August 1934 cover

Dime Mystery Magazine was a US pulp magazine published from 1932 to 1950 by Popular Publications. Originally Dime Mystery Book Magazine, it contained mysteries, including a novel in each issue. Competing with established magazines, it failed to sell. From 1933, inspired by Grand Guignol, publisher Harry Steeger changed its style, publishing horror stories in what became known as "weird menace" fiction, where the apparently supernatural transpired to have an everyday explanation. Further magazines in the same genre followed. The emphasis on sex and sadism increased, but reverted to detective stories in 1938. The stories now featured detectives with a handicap such as amnesia or hemophilia. After a return to weird menace, it reverted to detective stories until it ceased publication in 1950. Most stories were low-quality, but some well-known authors appeared, including Edgar Wallace, Ray Bradbury, Norvell Page, and Wyatt Blassingame. The last issues appeared as 15 Mystery Stories. (Full article...)

Passing Mother's Grave

• ... that the painting Passing Mother's Grave (pictured) by Jozef Israëls was his best-known work, and was made into a bronze sculpture after his death?
• ... that David Burbank, a dentist, founded Burbank, California?
• ... that Arab troops under King Faisal missed the 24 January 1917 capture of Wejh by two days because they had been celebrating the capture of £20,000 in gold?
• ... that the Daughters of the American Revolution opposed Marjorie Lynch's nomination to a government post due to her birth in Britain?
• ... that the New Beehive Inn in Bradford, England, was "a rare example of a public house built by a local authority"?
• ... that during Matt Lanter's audition for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he was told that he was going to play Deak Starkiller even though he was actually going to play Anakin Skywalker?
• ... that the Sangage Sheikhdom was the last holdout of native Swahili resistance to Portuguese colonization in northern Mozambique?
• ... that author John Neal said reading too much of Logan would kill you?

Chris Hipkins

• Chris Hipkins (pictured) succeeds Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party after her resignation.
• 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.

January 26: Australia Day (1788); Republic Day in India (1950)

Cullinan Diamond

• 1700 – An earthquake with a moment magnitude of around 9.0 occurred off the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records of tsunamis.
• 1841 – Commodore Gordon Bremer took formal possession of Hong Kong Island for the United Kingdom at Possession Point.
• 1905 – The 3,106-carat (621 g) Cullinan Diamond (pictured), the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, was discovered at the Premier Mine in Gauteng, South Africa.
• 1945 – Audie Murphy engaged in action at the Colmar Pocket that won him a Medal of Honor and made him one of the most famous and decorated U.S. soldiers of World War II.