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From today's featured article

Domestic goose, like the character in Untitled Goose Game

Untitled Goose Game is a 2019 indie puzzle stealth video game developed by House House and published by Panic Inc. Players control a goose which bothers the inhabitants of an English village. Players must use the goose's abilities to manipulate objects and non-player characters to complete objectives. Inspired by Super Mario 64 and the Hitman series, the game combines stealth mechanics with a lack of violence to create humorous scenarios. It was released for macOS, the Nintendo Switch, Windows, the PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One. The game's unusual name came from a last-minute decision during preparation for entry to a games festival. The music uses short clips from six of Claude Debussy's Préludes. Untitled Goose Game received positive reviews, with critics praising its gameplay and humour. The game received the D.I.C.E. Award for Game of the Year and the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, among other accolades. Dan Golding, who curated the game music, was nominated for an ARIA award. By the end of 2019, Untitled Goose Game had sold more than a million copies. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

An African Song or Chant from Barbados

... that An African Song or Chant from Barbados (manuscript pictured) was nominated for inscription on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register by someone who saw it in an online exhibition?
... that Elisheva Biernoff paints recreations of found vintage snapshot photographs, some including details like lens flare and overexposure?
... that staffers of an Ohio radio station learned that it had been sold on the same day as its owner's death?
... that A Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Paul Aermont Among the Planets (1873), following the cancellation of a planned second edition, was not reprinted until 2018?
... that Harold Harrington did not seek out new species, but was the first to collect a plant that was later named after him?
... that fans of romcom heroine Bridget Jones were shocked at the death of a favourite character in the 2013 novel Mad about the Boy, and then again in a 2025 film?
... that a Bronze Age priestess named Eritha was the focus of the first recorded legal dispute in Europe?
... that the Roman-era Ard-al-Moharbeen necropolis is the largest cemetery discovered in Gaza?
... that the writer of "Crabs for Christmas" joked that it contributed to Baltimore's population decline?

In the news

Fireball from the Learjet crash

A Learjet 55 crashes (explosion pictured) into multiple buildings and houses in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, killing at least 7 people and injuring more than 19 others.
Ahmed al-Sharaa is appointed president of the Syrian transitional government.
American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with an army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., United States, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.
In sumo, Hōshōryū Tomokatsu becomes the 74th yokozuna.
Miloš Vučević announces his resignation as prime minister of Serbia following anti-corruption protests over the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse.

On this day

February 3: Lichun begins in East Asia (2025); Feast day of Saint Laurence of Canterbury (Western Christianity); Four Chaplains' Day in the United States

Eileen Collins

1047 – Emperor Henry III declared Drogo of Hauteville to be count of all Apulian and Calabrian Normans.
1862 – Moldavia and Wallachia formally united, creating the Romanian United Principalities.
1870 – Reconstruction era: The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, formally prohibiting race-based disenfranchisement in the United States.
1930 – The Communist Party of Indochina, the Communist Party of Annam and the Communist League of Indochina merged to form the Communist Party of Vietnam.
1995 – In mission STS-63, astronaut Eileen Collins (pictured) became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.

Caroline von Wolzogen (b. 1763)
Dolly Rudeman (b. 1902)
Umm Kulthum (d. 1975)
Mary Healy (d. 2015)

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From today's featured list

Living Colour in 1993

The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality vocal performances in the hard rock genre. The honor was first presented to Living Colour (pictured) at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards (1990) for the song "Cult of Personality". The bands Foo Fighters, Living Colour, and the Smashing Pumpkins share the record for the most wins, with two each. Alice in Chains holds the record for the most nominations without a win, with eight. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Charles Henry Turner (February 3, 1867 – February 14, 1923) was an American zoologist, entomologist, educator, and comparative psychologist, known for his studies on the behavior of insects, particularly bees and ants. Born in Cincinnati, Turner was the first African American to receive a graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati and among the first African Americans to earn a PhD from the University of Chicago. He spent most of his career as a high-school teacher at Sumner High School in St. Louis. Turner was one of the first scientists to systematically examine the question of whether animals display complex cognition, studying arthropods such as spiders and bees. He also examined differences in behavior between individuals within a species, a precursor to the study of animal personality. This 1921 portrait photograph of Turner is in the collection of The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Photograph credit: The Crisis; restored by Adam Cuerden

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