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From today's featured article

William I (Old Norman: Williame I; Old English: Willelm I; c. 1028 – 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands and by difficulties with his eldest son.

William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Robert's mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued the first years of his rule. During his childhood and adolescence, members of the (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... that the Drudge Report had ten billion visits in the past year?
• ... that some people think approximately 300 years of phantom time were added to the Western calendar in the Early Middle Ages
• ... 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 the type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion consists only of a thorax, leg, and wing portions?
• ... that NuScale Power has designed a line of small, modular nuclear reactors?
• ... that Buzzfeed printed fake news about President Trump?
• ... that Jupiter is considered a Substellar object?

In the news (from Infogalactic News)

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• Abortion Leading Cause Of Death Worldwide
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• Elizabeth Warren Forms 2020  Presidential Exploratory Committee
  Ultra Liberal Democrat First To Take On Trump
• 2nd Man Nears End Of Historic Solo Trek Across Antarctica
• Yellow Vest Protesters Target French Media As Movement Ebbs
  

On this day...

December 31

• 1225 – The Lý dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Trần Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Trần dynasty.
• 1696 – A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
• 1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906.
• 1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
• 1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
• 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
• 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

• More anniversaries:
  • December 30
  • December 31
  • January 1

January 1

• 1932 – The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
• 1937 – Safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.
• 1960 – Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom.
• 1962 – United States Navy SEALs established.
• 1973 – Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Ireland are admitted into the European Economic Community.
• 1987 – A value-added tax is introduced in Greece for the first time.
• 1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.

• More anniversaries:
  • December 31
  • January 1
  • January 2

• 366 – The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire.
• 1833 – Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
• 1967 – Ronald Reagan sworn in as Governor of California
• 1974 – United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
• 2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.
• 2006 – An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.
• 2013 – Barack Obama signs the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

• More anniversaries:
  • January 1
  • January 2
  • January 3

Today's featured picture

Shortly before his death in 1534 Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of The Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Paul III was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo began and completed the project. Michelangelo labored on the project from 1534 to October 1541. The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, and showed him a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked. He is surrounded by saints, among which Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell. (Full article...)

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