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From today's featured article

The poem as it appears in Leaves of Grass (1871)

"This Dust Was Once the Man" is an elegy poem written by Walt Whitman in 1871. The poem is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, whom Whitman greatly admired. The poem was written six years after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. Whitman had written three previous poems about Lincoln, all in 1865: "O Captain! My Captain!", "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day". The poem has not attracted much individual attention, though it was generally positively received and has been analyzed several times, generally as an epitaph for Lincoln. The poem describes Lincoln as having saved the union of the United States from "the foulest crime in history", a line for which conflicting interpretations exist. It is generally seen as referring to either the secession of the Confederate States of America or the assassination of Lincoln. (This article is part of a featured topic: Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln.)

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Did you know ...

Phoenician bowl from the Walters Art Museum

... that the discovery of Phoenician metal bowls (example pictured) in 1849 created the entire concept of Phoenician art?
... that the tiny fossil turtle Amabilis uchoensis was given the Latin name amabilis for being "lovable", but the large evergreen tree Abies amabilis is called amabilis because it is "lovely"?
... that Bilingirl ran a nail salon before she started posting on YouTube?
... that the 1970, 1976, 1977, 1988, 1989, and 1994 Westminster Titans football teams all won national championships?
... that Chris Schulenburg was one of only two recipients of the Grand Cross of Valour, Rhodesia's highest gallantry award?
... that despite its name, the Branford Steam Railroad has not used steam locomotives since 1960?
... that Kurt Rommel, a German Protestant pastor, wrote the texts and tunes for hundreds of hymns with young people in mind?
... that Ixodes tasmani makes a type of cement to help it to suck blood?

In the news

Gabriel Boric

Gabriel Boric (pictured), leader of Apruebo Dignidad, is elected President of Chile.
Typhoon Rai results in at least 390 deaths in the Philippines.
A building fire in Osaka, Japan, kills 25 people.
Siaosi Sovaleni is elected as prime minister by the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.
A fuel tanker truck explodes in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, killing at least 90 people.

On this day

December 22

Richard Reid's shoe bomb

401 – Pope Innocent I began his papacy, succeeding Anastasius I.
1807 – In an effort to avoid engaging in the Napoleonic Wars, the United States Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding American ships from engaging in trade with foreign nations.
1971 – Two groups of French doctors involved in humanitarian aid merged to form Médecins Sans Frontières.
1984 – While riding a New York City Subway train, Bernhard Goetz shot four African-American youths who had attempted to rob him, sparking a nationwide debate on vigilantism, racism, and the legal limits of self-defense.
2001 – Richard Reid unsuccessfully attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe (pictured) on a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami.

Cynesige (d. 1060)
Teresa Carreño (b. 1853)
Tommy Flowers (b. 1905)

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Today's featured picture

The scintillant hummingbird (Selasphorus scintilla) is a species of hummingbird endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. With a length of 6.5–8 cm (2.6–3.1 in), including the bill, and a weight of around 2 g (0.071 oz), it is one of the smallest known species of bird, marginally larger than the bee hummingbird. This female scintillant hummingbird was photographed in Panama feeding on a flower in the genus Abutilon.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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