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From today's featured article

Douglas Mawson

The Far Eastern Party of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition set out with sled dogs in November 1912 to collect specimens, map the coast, and claim territory. Douglas Mawson (pictured), Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz had covered 311 miles (501 km) when Ninnis and a sled broke through the snow lid of a crevasse and were lost. With few supplies left, Mawson and Mertz made for the main base at Cape Denison, eating the remaining sled dogs one by one. Mertz became sick, and died within a week. For almost a month, Mawson pulled his sled alone across snow and ice despite an illness that increasingly weakened him. He reached the comparative safety of Aladdin's Cave—a food depot 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from the main base—on 1 February, only to be trapped there for a week while a blizzard raged outside. He arrived at the main base just hours after the expedition ship, SY Aurora, sailed for Australia, fleeing the encroaching ice. With a relief party, Mawson remained at Cape Denison until the ship returned the next summer, 10 months later. In 1976 Sir Edmund Hillary described Mawson's journey as "probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Frank Sinatra c. 1943

... that after gaining a job as a singing waiter in 1938, Frank Sinatra (pictured) boasted that he would "become so big that no one could ever touch him"?
... that at his solo nightclub debut at the Riobamba, Frank Sinatra sang two songs "with trembling lips" and brought the house down?
... that Hank Sanicola, a boxer turned music manager, was Frank Sinatra's "song plugger"?
... that Frank Sinatra often visited the barber shop in the basement of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel to play gin rummy with the barber?
... that at age 16, singer Julie Budd was the youngest-ever opening act for Frank Sinatra?
... that Frank Sinatra's 1966 cover of "Summer Wind" was the final top 40 hit for lyricist Johnny Mercer?
... that Frank Sinatra and the 3 Flashes, newly renamed the Hoboken Four, performed in blackface in a short film aired at Radio City Music Hall?
... that publicist Jim Byron once got into a fist fight with Frank Sinatra on the Sunset Strip?

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In a constitutional referendum, Armenia approves becoming a parliamentary republic.
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Flooding across southern India kills at least 300 people and displaces approximately 1.8 million others since November.

Ongoing events:
- Syrian Civil War
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Dolph Schayes

On this day...

December 12: Independence Day in Kenya (1963); Yule Lads begin arrival in Iceland

Yuan Shikai

1531 – According to traditional Catholic accounts, the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary miraculously appeared imprinted on Juan Diego's tilma.
1862 – American Civil War: The USS Cairo was sunk in the Yazoo River, the first armored ship sunk by a naval mine.
1915 – President Yuan Shikai (pictured) of the Republic of China reinstated the monarchy and declared himself Emperor.
1935 – The Nazi Lebensborn programme, which was later mistakenly believed to engage in coercive breeding, was established to provide assistance to the wives of SS members and unmarried mothers.
1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashed after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, killing 256, including 248 members of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division.

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Today's featured picture

The ruddy kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda) is a medium-sized tree kingfisher which is widely distributed in the forests of east and southeast Asia. Like other kingfishers, ruddy kingfishers generally feed on fish, crustaceans, and large insects, though in areas with less running water they are known to take frogs and other amphibians.

Photograph: Jason Thompson

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