Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 December 13b
From today's featured article
CSS Baltic was a casemate ironclad that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. A towboat and cotton lighter before the war, she was purchased by the state of Alabama in December 1861 for conversion into an ironclad. After being transferred to the Confederate Navy in May 1862, she served on Mobile Bay off the Gulf of Mexico. Her condition in Confederate service was such that naval historian William N. Still Jr. has described her as "a nondescript vessel in many ways". Over the next two years, parts of the ship's wooden structure were affected by wood rot. Her armor was removed to be put onto the ironclad CSS Nashville in 1864. By that August, Baltic had been decommissioned. She was taken up the Tombigbee River near the end of the war, where she was captured by Union forces on May 10, 1865. An inspection the next month found that her upper hull and deck were rotten and that her boilers were unsafe. She was sold on December 31, and was likely broken up in 1866. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that aerospace engineer Sabrina Thompson (pictured) founded a streetwear brand after she felt the "artist inside of me was internally starving", despite being satisfied with her career?
- ... that Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day has a memorial tripod?
- ... that after Alfred Fell moved his family to England for better education opportunities, his son Walter Fell and two of his brothers returned permanently to New Zealand?
- ... that scholars disagree about whether the closure of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations in 1953 had anything to do with McCarthyism?
- ... that Howard Mayers is credited with the destruction of at least eleven enemy aircraft during World War II?
- ... that musician John Mayer dismissed Taylor Swift's "Dear John" as "cheap songwriting"?
- ... that Chinese physician Yu Yan described theories like yinyang and the five phases as "simply all lies, absolutely not factual, and completely groundless"?
- ... that when Seattle sandwich restaurant Paseo abruptly closed, fans left flowers and lit candles?
In the news
- In video games, Elden Ring wins Game of the Year at The Game Awards.
- American basketball player Brittney Griner and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (pictured) are freed via a prisoner exchange.
- In Germany, 25 members of a far-right group are arrested in connection with a coup d'état plot.
- Albert Rösti and Élisabeth Baume-Schneider are elected to the Federal Council, Switzerland's government.
On this day
- 1643 – First English Civil War: Roundhead forces under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack in Hampshire on a winter garrison of Cavalier infantry and cavalry.
- 1769 – Dartmouth College was established by royal charter in present-day Hanover, New Hampshire.
- 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces, capturing the Chinese city of Nanjing, began committing numerous atrocities over the next several weeks, including looting, rape and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians.
- 1981 – Polish prime minister Wojciech Jaruzelski (pictured) declared martial law.
- 2011 – A man threw grenades and fired a rifle at crowds in Liège, Belgium, causing 6 deaths and injuring more than 120 others, before killing himself.
- Pope Callixtus II (d. 1124)
- Emily Carr (b. 1871)
- Hans-Joachim Marseille (b. 1919)
Today's featured picture
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Project Riese was the code name for an unfinished construction project undertaken by Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1945. It consisted of seven underground structures in the Owl Mountains and Książ Castle – pictured here in 2014 – in Lower Silesia (now part of Poland). The purpose of the project remains uncertain because of a lack of documentation. Some sources suggest that all the structures were part of the Führer Headquarters; according to others, it was a combination of headquarters and arms industry, but comparison to similar facilities can indicate that only the castle was adapted as a headquarters or official residence, and the tunnels in the Owl Mountains were planned as a network of underground factories. Photograph credit: Jarosław Ciuruś
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