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Gigantorhynchus ortizi

Gigantorhynchus is a genus of thorny-headed worms that parasitize marsupials, anteaters, and possibly baboons by attaching themselves to the intestines using their hook-covered proboscis. The life cycle includes a larval stage in an intermediate host such as termites. In addition to the proboscis, the body is characterized by pseudosegmentation, filiform lemnisci, and ellipsoid testes. The largest known specimen is a female G. ortizi (example pictured) with a length of around 240 millimetres (9.4 in) and a width of 2 millimetres (0.08 in). Genetic analysis on one species of Gigantorhynchus places it with the related Mediorhynchus genus in the Giganthorhynchidae family. There are six species in this genus distributed across Central and South America and possibly Zimbabwe. Infestation by a Gigantorhynchus species can cause potentially fatal partial obstructions of the intestines or severe lesions of the intestinal wall. (Full article...)

DC-XA Clipper Graham

• ... that the McDonnell Douglas DC-X experimental SSTO rocket (pictured) was launched twelve times but never flew higher than 3.14 kilometres (1.95 mi)?
• ... that Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke, who succeeded C. P. E. Bach as the music director of Hamburg, edited an early publication of the The Well-Tempered Clavier in which the first prelude had an extra measure?
• ... that U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan proposed an expansion of New York Penn Station as a homage to the original station, where he had once shined shoes?
• ... that the two participants in a yaoi relationship are referred to as seme ('top') and uke ('bottom'), terms derived from martial arts that were later appropriated as Japanese LGBT slang?
• ... that the defeat of the consul Gaius Porcius Cato by a Celtic tribe in 114 BC led to the last human sacrifices in ancient Rome?
• ... that during the trial of Francis Gary Powers, Kansas radio station KBTO presented summaries of Radio Moscow broadcasts alongside other international reports?
• ... that members of the Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve fought in the first naval action of the First World War?
• ... that Doug Grimston insisted on a smoking ban at Queen's Park Arena and took financial responsibility for lost attendance?

Hank Aaron in 1974

• American baseball player Hank Aaron (pictured) dies at the age of 86.
• Faustin-Archange Touadéra is elected for a second term as President of the Central African Republic.
• LauncherOne becomes the first liquid-fueled aircraft-launched rocket to reach orbit.
• Yoweri Museveni is re-elected as President of Uganda.

January 23

John Chilembwe on a 2,000-kwacha banknote

• 1264 – King Louis IX of France issued the Mise of Amiens, a settlement between King Henry III of England and barons led by Simon de Montfort heavily favouring the former, which later led to the Second Barons' War.
• 1915 – Rebels led by John Chilembwe (pictured) attacked local plantation owners, beginning an uprising regarded as a key moment in the history of Malawi.
• 1967 – The English new town of Milton Keynes was formed in Buckinghamshire, incorporating three towns and fifteen villages as well as planned new developments on intervening farmland.
• 2001 – Five people attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, an act that many later claimed to have been staged by the Chinese Communist Party to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.