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From today's featured article

Operation Crossroads was a series of two nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946 to investigate the effect of such weapons on naval ships. They were the first nuclear detonations after World War II, and the first ever to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, including a large press corps. A fleet of 95 target ships was assembled in Bikini Lagoon and hit with two detonations of Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons of the type dropped on Nagasaki, each with a yield of 23 kt (96 TJ). The first test, Able, was an air burst that sank five ships and demonstrated the survivability of ships located more than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) from the explosion. The second test, Baker, was an underwater explosion (pictured), which effectively destroyed the entire target fleet with radioactive contamination. It was the first case of immediate, concentrated radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion. The fallout from Baker and subsequent Bikini tests still renders the area uninhabitable. Glenn Seaborg, the longest-serving chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, called Baker "the world's first nuclear disaster." (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that in the 1920s and 1930s a series of memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War (example pictured) were erected in French and Belgian cathedrals by the Imperial War Graves Commission?
... that the Charlotte Checkers ice hockey team went five consecutive away games without a regulation loss, but lost a franchise-worst six straight home games in their 2013–14 season?
... that Matthew II Csák was the uncle of the Hungarian oligarch Matthew III Csák?
... that the former owner of Rainthorpe Hall, J Maurice Hastings, was described by Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra as throwing "wild parties" there?
... that Stereophile said that the Nait was "a profoundly anarchistic, almost subversive product"?
... that the Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services department owns a pumper manufactured by Dennis Specialist Vehicles in 1925 that is still functional?
... that according to legend, Swami Vivekananda was first introduced to Indian mystic Ramakrishna in a literature class given by Scottish theologian William Hastie?

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In the news

China's first lunar rover mission, Chang'e 3, launches successfully.
Clashes between anti-government protesters (pictured) and government supporters leave four people dead and fifty-seven injured in Bangkok.
Following the suspension of a tentative European Union Association Agreement by Ukraine, anti-riot police forcefully break up pro-European Union protests in Kiev.
The Rugby League World Cup concludes with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.
LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 crashes in Namibia, killing all thirty-three people on board.

Recent deaths: Paul Walker – Tabu Ley Rochereau

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On this day...

December 4: Navy Day in India

771 – Austrasian King Carloman I died, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.
1639 – English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observation of a transit of Venus.
1829 – Sati, the Hindu funeral custom of widows immolating themselves, was prohibited in part of British India after years of campaigning by Ram Mohan Roy (pictured).
1909 – The first Grey Cup game, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, was held.
1980 – The English rock group Led Zeppelin officially disbanded.
2006 – Six black youths in Jena, Louisiana, US, assaulted a white teenager; the subsequent court case would become a cause célèbre.

More anniversaries: December 3 – December 4 – December 5

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Today's featured picture

The Point Reyes Lighthouse is a lighthouse in the Gulf of the Farallones on Point Reyes in Marin County, California. Built in 1870 as a twin of the Cape Mendocino Light, the Point Reyes Lighthouse was automated in 1975 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Photo: Frank Schulenburg

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