won at least one medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics, held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The Games featured 17 events, including alpine skiing for the first time, which was the first women's event that was not part of the figure skating programme. Of the 28 participating National Olympic Committees, 11 had athletes represented on the medal winners' list. Medal winners included Sonja Henie (pictured), who won the last of her three gold medals in Olympic figure skating, and Ivar Ballangrud, whose four medals in speed skating took his career tally to seven. Just 9 of the 95 medal winners won more than one medal; 5 of the 9 won at least one gold medal in addition to their other medals. The British men's ice hockey team were also among the medallists; their gold medal remains to date the sole British Olympic title in ice hockey. (Full list...)

January 30

The Smithsonian Institution Building

The Smithsonian museums are the most widely visible part of the United States' Smithsonian Institution (pictured) and consist of nineteen museums and galleries as well as the National Zoological Park. Eleven of these museums are located on the National Mall, while the remainder are located elsewhere in Washington, D.C., as well as New York City and Chantilly, Virginia. The museums have roughly 137 million objects such as works of art, natural specimens, cultural artifacts, etc., in their collections, and are visited by over 25 million people every year. The birth of the Smithsonian Institution can be traced to the acceptance of James Smithson's legacy, willed to the United States in 1826. In 1838, this legacy, which totaled more than $500,000, was delivered to the US Mint and in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was established. The Institution grew slowly until 1964 when Sidney Dillon Ripley became secretary. Ripley managed, over a twenty year period, to expand the institution by eight museums and upped admission from 10.8 million to 30 million people a year. The newest Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is slated to open in 2015. (Full list...)