Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 December 31

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Áedán mac Gabráin was a king of Dál Riata from circa 574 until circa 609. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and parts of County Antrim, Ireland. Genealogies record that Áedán was a son of Gabrán mac Domangairt. He was a contemporary of Saint Columba, and much that is recorded of his life comes from hagiography such as Adomnán of Iona's Life of Saint Columba. Other sources include Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and Irish annals; none of the sources are contemporary. Áedán appears as a character in Old Irish and Middle Irish language works of prose and verse, some now lost. Áedán also appears in some Welsh sources, making him one of the few non-Britons to figure in Welsh tradition. The Irish annals record his campaigns against his neighbours, in Ireland, and in northern Britain, including expeditions to the Orkney Islands, the Isle of Man, and the east coast of Scotland. As recorded by Bede, Áedán was decisively defeated by Æthelfrith of Bernicia at the Battle of Degsastan. Áedán may have been deposed, or have abdicated, following this defeat, and the annals report nothing of him until his death around six years later. (Full article...)

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• More than 40 people are killed after anti-government forces attempt to gain control of key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• On its maiden flight, a Russian Soyuz-2-1v rocket launches Aist 1 and two radar calibration satellites.
• Two suicide bombings kill more than 30 people in Volgograd, Russia (Volgograd-1 railway station pictured).
• Amidst fears of civil war, the United Nations Security Council agrees to send more UNMISS soldiers to South Sudan.
• Pioneering British computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing, convicted in 1952 of gross indecency for homosexual activity, is granted a posthumous royal pardon.

Recent deaths: Mikhail Kalashnikov

December 31: New Year's Eve (Gregorian calendar)

• 1225 – Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the only empress regnant in the history of Vietnam, married Trần Thái Tông, making him the first emperor of the Trần Dynasty at age seven.
• 1857 – Queen Victoria selected Ottawa (Parliament Hill pictured), then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
• 1963 – Despite Prime Minister Roy Welensky's efforts, the Central African Federation officially collapsed, splitting into three separate nations: Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
• 1983 – Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was selected to lead Nigeria after a successful military coup d'etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari.
• 1993 – Brandon Teena, an American trans man, was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska; his death led to increased lobbying for hate crime laws in the United States.

More anniversaries: December 30 – December 31 – January 1

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Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is a painting by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, completed circa 1875, that exemplified the art for art's sake movement. The painting, which shows a foggy fireworks display in the night sky and was inspired by the Cremorne Gardens in London, drew heated criticism from art critic John Ruskin, who accused Whistler of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face". In the libel suit which followed, the court awarded a single farthing to Whistler, who was forced to share it with Ruskin; the artist declared bankruptcy soon afterwards, his paintings having quickly lost their popularity.

Painting: James Abbott McNeill Whistler