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Simon Cameron (1799–1889) was an American politician who was elected senator from Pennsylvania four times, and was War Secretary under Lincoln at the start of the Civil War. At first a supporter of James Buchanan, whom he succeeded in the Senate when Buchanan became Secretary of State in 1845, Cameron broke with Buchanan and the Democrats by the 1850s. An opponent of slavery, he briefly joined the Know Nothings before winning another term in the Senate as a Republican in 1857. He helped nominate and elect Lincoln, but rumors of corruption surrounded him; it was with reluctance that Lincoln appointed him to the cabinet. He did not do well in his post, and Lincoln made him minister to Russia in 1862, a post he held briefly. He rebuilt his political machine in Pennsylvania, winning a third term in the Senate in 1867. After ten years he resigned, arranging the election of his son, Don Cameron, in his place. Simon Cameron lived to age 90; his machine dominated local politics until the 1920s. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

A rocking bed

... that Jessie Wright, director of physical medicine at the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children, helped invent the rocking bed (pictured) as a treatment for polio?
... that the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme has been criticised for placing workers at risk of modern slavery?
... that G. Michael Brown said that his 1980 conviction of four mobsters showed that the Mafia wasn't merely "a figment of Hollywood's imagination"?
... that a Super Bowl-winning defensive tackle went on to become a U.S. Army chaplain?
... that upon receiving her pay from His Master's Voice, Asiah Aman was taught by an executive how to open a bank account?
... that while the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship final featured a 70-year-old, the 2025 final featured a 15-year-old?
... that Indonesian ambassador Niniek Kun Naryatie initially wanted to resign as a diplomat after giving birth to her first child, but her husband convinced her not to do so?
... that India's Central Reserve Police Force tested the Trichy assault rifle in mud, rain, and saltwater conditions for reliability and accuracy before ordering the rifle?
... that a restaurant hired Frank Deig to eat its food?

In the news

Rosen Zhelyazkov

Sixteen people, including a gunman, are killed in a mass shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Bulgarian prime minister Rosen Zhelyazkov (pictured) and his government resign after two weeks of protests.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wins Game of the Year and eight other awards at the Game Awards.
In Australia, a ban on the use of certain social media platforms by under-16s comes into effect.

On this day

December 15: First Day of Hanukkah (Judaism, 2025)

Constantine VIII

1025 – Constantine VIII (depicted) became the sole Byzantine emperor, 63 years after being crowned co-emperor.
1890 – Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota leader, was killed on Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota by U.S. Indian agency police.
1939 – The American historical epic film Gone With the Wind, adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name, premiered in Atlanta, Georgia.
1945 – The US-led occupying forces ordered the government of Japan to cease state support for Shinto.
2019 – Citizenship Amendment Act protests: 10 to 15 local women blockaded a major road in Delhi, India, to protest the exclusion of Muslims from the amended Citizenship Act.

David Teniers the Younger (bapt. 1610)
Sarah Trimmer (d. 1810)
Vallabhbhai Patel (d. 1950)
Bob Feller (d. 2010)

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The Gold Coast skyline

The City of Gold Coast is a local government area (LGA) in the Australian state of Queensland, that is divided into 81 suburbs and localities. With a population of 681,389 people, it is the second largest LGA by population in Australia, behind the City of Brisbane. Established in 1948, it encompasses the Gold Coast and the nearby hinterland. The LGA is bordered by the Scenic Rim Region to the west, the Queensland state border to the south, the Albert and Logan Rivers to the north and the Coral Sea to the east. The largest division by population is the suburb of Southport (36,786 people) and the smallest division is the Southern Moreton Bay Islands locality, which has no registered residents. (Full list...)

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The McClure Tunnel is a tunnel in Santa Monica, California, which connects Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) with the western terminus of the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10). It is 400 feet (120 m) long. The first tunnel on the site was a Southern Pacific Railroad tunnel constructed in 1886. This featured in a brief 1898 film called Going Through the Tunnel, which showed the ocean view appearing to the left as the passenger emerges from the western portal. The rail tunnel was demolished and replaced with the current road tunnel, which opened in 1936. It was named after local newspaper publisher Robert E. McClure in 1979.

Photograph credit: Steve Lyon

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