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Space Invaders

Space Invaders (arcade cabinet pictured) is a 1978 arcade video game developed and released by Taito in Japan and distributed by Midway Manufacturing overseas. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser. Designer Tomohiro Nishikado drew inspiration from North American games like Breakout (1976) and Gun Fight (1975). Space Invaders was an immediate commercial success; by 1982, it had grossed $3.8 billion (equivalent to about $13 billion in 2022), and it remains one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time. Considered one of the most influential video games ever, it ushered in the golden age of arcade video games. It was an inspiration for numerous game designers across different genres, and has been ported and re-released in various forms. The 1980 version for the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), which quadrupled VCS sales, became the first killer app for video game consoles. The game's pixelated enemy alien has become a pop culture icon. (Full article...)

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Matooskie

... that the 1830 abandonment of Chipewyan woman Matooskie (pictured) by her Scottish husband was eventually settled with a dowry payment of £200?
... that at least three historians asserted How the Red Sun Rose to have rendered outdated the scholarly understanding of the Yan'an Rectification Movement?
... that before the age of thirty, Anna Nekhames performed the dual role of Venus and Chief of the Gepopo in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, one of opera's most demanding coloratura soprano parts?
... that Femke is the most common feminine given name of West Frisian origin in the Netherlands?
... that stagecoaches on the Humboldt Wagon Road could make a 400-mile trip in under four days?
... that although only one member was fluent in English, the cast of The Mongol Khan learned the entire script before the play's West End run?
... that "gig" in "gig economy" comes from the slang term for individual appearances by performing artists?
... that a species of spider is named after Barack Obama?

In the news

Ingenuity on Mars

Following damage to the helicopter's rotors, NASA ends the Ingenuity (pictured) mission on Mars after almost three years and 72 flights.
The Ram Mandir, a temple to Rama, is consecrated at a disputed site in Ayodhya, India.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's lunar module SLIM lands on the Moon.
Protests break out in Bashkortostan, Russia, following the imprisonment of environmental activist Fail Alsynov.
Iran launches missile strikes in Pakistan and aerial strikes in Iraq and Syria, and Pakistan responds with retaliatory airstrikes.

On this day

January 26: Australia Day (1788); Republic Day in India (1950)

The dome over the Hale Telescope

1564 – Livonian War: A Lithuanian surprise attack resulted in a decisive defeat of numerically superior Russian forces.
1808 – William Bligh, the governor of New South Wales, was deposed in the only military coup in Australian history.
1949 – The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory (pictured) in California, the largest aperture optical telescope in the world for 28 years, saw first light.
1974 – Turkish Airlines Flight 301 crashed while taking off from İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport, killing 67 people.
2009 – Rioting broke out in Antananarivo, Madagascar, sparking a political crisis that led to the deposal of President Marc Ravalomanana.

Manuel do Cenáculo (d. 1814)
Seán MacBride (b. 1904)
Wayne Gretzky (b. 1961)
Lindy Delapenha (d. 2017)

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Richard Dawkins Award trophy

The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual prize awarded by the Center for Inquiry (CFI), an American nonprofit organization. Established in 2003, it was initially awarded by the Atheist Alliance of America in coordination with Richard Dawkins and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The award was formally moved to CFI in 2019. The award was initially presented by the Atheist Alliance of America to honor an "outstanding atheist" who taught or advocated scientific knowledge and acceptance of nontheism, and raised public awareness. The award is currently presented by the Center for Inquiry to an individual associated with science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, and who "publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead". The recipient must be approved by Dawkins himself. The first Richard Dawkins Award was received by James Randi, a magician who investigated and debunked various paranormal claims. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Kenje Ogata (1919–2012) was a Japanese American who served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. Born in Gary, Indiana, he grew up in Sterling, Illinois, and went on to earn his pilot's license through the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Ogata applied to join the armed forces. Due to his Japanese heritage he was discouraged from joining, but he insisted, telling the recruitment office "I am here to serve". In 1943, Ogata was assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, training as a ball turret gunner. He rose to the rank of staff sergeant, completed thirty-five missions, and survived two crashes. For his service and injuries sustained in combat, he received the Air Medal with three bronze oak leaf clusters and the Purple Heart. This portrait of Ogata in uniform was taken in 1943.

Photograph credit: unknown photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden

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