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Trankov and Volosozhar, the pairs champions

The 2015 Trophée Éric Bompard was a figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), and the fourth event of the 2015–16 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Held at the Meriadeck Ice Rink in Bordeaux, France, on 13 November 2015, medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The competition was cancelled after the first day, following the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. The ISU later announced that the short program results would be considered the final results for the competition and any prize money and qualifying points for the Grand Prix Final were distributed. Shoma Uno of Japan won the men's event, Gracie Gold of the United States won the women's event, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov (both pictured) of Russia won the pairs event, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States won the ice dance event. (Full article...)

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Daniela Melchior

... that Daniela Melchior (pictured) once did a chemistry screen test with fancy rats?
... that scholar Martin P. Nilsson called the Ring of Nestor "a most amazing find", but later doubted its authenticity?
... that Ken Selby walked along U.S. Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Tulsa at the age of 73?
... that viruses can be catalogued into seven groups in the Baltimore classification?
... that a subculture from Asian-American gangs broadened to include women in college sororities and cultural clubs?
... that The Republic Newspaper Office was completed under budget despite the plans undergoing more than 100 changes during construction?
... that the video game My Time at Sandrock was funded by almost 10,000 people from more than 160 countries?
... that Brigadier General William J. Fox retired from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, moved to Mexico and became a charro?
... that HMAS Emu once rescued a cigarette-smoking chimpanzee and his magician owner?

In the news

Philip Pierre

In Saint Lucia, the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre (pictured), retains its majority in the House of Assembly.
Playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard dies at the age of 88.
In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais win the World Rally Championship.
The New Democratic Party, led by Godwin Friday, wins the Vincentian general election.

On this day

December 7: Feast day of Saint Ambrose (Christianity); National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in the United States (1941)

Solidus of Tiberius

574 – Suffering from mental illness, Eastern Roman emperor Justin II had his general Tiberius proclaimed Caesar, adopting him as his own son.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Prairie Grove ended a Confederate attempt to regain control of northwestern Arkansas.
1972 – Construction workers found the remains of Martin Bormann near Lehrter Station in Berlin, ending a decades-long search after his conviction in absentia at the Nuremberg trials.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
2014 - The annual furry convention Midwest FurFest was targeted in an unsolved chlorine gas attack.

Charles Garnier (d. 1649)
Theodor Schwann (b. 1810)
Joseph Cook (b. 1860)
Nicholas Hoult (b. 1989)

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Today's featured picture

Hugh McCulloch (December 7, 1808 – May 24, 1895) was an American financier who played a central role in financing the American Civil War. He served two non-consecutive terms as United States Secretary of the Treasury under three presidents. He was originally opposed to the creation of a system of national banks, but his reputation as head of the Bank of Indiana from 1857 to 1863 persuaded the Treasury to bring him in to supervise the new system as Comptroller of the Currency from 1863 to 1865. As Secretary of the Treasury from 1865 to 1869 under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, McCulloch reduced and funded the gigantic Civil War debt of the Union, and reestablished the federal taxation system across the former Confederate States of America. He served another six months as Secretary of the Treasury from 1884 to 1885, at the close of Chester A. Arthur's term as president. This line-engraved portrait of McCulloch was created by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation book of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury; McCulloch's portrait was used on the 1902 United States twenty-dollar bill.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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