Memorial to homosexual victims of Nazi persecution

The persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany was a priority of the Nazi police state. Before 1933, homosexual acts were illegal in Germany but a thriving gay culture existed. Nazi persecution of homosexuals peaked prior to World War II. Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested. Those arrested were presumed guilty, and subjected to harsh interrogation and torture to elicit a confession. Their death rate has been estimated at 60 percent, a higher rate than other prisoner groups. Nazi Germany's persecution of homosexuals is considered to be the most severe episode in a long history of discrimination and violence targeting sexual minorities. After the war, homosexuals were initially not counted as victims of Nazism because homosexuality continued to be illegal in Nazi Germany's successor states. Few survivors came forward to discuss their experiences. This changed during the gay liberation movement of the 1970s, and the pink triangle was reappropriated as an LGBT symbol. (Full article...)

Laura Bergt Eskimo-kissing Spiro Agnew

• ... that Laura Bergt was said to have gained millions of acres of land for Native Alaskans by Eskimo-kissing Vice President Spiro Agnew (pictured)?
• ... that when Nashville's Eighth Avenue South Reservoir ruptured in 1912, one family was swept away while still lying in bed?
• ... that when Brigadier Leonard Parrington ordered him to surrender Sergeant Jack Hinton told him to "go and jump in the bloody lake"?
• ... that the demolition of the Shrine of Husayn's Head, probably the most important Shi'a Muslim shrine in Israel, may have been related to efforts to transfer Palestinians out of the country?
• ... that as a last-minute substitute in a premiere performance at Oper Frankfurt, Elena Manistina sang from the side while the assistant director mimed onstage?
• ... that the agent at 14th Place station was the target of an attempted murder?
• ... that although he was a former Indonesian prime minister, Soekiman Wirjosandjojo was not arrested during a political purge as he was considered a non-threat?
• ... that the now-drained lake Tarn Wadling was famous as a liminal place where the spectre of Guinevere's dead mother appeared to her and Gawain in The Awntyrs off Arthure?

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 27

Entrance to Auschwitz I

• 945 – The brothers Stephen and Constantine Lekapenos, having deposed their father as Byzantine emperor a few weeks earlier, were themselves overthrown by Constantine VII, their co-emperor.
• 1820 – A Russian expedition led by the naval officers Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev made the first sighting of the coast of Antarctica.
• 1945 – The Soviet Red Army liberated about 7,000 prisoners left behind by the Nazis in Auschwitz concentration camp (entrance pictured), in Oświęcim, Poland.
• 1974 – Brisbane, Australia, was flooded when the Brisbane River broke its banks.
• 2003 – The first selections for the United States National Recording Registry were announced by the Library of Congress.