Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 December 11b

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From today's featured article

James Longstreet (1821–1904) was a Confederate general of the American Civil War. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy he served in the Mexican–American War, where he was wounded. In June 1861, he resigned his commission to join the Confederate Army. He significantly contributed to most major Confederate victories in the Eastern Theater, primarily as a corps commander under General Robert E. Lee. Longstreet's most controversial service was at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, where he disagreed with Lee and reluctantly supervised several unsuccessful attacks. Afterward, Longstreet was briefly sent to the Western Theater, but returned to the east in 1864, where he was seriously wounded by friendly fire, recovered and returned to the field. After the war he worked as a diplomat, civil servant, and administrator. In 1874 he led African-American militia troops against the White League, an anti-Reconstruction group. Many modern historians consider him among the war's most gifted commanders. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Holodomor Memorial Day commemoration in Ukraine

... that the Ukrainian Holodomor Memorial Day (commemoration pictured), commemorating the victims of the 1932–33 famine, is also observed in Canada?
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... that when the U.S. government wanted to remove Chain Island, a group of "California capitalists" offered to do it for free, recouping expenses by mining it for gold?
... that backgammon was derived from the esteemed 16th-century Scottish and English tables game of Irish and eventually surpassed it in popularity?
... that during W. Sterling Cary's presidency of the National Council of Churches in the 1970s, the council voted to support gay rights for the first time in its history?
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In the news

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen (pictured) defends his World Chess Championship title, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi.
A truck crash kills more than 50 people, mostly Guatemalans and Hondurans, in Chiapas, Mexico.
It Takes Two wins game of the year at The Game Awards.
Chief of the Defence Staff of India Bipin Rawat and 12 others die in a helicopter crash.
A coalition government led by newly elected Chancellor Olaf Scholz is formed in Germany.

On this day

December 11:

Parliament House, Wellington

861 – The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by his guards, beginning the Anarchy at Samarra.
1640 – A crowd of 1,500 people presented the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for abolishing the episcopacy of the Church of England.
1907 – The original Parliament House (modern building pictured) in Wellington, New Zealand, was destroyed by fire.
1925 – Pope Pius XI promulgated the encyclical Quas primas, establishing the Feast of Christ the King.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, landed on the Moon.

Al-Fath ibn Khaqan (d. 861)
Kamehameha V (b. 1830; d. 1872)
Emmanuelle Charpentier (b. 1968)

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Today's featured picture

Eldridge Street Synagogue is a synagogue and National Historic Landmark in the neighborhood of Chinatown in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1887, it was one of the first synagogues erected in the United States by Eastern European Jews. The Moorish Revival building has a 70-foot-high (21 m) dome, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and stained-glass rose windows.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

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