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## From today's featured article Sergo Ordzhonikidze (1886–1937) was a Bolshevik and Soviet politician from Georgia. Joining the Bolsheviks at a young age, he became an important figure and was arrested repeatedly. After the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, he oversaw the invasions of Azerbaijan, of Armenia, and of Georgia. He backed their union into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1922, one of the original Soviet republics, and served as its first secretary until 1926. He then oversaw Soviet economic production and led a massive overhaul; he implemented five-year plans, helped create the Stakhanovite movement and was named to the Politburo. He was reluctant to join the campaign against so-called wreckers and saboteurs in the early 1930s, causing friction with Joseph Stalin. Before a meeting where he was expected to denounce workers, Ordzhonikidze shot himself. He was posthumously honoured, and several towns and cities in the Soviet Union were named after him. (Full article...) Recently featured: Oxenfree Achelousaurus Mount Takahe ## Did you know ... Short-haired Segugio Italiano ... that the Segugio Italiano (example pictured) was highly prized during the Italian Renaissance, being used in elaborate hunts with large numbers of servants and followers mounted on horseback? ... that Jenna Ellis was a stern critic of Donald Trump before she became his legal adviser? ... that Australian pop band Autumn was one of four artists co-credited with a number-one hit in the Australian charts on 31 October 1970, each with a version of the song "Yellow River"? ... that Bernie Sanders won the election to become Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, by ten votes in 1981? ... that during the Nazi occupation of Poland, Halina Kwiatkowska acted in an underground theatre alongside a future pope? ... that in his book Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein, Gerald Holton argues that philosophy from Either/Or influenced Niels Bohr's concept of complementarity? ... that Robert Hammerstiel wrapped Vienna's Ringturm tower in a painting showing stations of human life in simplified and brightly coloured figures? ... that the marine worm Neanthes arenaceodentata is both an environmental monitor and a caring father? |  | ## In the news COVID-19 pandemic Disease Virus By location Impact Vaccines Portal Chang'e 5 The Chang'e 5 (illustration shown) sample-return mission returns lunar material to Earth. Nana Akufo-Addo is re-elected for a second term as President of Ghana. In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia win the World Rally Championship, while Hyundai win the manufacturers' title. Hayabusa2 successfully returns samples collected from asteroid 162173 Ryugu to Earth. ## On this day December 21: December solstice (10:03 UTC, 2020); Yule begins Grumman F-14 Tomcat 1620 – The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower landed at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, establishing the Plymouth Colony. 1872 – HMS Challenger departed Portsmouth on a scientific expedition that laid the foundations of oceanography. 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. 1970 – The Grumman F-14 Tomcat (example pictured), the primary fighter aircraft of the U.S. Navy for nearly 30 years, made its first flight. 1995 – In accordance with the Oslo II Accord, Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem in preparation for the transfer of control to the Palestinian National Authority. Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid (d. 1215) Maud Gonne (b. 1866) Iris Cummings (b. 1920) More anniversaries: December 20 December 21 December 22

## From today's featured list

Raccoon

Procyonids are members of Procyonidae, a family of mammals in the order Carnivora. The family includes raccoons, coatis, olingos, kinkajous, ring-tailed cats, and cacomistles, and many other extant and extinct mammals. They are native to North and South America, though the common raccoon (pictured) has been introduced to Europe, western Asia, and Japan. Procyonid habitats are generally forests, though some are found in shrublands and grasslands as well. The fourteen species of Procyonidae are split into six genera, which are not currently grouped into named clades. Procyonidae is believed to have diverged as a separate family within Carnivora around 22.6 million years ago. Procyonidae includes forty extinct species placed in the six extant and nineteen extinct genera, though due to ongoing research and discoveries the exact number and categorization is not fixed. (Full list...)

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## Today's featured picture

| Anne Vallayer-Coster (21 December 1744 – 28 February 1818) was an 18th-century French painter, best known for her still-life works. When she was 26, she was admitted to the prestigious Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture; Vallayer-Coster was one of only four women to be accepted into the Académie before the French Revolution, in a period when men dominated the profession. By 1780, she had come under the patronage of Marie Antoinette, after which her career flourished. This 1783 oil-on-canvas portrait, showing Vallayer-Coster at work, is by the Swedish painter Alexander Roslin. The painting is in the collection of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California. Painting credit: Alexander Roslin Recently featured: Violet-backed starling NGC 6357 English Gothic architecture

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