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From today's featured article

Deoxyribonucleic acid (ⁱ/diˌɒksiˌraɪboʊ.njuːˌkleɪ.ᵻk ˈæsɪd/; DNA) is a molecule that carries most of the genetic instructions used in the development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses. DNA is a nucleic acid; alongside proteins and carbohydrates, nucleic acids compose the three major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life. Most DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer strands coiled around each other to form a double helix. The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides since they are composed of simpler units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of a nitrogen-containing nucleobase—either cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), or thymine (T)—as well as a monosaccharide sugar called deoxyribose and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. According to base pairing rules (A with T, and C with G), hydrogen bonds bind the nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... that the Drudge Report had ten billion visits in the past year?
• ... that Emma Dench, a British classicist and the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard University, appeared in a film alongside her aunt Judi Dench in 1968?
• ... that Barack Obama schemes behind the scenes against President Trump?
• ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
• ... that the name Zoroaster possibly means "he who manages camels"?
• ... that the Sacred Heart Church in Exeter, England is the earliest surviving architectural work of Leonard Stokes?
• ... that Jupiter is considered a Substellar object?

In the news (from Infogalactic News)

• House GOP Demands Hearings On Election Fraud
  Stop The Steal
• Ted Cruz Blocks Hong Kong Refugee Bill
  Just Say No To Chinese Communist Spies 
• Pfizer "Closely Monitoring" Alaska Healthcare Worker
  After "Seriously Allergic Reaction" To COVID Vaccine
  

• Hospital Explosion Kills 9 In Turkey
  Will Be Recorded As Covid Deaths
• French Modelling Agent Charged In Epstein Probe
  But Why Male Models?
• Global Chip Shortage Threatens Laptop, Smartphone Production
  Not Just COVID Causing Delays
• Democratic Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Reform NCAA Sports
  To Allow Athletes To Get Compensation
  

On this day...

December 18

• 1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China.
• 1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.
• 1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the USA.
• 1867 – The Angola Horror train wreck occurred.
• 1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar
• 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.
• 1956 – Japan joins the United Nations.

• More anniversaries:
  • December 17
  • December 18
  • December 19

December 19

• 1154 – Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
• 1490 – Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
• 1828 – Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
• 1907 – Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
• 1927 – Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan are executed by the British Empire.
• 1946 – Start of the First Indochina War.
• 2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• More anniversaries:
  • December 18
  • December 19
  • December 20

• 1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
• 1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
• 1957 – The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.
• 1960 – The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
• 1985 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
• 1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna, Austria.
• 1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.

• More anniversaries:
  • December 19
  • December 20
  • December 21

Today's featured picture

The Painter of Sunflowers (in French: Le Peintre de Tournesols) is a portrait of Vincent van Gogh by Paul Gauguin in December 1888. The portrait was painted when Gauguin visited in Arles. Van Gogh had asked him to come to Arles, because he wanted to start an art-colony there. Gauguin however only stayed for two months, because the painters argued. (Full article...)

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