Wikipedia:Today's featured list/December 2023
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December 1
The first three battlecruisers of the Royal Navy were laid down while the world's first "all big gun" warship, HMS Dreadnought, was being built in 1906. The battlecruiser was the brainchild of Admiral Sir John ("Jacky") Fisher, the man who had sponsored the construction of the Dreadnought. He visualised a new breed of warship with the armament of a battleship, but faster, lighter, and less heavily armoured. This design philosophy was most successful in action when the battlecruisers could use their speed to run down smaller and weaker ships. The best example is the Battle of the Falkland Islands where Invincible and Inflexible sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau almost without damage to themselves, despite numerous hits by the German ships. They were less successful against heavily armoured ships, as was demonstrated by the loss of Invincible, Indefatigable, and Queen Mary during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. (Full list...)
December 4
The World Video Game Hall of Fame is an international hall of fame for video games. The hall's administration is overseen by The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games, and is located at The Strong National Museum of Play (pictured) in Rochester, New York, United States. In the nine years that the hall of fame has been open, 40 games have been inducted out of 74 nominated. Many of those games have been nominated multiple times. Nintendo has been the developer of the most games inducted with six, out of a total of nine nominations of seven games. Atari has had three games inducted out of five nominations of four games, and Blizzard Entertainment has had two games inducted, both on their first nomination. Eight other developers have had more than one game nominated. Minecraft has had the most nominations of any game, at four, and was then inducted, while FIFA International Soccer has had the most nominations without being inducted, at three. (Full list...)
December 8
Basshunter, a Swedish singer, record producer and DJ, has recorded more than 100 songs since 2004 for five studio albums and two compilation albums. His first album, The Bassmachine, was released in 2004, and his second studio album, LOL, was released in 2006. This was followed by the singles "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" and "Vifta med händerna", on which Basshunter collaborated with Patrik & Lillen. In 2008, he released a cover version of "Please Don't Go" by KC and the Sunshine Band and "All I Ever Wanted", followed by his third studio album, Now You're Gone. Basshunter's fourth studio album, Calling Time, was released in 2013. Its tracklisting included four songs that had been released as singles over the preceding three years: "Saturday", "Northern Light", "Dream on the Dancefloor" and "Fest i hela huset", a track that Basshunter had recorded with contestants on the fifth season of the reality television series Big Brother. (Full list...)
December 11
Malvids are divided into 59 families of trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants. The malvids, a subgroup of rosids, consist of eight orders of flowering plants: Brassicales, Crossosomatales, Geraniales, Huerteales, Malvales, Myrtales, Picramniales and Sapindales. The cabbage family includes broccoli, turnips and radishes. The ornamental geraniums, and their many hybrids and cultivars, come from five species of Pelargonium. The mallow family includes the plants that yield cocoa beans, Cola nuts, cotton and jute. Eucalyptus trees are the tallest known flowering plants, up to 100 m (330 ft) or more; they are grown for timber and for their oils, used in candy, perfumes and cough medicine. Mangos and cashews come from the same plant family as poison ivy, and can sometimes trigger allergic reactions. (Full list...)
December 15
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The Arsenal Player of the Season award is an association football award given by the English Premier League club Arsenal since 1967 to the club's best performing player over the course of a season. The inaugural award was handed to former Scotland international Frank McLintock, following his performances during the 1966–67 Arsenal season. Since the first edition, the award has been given 57 times to 42 different players, with the most recent recipient being Norway international Martin Ødegaard (pictured) following his performance during the 2022–23 season. The club's all-time top scorer, Thierry Henry, has won the award a record four times, with Liam Brady and Tony Adams following close behind with three awards each. As of 2023, English players have won the most awards, having won 26 times. Only four goalkeepers have won the award: Bob Wilson (1971), Jimmy Rimmer (1975), David Seaman (1995) and Jens Lehmann (2006). (Full list...)
December 18
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Her, a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film, won 33 awards from 100 nominations, with particular praise being given for its screenplay, direction, acting (particularly the acting of Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson), cinematography, score, production merits, and poignant material. It received five nominations at the 86th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with Spike Jonze (pictured) winning Best Original Screenplay for his screenwriting for the film. At the 71st Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for three awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Phoenix, and won Best Screenplay for Jonze. Jonze additionally won Best Original Screenplay at the 66th Writers Guild of America Awards. Her also won Best Film and Best Director for Jonze at the 85th National Board of Review Awards. The American Film Institute included Her in their list of the top ten films of 2013. (Full list...)
December 22
There are 69 scheduled monuments in South Somerset, a local government district in Somerset, England. A scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or monument which is given legal protection by being placed on a list (or "schedule") by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; Historic England takes the leading role in identifying such sites. Some of the oldest in South Somerset are Neolithic, Bronze Age or Iron Age including hillforts, such as Kenwalch's Castle and Bowl barrows. The Romano-British period is represented with several sites including the Low Ham Roman Villa which included an extensive mosaic floor, now on display in the Museum of Somerset. Religious sites are represented by Muchelney Abbey (pictured), which was probably founded in the 8th century, and Montacute Priory, a Cluniac priory of the Benedictine order, from the 11th century. (Full list...)
December 25
The archbishop of Toronto is the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, responsible for looking after its spiritual and administrative needs. As the archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province encompassing Southern Ontario and part of Northwestern Ontario, the archbishop of Toronto also administers the bishops who head the suffragan dioceses of Hamilton, London, Saint Catharines, and Thunder Bay. The archdiocese began as the Diocese of Toronto, which was created on December 17, 1841. Michael Power was appointed its first bishop, and under his reign, the construction of St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica in Toronto commenced, with Power laying the cornerstone of the new church. Ten men have been Archbishop of Toronto; another two were bishop of its predecessor diocese. Four archbishops – James McGuigan (pictured), Gerald Emmett Carter, Aloysius Ambrozic, and Thomas Christopher Collins – were elevated to the College of Cardinals. (Full list...)
December 29
The UK Open Billiards Championship is an English billiards tournament, first contested in 1934. Joe Davis won the inaugural UK Professional English Billiards Championship title with an 18,745–18,309 defeat of Tom Newman (pictured). After 1934, the UK Championship was the premier event of the billiards season in the UK, in the absence of any contests for the world championships. David Causier won the 2019 title, with a 632–315 victory over Mark Hirst in the final. The competition was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has not been held since. The tournament has been staged 35 times and produced 17 different champions. Mike Russell has won the title a record eight times, one more than Joe Davis's total. Causier has taken three titles, and the only other players to have won the tournament more than once are two-time champions Rex Williams, Robby Foldvari, and Roxton Chapman. (Full list...)