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December 2
A series of torpedo cruisers was built between the 1870s and the 1890s by the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) as part of a program intended to strengthen the fleet during a period of limited naval budgets. Six different classes, comprising eighteen torpedo cruisers, were constructed. The first vessel, Pietro Micca, was laid down in 1875, and was one of the first torpedo cruisers built by any navy. She proved to be a disappointment in service, being too slow to be an effective warship. Pietro Micca was followed by the more successful design, Tripoli, which provided the basis for the four Goito-class cruisers (example pictured) and the eight-vessel Partenope class. Most of the Italian torpedo cruisers served during the relatively uneventful 1880s, 1890s, and 1900s, and as a result, saw little activity outside of routine training operations. By the early 1900s, many of the cruisers had been reduced to subsidiary roles or had been discarded outright. A handful of vessels, specifically of the Partenope and Agordat classes, were still in front-line service by the time of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–1912. (Full list...)
December 5
In the 1990s, 113 people were awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the Padma Bhushan is given for "distinguished service of a high order", without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. The recipients receive a sanad, a certificate signed by the president of India and a circular medallion (pictured) with no monetary association. Twenty-four awards were presented in both 1990 and 1991, followed by thirty-three in 1992. Eighteen recipients received the award in 1998 followed by fourteen in 1999. In the 1990s, the Padma Bhushan was also conferred upon five foreign recipients – two from the United Kingdom and one each from Japan, New Zealand, and the United States. Individuals from ten fields were honoured, which included twenty-six artists, twenty-three from literature and education, and eighteen from science and engineering. (Full list...)
December 9
The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series is an annual award that honors drama series for excellence in the depiction of LGBT characters and themes. It is one of several categories of the annual GLAAD Media Awards, which are presented by GLAAD—an American non-governmental media monitoring organization founded in 1985—at ceremonies in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco between March and June. The award is one of the few to date back to the 1st GLAAD Media Awards in 1990, where the ABC series HeartBeat and NBC series L.A. Law won—one of only two instances in the award's history in which there was a tie. It was not given in 1992, but has been awarded every year since 1993. For a drama series to be eligible, it must include at least one LGBT character in a leading, supporting, or recurring capacity. Since its inception, the award has been given to 24 drama series. With four consecutive wins out of five nominations, Brothers & Sisters has received the award more than any other program. Pose and Six Feet Under have won the award three times, while Chicago Hope, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue have each won twice. (Full list...)
December 12
During its lifetime Lionhead Studios released eight video games, primarily for Microsoft Windows personal computers and Xbox consoles, and worked on at least ten other titles which were cancelled in various stages of development. Lionhead Studios was a British video game developer located in Guildford, England. It was founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson, following their departure from Bullfrog Productions, which Molyneux had co-founded in 1987. In 2001 it released its first title, the real-time strategy game Black & White. Lionhead was purchased by Microsoft Game Studios in 2006. Over the next decade, Lionhead only released titles in the Fable series; although several other projects were worked on, such as Project Dimitri, Survivors, and Project Milo, sometimes for years, none turned into published products. Molyneux, the face of the company, left in 2012, before the company's final two games were released that year. In 2016, with no further titles finished, the studio was shut down by Microsoft, cancelling its in-progress projects Fable Fortune and Fable Legends, the latter while in closed beta. (Full list...)
December 16
English author Len Deighton is known for his novels, works of military history, screenplays and cookery writing. He had a varied career, including as a pastry cook, waiter, co-editor of a magazine, teacher and air steward before writing his first novel in 1962, The IPCRESS File. He continued to produce what his biographer John Reilly considers "stylish, witty, well-crafted novels" in spy fiction, including three trilogies and a prequel featuring Bernard Samson. Deighton authored two television scripts, the first of which was Long Past Glory in 1963; he also wrote a film script, Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). His long-held interest in cooking—his mother had been a professional chef and instilled a love for cuisine in her son—led to an illustrated cookery column in the Sunday newspaper The Observer, for two years. The work was collected into two later books, Len Deighton's Action Cook Book and Où est le garlic (both 1965); he subsequently wrote several other cookery books. (Full list...)
December 19
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The British rock band Coldplay have released sixty-four music videos, four video albums and six films, and have appeared on multiple television shows throughout their career. They were formed in London by Chris Martin (lead vocals, piano), Jonny Buckland (guitar), Guy Berryman (bass guitar), Will Champion (drums, percussion) and Phil Harvey (creative direction). Before the band signed a record deal with Parlophone in 1999, a music video for "Bigger Stronger" was shot and directed by Mat Whitecross, who would later become one of their long-time collaborators. It was followed by the singles "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble" and "Don't Panic" from Parachutes (2000), with the third receiving a MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction. To promote A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), Coldplay released "In My Place" and "The Scientist"; the latter was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards and won three MTV Video Music Awards. (Full list...)
December 23
Nunavut's 25 municipalities cover only 0.2% of the territory's land mass but are home to 99.95% of its population. Nunavut (map pictured) is the least populous of Canada's three territories with 36,858 residents as per the 2021 census, but the largest territory in land area at 1,836,993.78 km2 (709,267.26 sq mi). Municipalities are created by the Government of Nunavut in accordance with the 2003 Cities, Towns and Villages Act and the 2003 Hamlets Act, which are statutes of the neighbouring Northwest Territories. The largest municipality by population in Nunavut is Iqaluit with 7,429 residents, home to 20.2% of the territory's population. The smallest municipality by population is Grise Fiord with 144 residents. The largest municipality by land area is Kugluktuk, which spans 538.99 km2 (208.11 sq mi), while the smallest is Kimmirut at 2.3 km2 (0.89 sq mi). (Full list...)
December 26
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The archbishop of Montreal is the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal, responsible for looking after its spiritual and administrative needs. This archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province encompassing the south-central part of the Canadian province of Quebec, and so the archbishop of Montreal also administers the bishops who head the suffragan dioceses of Joliette, Saint-Jean–Longueuil, Saint-Jérôme–Mont-Laurier, and Valleyfield. The archdiocese began as the Diocese of Montreal, which was established on May 13, 1836. Jean-Jacques Lartigue was appointed its first bishop. Eight men have been Archbishop of Montreal; another two were bishop of its predecessor diocese. Of these, two were members of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice (PSS). Three archbishops – Paul-Émile Léger, Paul Grégoire, and Jean-Claude Turcotte – were elevated to the College of Cardinals. The current archbishop is Christian Lépine (pictured). (Full list...)
December 30
American actor Bruce Willis began his career in 1980 with an uncredited role in The First Deadly Sin. After guest-starring in a 1984 episode of Miami Vice, he appeared in the first episode of the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone. Willis achieved fame starring in the ABC comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989). In 1988, he starred as John McClane in Die Hard (1988), a film that spawned four sequels that earned him international recognition as an action hero. Willis' additional credits include Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), Last Man Standing (1996), The Fifth Element (1997), and Armageddon (1998). In 1999, he starred as Dr. Malcolm Crowe in the critically-acclaimed The Sixth Sense (1999), which earned six Academy Award nominations. Willis is known for collaborating with writer and director M. Night Shyamalan in several of his films including the Eastrail 177 Trilogy consisting of Unbreakable (2000), Split (2016), and Glass (2019). (Full list...)