Today's featured article:
Ai-Khanoum is the archaeological site of a Hellenistic city in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. It was probably established in the early 3rd century BC by a monarch of the Seleucid Empire at the confluence of the Oxus and Kokcha rivers, controlling access to valuable mines and strategic choke points. Ai-Khanoum, which became a major centre of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom after it seceded under the Diodotid dynasty, was redesigned by King Eucratides I to be an imperial capital, with a huge palace, religious structures, and massive defences. Nevertheless, it was sacked at the end of his reign (c. 145 BC) by the nomadic Saka and Yuezhi peoples, and the city was soon abandoned. Rediscovered two millennia later by the King of Afghanistan in 1961, Ai-Khanoum was excavated by a team of French archaeologists until the Saur Revolution in 1978. During the subsequent conflicts in Afghanistan, the site was extensively looted.
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On this day:
January 2: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and Saint Basil of Caesarea (Roman Rite Catholicism, Anglicanism)
1680 – Trunajaya rebellion: Amangkurat II of Mataram of Java and his courtiers stabbed Trunajaya to death a week after the rebel leader surrendered to VOC forces.
1941 – World War II: Llandaff Cathedral (pictured) in Cardiff, Wales, was struck by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
1944 – World War II: United States and Australian forces successfully landed in Papua New Guinea in an attempt to cut off a Japanese retreat.
1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong won its first major victory at the Battle of Ap Bac.
1967 – Former actor Ronald Reagan began his career in government when he was sworn in as the 33rd governor of California.
Salima Sultan Begum (d. 1613)Norodom Ranariddh (b. 1944)Edgar Martínez (b. 1963)