Happy New Year! (Again!)
For the first day of the Chinese New Year, we’re showing the southern fortification of the Xi’an City Wall as it was decorated and lit up for last year’s lunar new year party. The south gate was rebuilt in 2014 and is often used to stage the fireworks show that rings in the Chinese New Year, which falls between late J…[Read more]

Chinese coronavirus outbreak sparks evacuation of US citizens, diplomats from Wuhan.
The U.S. government is sending a charter flight to the Chinese city of Wuhan on Sunday in an effort to evacuate its citizens and diplomats as the country continues to battle an outbreak of the coronavirus that has already killed 41 people and infected over 1,300…[Read more]

Cataclysmic variable stars (CV) are stars which irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state. They were initially called novae, from the Latin ‘new’, since ones with an outburst brightness visible to the naked eye and an invisible quiescent brightness appeared as new stars in the sky.

January 25, 1949
First Emmy Awards ceremony held
The Hollywood Athletic Club hosts the inaugural Emmy Awards, recognizing technical and artistic achievement in television. A children’s show ventriloquist wins the very first atom-raising statuette.

1st Primetime Emmy Awards
The 1st Emmy Awards, retroactively known as the 1st Primetime Emmy Awards…[Read more]

January 25, 1947
Patent filed for world’s first video game
Thomas Goldsmith, Jr. files a patent for a Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, an interactive missile simulator game to be played on a screen. Prototypes will be made and the patent awarded the following year, but no commercial models will be released.

Cathode Ray Tube Amusement…[Read more]

January 25, 1924
The first Winter Olympic Games open in France
Almost 300 athletes arrive in Chamonix, France to compete in 14 events covering six sports, including crowd-favorites ski jumping, bobsledding, and skiing. Norway will dominate the medal count.

1924 Winter Olympics
Winter Multi-Sport Event
The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as…[Read more]

How to Prevent Coronavirus

Snakes — the Chinese krait and the Chinese cobra — may be the original source of the newly discovered coronavirus that has triggered an outbreak of a deadly infectious respiratory illness in China this winter.

January 22, 1973
US Supreme Court rules on Roe v. Wade
In a 7-2 ruling, the US Supreme Court decides in favor of the 14th Amendment’s right to privacy extending to a woman’s decision to have an abortion within the first two trimesters of pregnancy.

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the…[Read more]