From today's featured article
The flag of Hong Kong depicts a white stylised five-petal flower of the Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia × blakeana) in the centre of a field of Chinese red, the same red as on the flag of China. The Hong Kong Basic Law prescribes the design, and it is only to be made according to regulation and in approved sizes. Regulations regarding its use are stated in the Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance; its desecration is unlawful and has been punished. The flag was unveiled on 4 April 1990 and approved on 10 August 1996. It was first officially hoisted on 1 July 1997, during the handover ceremony marking the transfer of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom back to China, and replaced a colonial flag adopted in 1959. The 1959 flag, and a variant known as the Black Bauhinia, have been displayed by protesters in Hong Kong, particularly during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Government supporters often displayed the Chinese and Hong Kong flags together. (Full article...)
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The Banquet of Cleopatra
- ... that The Banquet of Cleopatra (pictured) depicts Cleopatra drinking a dissolved pearl to impress Mark Antony?
- ... that an on-stage incident traumatized Antonie Mielke so much that she retired from opera?
- ... that people entered the Bronze Age tombs at Volimidia centuries later in the Iron Age to leave offerings to the dead?
- ... that Zhang Xichen founded a magazine to compete with one made by his own employer?
- ... that Harvard's first modern feeder school cost twice as much as Harvard itself?
- ... that the text of "Heaven and Earth, and Sea and Air" was written by the man after whom the Neandertal was named?
- ... that the unique, if "Freudian", partnership between Richard A. Hunter and his mother was the most prolific in publishing in the history of psychiatry?
- ... that, contrary to the perception of Phytoseiidae, Amblyseius anacardii is observed as an agricultural pest?
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In the news
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Tom Stoppard
- Playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard (pictured) dies at the age of 88.
- In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais win the World Rally Championship.
- The New Democratic Party, led by Godwin Friday, wins the Vincentian general election.
- Former presidents of Peru Martín Vizcarra and Pedro Castillo are sentenced to prison for corruption and a self-coup attempt, respectively.
On this day
December 4: Navy Day in India
The Battle of Pontvallain
- 1370 – Hundred Years' War: In two separate engagements in the Battle of Pontvallain (depicted), French forces wiped out an English army which had split up because of a dispute between the commanders.
- 1905 – The Great Seimas of Vilnius met to discuss national concerns within Lithuania: they decided to demand wide political autonomy within the Russian Empire.
- 1915 – World War I: Senior British and French figures, including prime ministers H. H. Asquith and Aristide Briand, met at Calais to discuss the future of the Salonika Front.
- 1992 – U.S. president George H. W. Bush ordered American troops into Somalia to help provide humanitarian aid and restore order during the ongoing Somali Civil War.
- John Cotton (b. 1585)
- Gregor MacGregor (d. 1845)
- Gabriel Dessauer (b. 1955)
- Hannah Arendt (d. 1975)
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The siege of Baghdad took place in early 1258 when a large army under Hulegu, a prince of the Mongol Empire, attacked Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Hulegu had been sent by his brother, the Mongol khan Möngke, to conquer Persia. When Baghdad's ruler, Caliph al-Musta'sim, failed to reinforce the Mongol army, an angered Hulegu decided to overthrow him. The Mongol army routed a sortie led by al-Musta'sim's dawatdar (a leading minister) and besieged the city. After Mongol siege engines breached Baghdad's walls within days, al-Musta'sim surrendered and was later executed. The Mongol army pillaged the city for a week. The number of deaths was inflated by epidemics of disease, but Hulegu estimated his soldiers killed 200,000. Although the siege is often seen as the end of the Islamic Golden Age, Baghdad prospered under Hulegu's Ilkhanate. This double-page illustration, taken from a 14th-century manuscript of Rashid al-Din Hamadani's Jami' al-tawarikh, depicts the attempted escape of the dawatdar down the river Tigris (centre right); the soldiers on the pontoons forced him back to Baghdad with the loss of three ships. The manuscript forms part of the Diez Albums, now in the collection of the Berlin State Library in Germany. Illustration credit: unknown
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