Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 December 30b

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From today's featured article

Michelle Dockery

The Turn of the Screw is a British television film based on Henry James's 1898 ghost story of the same name. Commissioned and produced by the BBC, it was first broadcast on 30 December 2009, on BBC One. The novella was adapted for the screen by Sandy Welch, and the film was directed by Tim Fywell. Although generally true to the tone and story of James's work, the film is set in the 1920s instead of the 1840s. The story is told in flashbacks during consultations between the institutionalised Ann, played by Michelle Dockery (pictured), and a psychiatrist, Dr Fisher (Dan Stevens). Ann tells how she was hired by an aristocrat (Mark Umbers) to care for the orphans Miles (Josef Lindsay) and Flora (Eva Sayer) at their home, Bly House. Ann soon begins to see unknown figures around the manor, and seeks an explanation. Though the film generally received a positive response, critics disagreed over whether it retained the novella's much-discussed ambiguity. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Hellvi helmet eyebrow

... that the Hellvi helmet eyebrow (pictured), made of iron, bronze, and silver, is one of several Vendel Period helmets for which only eyebrows remain?
... that due to Spanish singer Melody's three-year disappearance from the public eye, she was rumoured to be dead?
... that the director of a 2018 documentary uncovered evidence of FBI surveillance of Arab-American families in her hometown outside Chicago?
... that TMNT Shellraiser, the world's steepest roller coaster, beat the previous record holder by half a degree?
... that German SS commander and convicted war criminal Kurt Meyer falsely claimed that the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre was the only war crime that SS troops ever committed?
... that the Field Music album Plumb was nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize, even though the band thought that their odds were "minimal to nil"?
... that Lu Youquan's book on Piaget's theory of cognitive development won a national education award in China?
... that pygmy Ota Benga was moved to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum after people objected to him being shown in the Bronx Zoo?

In the news

Jamal Khashoggi

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentences five people to death for the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi (pictured).
In the Netherlands, the supreme court upholds a ruling that the government must meet established emissions reduction milestones, creating the first legal precedent on the impact of climate change on human rights.

On this day

December 30: Rizal Day in the Philippines (1896)

A pro-government rally in Tehran

1460 – Wars of the Roses: Richard of York was killed and his army destroyed in the Battle of Wakefield at Sandal Magna in West Yorkshire, England.
1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, the British colonial governor of Carolina, abandoned a siege against St. Augustine in Spanish Florida, retreating to Charles Town in disgrace.
1903 – In the deadliest single-building fire in United States history, the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago claimed over 600 lives.
1954 – The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was established to consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single agency.
2009 – Pro-government counter-demonstrators held rallies (pictured) in several Iranian cities in response to recent anti-government protests held on the holy day of Ashura.

André Messager (b. 1853) · Rosalinde Hurley (b. 1929) · C. Harold Wills (d. 1940)

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From today's featured list

Steps performing on their
Christmas with Steps tour

The British pop group Steps have recorded songs for five studio albums (including a Christmas album), two greatest-hits albums and a tribute album. The band formed in 1997 after responding to an advert in the magazine The Stage, which asked for people to audition for a place in a pop band. Out of the thousands who applied, Lee Latchford-Evans, Lisa Scott-Lee, Faye Tozer, Claire Richards, and Ian "H" Watkins were successful in securing a place. The techno-pop song "5,6,7,8" was released as their debut single in 1997 and was followed by their debut album Step One the following year. The group achieved thirteen consecutive top-five singles in the United Kingdom, including "Better Best Forgotten", "Say You'll Be Mine", "Deeper Shade of Blue", "It's the Way You Make Me Feel", and one of their two number-ones, "Stomp". The group have covered a variety of well-known songs throughout their career, including their first number-one song, "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Actinidia chinensis is a fruit-producing vine, one of some 40 related species of the genus Actinidia, native to China. The species is closely related to Actinidia deliciosa, which is the source of the commonest commercial kiwifruit. The plant is a vigorous climbing shrub native to China where it grows in thick oak forests, particularly on slopes and the sides of ravines. Kiwifruit were originally gathered from the wild in China for local consumption and first grown commercially in New Zealand. They are now the subject of international trade.

This picture shows a few A. chinensis kiwifruit growing on a branch in Austins Ferry, in the Australian state of Tasmania. The fruit colour may vary from green to lime green or gold, depending on breeding.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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