Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 January 10

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From today's featured article

First page of the interrogation notes

John Rykener was a sex worker who was arrested in December 1394 for performing a sex act in women's clothes with John Britby in the Cheapside area of London. The Lord Mayor questioned him on the offences of prostitution and sodomy; a record of the interrogation was found in the 1990s in the City of London archives. Rykener introduced himself as Eleanor. He told the mayor that he had sex with both men and women, including priests and nuns, and that he had paid sexual encounters in Oxford and near the Tower of London. There is no evidence that he was prosecuted for either crime; prostitutes were not usually arrested in London during this period, and sodomy was pursued in ecclesiastical courts. Rykener has appeared in studies of English social, sexual and gender history and as a character in at least one modern work of popular historical fiction. His story has been adapted for the stage. (Full article...)

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The Sunset Parade

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In the news

Bartholomew I hands the tomos of autocephaly to Metropolitan Epiphanius.

Eight soldiers are arrested and two are killed after a failed coup attempt to oust Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople (pictured, left) grants autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the ongoing schism within Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
The China National Space Administration's Chang'e 4 becomes the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the Moon.
A train accident on the Great Belt Fixed Link in Denmark kills eight passengers.

On this day

January 10

Construction of the Metropolitan Railway

9 – The Western Han dynasty of China ended after the throne was usurped by Wang Mang, who founded the Xin dynasty.
1863 – Service began on the Metropolitan Railway (construction pictured) between Paddington and Farringdon Street, today the oldest segment of the London Underground.
1927 – The science fiction film Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, was released in Germany.
1941 – Greco-Italian War: The Greek army captured the strategically important Klisura Pass in Albania.
2007 – A general strike began in Guinea as an attempt to force President Lansana Conté to resign, eventually resulting in the appointment of two new prime ministers.

Pope Miltiades (d. 314) · Francisco Ferrer (b. 1859) · Kalki Koechlin (b. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

The Headless Horseman is a mythical figure who has appeared in folklore around the world since at least the Middle Ages. Depending on the legend, the Horseman is either carrying his head, or missing it altogether, and is searching for it. Examples include the dullahan from Ireland, who is a demonic fairy usually depicted riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm; the titular knight from the English tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", a short story written in 1820 by American Washington Irving which has been adapted into several other works of literature and film including the 1999 Tim Burton film Sleepy Hollow.

This picture, titled The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, is an 1858 painting by American artist John Quidor, depicting a scene from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". It is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Painting: John Quidor

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