Julia Voth in costume as Jill Valentine

Jill Valentine is a fictional character in Resident Evil, a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. Appearing in the original Resident Evil (1996), she featured as the protagonist in several later games in the series. From 2002 onward, she was drawn to resemble Canadian model and actor Julia Voth (pictured). Valentine also appears in the Resident Evil film series, portrayed by actor Sienna Guillory, and in several other game franchises, including Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Project X Zone. Video game publications praised Valentine as the most likable and consistent Resident Evil character. Several publications praised the series for making Valentine as competent and skilled as her male counterparts and for avoiding sexual objectification; others criticized her costumes as overtly sexual, and argued that her role as a heroine was weakened by her unrealistic features. (Full article...)

Wacław Brzeziński

• ... that Polish baritone Wacław Brzeziński (pictured) was praised in Italy for his performances as Rossini's Figaro and Verdi's Rigoletto?
• ... that cooking manga achieved mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a result of the "gourmet boom" associated with the Japanese bubble economy?
• ... that Carole Ann Haswell was part of the team that discovered the super-Earth-like exoplanet Barnard's Star b?
• ... that Cincinnati high-school radio station WNSD was permanently shut down in part because its faculty advisor went on maternity leave?
• ... that German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter, who covered the Gwangju Uprising, was honored by the May 18 Memorial Foundation with a memorial stone containing his hair and nail clippings?
• ... that New York City's Grand Central Terminal was built at its current location because of a prohibition of steam trains in Lower Manhattan?
• ... that Shanqi, a Manchu prince, worked with the Japanese Empire and his daughter, Yoshiko Kawashima, to create an independent state in Manchuria in 1912?
• ... that a whale found in western Vermont has presented further evidence of glaciation in New England?

Murchison meteorite fragment

• Scientists announce that presolar stardust grains in the Murchison meteorite (fragment pictured) formed five to seven billion years ago, and are the oldest solid material found on Earth to date.
• In American football, the LSU Tigers defeat the Clemson Tigers to win the College Football National Championship.
• Robert Abela replaces Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister of Malta in the wake of protests over the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

January 19: World Religion Day (2020)

William V, Prince of Orange

• 649 – Conquest of the Western Turks: Kuchean forces surrendered after a siege, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in what is now Xinjiang, China.
• 1795 – The Batavian Republic was established, a day after Prince William V (portrait shown) fled the Dutch Republic as a result of the Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam.
• 1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union was founded by the directors of the National Civil Liberties Bureau.
• 1930 – In Watsonville, California, tensions between nativists and Filipino Americans escalated into riots that later spread to other cities in the state.
• 1975 – An earthquake registering 6.8 M_s struck northern Himachal Pradesh in India, causing extensive damage to the region.

Giuseppe Millico (b. 1737) · Edgar Allan Poe (b. 1809) · K. Sello Duiker (d. 2005)