Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 12b

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From today's featured article

Blood specimen with CBC and differential results

A complete blood count (CBC) is a set of medical laboratory tests that provide information about the cells in a person's blood. The CBC indicates the counts of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, the concentration of hemoglobin, and the hematocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells). The CBC is often carried out as part of a medical assessment, and can be used to monitor health or diagnose diseases. The results are interpreted by comparing them to reference ranges, which vary with gender and age. A landmark in the automation of blood cell counts was the Coulter principle (1953), which uses electrical impedance measurements to count blood cells and measure their sizes. This technology remains in use in many automated analyzers. Further research in the 1970s involved the use of optical measurements to count and identify cells, which enabled the automation of the white blood cell differential. (Full article...)

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Medalta Potteries kilns

... that the kilns of Medalta Potteries (pictured) were used as overnight accommodation by people travelling the country in search of work during the Great Depression?
... that information provided by the Confederate draftsman Anton R. Roessler was used by the Union Army to determine the ordnance potential of Texas?
... that a section of Japan National Route 105 is named after a group of hunters?
... that the wreck of the freighter SS Russia was discovered in 2019, only 1,200 feet (370 m) from where a different shipwreck hunter ended the search for her years earlier?
... that Turkish accordion-playing street musician Madam Anahit also appeared in a number of films as an extra?
... that Recollections of Full Years by Helen Taft was the first memoir published by a first lady of the United States?
... that the 13th-century foundation St Alban Hall, Oxford, closed in 1882 and was demolished?
... that Rachel Sennott stars in two 2020 queer Jewish films about funerals, but is neither queer nor Jewish?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Nana Akufo-Addo

Nana Akufo-Addo (pictured) is re-elected for a second term as President of Ghana.
In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia win the World Rally Championship, while Hyundai win the manufacturers' title.
Hayabusa2 successfully returns samples collected from asteroid 162173 Ryugu to Earth.
Zdravko Krivokapić takes office as Prime Minister of Montenegro, becoming the first independent to hold the post.

On this day

December 12: Beginning of the Yule Lads' arrival in Iceland

George W. Bush

627 – A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeated Emperor Khosrow II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh, near present-day Mosul, Iraq.
1388 – Unable to defend her possessions, Maria of Enghien sold the lordship of Argos and Nauplia to the Republic of Venice.
1969 – The Greek junta announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe after the junta was found guilty of torture and other human-rights violations by the European Commission of Human Rights.
2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore that the recount of ballots cast in Florida for the presidential election be stopped, effectively making George W. Bush (pictured) the winner.

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (d. 1751)
Edvard Munch (b. 1863)
Doris Blackburn (d. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

Rory Kennedy (born December 12, 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker and the youngest child of U.S. senator Robert Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Born six months after the assassination of her father, her life has seen many tragedies. As a director and producer, she has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, nuclear radiation, the treatment of prisoners of war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. Her films have been featured on many TV networks, and her 2014 documentary Last Days in Vietnam was nominated for an Academy Award.

Photograph credit: Lyndie Benson

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