Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 February 13b

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Cover of the first issue

Saturn was an American magazine published from 1957 to 1965. It was launched as a science-fiction magazine, but sales were weak, and after five issues the publisher, Robert C. Sproul, switched the magazine to hardboiled detective fiction that emphasized sex and sadism. Sproul renamed the magazine several times, settling on Web Terror Stories in 1962, and the contents became mostly weird-menace tales—a genre in which apparently supernatural powers are revealed to have a logical explanation at the end of the story. Donald A. Wollheim was the editor for the first five issues; he published material by several well-known authors, including Robert A. Heinlein, H. P. Lovecraft, and Harlan Ellison, but was given a low budget and could not always find good-quality stories. It is not known who edited the magazine after the science fiction issues, but themes of violence, torture and sex continued to the end of the magazine's run. Sproul finally cancelled the title in 1965 after a total of 27 issues. (Full article...)

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In the news

Tianwen-1 launching in July 2020

The spacecraft Hope, from the United Arab Emirates, and Tianwen-1 (launch pictured), from China, separately reach Mars orbit.
General elections are held in Liechtenstein, with both of the two main parties winning 10 seats out of the 25 total.
In American football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
A glacial outburst flood in Uttarakhand, India, leaves at least 31 people dead and around 165 others missing.

On this day

February 13

Charles XI of Sweden

1660 – The four-year-old Charles XI (pictured) became King of Sweden upon his father's death.
1692 – Members of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands were massacred, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II.
1961 – Geode prospectors near Olancha, California, discovered what they claimed to be a 500,000-year-old rock with a 1920s-era spark plug encased within.
1981 – Explosions caused by the ignition of hexane vapors destroyed more than 13 miles (21 km) of sewer lines in Louisville, Kentucky.
2017 – Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was assassinated using VX nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Isabella d'Este (d. 1539)
Provo Wallis (d. 1892)
Antonin Scalia (d. 2016)

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Today's featured picture

The white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) is a tree kingfisher, widely distributed in Asia from the Sinai Peninsula east through the Indian subcontinent to the Philippines. Seen here in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, it perches conspicuously on wires or other exposed perches within its territory, and is a frequent sight in southern Asia. This species mainly hunts large crustaceans, insects, earthworms, rodents, snakes, fish and frogs; it bathes in water but rarely drinks.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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