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Galton Bridge (foreground)

The Galton Bridge is a cast-iron bridge in Smethwick, near Birmingham, in central England. It was built by Thomas Telford to carry a road across the new main line of the Birmingham Canal, which was built in a deep cutting. The bridge is 26 ft (7.9 m) wide, 150 ft (46 m) long, and 70 ft (21 m) above the canal, making it reputedly the highest single-span arch bridge in the world when it was built. The Galton Bridge was forged at the nearby Horseley Ironworks, and has masonry abutments. The design includes decorative lamp-posts and X-shaped bracing in the spandrels. In the 1840s, a railway bridge was built from one of the abutments, with a parapet in keeping with the original. The Galton Bridge carried traffic for over 140 years until it was bypassed by a new road in the 1970s, and now only carries pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge is one of six built by Telford that share common design features and the only one still standing without modification. It is a Grade I listed building. (Full article...)

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Kalyani Sen (left)

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In the news

Chris Hipkins

Chris Hipkins (pictured) is chosen to succeed Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.
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.

On this day

January 24: Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities in Romania (1859)

University of Calcutta shortly after its founding

AD 41 – Cassius Chaerea and disgruntled Praetorian Guards murdered the Roman emperor Caligula, leading to him being succeeded his uncle Claudius.
1857 – The University of Calcutta (pictured) was established as the first modern university in the Indian subcontinent.
1915 – First World War: British ships of the Grand Fleet intercepted and surprised a German High Seas Fleet squadron in the North Sea, sinking a cruiser and damaging several other vessels.
1966 – Air India Flight 101, en route from Bombay to London, crashed into Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board.
1989 – American serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida for the murders of thirty young women.

Richard de Bury (b. 1287)
Edith Wharton (b. 1862)
Mark Eaton (b. 1957)

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Today's featured picture

Sharon Tate (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she appeared in advertisements, small television roles and as an extra in films, before appearing in her first major role as Jennifer North in the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. That year, she also performed in the film The Fearless Vampire Killers, directed by her future husband Roman Polanski. On August 9, 1969, Tate and four others were murdered by cult members of the Manson Family in the home she shared with Polanski. She was eight and a half months pregnant at the time of her death. Her last completed film, 12+1, was released posthumously in 1969. This publicity photograph of Tate was released by 20th Century Fox for Valley of the Dolls.

Photograph credit: 20th Century Fox; restored by Adam Cuerden

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