Diagram of a prostate tumor pressing on the urethra

Prostate cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate. It is often detected through blood tests for prostate-specific antigen, followed by a biopsy. Most prostate tumors (diagram pictured) cause no health problems, and are managed with surveillance. Dangerous tumors can be surgically removed or destroyed with radiation therapy. Those whose cancer spreads receive hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and eventually chemotherapy. Most tumors are confined to the prostate, and 99% of men survive ten years post-diagnosis. Those whose tumors have metastasized to distant body sites have a poorer prognosis; 30% to 40% are still alive five years after diagnosis. Each year 1.2 million men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 350,000 die of the disease, making it the second-leading cause of cancer in men. Prostate tumors were first described in the mid-19th century. Hormone therapies were developed in the mid-20th century, resulting in Nobel Prizes for their developers Charles Huggins and Andrzej Schally. (Full article...)

An African Song or Chant from Barbados

• ... that An African Song or Chant from Barbados (manuscript pictured) was nominated for inscription on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register by someone who saw it in an online exhibition?
• ... that Elisheva Biernoff paints recreations of found vintage snapshot photographs, some including details like lens flare and overexposure?
• ... that staffers of an Ohio radio station learned that it had been sold on the same day as its owner's death?
• ... that A Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Paul Aermont Among the Planets (1873), following the cancellation of a planned second edition, was not reprinted until 2018?
• ... that Harold Harrington did not seek out new species, but was the first to collect a plant that was later named after him?
• ... that fans of romcom heroine Bridget Jones were shocked at the death of a favourite character in the 2013 novel Mad about the Boy, and then again in a 2025 film?
• ... that a Bronze Age priestess named Eritha was the focus of the first recorded legal dispute in Europe?
• ... that the Roman-era Ard-al-Moharbeen necropolis is the largest cemetery discovered in Gaza?
• ... that the writer of "Crabs for Christmas" joked that it contributed to Baltimore's population decline?

Fireball from the Learjet crash

• Ten people are killed in a mass shooting at an adult education centre in Örebro, Sweden.
• A Learjet 55 crashes (explosion pictured) into multiple buildings in Philadelphia, United States, killing at least 7 people and injuring 22 others.
• A Beechcraft 1900 crashes in Unity State, South Sudan, killing 20 of the 21 people onboard.
• Ahmed al-Sharaa is appointed president of the Syrian transitional government.
• American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with an army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., United States, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.

February 4: World Cancer Day (2000)

Execution of John Rogers

• 1488 – Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed in Mossel Bay, becoming the first European known to have sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa.
• 1555 – Marian Restoration: Because he opposed Catholicism, John Rogers was burned at the stake (pictured) as the first English Protestant executed for heresy under the reign of Mary I.
• 1945 – World War II: American forces liberated the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, the largest enemy-civilian internment camp run by the Empire of Japan in the Philippines.
• 1999 – The Philippine-flagged freighter New Carissa ran aground near Coos Bay, Oregon, causing one of the worst oil spills in the state's history.