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From today's featured article

The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large wading bird found in warmer parts of the Americas. North American birds may disperse to South America, where it is resident. Its bare head and neck are dark grey and the plumage is mostly white, with black on the tail and part of the wing. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile has a feathered head and a yellow, not black, bill. The wood stork nests colonially in wetlands, building its one-metre-diameter (3.3-foot) nest in trees; the breeding season starting when water levels drop. The clutch of three to five eggs is incubated for around 30 days, and the chicks fledge 60 to 65 days after hatching, although many die during their first two weeks. The chicks are fed fish while the adult also eats insects, frogs and crabs as available, foraging by touch in shallow water. The wood stork is classed as being of least concern by the IUCN although in the US it is threatened by predators and human activities. Habitat alteration has caused widespread declines. (Full article...)

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Osborne Apartments

... that when the Osborne Apartments building (pictured) was slated to be torn down and replaced, its residents saved it by jointly raising $500,000?
... that Rudolf Steglich, a musicologist who wrote his habilitation thesis on rhythm in 1930, was a co-editor of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, the critical edition of Handel's complete works, from 1955?
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... that scholars have speculated that failure to punish the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide contributed to the Holocaust?
... that Cynthia Fierro Harvey is the first Hispanic woman to serve as the president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops?
... that the 2021 Somali presidential election was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed by concerns of famine, war, pestilence, and civil disorder?
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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.
In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia win the World Rally Championship, while Hyundai win the manufacturers' title.

On this day

December 23: Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca City, Mexico; Festivus

Vincent van Gogh

1815 – Jane Austen's novel Emma was first published.
1888 – During a bout of mental illness, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (pictured) severed part of his left ear and gave it to a woman in a brothel in Arles.
1916 – First World War: Allied forces gained a strategic victory in the Battle of Magdhaba on the Sinai Peninsula.
1957 – Leading the Australia national cricket team, Ian Craig became the youngest Test cricket captain up to that time.
1990 – About 88 percent of eligible voters in Slovenia voted to secede from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Joseph Smith (b. 1805)
Constance Naden (d. 1889)
Joan Lindsay (d. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

The Krestovsky Stadium is the home ground of FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. Photographed here in 2016, when construction was nearing completion, it is situated on Krestovsky Island in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. It was opened in 2017 as a venue for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and hosted the final, in which Germany beat Chile 1–0. it was one of the venues for the 2018 FIFA World Cup the following year. Among other features, it has a retractable roof, and is equipped with a video-surveillance and identification system, as well as security-alarm, fire-alarm and robotic fire-extinguishing systems. The stadium's seating capacity is 67,800.

Photograph credit: Andrew Shiva

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