Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 December 17

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"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the ninth episode of the first season of the animated comedy television series South Park. The show's first Christmas special, it portrays the Jewish character Kyle feeling excluded from the town's Christmas celebrations and being comforted by Mr. Hankey, who can talk and sing. As Mr. Hankey does not come alive in the presence of other characters, they begin to think that Kyle is delusional. In another plot strand, the townspeople remove all symbols of Christmas from South Park to render the celebrations politically correct and inoffensive. When all the children start believing in him, Mr. Hankey finally reveals himself to everyone and scolds them for losing sight of the good things of Christmas and focusing on the bad. The townspeople apologize to Kyle, then sing Christmas songs and watch Mr. Hankey fly away with Santa Claus. Heavily influenced by the Peanuts Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the first South Park musical episode and the only episode in season one in which Kenny does not die. It is a satire of political correctness and religious sensitivity and has been described as one of the classic South Park episodes. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's newest content:

Dutton Horse Bridge

  • ... that Dutton Horse Bridge (pictured) on the River Weaver in Cheshire is one of the earliest surviving laminated timber structures?
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  • In the news

    Hans Christian Andersen
  • Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are dead following a shooting at an elementary school in the U.S. state of Connecticut.
  • Twenty-three people are injured in a knife attack at a primary school in the Chinese province of Henan.
  • In Denmark, the discovery of "The Tallow Candle", a previously unknown story by author Hans Christian Andersen (pictured), is confirmed.
  • North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using a Unha-3 carrier rocket.
  • Indian sitar player and classical composer Ravi Shankar dies at the age of 92.

    Recent deaths: Galina VishnevskayaIajuddin AhmedJenni Rivera

  • On this day...

    December 17: National Day in Bhutan (1907)

    Aztec calendar stone

  • 942William I Longsword of Normandy was ambushed by supporters of Arnulf I, Count of Flanders while the two were at a peace conference to settle their differences.
  • 1790 – The Aztec calendar stone (pictured), now a symbol of modern Mexican culture, was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square.
  • 1944 – Nazi troops under Joachim Peiper killed unarmed prisoners of war, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, with machine guns near Malmedy, Belgium.
  • 1951 – The Civil Rights Congress, an American civil rights group, presented a document to the United Nations Genocide Convention charging the United States government with genocide against African Americans.
  • 2010 – Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest to police harassment, triggering the Tunisian Revolution.

    More anniversaries: December 16 December 17 December 18

    It is now December 17, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page
  • From today's featured list

    A sketch of a woman from the back sitting beneath a tree and wearing early 19th-century British clothing and a bonnet

    For her entire life, Jane Austen (illustration pictured) lived as part of a family located socially and economically on the lower fringes of the English gentry. She was primarily educated at home by her father and older brothers and through her own reading. Her apprenticeship as a writer lasted from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five years old. During this period, she wrote three major novels and began a fourth. From 1811 until 1815, with the release of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published after her death in 1817, and began a third, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before it could be completed. Austen published all of her novels in the Regency period, during which King George III was declared permanently insane and his son was appointed as prince regent. Throughout most of Austen's adult life, Britain was at war with revolutionary France. (Full list...)

    Today's featured picture

    Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo

    Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo is a painting by Bronzino of Eleanor of Toledo, a Spanish noblewoman who was the duchess consort of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and her son Giovanni. The painting is one of the artist's most famous works and is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. It is the first known state-commissioned portrait to include the ruler's heir, which was done in part because Cosimo's predecessor Alessandro died without any legitimate male heirs. The boy's inclusion implies that Cosimo's rule would bring stability to the duchy.

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