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Maya Angelou

Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas is the third book of a seven-volume autobiography series by Maya Angelou (pictured). Set between 1949 and 1955, the book largely spans her twenties. Angelou describes her struggles to support her young son, form relationships, and forge a career in entertainment. Its 1976 publication was the first time an African-American woman had expanded her life story into a third volume. It was described as "a graphic portrait of the adult self in bloom" and "a journey of discovery and rebirth". In the book, Angelou examines many of the same subjects and themes in her previous autobiographies, including travel, music, race, conflict, and motherhood. She depicts the conflict she felt as a single mother, despite her success as a performer as she travels Europe with the musical Porgy and Bess. Her depictions of her travels, which take up 40 percent of the book, have roots in the African-American slave narrative. (This article is part of a featured topic: Maya Angelou autobiographies.)

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Did you know ...

Horses in Luca Signorelli's Adoration of the Magi

... that the horses in Signorelli's Adoration of the Magi (pictured) have been said to be "badly-drawn ... with curious mannerisms of too closely-placed nostrils, and human eyebrows"?
... that Starbucks raised money for HIV/AIDS research using their red holiday cups?
... that Navidades by Luis Miguel was the first Spanish-language album to enter the Billboard Top Holiday Albums since 1966?
... that the Christmas Raid carried out by Confederate brigadier general John Hunt Morgan captured 1,800 Union soldiers?
... that critics were confused by Justin Bieber's version of "Drummer Boy", in which he raps about himself and consumer products, which was seen to bastardize the original sentiment?
... that after amputating the same limb six years earlier, Elizabeth Mary Wells fitted a girl with a prosthetic arm for Christmas?
... that Mendelssohn's 1831 Christmas cantata Vom Himmel hoch, influenced by Bach's chorale cantatas, was based on a 1539 carol composed by Martin Luther?
... that Santa Claus really did on one occasion deliver coal?

In the news

HTMS Sukhothai

HTMS Sukhothai (pictured), a corvette of the Royal Thai Navy, capsizes and sinks, leaving 6 crew members dead and 23 others missing.
In the Fijian general election, FijiFirst wins the most seats, but fails to gain a parliamentary majority.
In association football, the FIFA World Cup concludes with Argentina defeating France in the final.
At least 24 people are killed in a landslide near Batang Kali, Malaysia.

On this day

December 25: Christmas (Western Christianity; Gregorian calendar); Quaid-e-Azam Day in Pakistan

Baldwin I of Jerusalem

1066 – Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, but continued to face rebellions over the following years and was not secure on the throne until after 1072.
1100 – Baldwin I was crowned the first king of Jerusalem (depicted) in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
1809 – American physician Ephraim McDowell performed the world's first removal of an ovarian tumor.
1989 – Romanian Revolution: Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were condemned to death on a wide range of charges and executed.
2009 – A fire destroyed Longford's 19th-century St Mel's Cathedral, considered the "flagship cathedral" of the Irish midlands.

Otto Frederick Hunziker (b. 1873)
George Koval (b. 1913)
Joan Miró (d. 1983)

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Today's featured picture

Rose O'Neill (1874–1944) was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer. Raised in rural Nebraska, she exhibited an interest in the arts at an early age, and sought a career as an illustrator in New York City. Her Kewpie cartoons, which made their debut in a 1909 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, were later manufactured as bisque, composition and celluloid dolls. This chromolithograph by O'Neill, titled "When We All Believe", depicts many children gathered around Santa Claus and his bag of toys, and was published in the December 2, 1903, issue of Puck.

Illustration credit: Rose O'Neill; restored by Adam Cuerden

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