Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 13

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From today's featured article

Keke Rosberg

The 1982 Formula One World Championship featured sixteen rounds from January to September, spanning the 36th season of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula One motor racing. Keke Rosberg (pictured) won the Drivers' Championship, becoming the second driver to achieve the feat after winning only one race in the season. The year was marked by several incidents and tragedies: a drivers' strike at the first race in South Africa, a partial race boycott as part of the ongoing FISA–FOCA war at the San Marino Grand Prix, as well as the death of two drivers. Gilles Villeneuve died during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, and Riccardo Paletti at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix. Didier Pironi, while leading the championship, crashed during qualifying for the German Grand Prix, forcing him to retire from the sport. Nevertheless, Scuderia Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship after replacing Villeneuve with Patrick Tambay and Pironi with 1978 World Champion Mario Andretti. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Poster for It Happened One Night (1934)

... that Claudette Colbert, who won her only Academy Award for Best Actress for It Happened One Night (poster pictured), privately called the film "the worst picture in the world"?
... that the 1958 Lebanese presidential election was held during an armed rebellion while 10,000 US troops were deployed in the nation?
... that Chinese cosplayer Liyuu is also an anime musician?
... that the male sea spider Propallene longiceps carries fertilized eggs in bracelet-like masses wrapped around his legs?
... that MLS Cup 2020 will feature Seattle Sounders FC for the fourth time in five years?
... that Elsa-Brita Nordlund, Sweden's first child psychiatrist, advocated for the humanization of care in children's hospitals?
... that a line of the 1840 song "Kein schöner Land in dieser Zeit", claiming "no country more beautiful" and presented by its author as a Volkslied, is quoted as the title of books and television series?
... that upon being named president of Georgetown University, Gerard J. Campbell was described as a "new breed" of "Ivy League Catholic"?

In the news

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

Nana Akufo-Addo

Nana Akufo-Addo (pictured) 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.
Hayabusa2 successfully returns samples collected from asteroid 162173 Ryugu to Earth.
Zdravko Krivokapić takes office as Prime Minister of Montenegro, becoming the first independent to hold the post.

On this day

December 13:

Haile Selassie

1862 – American Civil War: Union forces under Ambrose Burnside suffered severe casualties against entrenched Confederate defenders at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia.
1928 – An American in Paris, a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by George Gershwin, premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York.
1960 – With Haile Selassie (pictured), Emperor of Ethiopia, out of the country, four conspirators staged a coup attempt to install Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen as the new emperor.
1982 – An earthquake registering 6.2 M_w struck North Yemen, killing about 2,800 people.

Paul Speratus (b. 1484)
Mary Todd Lincoln (b. 1818)
Dora Marsden (d. 1960)

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Today's featured picture

The mohur is a gold coin that was formerly minted by several governments, including those of British India. It was usually equivalent in value to fifteen silver rupees. Gold mohurs issued by the British East India Company or the Crown are valuable collectors' items, and sell in auctions for high prices. The double mohur (minted between 1835 and 1918), with a value of thirty rupees, is the highest-denomination circulating coin ever issued in India. The 1835 two-mohur coin above was minted in the reign of King William IV, while the 1862 one-mohur coin below was minted in the reign of Queen Victoria; both are now part of the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History.

Coin design credit: East India Company and the Calcutta Mint; photographed by Andrew Shiva

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