Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 December 18

Joseph Grimaldi (1778–1837) was an English actor, comedian, dancer, and the Regency era's most successful entertainer. He popularised and expanded the role of "Clown" in the harlequinade that formed a part of British pantomimes during the 1800s, and became a key pantomime performer at the Drury Lane, Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden theatres. While a boy, he appeared on stage at Drury Lane as "Little Clown" in the pantomime The Triumph of Mirth; or, Harlequin's Wedding. Other successful roles at the theatre followed, but he left in 1806 to take up theatrical residencies at the Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells theatres. As he matured, he began performing as Clown, for which character he created the whiteface make-up design still used in pantomime and by many other clowns today. The numerous injuries he received as a result of his energetic performances eventually led to a decline in his health and to his semi-retirement in 1823. Living in obscurity during his final years, he became an impoverished alcoholic. Grimaldi died at home in Islington, aged 59, having outlived his wife and his actor son Joseph Samuel. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Nefarious: Merchant of Souls – Adelaide Anne Procter – Battle of Arawe

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the building which houses the National Press Monument (pictured) was once an office of the Indonesian Red Cross Society?
• ... that the link between marriage and health is related to cancer and heart attacks?
• ... that Dick Dodd, drummer and lead singer on the 1966 Billboard hit "Dirty Water", bought his first snare drum from fellow Mouseketeer Annette Funicello for $20?
• ... that an animal model of autism was used by Mady Hornig to implicate thimerosal in autism?
• ... that the candidature of BJP politician Pravesh Verma from Mehrauli was opposed by some of his party workers, who called him an "outsider"?
• ... that nuns sought donations in saloons to build the first St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton, Oregon?
• ... that, as in Brazil, families of crime victims in South Africa have successfully campaigned for the establishment of a national forensic DNA database?

• A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
• Chang'e 3, carrying the Yutu rover, becomes the first spacecraft to land on the Moon since 1976.
• North Korean media announce the execution of senior government official Jang Sung-taek.
• Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla is executed for war crimes committed during the Bangladeshi War of Independence.
• Uruguay becomes the first country in the world to legalize the cultivation, sale, and use of cannabis.
• An exoplanet, HD 106906 b, is discovered with the most distant orbit around a single star, farther than thought possible.

Recent deaths: Joan Fontaine – Peter O'Toole

December 18: Republic Day in Niger (1958)

• 1892 – The first performance of the fairy tale-ballet The Nutcracker was held at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
• 1916 – The French defeated German forces around the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France, ending the longest battle and one of the bloodiest in World War I.
• 1958 – The United States launched SCORE, the world's first communications satellite.
• 1966 – Epimetheus, one of the moons of Saturn, was discovered, but was mistaken as Janus. It took twelve years to determine that they are two distinct objects sharing the same orbit.
• 2010 – The Tunisian Revolution began, and what was initially a series of protests (pictured) with a set of demands evolved into nationwide demonstrations that eventually toppled the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after nearly 23 years of rule.

More anniversaries: December 17 – December 18 – December 19

{| style="margin:0 3px 3px; width:100%; text-align:left; background-color:transparent; border-collapse: collapse; "

|style="padding:0 0.9em 0 0;"| File:FullMoon2010.jpg

|style="padding:0 6px 0 0"|

The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth and the fifth largest moon in the Solar System. Owing to its synchronous rotation around Earth, the Moon always shows the same face: its near side, which is marked by dark volcanic maria as well as the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. Here, the Moon was near its greatest northern ecliptic latitude, so the southern craters are especially prominent.

Photo: Gregory H. Revera