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Nebula Science Fiction was the first Scottish science fiction magazine. It was published from 1952 to 1959, and was edited by Peter Hamilton, a young Scot who was able to take advantage of spare capacity at his parents' printing company, Crownpoint, to launch the magazine. Nebula's circulation was international, with only a quarter of the sales in the United Kingdom; this led to disaster when both South Africa and Australia imposed import controls on foreign periodicals at the end of the 1950s. Excise duties imposed in the UK added to Hamilton's financial burdens, and he was rapidly forced to close the magazine down. The last issue was dated June 1959. The magazine was popular with writers, partly because Hamilton went to great lengths to encourage new writers, and partly because he paid better rates per word than much of his competition. Initially he could not compete with the American market, but he offered a bonus for the most popular story in the issue, and was eventually able to match the leading American magazines. He published the first stories of several well-known writers, including Robert Silverberg, Brian Aldiss, and Bob Shaw. Nebula was also a fan favourite: author Ken Bulmer recalls that it became what many fans regard as the best-loved British SF magazine. (more...)

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• The European Union imposes an embargo on future oil contracts with Iran.
• British novelist Salman Rushdie (pictured) cancels an appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India, and four other writers leave the city after reading excerpts from The Satanic Verses, which is banned in the country.
• In a binding referendum, Croatian voters approve the country's proposed accession to the European Union.
• Boko Haram claims responsibility for a series of attacks in northern Nigeria that killed 185 people, two weeks after a similar set of assaults.
• American singer Etta James dies at the age of 73.
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January 27: International Holocaust Remembrance Day and various commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz (1945)

• 447 – An earthquake destroyed large sections of the Walls of Constantinople (restored walls pictured).
• 1868 – Boshin War: The Battle of Toba-Fushimi, where pro-Imperial forces defeated those of the Tokugawa shogunate and which was a catalyst for the Meiji Restoration, began in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto.
• 1888 – The National Geographic Society, publisher of National Geographic magazine, was incorporated in Washington, D.C., as a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.
• 1980 – With the assistance of Canadian government officials, six American diplomats who had avoided capture in the Iran hostage crisis escaped to Zurich, Switzerland.
• 2002 – An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, killed at least 1,100 people and displaced over 20,000 others.

More anniversaries: January 26 – January 27 – January 28

Grapefruit is the citrus fruit of the grapefruit tree (Citrus × paradisi), an 18th-century hybrid first bred in Barbados. The fruit is yellow-orange skinned and largely an oblate spheroid; it grows to about 10–15 cm (4–6 in) in diameter. The flesh is segmented and acidic, varying in color depending on the cultivars, which include white, pink and red pulps of varying sweetness (Ruby Red variety shown here). Photo: א (Aleph) Recently featured: Cologne panorama – Pixie's parasol mushroom – Ernest Borgnine Archive – More featured pictures...