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From today's featured article

Cameroon celebrating their victory in the final

The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations final was an association football match to determine the winner of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It was held at the Stade de l'Amitié in Libreville, Gabon, and contested by Cameroon (team pictured) and Egypt. Egypt took a 1–0 lead through Mohamed Elneny after 22 minutes. Cameroon had more possession than Egypt in the first half, but their attack lacked potency and Egypt led at half time. The Egyptians made few attempts to attack in the second half, and Cameroon equalised after 59 minutes through Nicolas Nkoulou, who had come on as a substitute. Egypt were unable to adjust, and Cameroon continued to have the better chances, eventually scoring again two minutes before the end, through Vincent Aboubakar, to record a 2–1 win. The victory marked their fifth Africa Cup of Nations title. As winners, they represented CAF at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, but they did not progress beyond the group phase. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Fagopsis branch with young fruit

... that the extinct oak relative Fagopsis had wind-carried fruit wedges (fossil pictured)?
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... that German colonists were unable to win a war that they started with an unprovoked massacre?
... that Nnena Kalu won the 2025 Turner Prize for her brightly coloured sculptures wrapped in unspooled VHS tape?
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... that Alan Dale returned in a Neighbours episode 25 years after his character was killed off?
... that Pitono Purnomo investigated a human-trafficking ring during his tenure as consul general in Osaka?
... that a re-edit of an animated film produced for a 2024 Milan exhibition became popular among one site's furry userbase?

In the news

Sikhio train disaster

Thirty people are killed when a crane falls onto a passenger train (pictured) in Sikhio district, Thailand.
Following a Saudi-led offensive, Yemeni government forces take control of Aden, the capital of the Southern Transitional Council.
Faustin-Archange Touadéra is re-elected as the president of the Central African Republic.
Delcy Rodríguez is sworn in as the interim president of Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro during United States strikes on the capital.

On this day

January 18: World Religion Day (2026)

Battle of Hayes Pond

1535 – Francisco Pizarro founded Ciudad de los Reyes (present-day Lima, Peru) as the capital of the lands he conquered for the Spanish crown.
1915 – Japanese prime minister Ōkuma Shigenobu issued the Twenty-One Demands to China in a bid to increase Japan's power in East Asia.
1943 – World War II: In Operation Iskra, the Red Army established a narrow land corridor to Leningrad, partially easing the protracted German siege of the city.
1958 – Members of the Lumbee tribe arrived to protest at a Ku Klux Klan rally near Maxton, North Carolina, which turned into an armed confrontation between the two groups (pictured).
1983 – Singaporean communist activist Tan Chay Wa was executed, leading to a much-publicised trial of his brother for engraving "subversive" material on the gravestone.

Jobst of Moravia (d. 1411)
Clare Winger Harris (b. 1891)
N. T. Rama Rao (d. 1996)
Lamia Al-Gailani Werr (d. 2019)

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Today's featured video

His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures on January 18, 1940. The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who is about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife, Hildy Johnson, newly engaged to another man. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murderer Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife. The screenplay was adapted from the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

FIlm credit: Howard Hawks

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