Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also played more than fifty roles in a long film career. In 1930 he had a West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970). Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later films included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). (Full article...)

Throne Hall of Dongola

• ... that the Throne Hall of Dongola (pictured) is the oldest preserved mosque in Sudan?
• ... that U.S. Representative-elect Dan Crenshaw lost an eye to an improvised explosive device while serving with SEAL Team Three in Afghanistan?
• ... that visual novel localization company Sol Press was formed because the founder was unhappy with the slow translation processes of other publishers?
• ... that until at least 2009, Chen Chuangtian's laboratory was the only one in the world that could make the nonlinear optical crystal KBBF?
• ... that lymphocytic esophagitis is a rare and poorly understood medical condition that can lead to food getting stuck in the esophagus?
• ... that in the only season W. Webber Kelly served as president of the Green Bay Packers, the team went undefeated and won their first NFL Championship?
• ... that structures which helped create oxygen in the atmosphere today persist in a group of salty turquoise lakes?
• ... that Marion Leane Smith is the only Aboriginal Australian woman known to have served in the First World War?

Voyager 2 model

• NASA announces that Voyager 2 (artist's rendering shown) has left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space, becoming the second man-made object to do so.
• In South American association football, the Copa Libertadores concludes with River Plate defeating Boca Juniors in the finals.
• The sample-return spacecraft OSIRIS-REx arrives at the asteroid 101955 Bennu.
• Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush dies at the age of 94.

December 12: Yule Lads begin arrival in Iceland

Chiang Kai-shek

• 627 – A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeated Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh, near present-day Mosul, Iraq.
• 1866 – England's worst mining disaster occurred when a series of explosions caused by flammable gases ripped through the Oaks Colliery, killing 361 people.
• 1905 – In support of the December Uprising in Moscow, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kiev staged a mass uprising, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in the city.
• 1936 – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (pictured) of the Republic of China was kidnapped by Marshal Zhang Xueliang, a former warlord of Manchuria.
• 1988 – Three trains collided near Clapham Junction railway station in London, killing 35 people and injuring 484 others.

Geoffrey (d. 1212) · Stand Watie (b. 1806) · Doris Blackburn (d. 1970)