Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 December 14

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Morihei Ueshiba (December 14, 1883 – April 26, 1969) was the founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido. The son of a landowner from Tanabe, he studied martial arts in his youth, and served in the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War. In 1907 he moved to Hokkaidō as the head of a pioneer settlement and studied with Takeda Sōkaku, the founder of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu. In 1919 Ueshiba joined the Ōmoto-kyō movement, a Shinto sect, in Ayabe, and opened his first dojo. He accompanied the head of the group, Onisaburo Deguchi, on an expedition to Mongolia in 1924, where they were captured by Chinese troops and returned to Japan. Moving to Tokyo in 1926, he set up the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. He taught at this dojo and others around Japan, including several military academies. After World War II he retired to Iwama, and continued training at a dojo he had set up there. He continued to promote aikido throughout Japan and abroad until the 1960s. Many of his students became noted martial artists in their own right, and aikido is now practiced around the world. (Full article...)

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The Tower of Rivers and Mountains

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... that Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi was married by Pope Benedict XVI when he was a cardinal and had her childen baptized by him when he became Pope?
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In the news

Haider al-Abadi

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (pictured) declares victory against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, after capturing the group's remaining territory in the country.
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.

On this day...

December 14: Martyred Intellectuals Day in Bangladesh (1971); Monkey Day

Japanese battleship Haruna

557 – A large earthquake severely damaged the city of Constantinople.
1836 – The Toledo War, the mostly bloodless boundary dispute between Ohio and the adjoining Territory of Michigan, unofficially ended with a resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".
1913 – Haruna (pictured), the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class, was launched, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during both World Wars.
1981 – The Knesset extended Israeli "laws, jurisdiction and administration" to the Golan Heights, effectively annexing the territory.
1992 – War in Abkhazia: During the Siege of Tkvarcheli, a helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli was shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, which catalysed more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (d. 1878) · Helle Thorning-Schmidt (b. 1966)

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A witch doctor of the Shona people in Zimbabwe, August 1989. Among the Shona, witch doctors, or n'anga, are known as healers who use a combination of herbs, medical/religious advice, and spiritual guidance to heal people. Traditionally, they are believed to have the religious power to tell fortunes, and to change, heal, bless or even kill people.

Photograph: Hans Hillewaert

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