Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 December 21

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From today's featured article  1953 magazine cover, "Surveying a Dying Sun" The Sun has appeared in fiction since classical antiquity, but for a long time it rarely received attention. Many of the early depictions viewed the Sun as essentially Earth-like and potentially habitable—a once-common belief about celestial objects in general known as the plurality of worlds—and depicted various kinds of solar inhabitants. As more became known about the Sun through advances in astronomy, in particular its temperature, fewer solar lifeforms were depicted. Instead, many stories focused on the death of the Sun, either by going out or going nova, and the ensuing havoc on Earth. Less disastrously, solar flares and eclipses have also been depicted. The Sun has been portrayed as a source of power—both in the form of solar power and superpower abilities. It poses a danger to spacecraft that approach it, which occurs in several stories. Overall, the Sun remains relatively uncommon as a point of focus in science fiction, particularly in comparison to depictions of Mars and Venus. (Full article...)

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 Did you know ...  Blinken performing at the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative  In the news   Grindavík eruption
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 * ... that a video of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken performing "Hoochie Coochie Man" at the September 2023 launch of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative (pictured) went viral?
 * ... that the pastor John Littlejohn went from selling pornographic literature to sailors as a youth to protecting the Declaration of Independence?
 * ... that the restaurant CosMc's is named after a character from McDonaldland?
 * ... that Nivelon de Quierzy claimed to have brought the staff of Moses to France?
 * ... that Misti is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world?
 * ... that Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng &#39;s environmental activism inspired Barack Obama?
 * ... that The Story Teller by Amrita Sher-Gil, depicting a group of Indian village women performing ordinary tasks, fetched US$7.45 million at auction in 2023?
 * ... that the Antarctic lichen Buellia frigida has been to outer space?
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Ongoing:  Recent deaths&#58;   On this day December 21  Crew of Apollo 8 <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"> <ul><li>Sun Sheng ( d. 956)</li><li>Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid  ( d. 1215)</li><li>Luang Por Dattajivo ( b. 1940)</li><li>Hu Jintao  ( b. 1942)</li></ul> More anniversaries: <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/>
 * After weeks of earthquakes, a volcanic eruption (pictured) occurs at Sundhnúka near Grindavík, Iceland.
 * An earthquake in Jishishan County, China, leaves more than 120 people dead.
 * In the parliamentary election, the Serbian Progressive Party regains its parliamentary majority in the National Assembly.
 * Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah becomes Emir of Kuwait after the death of his half-brother, Nawaf.
 * The COP28 climate change summit ends with a call to transition away from the use of fossil fuels.
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 * 1620 – The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower landed at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to establish the Plymouth Colony.
 * 1963 – An attempt by Greek Cypriot police to search certain Turkish Cypriot women in Nicosia escalated into island-wide violence, leading to 538 deaths and the displacement of nearly 27,000 people.
 * 1968 – Apollo 8 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a trajectory to the Moon; its crew (pictured) became the first humans to visit another celestial body.
 * 1988 – A bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 detonated over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
 * 2018 – Operatives of the British Special Boat Service boarded the container ship Grande Tema in the Thames Estuary to detain four stowaways who had threatened the crew.
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<h2 id="mp-tfp-h2" class="mp-h2">Today's featured picture <h2 id="mp-other" class="mp-h2">Other areas of Wikipedia <h2 id="mp-sister" class="mp-h2">Wikipedia's sister projects <templatestyles src="Wikipedia's sister projects/styles.css" /> Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
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<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> <ul id="sister-projects-list"> <li> Commons Free media repository </li> <li> MediaWiki Wiki software development </li> <li> Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination </li> <li> Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals </li> <li> Wikidata Free knowledge base </li> <li> Wikinews Free-content news </li> <li> Wikiquote Collection of quotations </li> <li> Wikisource Free-content library </li> <li> Wikispecies Directory of species </li> <li> Wikiversity Free learning tools </li> <li> Wikivoyage Free travel guide </li> <li> Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus </li> </ul> <h2 id="mp-lang" class="mp-h2">Wikipedia languages <templatestyles src="Wikipedia languages/styles.css"/> This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below. <li> 1,000,000+ articles <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> </li> <li> 250,000+ articles <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> </li> <li> 50,000+ articles <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> </li> </ul>
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