Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 December 9

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From today's featured article

Air Mata Iboe ('"A Mother's Tears") is a 1941 film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) directed and written by Njoo Cheong Seng. Starring Fifi Young, Rd Ismail, Ali Sarosa, and Ali Joego, it follows a mother who raises her children lovingly but is ultimately betrayed by her wealthy eldest sons, who refuse to take her in when she falls on hard times. Unwilling to burden her destitute daughter, she depends on the kindness of strangers. The black-and-white film, billed as a musical extravaganza, features a soundtrack by R. Koesbini, and an eponymous title song written by Njoo. Eleven keroncong songs (a folk style with Portuguese influences) were written by music director R. Koesbini, who also appeared in the film. The last production completed by Fred Young's Majestic Film Company, Air Mata Iboe was released in December 1941, shortly before the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. This film, now possibly lost, received positive reviews. Young retook her role in a remake produced under the same title in 1957. (Full article...)

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Zanzibar butterflyfish

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... that A. J. Foyt praised Arlene Hiss for "what a fine job [she'd] done" after racing against her?
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... that Bangkok's city gates were enchanted in order to ward off evil spirits?
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... that Sheila Hibben supplied author Rex Stout with menus for his fictional character Nero Wolfe?

In the news

Cyclone Ockhi

The Parliament of Australia passes legislation to allow same-sex marriage.
Halszkaraptor, a duck-like dinosaur genus thought to have been semiaquatic, is described from a Mongolian fossil.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Cyclone Ockhi (satellite image shown) strikes India and Sri Lanka, killing at least 39 people and leaving hundreds of others missing.

On this day...

December 9

The surrender of Jerusalem

1775 – American Revolutionary War: After their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia.
1897 – French actress, journalist and leading suffragette Marguerite Durand founded the feminist newspaper La Fronde.
1917 – First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered (pictured) the city to the British.
1931 – The approval of the Spanish Constitution by the Constituent Cortes paved the way to the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic.
1979 – A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated from nature.

Al-Biruni (d. 1048) · Fritz Haber (b. 1868) · Joan Armatrading (b. 1950)

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Today's featured picture

A vervain hummingbird (Mellisuga minima) photographed at Strawberry Hill in Jamaica. This species, which can also be found in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, is the second-smallest bird in the world after the bee hummingbird. It has an average length of 6 cm (2.4 in), including the bill, and weight of 2–2.4 g (0.071–0.085 oz).

Photograph: Charles J. Sharp

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