Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 December 10

Fantastic Adventures was an American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine, edited by Ray Palmer and published from 1939 to 1953 by Ziff-Davis. It was almost cancelled at the end of 1940, but the October 1940 issue had unexpectedly good sales, helped by a strong cover (pictured) by J. Allen St. John for Robert Moore Williams' Jongor of Lost Land. Fantastic Adventures soon developed a reputation for light-hearted and whimsical stories. The cover art usually focused on melodramatic action scenes; H.W. McCauley's covers, featuring glamorous, alluring women, were among the most popular. In 1949 Palmer was replaced by Howard Browne, who was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about fantasy fiction. Browne briefly managed to improve the quality of the fiction in Fantastic Adventures, and the period around 1951 has been described as the magazine's heyday. Browne lost interest when his plan to take Amazing Stories more upmarket collapsed, however, and the magazine fell back into predictability. In 1952, Ziff-Davis launched another fantasy magazine, titled Fantastic, in a digest format; it was successful, and in March 1953 they ended Fantastic Adventures in favor of Fantastic. (Full article...)

• ... that a landslide on Kambalny (pictured) during the Holocene caused debris to travel for 20 kilometres (12 mi)?
• ... that Brett Smitheram won the 2016 World Scrabble Championship?
• ... that the 72nd, 86th, and 96th Street stations along the Second Avenue Subway are part of the New York City Subway's first major expansion in over half a century?
• ... that when he was growing up, U.S. Representative-elect Raja Krishnamoorthi lived in public housing and received food stamps?
• ... that destruction of ancient Assyrian sculpture by ISIL is reported to have increased in late 2016 with the Mosul offensive?
• ... that after becoming the first African-American to captain an athletic team at Notre Dame, Aubrey Lewis joined the first class to include blacks at the FBI Academy?
• ... that the mixed choir Kantorei Barmen-Gemarke, founded 70 years ago for sacred music, was a partner of the WDR from 1957, and performed in Israel and with Ian Anderson?
• ... that West Bengal Jails Minister Jiban Ratan Dhar had been jailed three times himself?

• President of South Korea Park Geun-hye (pictured) is impeached by a vote of the National Assembly.
• Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661 crashes near Havelian, Pakistan, killing all 47 people on board.
• More than 100 people are killed when an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 strikes Aceh, Indonesia.
• Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key announces his resignation.
• Shavkat Mirziyoyev wins the Uzbekistani presidential election.

December 10: Human Rights Day

• 1799 – France became the first country to adopt the metric system as its system for weights and measures.
• 1898 – The Spanish–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, with Spain recognizing the independence of Cuba; and ceding Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico to the United States.
• 1936 – Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, desiring to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson (pictured) against widespread opposition, abdicated the throne, the only British monarch to have voluntarily done so since the Anglo-Saxon period.
• 1941 – Second World War: Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers sank the Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse east of Malaya.
• 1989 – At the first open pro-democracy demonstration in Mongolia, journalist Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the formation of the Mongolian Democratic Union, which would be instrumental in ending Communist rule four months later.

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Pulteney Bridge is an arch bridge that crosses the River Avon in Bath, England. Designed by Robert Adam and completed by 1774, it connects Bath with the Georgian town of Bathwick. The Grade I listed building has shops built across its full 45-metre (148 ft) span.

Photograph: Diego Delso