Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 17b

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From today's featured article

Interstate 296 (I-296) is a part of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that runs for 3.43 miles (5.52 km) parallel to the Grand River on the west bank, entirely within the Grand Rapids area. Its termini are I-196 near downtown Grand Rapids and I-96 on the north side of Grand Rapids in Walker. For most of its length, the Interstate runs concurrently with US Highway 131, which continues as a freeway built to Interstate Highway standards north and south of the shorter I-296. The highway was first proposed in the late 1950s and opened in December 1962. The Michigan Department of Transportation has since eliminated all signage for I-296 and removed the designation from their official state map, leaving it unsigned, but I-296 is still listed on the Interstate Highway System route log maintained by the Federal Highway Administration. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

S.R. Kirby being fitted out in Wyandotte, Michigan

... that in 825 feet (251 m) of water, the composite-hulled bulk carrier S.R. Kirby (pictured) is one of the deepest shipwrecks ever discovered in the Great Lakes?
... that the headlight fish gets its name from the large, bioluminescent patch of skin located between its nostrils?
... that Faith Smith, who grew up on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation in Wisconsin, became the founding president of the first urban institute of higher learning led by and serving Native Americans?
... that the world's oldest lacquerware was found at the Kakinoshima Site?
... that Earl Dawson established a council to reverse the decline of ice hockey in rural Manitoba?
... that having collaborated on the album Folklore months prior, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner met in person for the first time for the filming of Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions?
... that Tropical Storm Merbok flooded 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of crops in 2017 and led to an economic loss of CN¥600 million (US$88.3 million) in China?
... that essayist Briallen Hopper got her start writing sermons?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Nana Akufo-Addo

The Chang'e 5 sample-return mission returns lunar material to Earth.
Nana Akufo-Addo (pictured) 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 17

Memorial to victims killed during the 1970 Polish protests

497 BC – The temple to the Roman god Saturn was dedicated in the Roman Forum; its anniversary was celebrated as Saturnalia.
1790 – The Aztec sun stone, now a modern symbol of Mexican culture, was excavated in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City.
1970 – Polish soldiers fired at workers (memorial pictured) emerging from trains in Gdynia, beginning the government's crackdown on mass anti-communist protests across the country.
2010 – Arab Spring: Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest against police harassment, triggering the Tunisian Revolution.

Ludwig van Beethoven (bapt. 1770)
Pierre Paul Émile Roux (b. 1853)
Alicia Boole Stott (d. 1940)

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Today's featured picture

Chelsea Manning (born December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses after having disclosed to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents. Manning was released after nearly seven years of confinement, but was further detained in 2019 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A trans woman, Manning stated in 2013 that she had had a female gender identity since childhood.

Photograph credit: Tim Travers Hawkins

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