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Germany's Mario Götze scoring the winning goal

The 2014 FIFA World Cup Final was the final match of the 2014 World Cup. The match between Germany and Argentina was played at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 13 July 2014. With the match goalless after 90 minutes, it went to extra time, in the second period of which Germany broke the deadlock. Mario Götze, who had come on as a substitute shortly before the end of normal time, received André Schürrle's cross from the left on his chest before volleying a left-footed shot (pictured) into the net to secure a 1–0 victory for Germany. Their win was their fourth World Cup title and the first since German reunification, as well as the first World Cup win by a European team in the Americas. Götze was named the man of the match, and Argentina's Lionel Messi was awarded the Golden Ball as FIFA's outstanding player of the tournament. Joachim Löw, Germany's manager, labelled his side's win as the culmination of a project that had begun ten years previously under his predecessor Jürgen Klinsmann. (Full article...)

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OneLove logo

... that the Dutch campaign OneLove (logo pictured) inspired football captains to wear rainbow armbands at the 2020 and 2022 European Championships?
... that Saleh Djasit was the first member of the Indonesian People's Representative Council to be arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission?
... that according to The Atlantic, "the first widely acknowledged performance" of the song "We Shall Overcome" occurred during the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike?
... that the Russian violinist Evgeny Sviridov, who has been concertmaster of the Baroque ensemble Concerto Köln since 2015, has made an award-winning recording of sonatas by Giuseppe Tartini?
... that at the Ryukyu Arc, the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting under the Eurasian Plate at 5 to 7 cm (2.0 to 2.8 in) per year?
... that Richard Draper, printer of the The Massachusetts Gazette, used this newspaper as a Loyalist voice as the American Revolution drew near?
... that pillows were purchased for 20 times above the market price in Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant's housing complex?
... that betrothed couple Moe and Joan were paid $50 for helping a painter with his Marriage License?

In the news

Preamplifiers at the National Ignition Facility

At least 24 people are killed in a landslide near Batang Kali, Malaysia.
The US National Ignition Facility (pictured) announces that it has achieved fusion ignition.
A housing block collapses after a suspected gas explosion on the island of Jersey, killing nine people.
Four people are charged in connection with the Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament.

On this day

December 18: National Day in Qatar (1878)

Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat

1499 – Muslims in Granada began a rebellion against their Castilian rulers in response to forced conversions to Catholicism.
1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (pictured) set the first official land speed record, averaging 63.16 km/h (39.245 mph) over 1 km (0.62 mi) in Achères, France.
1913 – The Jew's Christmas, the first American film to include a rabbi as a character, was released.
1939 – Second World War: The Luftwaffe won a victory over the Royal Air Force in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, greatly influencing both sides' future aerial warfare strategy.
1996 – The school board of Oakland, California, passed a controversial resolution officially declaring African-American Vernacular English to be a separate language or dialect.

Henrietta Edwards (b. 1849)
Robert Moses (b. 1888)
Lotta Bromé (b. 1964)

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Today's featured picture

Chorda filum, commonly known as dead man's rope and sea lace, among other names, is a species of brown algae in the genus Chorda. It is widespread in the temperate waters of the northern hemisphere, along the coasts of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It typically has long, unbranched and hollow rope-like brown fronds about 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in diameter which can reach to lengths of 8 metres (26 ft). The holdfast is disc-shaped and it is found in sheltered marine and bodies of water at depths of 5 metres (16 ft). This photograph depicts long strands of C. filum on an underwater slope in Gullmarn, a fjord in Sweden.

Photograph credit: W. Carter

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