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Today (December 9)
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December 9  Macrobdella decora, the North American medicinal leech, is a species of freshwater leech found in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. A medium-sized annelid growing up to 8.5 cm (3.3 in) long, it has a spotted greenish-brown back and a reddish underbelly. M. decora is commonly encountered by swimmers and lives in ponds, ditches, and wetlands. The leeches are both blood-sucking parasites and aggressive predators. They have three saw-like "jaws" which they use to penetrate their host's skin, and they can remain attached for up to two hours. Their hosts include fish, turtles, wading birds, and mammals, including humans. The leeches are also voracious predators who eat other invertebrates, amphibian eggs and larvae, and sometimes even members of their own species. M. decora was historically used for leeching by European colonists in North America, who found the native leeches "equally efficacious" as those from Europe. (Full article...)
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December 9: International Anti-Corruption Day  Electron micrograph of the smallpox virus
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Tomorrow (December 10)
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December 10  Edmund Ætheling (born 1016 or 1017, died before 1057) was a son of Edmund Ironside and his wife Ealdgyth. Edmund Ironside briefly ruled as king of England following the death of his father Æthelred the Unready in April 1016. Edmund Ironside died in late 1016 after a hard-fought war with Danish invader Cnut who became king of all England shortly after. The following year, Cnut sent Edmund Ironside's two infant sons, Edmund Ætheling and Edward the Exile, to Continental Europe, probably to the King of Sweden, to be murdered. Instead, the princes were spared and sent to Hungary, possibly after a sojourn at the court of Yaroslav I, prince of Kiev, in Russia. As Ironside's marriage lasted no more than 15 months, Edmund and Edward were either twins or one was born after their father's death. Edmund may have married a daughter of the Hungarian king, and he died in Hungary on 10 January in an unknown year before 1057. (Full article...)
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December 10: Human Rights Day; Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, Sweden  Huckleberry Finn depicted by E. W. Kemble
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In two days (December 11)
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December 11  George Mason (December 11, 1725 – October 7, 1792) was a Founding Father of the United States. A delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father. Many clauses in the Constitution were influenced by Mason's input, but he ultimately did not sign, citing the lack of a bill of rights. His prominent fight for a bill of rights led fellow Virginian James Madison to introduce one during the First Congress in 1789; these amendments were ratified in 1791, a year before Mason died. Obscure after his death, Mason later came to be recognized in the 20th and 21st centuries for his contributions to Virginia and the early United States. (Full article...)
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 Lunar Roving Vehicle, driven by Gene Cernan
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In three days (December 12)
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December 12  Coin of Theodosius III Theodosius III was the Byzantine emperor from around May 715 to 717. Before rising to the throne of the Byzantine Empire, he was a tax collector in Adramyttium. In 715, the Byzantine navy and the troops of the Opsician Theme, one of the Byzantine provinces, revolted against Anastasius II, acclaiming the reluctant Theodosius as emperor. He led his troops to Chrysopolis and then Constantinople, seizing the city in November 715. Anastasius did not surrender until several months later, accepting exile in a monastery in return for safety. Many themes viewed Theodosius to be a puppet of the troops of the Opsician Theme, and his legitimacy was denied by the Anatolics and the Armeniacs under their respective strategoi (generals) Leo the Isaurian and Artabasdos. Leo entered Constantinople and definitively seized power in 717, allowing Theodosius and his son to retire to a monastery. When Theodosius died is uncertain, but it may have been in 754. (Full article...)
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December 12: Beginning of the Yule Lads' arrival in Iceland  HMS Duchess
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December 12  Valentine Holmes Hat-tricks have been achieved 72 times at the Rugby League World Cup, 70 times with tries and twice with field goals. The first player to do this was Alex Watson, who achieved the feat for Australia against New Zealand in the inaugural tournament. Players who have played for Australia have scored the most hat-tricks with 30, while Papua New Guinea representatives have conceded the most with 11. Out of the 72 hat-tricks scored, seven people have achieved the feat twice, these being Ian Schubert, Billy Slater, Akuila Uate, Manu Vatuvei, Jarryd Hayne, Suliasi Vunivalu, Valentine Holmes and Josh Addo-Carr. Fifteen people have scored an additional try on top of the hat-trick. Holmes and Addo-Carr have scored five tries in a single game, whilst Holmes is the only player to score six tries in a single game. (Full list...) | |||
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December 12
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In four days (December 13)
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December 13  Scott Zolak (born December 13, 1967) is an American broadcaster and former professional football player. He played quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. Over the course of his career, he played in 55 games, with 7 starts, for the Patriots and Miami Dolphins, completed 124 of 248 passes for 1,314 yards, threw eight touchdowns and seven interceptions, and finished his career with a passer rating of 64.8. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Zolak was selected 84th in the 1991 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. He did not play in 1991, but started four games in 1992 and had his most productive season statistically. When Drew Bledsoe was drafted in 1993, Zolak became his backup for the next six seasons. He was released at the end of the 1998 season, and signed with the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins in 1999. After his retirement, he became a sportscaster and football analyst in the New England area. (Full article...)
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December 13: Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day in China (1937)  Jo Swinson
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In five days (December 14)
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December 14  Tom Hall, game designer Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons is a three-part, episodic, side-scrolling, platform video game by Ideas from the Deep and published by Apogee Software in 1990 for MS-DOS. Tom Hall (pictured) designed the game, John Carmack and John Romero programmed it, and artist Adrian Carmack assisted. The game came about when Carmack found a way to implement smooth side-scrolling on IBM-compatible PCs, and Scott Miller asked the team to develop an original game within three months. The game follows Keen as he runs, jumps, and shoots through various levels, retrieving the stolen parts of his spaceship, preventing an alien ship from destroying landmarks, and hunting down the aliens responsible. Released through shareware, sales were strong and it was lauded by reviewers for its graphical achievement and humorous style. The team continued as id Software to produce another four episodes of the Commander Keen series and followed up with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. It has been re-released several times. (Full article...)
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December 14: Martyred Intellectuals Day in Bangladesh (1971), Monkey Day .jpg) 1925 Wozzeck poster
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In six days (December 15)
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December 15 .jpg) 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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December 15: First Day of Hanukkah (Judaism, 2025) .jpg) Constantine VIII
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December 15 .jpg) 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 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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In seven days (December 16)
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December 16  Edith Swan (left) and Rose Gooding (right) The Littlehampton libels were a series of letters sent to numerous residents of Littlehampton, in southern England, over a three-year period between 1920 and 1923. The letters, which contained obscenities and false accusations, were written by Edith Swan, a thirty-year-old laundress; she tried to incriminate her neighbour, Rose Gooding, a thirty-year-old married woman. Swan and Gooding (both pictured) had once been friends, but after Swan made a false report to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children accusing Gooding of maltreating one of her sister's children, the letters started arriving. Many of them were signed as if from Gooding. Swan brought a private prosecution against Gooding for libel. Gooding was imprisoned twice, but Scotland Yard investigated and cleared her. Swan was prosecuted in December 1921. A similar case of letters being sent over several years was reported in 2024, in the village of Shiptonthorpe, East Yorkshire. (Full article...)
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December 16: Day of Reconciliation in South Africa  Slowed down special effect from "Dennō Senshi Porygon"
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December 16
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