Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 17

Interstate 296 (I-296) is a part of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that runs for 3.43 miles (5.52 km) parallel to the Grand River on the west bank, entirely within the Grand Rapids area. Its termini are I-196 near downtown Grand Rapids and I-96 on the north side of Grand Rapids in Walker. For most of its length, the Interstate runs concurrently with US Highway 131, which continues as a freeway built to Interstate Highway standards north and south of the shorter I-296. The highway was first proposed in the late 1950s and opened in December 1962. The Michigan Department of Transportation has since eliminated all signage for I-296 and removed the designation from their official state map, leaving it unsigned, but I-296 is still listed on the Interstate Highway System route log maintained by the Federal Highway Administration. (Full article...)

S.R. Kirby being fitted out in Wyandotte, Michigan

• ... that in 825 feet (251 m) of water, the composite-hulled bulk carrier S.R. Kirby (pictured) is one of the deepest shipwrecks ever discovered in the Great Lakes?
• ... that the headlight fish gets its name from the large, bioluminescent patch of skin located between its nostrils?
• ... that Faith Smith, who grew up on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation in Wisconsin, became the founding president of the first urban institute of higher learning led by and serving Native Americans?
• ... that the world's oldest lacquerware was found at the Kakinoshima Site?
• ... that Earl Dawson established a council to reverse the decline of ice hockey in rural Manitoba?
• ... that having collaborated on the album Folklore months prior, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner met in person for the first time for the filming of Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions?
• ... that Tropical Storm Merbok flooded 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of crops in 2017 and led to an economic loss of CN¥600 million (US$88.3 million) in China?
• ... that essayist Briallen Hopper got her start writing sermons?

Nana Akufo-Addo

• The Chang'e 5 sample-return mission returns samples of the Moon to Earth.
• 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.

December 17

Memorial to victims killed during the 1970 Polish protests

• 497 BC – The temple to the Roman god Saturn was dedicated in the Roman Forum; its anniversary was celebrated as Saturnalia.
• 1790 – The Aztec sun stone, now a modern symbol of Mexican culture, was excavated in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City.
• 1970 – Polish soldiers fired at workers (memorial pictured) emerging from trains in Gdynia, beginning the government's crackdown on mass anti-communist protests across the country.
• 2010 – Arab Spring: Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest against police harassment, triggering the Tunisian Revolution.