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Newspaper advertisement in Dutch for Soeara Berbisa

Soeara Berbisa (Indonesian for Venomous Voice) is a 1941 film from the Dutch East Indies. Produced by Ang Hock Liem for Union Films and directed by R?Hu, this black-and-white film starred Raden Soekarno, Ratna Djoewita, Oedjang, and Soehaena. The story, written by Djojopranoto, follows two young men who compete for the affections of a woman before learning that they are long-lost brothers. Completed between September and October 1941, Soeara Berbisa featured kroncong music and was shot partly in western Java. It was released to coincide with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, and rated for all ages. Advertisements (example shown) emphasised the film's appeal to both Native and Dutch audiences, and a review in De Indische Courant was positive. This was Union's penultimate production before the company closed after the Japanese occupied the Indies in March 1942. Soeara Berbisa was screened as late as 1949 and is now likely lost.Part of the Union Films featured topic.(Full?article...)

Christmas Island red crab

• ... that the red crabs (example pictured) dominating the wildlife of Christmas Island have been threatened by the arrival of yellow crazy ants?
• ... that Khabzela, a 2005 bestselling biography by Liz McGregor, concerns a South African disc jockey who died of AIDS?
• ... that GrapheneOS, a free and open-source operating system for selected Google Pixel smartphones, was recommended by Edward Snowden?
• ... that Russian historian Igor Pavlovich Shaskol'skii helped build defensive structures during the Siege of Leningrad?
• ... that the oldest part of the Western Block of the North China Craton formed 2.7?billion years ago?
• ... that Francis Dzierozynski's dispute with Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal over land ownership in Maryland escalated to involve Pope Pius?VII and two U.S. secretaries of state?
• ... that the Polish publishing house WSiP had a monopoly on textbook publishing from the 1950s to 1989?
• ... that the parting of the Red Sea scene in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 film The Ten Commandments was created by filming the release of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into a large tank and playing the resulting film backwards?

Joseph Muscat

• Robert Abela becomes Prime Minister of Malta following the resignation of Joseph Muscat (pictured).
• Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupts, leading to the suspension of all flights at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
• In Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen is re-elected.
• In Oman, Haitham bin Tariq Al Said is named the country's new ruler after his cousin, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, dies at the age of 79.

January 15: Mattu Pongal (Tamils, 2020); John Chilembwe Day in Malawi

Wilson Bentley taking a
photograph of a snowflake

• 1777 – The Vermont Republic (the precursor of the present-day U.S. state) declared independence from the jurisdictions and land claims of the British colony of Quebec, and the U.S. states of New Hampshire and New York.
• 1885 – Wilson Bentley took the first known photograph of a snowflake by attaching a bellows camera to a microscope (process pictured).
• 1947 – The mutilated corpse of the "Black Dahlia", a 22-year-old woman whose murder is one of the most famous unsolved crimes in the U.S., was found in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
• 1975 – Portugal signed the Alvor Agreement with the nationalist factions of UNITA, the MPLA, and the FNLA, ending the Angolan War of Independence.
• 1993 – Salvatore Riina, one of the most powerful members of the Sicilian Mafia, was arrested in Palermo after 23?years as a fugitive.

Philip Livingston (b.?1716)?· Friedrich Parrot (d.?1841)?· Sylvia Lawler (b.?1922)