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Swift with her Best Female Video trophy for the song

"You Belong with Me" is the third single from Taylor Swift's second studio album Fearless (2008). Big Machine Records released the song to radio on April 20, 2009. Swift and Liz Rose wrote the lyrics, which discuss unrequited love. Swift and Nathan Chapman produced the track, which has a banjo-led country pop production. The song was nominated in three categories at the 2010 Grammy Awards, reached the top 10 on several charts and received certifications in Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100; the RIAA certified it seven-times platinum. Roman White directed the song's music video, which stars Swift in two roles, and won Best Female Video (pictured) at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where Swift's acceptance was interrupted by Kanye West. Following a dispute about the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the song as "You Belong with Me (Taylor's Version)" for her 2021 album Fearless (Taylor's Version). (Full article...)

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Barquq Castle

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... that David Hilchen played a key role in the establishment of Renaissance humanism in the area of the present-day Baltic states?
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... that several local residents mistook the production set of Miss Shampoo for a real shop and entered during filming?
... that a columnist described Bern Shanks as "the most open and accessible state wildlife chief in memory"?
... that Ngiam Tong Dow negotiated Singapore's first and largest purchase of gold from South Africa in 1968 by comparing two halves of a United States one-dollar bill?
... that Tiny Glade was developed by a two-person studio and was the fourth most-played demo on 2024's Steam Next Fest?
... that Chen Qiyou, a would-be assassin, later became part of the Chinese Committee for World Peace?

In the news

Notre-Dame de Paris in April

Syrian rebel forces capture Damascus following multiple offensives by opposition groups.
Notre-Dame de Paris (pictured) reopens following reconstruction after the 2019 fire.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah wins the presidency in the Namibian general election.
Fianna Fáil wins the most seats in the Irish general election but their ruling coalition with Fine Gael and The Greens does not achieve a majority.

On this day

December 8: Rōhatsu in Japan; Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Day in Ethiopia

Metallica

1504 – Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah wrote his Oran fatwa, arguing for the relaxation of Islamic law for forcibly converted Muslims in Spain.
1854 – Pope Pius IX promulgated the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, proclaiming the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin.
1980 – English musician John Lennon was murdered at the entrance of the Dakota, where he resided in New York City.
1998 – The Australian Cricket Board's cover-up of Shane Warne and Mark Waugh's involvement with bookmakers was revealed.
2013 – Metallica (pictured) played a concert in Antarctica, becoming the first band to perform on all seven continents.

John Peckham (d. 1292)
John Pym (d. 1643)
Jean Sibelius (b. 1865)
John Banville (b. 1945)

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Today's featured picture

Jean Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer and songwriter who was known for playing the Appalachian dulcimer. Born to a family of folk singers in Viper, Kentucky, Ritchie was the youngest of fourteen siblings. As a child, her father Balis barred his children from playing the dulcimer, but Ritchie defied his injunction and began playing it in secret. Thus, by the time her father began teaching her how to play, she was already accustomed to the instrument, and he labeled her as a "natural born musician". Ritchie popularized the dulcimer by playing it on many of her albums and writing tutorials, making her ultimately responsible for its revival, and earning her the nickname "Mother of Folk". This 1950 Associated Press photograph shows Ritchie playing the Appalachian dulcimer.

Photograph credit: Associated Press

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