Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 December 21

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From today's featured article

Film poster

Lieutenant Kijé is music by Sergei Prokofiev originally written to accompany the film of the same name, produced by the Belgoskino film studios in Leningrad and released in 1934 (poster pictured). It was his first attempt at film music, and his first commission from within the Soviet Union; he had lived abroad since the 1917 October Revolution. In the early days of sound cinema, among the distinguished composers ready to write film music, Prokofiev was not an obvious choice for the commission. Based in Paris for almost a decade, he had a reputation, at odds with the cultural norms of the Soviet Union, for experimentation and dissonance. Nevertheless, he was anxious to return to his homeland, and saw the film commission as an opportunity to write music in a more accessible style. After the film's successful release, he adapted the music into what became a popular orchestral suite, his Op. 60. First performed on 21 December 1934, it became part of the international concert repertoire, and one of the composer's best-known and most frequently recorded works. Elements of its score were used in several later films, and in two popular songs of the Cold War era. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

John Timoteo Baker

... that Hawaiian brothers John Timoteo Baker (pictured) and Robert Hoapili Baker served as models for the Kamehameha Statues?
... that courtship in the silvery mole-rat includes locking incisors or gently nibbling the spouse?
... that the ruling Dutch East India Company drove the Islamization of the eastern salient of Java in the 18th century?
... that Clementia Killewald, abbess of Eibingen Abbey, spoke about its founder Hildegard of Bingen at the ceremony when she was proclaimed a saint and Doctor of the Church by the pope?
... that before qualifying for Secret Service Counter-Assault Teams, agents of the United States Secret Service are required to do pull-ups while wearing a 45-pound (20 kg) weighted vest?
... that in 2015, Tony Ahn hiked the 63-mile (101 km) Bataan Death March route, consuming only a cup of rice and a liter of water per day to raise awareness that Filipinos were also forced to march?
... that Marylebone Lane is a "rustic diagonal" in an area laid out on a grid plan?
... that Sir Joseph Rotblat, a Polish physicist who helped design atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project during World War II, won the Nobel Prize for Peace?

In the news

Breitscheidplatz Christmas market

A stolen truck is rammed into a Christmas market (pictured) in Berlin, Germany, killing at least 12 people and injuring 49 others in a suspected terrorist attack.
Around 50 people die in Irkutsk, Russia, after drinking counterfeit bath lotion containing methanol.
The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, is assassinated in Ankara.
Muhammad V of Kelantan becomes Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
Bill English becomes Prime Minister of New Zealand.

On this day...

December 21: December solstice (10:44 UTC, 2016), Yule

Emma Goldman

1124 – Lamberto Scannabecchi was elected Pope and took the name Honorius II.
1844 – The Rochdale Pioneers, usually considered the first successful co-operative enterprise, opened their store in Rochdale, England, and formed the basis for the modern co-operative movement.
1919 – After serving two years in prison for encouraging people to resist military conscription, anarchist Emma Goldman (pictured) was deported from the United States to Russia.
1923 – Nepal and the United Kingdom signed a treaty, the first to define the international status of Nepal as an independent and a sovereign nation.
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.
1995 – In accordance with the Oslo II Accord, Israeli troops withdrew from the city of Bethlehem in preparation for the transfer of its control to the Palestinian National Authority.

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Today's featured picture

A panoramic view of the gravel pit near Kongensbro, Denmark, which is operated by BG Stone. Gravel pits are open-pit mines for extraction of gravel and often lie in river valleys where the water table is high. As such, pits may naturally fill with water, and abandoned ones are often used as nature reserves or as amenity areas for water sports and walking.

Photograph: Slaunger; edit: David Iliff

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