Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 26

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From today's featured article

The 2017 EFL Trophy Final was an association football match that was played on 2 April 2017 at Wembley Stadium, London, between League One teams Coventry City and Oxford United. The match decided the winner of the 2016–17 EFL Trophy, a 64-team knockout tournament comprising clubs from League One and League Two of the English Football League (EFL), as well as 16 Category One academy sides representing Premier League and Championship clubs. It was Coventry's first appearance in the final and the second for Oxford, who had been beaten by Barnsley in the previous season's match. The game was played in front of a crowd of 74,434, the highest attendance for the final since the opening of the new Wembley Stadium. Coventry won 2–1 to earn their first major trophy since their victory in the 1987 FA Cup Final. The win was a highlight for Coventry's supporters in what was otherwise a disappointing season, as they were relegated to League Two. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

The Mock Election (1827) by Benjamin Haydon

... that the former member of parliament Robert Stanton took part in a mock election (depicted) while in prison?
... that Psalm 148, calling heaven and earth to be glad, inspired the 17th-century Christmas carol "Erfreue dich, Himmel, erfreue dich, Erde", which Maria Luise Thurmair expanded with more details from the psalm in 1963?
... that the irrigation intake for which New Zealand farmer Marmaduke Dixon long campaigned is now a historic structure registered by Heritage New Zealand?
... that Hespress, the most popular news website in Morocco, initially relied on non-staff bloggers for its articles?
... that Sylvia Pengilly used an Amiga computer to integrate graphics with music and herself dancing?
... that although the Euclidean distance and the Pythagorean theorem are both ancient concepts, the Pythagorean formula for distance was not published until 1731?
... that Udyavara Madhava Acharya is credited with the modernisation of the theatre form Yakshagana?
... that while Ebenezer Joshua joined the government after the 1974 Vincentian general election, his wife Ivy became the leader of the opposition?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Chang'e 5

The closest great conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn since 1623 occurs.
The Chang'e 5 (illustration shown) sample-return mission returns lunar material to Earth.
Nana Akufo-Addo is re-elected for a second term as President of Ghana.

On this day

December 26: Boxing Day in the Commonwealth; Kwanzaa begins (African diaspora in the Americas)

Flannan Isles Lighthouse

1606 – The first known performance of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, based on the legend of Leir of Britain, took place before King James I.
1825 – Imperial Russian Army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Konstantin removed himself from the line of succession.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou began with Confederate defenders engaging Union forces attempting to capture the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1898 – At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium.
1900 – A relief crew arrived at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse (pictured) in Scotland and discovered that the previous crew had disappeared.

Jean François de Saint-Lambert (b. 1716)
John Fothergill (d. 1780)
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (b. 1950)

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Today's featured picture

The Arg-e Bam, in Kerman Province in southeastern Iran, is the largest adobe building in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ancient citadel has a history dating back around two thousand years, to the Parthian Empire (248 BC – 224 AD), but most of its buildings were constructed during the Safavid dynasty. A devastating earthquake on 26 December 2003 largely devastated the fortress and the nearby modern city of Bam. The Arg-e Bam, including the governor's residence, the main tower, the Four Seasons Palace and the hammam, were nearly totally destroyed; this photograph from 2016 shows the citadel partially reconstructed.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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