Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 December 22b

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From today's featured article  Antarctica is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole, first reached in 1911 by Norwegian explorers. Antarctica is, on average, the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents. It is mainly a polar desert, though 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen there, which, if melted, would raise global sea levels by almost 60 m (200 ft). Native animals include mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. Where vegetation occurs, it is mostly in the form of lichen or moss. Some countries have territorial claims in Antarctica, but by treaty, the continent is set aside as a scientific preserve. During the summer months, about 5,000 people reside at research stations there, a figure that drops to around 1,000 in the winter. Despite Antarctica's remoteness, human activity significantly impacts it via pollution, ozone depletion, and climate change. (Full article...)

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 Did you know ...  Härnösand Residence  In the news   Grindavík eruption
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Ongoing:  Recent deaths&#58;   On this day December 22: December solstice (03:28 UTC, 2023); Yule begins; Dongzhi Festival in China (2023)  Aerial view of the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"> <ul><li>Carl Friedrich Abel ( b. 1723)</li><li>William Hyde Wollaston  ( d. 1828)</li><li>Meghan Trainor  ( b. 1993)</li><li>Dina Belenkaya ( b. 1993)</li></ul> More anniversaries: <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> <h2 id="mp-tfl-h2" class="mp-h2">From today's featured list <div class="thumbinner mp-thumb" style="background: transparent; border: none; padding: 0; max-width: 162px;"> Muchelney Abbey There are 69 scheduled monuments in South Somerset, a local government district in Somerset, England. A scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or monument which is given legal protection by being placed on a list (or "schedule") by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; Historic England takes the leading role in identifying such sites. Some of the oldest in South Somerset are Neolithic, Bronze Age or Iron Age including hillforts, such as Kenwalch's Castle and Bowl barrows. The Romano-British period is represented with several sites including the Low Ham Roman Villa which included an extensive mosaic floor, now on display in the Museum of Somerset. Religious sites are represented by Muchelney Abbey (pictured), which was probably founded in the 8th century, and Montacute Priory, a Cluniac priory of the Benedictine order, from the 11th century. (Full list...) Recently featured: <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"/> <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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 * 856 – An earthquake registering an estimated 7.9 Ms struck the eastern Alborz mountains in Persia, causing an estimated 200,000 deaths.
 * 1948 – Chaired by Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia was established to counter Dutch attempts to re-assert colonial control.
 * 1988 – Brazilian unionist and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered at his home in Xapuri.
 * 2008 – A dike ruptured at a waste containment area for a coal-fired power plant in Kingston, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million m3) of coal fly ash slurry (aftermath pictured) in the largest industrial spill in US history.
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