Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 December 16b
From today's featured article
Lever House is an office building at 390 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that was originally the US headquarters of the soap company Lever Brothers, a subsidiary of Unilever. Constructed from 1950 to 1952, the building is 307 feet (94 m) tall and has 21 office stories topped by a triple-height mechanical section. It was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in the 20th-century modern International Style. Lever House was the second skyscraper in New York City with a glass curtain wall, after the United Nations Secretariat Building. The skyscraper was nearly demolished in the 1980s before being designated as a city landmark. After the construction of Lever House, many masonry residential structures on Park Avenue in Midtown were replaced with largely commercial International Style office buildings. Its design was also copied worldwide by buildings such as the Emek Business Center in Ankara, Turkey. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that at least one million civilians died as a result of the blockade of Biafra (child pictured)?
- ... that in a village in Wales, hares were traditionally nicknamed "St Monacella's lambs"?
- ... that Yurie Funato, a voice actress and former singer, was bullied in high school for her high-pitched voice?
- ... that the Fitzgerald Hoard included sealed treasury bags of silver dollars, casino chips, and other casino related merchandise?
- ... that former International Brigades doctor Walter Fischer managed the Austrian broadcasts of Radio Moscow during World War II?
- ... that in 1964, Illinoisans cast more than 500 million votes in one election?
- ... that Mike Shenk once constructed an entire crossword puzzle by hand in an hour?
- ... that Foodbank Canterbury receives products from a prison?
In the news
- The COP28 climate change summit (location pictured) ends with a call to transition away from the use of fossil fuels.
- Donald Tusk becomes Prime Minister of Poland in the aftermath of the October parliamentary election.
- Baldur's Gate 3 wins game of the year at The Game Awards.
- At least 17 people are killed as Cyclone Michaung makes landfall in India.
- Former president of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is sentenced to prison on charges of corruption.
On this day
December 16: Day of Reconciliation in South Africa
- 1598 – Led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the Korean navy defeated a Japanese fleet at the Battle of Noryang, ending their invasions of the Korean peninsula.
- 1773 – American Revolution: A group of colonists threw chests of tea into Boston Harbor (pictured) to protest British taxation without representation.
- 1938 – Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honour of the German Mother as an order of merit for German mothers with at least four children.
- 1997 – Amid an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the British government banned the sale of beef on the bone for human consumption.
- 2012 – A woman was gang-raped and fatally assaulted on a bus in Delhi, generating protests across India against inadequate security for women.
- Elizabeth Carter (b. 1717)
- James Murrell (d. 1860)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (d. 1921)
- Taliep Petersen (d. 2006)
Today's featured picture
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The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) is one of the largest and best-known cuttlefish species. It is native to the Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea, with some subspecies proposed in South Africa. It lives on sand and mud seabeds and can tolerate brackish water. The common cuttlefish is a migratory species, spending the summer and spring inshore for spawning and then moving to depths of 100 to 200 metres (330 to 660 ft) during autumn and winter. It has a mantle of up to 49 centimetres (19 in), with a mass of 4 kilograms (8.8 lb). Cuttlefish have strong camouflaging abilities, enabled by a variety of specialized cells: pigmented chromatophore organs, light-scattering leucophores, and structurally reflecting iridophores in their skin. This common cuttlefish was photographed in Arrábida Natural Park, Portugal. Photograph credit: Diego Delso
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