Witold Lutosławski (25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. His compositions include symphonies, concertos, orchestral song cycles, and chamber works. During his youth, he studied piano and composition in Warsaw. Having narrowly escaped German capture, during World War II he earned income by playing the piano in Warsaw bars. Post-war Stalinist authorities banned his First Symphony for being "formalist". His early works were inspired by Polish folk music, including Concerto for Orchestra and Dance Preludes in the mid-1950s. He often built up harmonies from small groups of musical intervals. From the late 1950s he developed new and characteristic composition techniques that stipulated elements of aleatoric music within a tightly controlled musical architecture. In the 1980s, he supported the Solidarity movement artistically. He received the Grawemeyer Award, the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal, and in 1994, the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour. (Full article...)

1946 Romanian propaganda poster

• ... that Soviet-trained commissar Dumitru Petrescu supervised propaganda (example pictured) aimed at purging a "nest of reactionaries" out of the Romanian Army?
• ... that the case Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. was considered essential to the future of video game modding in the United States in 1992?
• ... that Louis Pasteur's 1859 experiment is widely seen as having disproved the theory of spontaneous generation?
• ... that, before same-sex unions were legally recognised in the UK, the London Partnership Register allowed nearly 1,000 couples to celebrate their relationships?
• ... that modern sources believe that the first Catilinarian conspiracy was fake?
• ... that Kuchipudi exponent Maddali Usha Gayatri choreographed a 12-hour ballet that was performed by a troupe involving 12 of her disciples?
• ... that employees claimed to have temporarily shut down an Arkansas radio station over not receiving paychecks?
• ... that in a tennis match against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev called the umpire "a small cat"?

Chris Hipkins

• Chris Hipkins (pictured) succeeds Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party after her resignation.
• A helicopter crashes near Kyiv, killing fourteen people, including Ukrainian interior minister Denys Monastyrsky.
• In the Antiguan general election, the Labour Party retains its majority in the House of Representatives.
• A plane crash in Pokhara, Nepal, kills all 72 people on board.
• In the elections to the parliament of Benin, the Progressive Union for Renewal–Republican Bloc alliance retains a majority, but the opposition Democrats win back parliamentary representation.

January 25: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Eastern Orthodoxy) and Dwynwen (Wales)

SS Laurentic

• 1704 – English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their native allies began a series of raids against the largely peaceful population of Apalachee in Spanish Florida.
• 1917 – Serving as a British armed merchant cruiser, Laurentic (pictured) was sunk by German naval mines off the northern coast of Ireland, resulting in 354 deaths.
• 1967 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Cao Kỳ fired his rival Nguyễn Hữu Có while the latter was overseas on a diplomatic visit.
• 1995 – A team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII sounding rocket, which was mistaken by Russian forces for a Trident missile.