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Conrad by Surveyor 3 on the lunar surface

Apollo 12 (November 14–24, 1969) was the second crewed landing on the Moon. The sixth crewed mission in the U.S. Apollo program, it was launched by NASA from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean walked on the Moon while Command Module Pilot Richard Gordon remained in orbit. Launched on a rainy day, Apollo 12 was twice struck by lightning; the outward journey otherwise saw few problems. On November 19, Conrad and Bean landed close to the Surveyor 3 probe. This meant NASA could plan future missions expecting a landing close to target. Conrad and Bean carried a group of nuclear-powered instruments, and the first color television camera taken by an Apollo mission to the surface, but the picture was lost after Bean accidentally pointed the camera at the Sun and its sensor burned out. They visited Surveyor 3 and removed parts for return to Earth. The Apollo 12 mission safely returned to Earth on November 24. (Full article...)

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Mohamed Aw-Ali Abdi

... that Mohamed Aw-Ali Abdi (pictured) campaigned in Birmingham, England, while running to become the vice president of Somaliland?
... that most of the contributors to the Emancipation Pictorial, a Chinese women's magazine, were men?
... that Elin Falk caused a national controversy in 1913 with her proposals for reforming gymnastics in Swedish schools?
... that the discovery of a new waltz attributed to Chopin was announced in October 2024?
... that college basketball player Adou Thiero plays for the same head coach for whom his father played?
... that match-three video games such as Candy Crush Saga are often considered to be Bejeweled clones?
... that Hikari Kodama disguised herself with wigs during public performances because she went to a high school with strict rules?
... that although three witnesses are typically needed in linguistic reconstruction, only two are necessary if borrowing and innovation can be ruled out?
... that after seeing Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu-yi's work, a director sought to inquire about him at a film market, only to find Mo standing right behind him?

In the news

Gukesh Dommaraju

Gukesh Dommaraju (pictured) defeats Ding Liren to win the World Chess Championship.
Syrian rebel forces capture Damascus following multiple offensives as overthrown president Bashar al-Assad flees to Russia.
Notre-Dame de Paris reopens following reconstruction after the 2019 fire.
The first round of the Romanian presidential election is annulled by the Constitutional Court following allegations of Russian electoral interference.

On this day

December 14: Martyred Intellectuals Day in Bangladesh (1971), Monkey Day

Japanese battlecruiser Haruna

1650 – English domestic servant Anne Greene survived being hanged for infanticide.
1836 – The Toledo War, a mostly bloodless territorial dispute between Ohio and the Michigan Territory, was unofficially ended with a resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".
1913 – Haruna (pictured), the fourth and last Japanese battlecruiser of the Kongō class, was launched and went on to serve in both world wars.
2008 – During a press conference in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at U.S. president George W. Bush and Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, yelling "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq".

John III of the Sedre (d. 648)
Al-Ashraf Khalil (d. 1293)
Helle Thorning-Schmidt (b. 1966)

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Today's featured picture

Stephanolepis hispidus, commonly known as the planehead filefish, is a species in the filefish family, Monacanthidae. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean at depths of up to 300 metres (980 ft), with its range extending from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to Uruguay in the west and from the Canary Islands to Angola in the east. It lives near the seabed on reefs and over sandy and muddy sea floors, often being found among Sargassum seaweed. Stephanolepis hispidus grows to a maximum length of 27 centimetres (11 in) but is more typically about 17 centimetres (6.7 in) long. The colour is cryptic, being a more or less mottled pale brown, olive or green on a light coloured background, sometimes with darker brown splotches and streaks. This S. hispidus individual was photographed off the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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