Valentina Blinova in a 1935 production

The Firebird is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who collaborated with Alexandre Benois and others on a scenario based on the Russian fairy tales of the magical Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. Set in the evil immortal Koschei's castle, the ballet follows Prince Ivan, who battles Koschei with the help of the Firebird. It was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame and leading to future collaborations between Diaghilev and Stravinsky, like Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Other choreographers have reinterpreted the music with new productions, settings and themes. Stravinsky's 1919 concert suite remains the most popular today. A film version with the original choreography, featuring what is now the Royal Ballet, was created in 1959. (Full article...)

Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabine Women

• ... that Poussin painted the abduction of the Sabine women twice (one pictured), once for a prince and once for a cardinal?
• ... that the leader of the German Red Cross under the Nazi regime had lived in the UK until he was fifteen years old and was a grandson of Queen Victoria?
• ... that New Zealand petrol stations were filled with queues before a change in government policy?
• ... that although five of Armenian composer Grigor Yeghiazaryan's siblings died of starvation from the Armenian genocide, his life was saved because he played in a brass band?
• ... that Edo literature was influenced by British colonialism in the late 19th century, which introduced the Roman script and Christianity to the Edo people?
• ... that a New York state TV station thought a St. Bernard could serve as a mascot—until she proved incapable of following direction and had to be sent to obedience school?
• ... that Harald Hasselbach, the only Dutch Super Bowl champion, lived in four continents in his youth?
• ... that life always ended with a sneeze until the time of Jacob, according to one Midrash?

Vulcan Centaur

• United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket (pictured) makes its first flight with the Peregrine lunar lander, the first mission on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
• In darts, Luke Humphries wins the PDC World Championship.
• In Kerman, Iran, at least 91 people are killed by Islamic State bombings during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.
• Japan Airlines Flight 516 collides with a Japan Coast Guard airplane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, killing five aboard the latter aircraft.

January 10

New Orleans

• 236 – Pope Fabian, said to have been chosen by the Holy Spirit when a dove landed on his head, began his papacy.
• 1812 – New Orleans (pictured), the first steamship on the Mississippi River, arrived at New Orleans to complete its maiden voyage.
• 1929 – Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the first volume of The Adventures of Tintin by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, began serialisation.
• 1993 – The Braer Storm, the strongest extratropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Atlantic, reached peak intensity.
• 2004 – Helge Fossmo, the village priest of Knutby, Sweden, orchestrated the murders of his wife and his neighbor, a crime that shocked the country.