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From today's featured article

"Yes, Virginia,
there is a Santa
Claus" is a well-
known line from an
editorial by Francis
Excerpt from the Pharcellus Church
newspaper editorial titled "Is There a
Santa Claus?",
which appeared in the New York newspaper
The Sun on September 21, 1897. Written in
response to a letter by eight-year-old
Virginia O'Hanlon asking whether Santa
Claus was real, the editorial was initially
published anonymously and Church's
authorship was not disclosed until after he
died in 1906. After its initial publication, it
was quickly reprinted by other newspapers.
As the editorial became increasingly popular
over the years, The Sun began republishing
it during the Christmas and holiday season,
including every year from 1924 until the
paper ceased publication in 1950. "Is There
a Santa Claus?" is still widely reprinted
during the holiday season and has been
cited as the most reprinted newspaper
editorial in the English language. It has been
translated into around 20 languages and
adapted as television specials, a film, a
musical, and a cantata. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

... that four course

records were broken
during the 2023 Chicago
Marathon (women's
winner pictured) ?

... that Maryam

Eslamdoust was the first Sifan Hassan
Iranian-born woman to
hold public office in Great Britain?

... that you can play Pitfall! in two Call of

Duty games?

... that on Christmas Eve in 1818, the

Christmas carol "Stille Nacht" ("Silent
Night") was first performed in the
Nikolauskirche in Oberndorf, Austria?

... that the tripartite structure of the

National War Labor Board helped the
United States keep work stoppages to a
minimum during World War II?

... that on every Christmas Eve since 1994,

Willem Lange's story about the fruitcake-
delivering farmer Favor Johnson is
broadcast on public radio stations in
Vermont?

... that the anti-colonialist Ligue de

défense de la race nègre, which at one
point had around 1,000 members, was
suppressed by the French government in
1937, ten years after its founding?

... that Mel Bartholomew, who developed

the time-saving square foot gardening
method, said that he gardened "with a
salad bowl in mind, not a wheelbarrow"?

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article

In the news

A mass shooting in
Prague, Czech Republic,
leaves 15 people dead.

Pope Francis (pictured)

approves a declaration
that allows Catholic
clergy to bless same- Pope Francis
sex couples.

After weeks of earthquakes, a volcanic

eruption occurs near Grindavík, Iceland.

An earthquake in Jishishan County,

China, leaves more than 140 people dead.

In the parliamentary election, the

Serbian Progressive Party regains its
parliamentary majority in the National
Assembly.

Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war · Myanmar civil

war · Russian invasion of Ukraine (timeline) ·
War in Sudan
Recent deaths: Ruth Seymour · George
McGinnis · Amp Fiddler · Ryan Minor ·
Gunther Emmerlich · Cristina Pacheco
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On this day

December 24

1871 – Aida, one of

Giuseppe Verdi's
most popular operas,
made its debut in
Cairo, Egypt.

1913 – Seventy-three Wreckage of the

people were crushed Tangiwai disaster
to death in a stampede after someone
falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded
Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan,
U.S.

1918 – Forces united in the Kingdom of

Serbs, Croats and Slovenes defeated
Hungarian forces to end the occupation
of Međimurje.

1953 – A railway bridge at Tangiwai on

New Zealand's North Island was damaged
by a lahar and collapsed beneath a
passenger train (wreckage pictured),
killing 151 people.

2008 – The Lord's Resistance Army, a

Ugandan rebel group, began attacks on
several villages in the north of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing
hundreds and committing numerous
atrocities.

Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (d. 738) · Adam

Mickiewicz (b. 1798) · Anthony Fauci
(b. 1940) · Pernilla Wahlgren (b. 1967)

More anniversaries: December 23 ·

December 24 · December 25
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year

Today's featured picture

Street football, or street soccer, is

an informal variation on the game of
association football, typically played
in outdoor urban settings such as
streets, playgrounds and car parks.
The term encompasses a variety of
different formats, which do not
necessarily follow the requirements
of a formal game of football, such as
a large field, field markings, goal
apparatus and corner flags, eleven
players per team, or match officials
(referee and assistant referees).
Street football is often played as a
pick-up game, without fixed timing
and with players joining and leaving
at any point. Many international
professional players learned to play
football on the street, including
Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Pelé,
Giuseppe Meazza, Eamon Dunphy,
Eusébio, Dejan Savićević, and
Cristiano Ronaldo. This 2017
photograph shows boys playing
street football on al-Mu'izz Street in
Cairo, Egypt, by the exterior wall of
the al-Hakim Mosque.

Photograph credit: Mohamed

Hozyen Ahmed; edited by Bammesk

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