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The Nintendo 64, for which Blast Corps was developed

Blast Corps is a 1997 action video game for the Nintendo 64 (pictured). In the game, the player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 levels, the player solves puzzles by moving objects and bridging gaps with the vehicles. Blast Corps was developed at Rare by a small team of recent graduates over the course of a year. They were inspired, in part, by the puzzle elements of Donkey Kong '94. Nintendo published and released Blast Corps to critical acclaim in March 1997 in Japan and North America. Its European and Australian release followed on December 22. The game received several editor's choice awards and Metacritic's second-highest Nintendo 64 rating of 1997. It sold about a million copies, below the team's expectations. Reviewers praised the game's originality, variety, and graphics, but some critiqued its controls and repetition. Reviewers of the 2015 Rare Replay retrospective compilation noted Blast Corps as a standout title. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Bank of China head office, Beijing

... that I. M. Pei said that his sons' architecture firm "came of age" while designing the Bank of China head office (pictured) in Beijing?
... that despite losing almost one thousand men capturing Malacca in 1641, the Dutch East India Company did not invest much time or energy into it afterward?
... that American author Marilyn Gayle Hoff was honored by a Fourth of July parade float as an unsung hero?
... that the Bern Disputation of 1528 led to the Swiss canton becoming the second Protestant canton in the Swiss Confederacy?
... that slave owner John Custis petitioned the Governor of Virginia to manumit a slave child whom he had fathered?
... that the crannogs of Milton Loch, although similar in design, span a time period of around 1,000 years?
... that American legal scholar John Hart Ely penned a law review article castigating the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, despite being pro-choice?
... that Sonia Levitin was inspired to write Boom Town after reading about a California girl who baked $11,000 worth of pies during the Gold Rush?

In the news

HTMS Sukhothai

HTMS Sukhothai (pictured), a corvette of the Royal Thai Navy, capsizes and sinks, leaving 6 crew members dead and 23 others missing.
In the Fijian general election, FijiFirst wins the most seats, but fails to gain a parliamentary majority.
In association football, the FIFA World Cup concludes with Argentina defeating France in the final.
At least 24 people are killed in a landslide near Batang Kali, Malaysia.

On this day

December 23: Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca City, Mexico; Festivus

General George Washington
Resigning His Commission

1783 – George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis (painting shown).
1815 – Jane Austen's novel Emma was first published.
1919 – The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was enacted, lifting most of the existing common-law restrictions on women in the United Kingdom.
1958 – Tokyo Tower, then the world's tallest freestanding tower, opened.

Gharib Nawaz (b. 1690)
Anna J. Harrison (b. 1912)
P. V. Narasimha Rao (d. 2004)

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From today's featured list

Location of Nunavut in Canada

Nunavut's 25 municipalities cover only 0.2% of the territory's land mass but are home to 99.95% of its population. Nunavut (map pictured) is the least populous of Canada's three territories with 36,858 residents as per the 2021 census, but the largest territory in land area at 1,836,993.78 km² (709,267.26 sq mi). Municipalities are created by the Government of Nunavut in accordance with the 2003 Cities, Towns and Villages Act and the 2003 Hamlets Act, which are statutes of the neighbouring Northwest Territories. The largest municipality by population in Nunavut is Iqaluit with 7,429 residents, home to 20.2% of the territory's population. The smallest municipality by population is Grise Fiord with 144 residents. The largest municipality by land area is Kugluktuk, which spans 538.99 km² (208.11 sq mi), while the smallest is Kimmirut at 2.3 km² (0.89 sq mi). (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005) was an American jurist and politician who served as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A key strategist of the civil rights movement, she was a New York state senator and the borough president of Manhattan in New York City before becoming a United States federal judge. She obtained a role with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a staff attorney in 1946 after receiving her law degree, and continued her work with the organization for more than twenty years. She was the first Black woman to argue at the Supreme Court and argued ten landmark civil rights cases, winning nine. She was a law clerk to Thurgood Marshall, aiding him in the case Brown v. Board of Education. Motley was also the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. This photograph shows Motley celebrating her election as the first African-American woman to serve in the New York State Senate in 1964.

Photograph credit: Walter Albertin; restored by Adam Cuerden

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