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Gene Cernan saluting, in front of the Lunar Module and Lunar Roving Vehicle

Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, with, on December 11, the most recent crewed lunar landing. Commander Gene Cernan (pictured) and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans orbited above. Under pressure to send a scientist to the Moon, NASA replaced Joe Engle with Schmitt, who became the only professional geologist to land on the Moon. Mission planners sought a site shaped by volcanism, and selected Taurus–Littrow, where apparently-volcanic features had been seen. The mission lifted off early on December 7 after the only launch-pad delay in the Apollo program. Cernan and Schmitt landed and completed three moonwalks, taking lunar samples and deploying scientific instruments. Orange soil discovered at Shorty crater proved to be volcanic in origin from early in the Moon's history. The command module, which also contained a biological experiment with five mice, returned to Earth on December 19. (Full article...)

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St. Bernward, Döhren

... that St. Bernward (pictured) in Döhren was consecrated in 1893, when part of Christoph Hehl's design of a basilica in the Romanesque Revival style was built, but the building was only completed after World War II?
... that because of a mistake in a proposed state constitutional amendment, the New Jersey Legislature defined biannually to mean biennially?
... that Robert de Ogle captured five Scottish knights near Newcastle in 1341 and received royal licence to crenellate his property?
... that the National Wrestling Conference's controversial KKK storyline was the inspiration for an episode of the Netflix series GLOW?
... that Gary Wilson threw his snooker cue to the floor in anger at the 2022 UK Championship?
... that in 1908, American otorhinolaryngologist Margaret F. Butler became the first woman to preside over an international congress of physicians?
... that it was J. R. R. Tolkien's intention for Black Speech to be "full of harsh and hideous sounds and vile words"?
... that Ella Stewart Udall relayed her husband's letters to his semi-secret second wife?

In the news

Brittney Griner

American basketball player Brittney Griner (pictured) and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout are freed via a prisoner exchange.
After a failed attempt at dissolving Congress, Peruvian president Pedro Castillo is impeached and removed from office, and Dina Boluarte becomes the country's first female president.
The final Boeing 747 aircraft to be built rolls off the assembly line at Everett, Washington, United States.
Jiang Zemin, former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, dies at the age of 96.

On this day

December 11:

Parliament House on fire

861 – The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by his guards, beginning the Anarchy at Samarra.
1640 – A crowd of 1,500 people presented the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for abolishing the episcopacy of the Church of England.
1907 – The original Parliament House in Wellington, New Zealand, was destroyed by fire (pictured).
1925 – Pope Pius XI promulgated the encyclical Quas primas, establishing the Feast of Christ the King.
2008 – American stockbroker Bernie Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest in history.

Al-Fath ibn Khaqan (d. 861)
Kamehameha V (b. 1830; d. 1872)
Emmanuelle Charpentier (b. 1968)

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Today's featured picture

In ecology, crypsis is the ability of an animal or a plant to avoid observation or detection by other animals. It may be a predation strategy or an anti-predator adaptation. Methods include camouflage, nocturnality, subterranean lifestyle and mimicry. Crypsis can involve visual, olfactory (with pheromones), or auditory concealment. When it is visual, the term cryptic coloration, effectively a synonym for animal camouflage, is sometimes used, but many different methods are employed by animals or plants. These photographs, captured in Montagne d'Ambre National Park, Madagascar, depict a mossy leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus sikorae) exhibiting crypsis by camouflaging itself on a branch (above), and revealing itself from its camouflage (below).

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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