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Original studios of WWJ-TV, now a museum

WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station broadcasting in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS News and Stations group, with studios in the suburb of Southfield. Channel 62 was founded as WGPR-TV in 1975 by William V. Banks as the first Black-owned television station in the continental United States. It produced its own shows and helped launch the careers of Black television hosts and executives such as Pat Harvey, Shaun Robinson, Sharon Dahlonega Bush, and Amyre Makupson. In 1994, when a major affiliation switch threatened to leave CBS without an affiliate station in Detroit, the network moved to buy WGPR-TV and dropped the existing programming in favor of CBS and syndicated programs, later changing the call letters to WWJ-TV. The station's original studios (pictured) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and preserved as a museum that opened on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2017. A full news department began operation in January 2023. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Kreuzkirche in 1945

... that Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst (How Deserted Lies the City), a motet composed by Rudolf Mauersberger after the bombing of Dresden, was first performed in the destroyed Kreuzkirche (pictured)?
... that instead of paying homage to a visiting King Gustaf VI Adolf, Swedish headmaster Carl Segerståhl took his students swimming in a nearby lake?
... that Wikipedia editors have organized various campaigns to improve LGBT coverage on the site?
... that Olipop, with more than $100 million in revenue, has an all-remote workforce?
... that Illinois senator Mark Kirk returned to his former high school as an adult to create a UNICEF club?
... that the 2024 season for Seattle Sounders FC will be their first with a new logo?
... that while developing the sound effects for Letterpress, Loren Brichter spit in his microphone?
... that Line 51 of the Amsterdam Metro was called an express tram because the term "metro" was too controversial in the city?

In the news

Frederik X

Margrethe II abdicates and is succeeded by Frederik X (pictured) as King of Denmark.
Lai Ching-te is elected President of Taiwan.
A US-led coalition launches a series of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen, amid ongoing attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Archaeologists announce the discovery of a cluster of ancient cities in the Amazon rainforest, which predates known complex Amazonian societies by more than a millennium.

On this day

January 15: John Chilembwe Day in Malawi

US Airways Flight 1549 crash and rescue

1857 – In British Hong Kong, hundreds of Europeans were non-lethally poisoned by arsenic in bread from a locally owned bakery, leading to geopolitical tension.
1934 – At least 10,700 people died when an earthquake registering 8.0 M_w struck Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar.
1974 – American serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the "BTK killer", murdered his first four victims.
1991 – The Victoria Cross for Australia was instituted by letters patent; the first Commonwealth realm with a separate Victoria Cross award in its honours system.
2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese during its climb out from New York City and made an emergency landing in the Hudson River (featured).

Theophylact (d. 849)
Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929)
Regina Margareten (d. 1959)
Millie Knight (b. 1999)

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From today's featured list

Elizabeth Olsen

The American television miniseries WandaVision won 28 awards from 109 nominations. Created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+ and based on Marvel Comics, it features the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. Elizabeth Olsen (pictured) and Kathryn Hahn received the most acting nominations for the series. It was nominated for twenty-three Primetime Emmy Awards (the most of any limited series in 2021), including for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, and won three Creative Arts Emmy Awards. From major guilds, the series was nominated for a Producers Guild of America Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award. The American Film Institute named WandaVision as one of the top television programs of 2021. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The buff-banded rail (Hypotaenidia philippensis) is a medium-sized bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It comprises several subspecies found throughout much of Australasia and the south-west Pacific region, covering a range of latitudes from the tropics to the subantarctic. It utilises a range of moist or wetland habitats with low, dense vegetation for cover. The buff-banded rail is a largely terrestrial bird with the size of a small domestic chicken, with mainly brown upperparts, finely banded black-and-white underparts, a white eyebrow, and a chestnut band running from the bill round the nape, with a buff band on the breast. It is an omnivorous scavenger that feeds on a range of terrestrial invertebrates and small vertebrates, seeds, fallen fruit and other vegetable matter, as well as carrion and refuse. This buff-banded rail was photographed in Newington, New South Wales.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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