Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 December 24

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From today's featured article

Detail showing St. Matthew

The Soiscél Molaisse ('Gospel of St. Molaisse') is a cumdach, a medieval Irish carrying case for a holy book, decorated in the Insular style. Until the late 18th century, the case held a now-lost companion text, meant to be carried as a pocket gospel book, as indicated by the cumdach's small size. The text is presumed to be a small illuminated gospel book associated with Saint Laisrén mac Nad Froích of the 6th century, also known as Mo Laisse. The 8th-century original wooden box was embellished between 1001 and 1025 with a silver frame, including embossed silver plates, a front piece depicting a cross, the figures and symbols of the evangelists, and Latin inscriptions. During the 15th century further silver elements were incorporated, though most have been lost. The Soiscél Molaisse is the earliest and smallest surviving cumdach. It is now in the collection of the archaeology branch of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Bolton Abbey in the Snow by B. W. Evans

... that artist Bernard Walter Evans' Bolton Abbey in the Snow (pictured) was painted outdoors in "something like Arctic conditions"?
... that the 2018 soundtrack album It's Christmas, Eve by LeAnn Rimes originated from a film in which Rimes played the main character?
... that the Florida beach festival Surfing Santas, held regularly on Christmas Eve, was inspired by a Honda commercial?
... that when Josef Rheinberger conducted the first performance of his Mass in A major for three women's voices on Christmas Eve 1881, he added a flute and a string quintet to the organ accompaniment?
... that The Jew's Christmas was the first American film to have a rabbi as one of its characters?
... that besides their usual pop fare, the Glee cast sang hymns in traditional arrangements on Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album?
... that throughout the Cold War, "subversive" persons at the BBC had their files marked with a "Christmas tree"?
... that the album series Jingle Cats spawned Jingle Dogs, Jingle Babies, and a Japanese video game in which "the object is to breed and care for cats, which begin to sing when they're done copulating"?

In the news

Flooding in Kuantan on 20 December

Flooding in Kuantan

Floods in Malaysia (pictured) leave at least 37 people dead and displace more than 68,000 others.
Gabriel Boric, leader of Apruebo Dignidad, is elected President of Chile.
Typhoon Rai results in at least 390 deaths in the Philippines.
A building fire in Osaka, Japan, kills 25 people.
Siaosi Sovaleni is elected as prime minister by the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.

On this day

December 24

British and German troops during the Christmas truce

1818 – The Christmas carol "Silent Night" by Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber was first performed in a chapel in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.
1871 – Aida, one of Giuseppe Verdi's most popular operas, made its debut in Cairo, Egypt.
1914 – World War I: British and German soldiers interrupted fighting to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce (pictured).
1953 – A railway bridge at Tangiwai on New Zealand's North Island was damaged by a lahar and collapsed beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.
2008 – The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, began attacks on several villages in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing hundreds and committing numerous atrocities.

Leonaert Bramer (b. 1596)
Cosima Wagner (b. 1837)
Anthony Fauci (b. 1940)

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From today's featured list

Simon & Garfunkel

The discography of Simon & Garfunkel, an American singer-songwriter duo, consists of five studio albums, fifteen compilation albums, four live albums, one extended play, twenty-six singles, one soundtrack, and four box sets since 1964. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel first formed a duo in 1957 as Tom & Jerry, before separating and later reforming as Simon & Garfunkel. Their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was released in 1964. Initially a flop, it was re-released two years later with the new version of the single "The Sound of Silence", which was overdubbed with electric instruments and drums by producer Tom Wilson. Simon & Garfunkel's third album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, was released in 1966, and produced five singles. It peaked at number four in the United States and number thirteen in the United Kingdom, and received a three-time multi-platinum certification. In 1970, they released their fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water. It was their most successful to date, peaking at number one in several countries, including the UK and US. The album sold more than twenty-five million copies worldwide. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Jenny Nyström (1854–1946) was a Swedish painter and illustrator who is mainly known as the creator of the image of the jultomte used on numerous Christmas cards and magazine covers, thus linking the Swedish version of Santa Claus to the gnomes and tomtar of Scandinavian folklore. This illustration for a Christmas card, depicting three jultomte working, was painted by Nyström around 1899.

Illustration credit: Jenny Nyström, restored by Adam Cuerden

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