Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 December 25

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From today's featured article

Jefferson High School, Los Angeles

"Sisters at Heart" is the 13th episode of the seventh season of Bewitched, an American Broadcasting Company fantasy television sitcom. This Christmas episode aired on December 24, 1970, and again the following December. In one storyline, Darrin Stephens (Dick Sargent) fails to land a million-dollar advertising account after a toy company owner mistakes a black woman for Darrin's wife. The man changes his attitude after Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery) uses witchcraft to make him see everyone, including himself, as having black skin. At the invitation of Montgomery and her husband William Asher, who directed the episode, "Sisters at Heart" was initially written by 22 black students from Jefferson High School (pictured), a school in a poor Los Angeles neighborhood. This episode, Montgomery's favorite, received the Governors Award at the 23rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Montgomery's biographer Herbie Pilato wrote that the theme of overcoming prejudice is central to Bewitched and that "no [other] episode of the series more clearly represented this cry against prejudice". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Detail with Mary, Jesus, Joseph, the ox and ass

... that Nicolas Poussin's Adoration of the Shepherds (detail pictured) has been owned by a cardinal, a politician, two painters, and a gardener?
... that "Every Day Is a Holiday" is Katy Perry's first Christmas song?
... that Lady Alice Lucy toured towns giving presents of bread and meat each Christmas?
... that the 2004 Frank Sinatra Christmas Collection features three previously unavailable tracks, including Sinatra's last recorded Christmas carol?
... that the once-common King Christmas beetle has all but vanished from the Sydney region?
... that "Christmas Day in the Workhouse" was a criticism of the harsh conditions in English and Welsh workhouses under the 1834 Poor Law?
... that the English actor Patrick Stewart plays more than 30 characters in his one-man stage performance of A Christmas Carol?
... that in his Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, Bach embedded voices in the overture of his fourth orchestral suite and achieved a "marvellous rendition of laughter-in-music"?

In the news

Falcon 9 rocket's first stage on the landing pad

After launching a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX successfully lands the vehicle's first stage (pictured) in Cape Canaveral.
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the suspended presidents of FIFA and UEFA respectively, are banned from association football for eight years amid a corruption case.
More than 70 people are missing after a landslide in Shenzhen, China.
In the Spanish general election, the ruling People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, loses one third of its seats, but remains the largest single party.
Deep coal mining ceases in the United Kingdom with the closure of Kellingley Colliery.

Ongoing events:
- Syrian Civil War
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Jimmy Hill
- Kurt Masur

On this day...

December 25: Christmas (Gregorian calendar); Quaid-e-Azam Day (Pakistan)

William the Conqueror and his brothers

1066 – Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror (pictured center in Bayeux Tapestry) was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, although he still faced rebellions over the following years and was not secure on his throne until after 1072.
1815 – The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States, premiered at King's Chapel in Boston.
1941 – Second World War: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began after Mark Aitchison Young, the Governor of Hong Kong, surrendered the territory to Japan after 18 days of fierce fighting.
1968 – In Tamil Nadu, India, families of striking Dalit workers were massacred by a gang, allegedly led by their landlords.
2000 – Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that officially established a new National Anthem of Russia, with music adapted from the anthem of the Soviet Union that was composed by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov.

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From today's featured list

St Michael's Church, Beetham

There are 49 Grade I listed ecclesiastical buildings in the English county of Cumbria. Buildings in England are given listed building status by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, acting on the recommendation of Historic England. Listed status gives the structure national recognition and protection against alteration or demolition without authorisation. Grade I listed buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important"; only 2.5 per cent of listed buildings are included in this grade. There have been Christian churches in Cumbria since the Anglo-Saxon era. Anglo-Saxon elements to be found in the churches include the lower parts of the towers of St Michael, Beetham (pictured), and St Laurence, Morland. Many of the churches have Norman features. Gothic features are found in churches that originated at a later date, such as All Saints, Boltongate, and in additions to older churches. St James, Whitehaven, is in Georgian style, as is the nave of St Andrew, Penrith. (Full list...)

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Dominosteine are sweets primarily sold during the Christmas season in Germany and Austria. The base consists of Lebkuchen, followed by a layer of sour cherry or apricot jelly and a layer of either marzipan or persipan. The dominostein is covered with a thin icing of dark chocolate.

Photograph: Heinrich Pniok

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