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Today's featured article

SMS Niobe was a light cruiser of the Gazelle class, built for the Imperial German Navy. Launched in 1899, Niobe was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and had a top speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph). The ship served as a flotilla leader for torpedo boats, a scout for the fleet, and a station ship with the East Asia Squadron. In World War I, Niobe helped defend Germany's North Sea coast. One of the cruisers permitted Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, Niobe was modernized, but was sold in 1925 to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). Renamed Dalmacija the vessel served until April 1941, when she was captured by the Italians. Renamed again as Cattaro, she served until the Italian surrender in September 1943. Seized by the Germans, she was used in the Adriatic Sea until 19 December 1943, when she ran aground on the island of Silba, and was destroyed by British motor torpedo boats. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.)

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Papaya

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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In the News

Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly, signing the impeachment resolution

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President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol is impeached (signing pictured) following his declaration of martial law.
Astro Bot wins Game of the Year at the Game Awards.
Gukesh Dommaraju defeats Ding Liren to win the World Chess Championship.

Did you know?

Bubble wrap jacket from The Horn of Plenty

... that The Horn of Plenty by Alexander McQueen satirized the fashion industry with clothing sewn from expensive fabric made to look like household trash (example pictured)?
... that Fen Juhua became the "first of the lady knights in the Chinese cinema" after fighting for love in a 1925 film?
... that the offices of Hamm's Brewery in Saint Paul, Minnesota, were built on the site of the city's third cathedral?
... that Miles Rock served as chief of the commission that determined the disputed Guatemala–Mexico border?
... that the 2025 season of Inter Miami CF includes matches in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup?
... that Anthony F. Ciampi fought his superiors to rebuild the College of the Holy Cross after it was destroyed by fire in 1852?
... that a documentary film built around the final interview of K-pop star Sulli employs elements of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a framing device?
... that Diane Leather was the first woman to run a mile in under five minutes?
... that a cat, Timoshenko, joined the British submarine HMS Unruffled on twenty patrols during the Second World War?

{{{Image text}}} On this day...

December 19

Frontispiece to A Christmas Carol

1828 – Nullification crisis: American vice president John C. Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest, written to protest the Tariff of Abominations, was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives.
1843 – A Christmas Carol (illustration pictured), a novella by Charles Dickens about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by ghosts, was published.
1983 – The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the FIFA World Cup, was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football Confederation.
1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashed into the Musi River in Indonesia, killing 104 people.
2013 – The European Space Agency's spacecraft Gaia was launched with the goal of constructing the largest and most precise star catalogue ever made.

Adelaide of Susa (d. 1091)
Sakakibara Kenkichi (b. 1830)
Kristina Keneally (b. 1968)
Ahmet Emin Yalman (d. 1972)

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