Wikipedia:Main Page history/2011 January 15

Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.Today's featured topic: The Guadalcanal Campaign was fought between August 1942 and February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Allied forces, predominantly American, landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, overwhelming the Japanese defenders and capturing an airfield (later named Henderson Field). The Japanese made several attempts to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, five large naval battles, and continual, almost daily aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November 1942. The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theatre.

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

January 15: Pongal (Tamils, 2011)

1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, was captured by a squadron of four British frigates.

1885 – American photographer Wilson Bentley took the first known photograph of a snowflake (example pictured) by attaching a bellows camera to a microscope.

1991 – Elizabeth II, as Queen of Australia, signed letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own separate Victoria Cross award in its own honours system.

1999 – Yugoslav forces massacred 45 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Račak, one of the main causes for the subsequent NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

2009 – After US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada Geese during its initial climb out from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, Captain Chesley Sullenberger successfully made an emergency landing in the Hudson River.

More anniversaries: January 14 – January 15 – January 16