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Right-elevation drawing of a Francesco Caracciolo-class battleship

The Francesco Caracciolo-class battleships were a group of four battleships designed for the Royal Italian Navy in 1913 and ordered in 1914. The first ship of the class, Francesco Caracciolo, was laid down in late 1914; the other three ships followed in 1915. Armed with a main battery of eight 381 mm (15 in) guns and possessing a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), the four ships were intended to be the equivalent of fast battleships such as the British Queen Elizabeth class. The class was never completed due to material shortages and shifting construction priorities following the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Only the lead ship was launched, in 1920, and several proposals to convert her into an aircraft carrier were considered, but budgetary problems prevented any work being done. She was sold to an Italian shipping firm for conversion into a merchant vessel, but this also proved to be too expensive, and she was broken up for scrap, beginning in 1926. (Full article...)

Antoinette Dinga Dzondo

• ... that Antoinette Dinga Dzondo (pictured), Minister of Social Affairs and Humanitarian Action of the Republic of the Congo, set up a fund to help refugees in the country return home?
• ... that before the creation of Good Job!, Paladin Studios had wanted to collaborate with Nintendo for about a decade?
• ... that the American writer Mark C. Yerger was honored by the veterans' organization of the Waffen-SS for his works that embellished its history?
• ... that the Christuskirche in Idstein-Walsdorf received this name in 1993, 600 years after a first chapel in the village was mentioned?
• ... that a body-shaming comment from a New York Times critic led to ballerina Jenifer Ringer's appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Today Show?
• ... that Kyren Wilson set fire to his cue stick at the 2021 Masters?
• ... that at the 1783 Siege of Bednore a British force of 1,600 faced a Mysore army of more than 100,000?
• ... that the pig bank at the Freedom Farm Cooperative loaned out pigs to families who paid interest in the form of piglets?

Hank Aaron in 1974

• In Russia, protests against the arrest of Alexei Navalny occur in more than 100 cities.
• 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.

January 24

Sutter's Mill

• 1458 – The Estates unanimously proclaimed 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary after being persuaded to do so by his uncle Michael Szilágyi.
• 1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill (reconstruction pictured) in Coloma, California, leading to the California Gold Rush.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launched Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong.
• 1977 – During the Spanish transition to democracy, neo-fascists attacked an office in Madrid, killing five people and injuring four others.
• 2011 – A North Caucasian jihadist carried out a suicide bombing at Moscow Domodedovo Airport, killing 37 people.