Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 December 23

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From today's featured article

Mario Power Tennis is a sports game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the GameCube in 2004. The game is the sequel to the Nintendo 64 title Mario Tennis, and is the third game in the Mario Tennis series. The game was re-released for the Wii in 2009. It incorporates multiple characters, themes, and locations from the Mario series. The game includes standard tennis matches, but contains variants that feature different scoring formats and objectives. The game consists of 18 playable characters, each categorised by their style of play and each with a pair of unique moves known as "Power Shots". Power Tennis was developed simultaneously with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, and the pair shared similar technology and concepts with each other during production. Such similarities include an emphasis on the Mario theme in characters and settings as well as alternative game modes such as "Ring Shot". The game was positively received in general, attaining an aggregate score of 81 percent from GameRankings and 80 percent from Metacritic. Critics praised the game's depth and variety, but criticised the Power Shot animations, which could not be skipped. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Adrienne Augarde (pictured) suffered a fatal attack of appendicitis while her show was playing at the Majestic Theater in Chicago?
... that the first actual dentists to open clinics in the history of Philippines dentistry were a Filipino and a Frenchman?
... that Bonnier Carlsen temporarily halted its re-release of one of the Barna Hedenhös Swedish children's books because the 1950 publication refers to Native Americans as "red skins"?
... that Elmaamul was sold at Keeneland Sales for $185,000 (£110,000)?
... that the experience of Emil Rebreanu, an Austro-Hungarian Romanian military officer executed during World War I, inspired his brother Liviu to write the novel Forest of the Hanged?
... that the giant spiny frog is the largest frog in Hong Kong?
... that Mikio Mizuta founded Josai University in between two of his terms as the finance minister of Japan?

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In the news

In handball, the World Women's Championship concludes with Brazil defeating Serbia in the final.
Amidst fears of civil war, the South Sudan Liberation Army captures Bor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pardons businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky (pictured).
ESA's Gaia space observatory is launched to compile a catalogue of astronomical objects.
A new species of tapir, Tapirus kabomani, is identified in the Amazon.
In cricket, Australia defeat England to regain the Ashes in the 2013–14 series.

Recent deaths: David Coleman – Ronnie Biggs

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On this day...

December 23: Arba'een (Shi'a Islam, 2013); The Emperor's Birthday in Japan; Festivus

1793 – French Revolution: The Royalist counterrevolutionary army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Savenay, although fighting continued in the War in the Vendée for years afterward.
1888 – During a bout of mental illness, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (pictured) stalked his friend French painter Paul Gauguin with a razor, and then afterwards cut off the lower part of his own left ear and gave it to a prostitute.
1913 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, establishing a central banking system of the United States, the Federal Reserve.
1938 – A South African fisher discovered the first living specimen of a coelacanth, long believed to be extinct.
1954 – Drs. Joseph Murray and J. Hartwell Harrison performed the first successful kidney transplant.

More anniversaries: December 22 – December 23 – December 24

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It is now December 23, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

From today's featured list

An astronaut in a white spacesuit with a red, white, and blue flag on the left shoulder in the foreground with a black background

International Space Station spacewalks are major events in the building and maintaining of the orbital laboratory. Spacewalks are performed to install new components to the International Space Station, to re-wire systems, modules, and equipment, and to monitor, install, and retrieve scientific experiments. From 1998 to 2005, thirty-seven space shuttle missions were scheduled to assemble, outfit and begin experiments and research aboard the station. The initial spacewalk to begin the assembly of the International Space Station was held on December 7, 1998, following the launch of the first section of the station, Zarya, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on November 20, 1998. The spacewalk attached the U.S.-built Unity node to Zarya. STS-102 crew members Susan J. Helms and James S. Voss performed the longest spacewalk on March 11, 2001. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) is a small insectivorous passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family (Turdidae), but is now considered to be a chat. Around 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 in) in length, the male and female are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upperparts and a whitish belly.

Photo: Pierre-Selim

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