Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 7

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From today's featured article

Taylor Swift performing
"Blank Space"

"Blank Space" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (pictured) for her fifth studio album, 1989. The song was released to US radio stations as the second single from 1989 on November 10, 2014, by Republic Records in partnership with Swift's label at the time, Big Machine. Swift co-wrote the song with its producers Max Martin and Shellback. "Blank Space" spent seven weeks at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, and has been certified eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Contemporary critics praised the song's production and Swift's songwriting, and some picked it as 1989's highlight. The song earned three nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards, including in two general categories—Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Cover versions of the song in various genres have been performed by I Prevail, Ryan Adams, and other rock musicians. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Surprise Attack title card

... that the 1951 British film Surprise Attack (title card pictured) warned of the danger of not being vaccinated against infectious diseases?
... that Representative-elect August Pfluger's great-great-great-great-grandfather founded Pflugerville, Texas?
... that in his Requiem, premiered at Lausanne Cathedral in 1973, Frank Martin scored the "Dies irae" for speaking choir and a "battery of percussion"?
... that Abraham Pais's 1982 biography of Albert Einstein was the first to focus on Einstein's scientific contributions as opposed to his life as a popular figure?
... that Paul Foley, who played one match in his first-class career, went on to co-found the Minor Counties Cricket Championship?
... that economists William Darity and Darrick Hamilton proposed the policy of baby bonds in 2010 as a mechanism to reduce the racial wealth gap in the United States?
... that the wasp Andricus mukaigawae creates galls on oak trees, and these may become occupied simultaneously by other species of wasp?
... that Priscilla Jana, a South African human-rights lawyer of Indian descent, was the first woman to hug Nelson Mandela in 13 years of imprisonment on Robben Island?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Zdravko Krivokapić

Zdravko Krivokapić (pictured) takes office as Prime Minister of Montenegro, becoming the first independent to hold the post.
Former President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing dies at the age of 94.
In baseball, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks defeat the Yomiuri Giants to win their fourth-straight Japan Series.
Ingrida Šimonytė takes office as Prime Minister of Lithuania.

On this day

December 7: National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in the United States (1941)

Bust of Cicero

43 BC – Cicero (bust pictured), widely considered one of ancient Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, was killed after having been proscribed as an enemy of the state.
1837 – British troops swiftly defeated rebels led by William Lyon Mackenzie and Anthony Van Egmond at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only major confrontation of the Upper Canada Rebellion.
1936 – Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton became the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.
2005 – Spanish authorities captured Croatian Army general Ante Gotovina, who was wanted for war crimes committed during the Croatian War of Independence; he was eventually cleared of all charges.

Theodor Schwann (b. 1810)
Joseph Cook (b. 1860)
Jeane Kirkpatrick (d. 2006)

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From today's featured list

Visby Cathedral

There are 92 well-preserved churches from the Middle Ages on the Swedish island of Gotland, more than in any other part of Sweden. Most of these churches were built between the early 12th century and the middle of the 14th century, when the wealth of the island increased thanks to trade between Western and Eastern Europe. The oldest of these churches are Romanesque in style, and while Gothic forms eventually replaced Romanesque, church architecture remained conservative on Gotland. The churches were often decorated with murals, with stained glass, and with decorative sculptures both of wood (such as the Viklau Madonna) and stone (especially decorated baptismal fonts). In the middle of the 14th century, Gotland entered a period of decline and turmoil, and a loss of trade from which the island would never recover. Church-building activity ceased after around 1350. In the main town of Visby, only Visby Cathedral (pictured) was maintained, while other churches were left as ruins. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

This historical depiction of the coat of arms of Delaware was illustrated by American engraver Henry Mitchell in State Arms of the Union, published in 1876 by Louis Prang. A Mid-Atlantic state, Delaware ratified the Constitution of the United States on December 7, 1787, becoming the first state to do so. The shield depicts a wheat sheaf, a corn cob and an ox, representing the importance of agriculture to the state's economy, with the blue horizontal stripe referring to the Delaware River. The ship in the crest is a symbol of the state's extensive coastal commerce, while the shield's supporters are a farmer with a hoe (again representing the central role of farming to the state) and a militiaman (recognizing the crucial role of the citizen-soldier to the maintenance of American liberties). The motto, Liberty and independence, was provided by the Society of the Cincinnati.

Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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