Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 20b

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From today's featured article

Oxenfree is a supernatural-mystery graphic adventure game. Developed and published by Night School Studio, it was released for Windows, OS X, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Linux in 2016 and iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch in 2017. Players assume the role of teenager Alex on a weekend trip to a local island. Alex and her friends must unravel the island's secrets after supernatural events occur. The developers designed Oxenfree as a story-driven game without cutscenes; players choose dialogue via a "walk and talk" mechanic. Oxenfree's audiovisual presentation marries dark, organic, and analog elements with bright, geometric, and digital ones. The release was accompanied by development documentaries, an alternate reality game, and a collector's edition. Oxenfree received generally positive reviews; critics praised the presentation and characters, although some reviewers were left wanting more. The game was nominated for "Best Narrative" at The Game Awards 2016. (Full article...)

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Miniature from the Ravenelle Hours

... that the only thing known about Johannete Ravenelle is that she owned a book of hours now carrying her name (detail pictured)?
... that the nearly identical 130 and 140 West 57th Street are among the few remaining artists' studio buildings in New York City constructed with distinct living and working spaces for occupants?
... that Yusuf Sayfa, commander of Ottoman forces in Syria against the Kurdish rebel Janbulad, became the latter's subordinate?
... that in Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, a cantata in eleven movements for Advent, Georg Böhm set all eight stanzas of Luther's hymn, and all differently?
... that shortly after winning a conference tournament championship with Vanderbilt's soccer team, Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play football in a Power Five conference game?
... that although nothing remains of Fort La Cloche in La Cloche Provincial Park, it was an economic hub for the area in the 19th century?
... that Black Futures, a 544-page collection of Black art and writing, was originally going to be a zine?
... that Matthew Cobb, winner of the 2021 JBS Haldane Lecture, started his academic career by getting twins drunk?

In the news

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

Chang'e 5

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.
Hayabusa2 successfully returns samples collected from asteroid 162173 Ryugu to Earth.

On this day

December 20

Russian and US IFOR troops

1860 – South Carolina became the first of eleven slave states to declare secession from the U.S., leading to the eventual creation of the Confederate States of America and later the American Civil War.
1980 – NBC aired the American football match between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins without announcers.
1995 – Mandated by the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led Implementation Force (troops pictured) began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2007 – Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, before being recovered about three weeks later.

Pope Zephyrinus (d. 217)
Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon (d. 1740)
Beth Doe (d. 1976)

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Today's featured picture

The violet-backed starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster) is a relatively small species of starling, common in most of sub-Saharan Africa. It is strongly sexually dimorphic, with the male's iridescent violet plumage contrasting with the heavily streaked brown female. A bird of open woodland, clearings and gallery forests, it feeds in the treetops, with its diet including fruits, seeds and insects. It nests in tree cavities, with green leaves and dung having been recorded as nesting materials. The female incubates the clutch of two to four eggs, and the male helps rear the young until they fledge about three weeks after hatching. This male violet-backed starling, of the subspecies C. l. verreauxi, was photographed in Damaraland, Namibia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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