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Bill Denny (6 December 1872 – 2 May 1946) was a South Australian journalist, lawyer, Labor politician and decorated soldier who held a seat in the South Australian House of Assembly for 32 years. He was elected in 1900, re-elected in 1902, defeated in 1905, re-elected in 1906 and then retained his seat until defeated in 1933. Denny was the Attorney-General of South Australia in the Labor government of 1910–1912 led by John Verran. In August 1915, Denny enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force to serve in World War I, initially as a trooper in the 9th Light Horse Regiment. After being commissioned in 1916, he served in the artillery on the Western Front. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions when he was wounded while leading a convoy into forward areas near Ypres in September 1917. He was again Attorney-General in the governments led by John Gunn, Lionel Hill and Robert Richards. When Denny died in 1946 aged 73, he was accorded a state funeral. (Full article...)

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Zenith SupersPort laptop, 8088 model

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... that the 1999 television film Down Will Come Baby aired two weeks after the Columbine High School massacre and was criticized for exploiting parental fears with its depiction of child violence?
... that according to one Turkish artist, a nude sculpture by Gürdal Duyar almost dissolved the 37th government of Turkey?
... that An Appeal for Human Rights was published by college students in 1960 in response to racial inequality in Atlanta?
... that the uncommon Florida lichen species Gyalectidium yahriae was named after Rebecca Yahr of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in Scotland?
... that plutonium produced in the nuclear reactors at the Hanford Engineer Works was used in the Fat Man bomb used in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945?
... that according to Qing-dynasty physician Xu Dachun, "stupid people believe that expensive drugs must be good drugs"?

In the news

Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin (pictured), former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, dies at the age of 96.
A deadly fire in Ürümqi escalates ongoing protests across China in response to the government's zero-COVID policy.
Anwar Ibrahim of the Pakatan Harapan coalition becomes Prime Minister of Malaysia after the general election produces the nation's first hung parliament.
An earthquake centred near Cianjur in Indonesia's West Java kills at least 323 people and injures more than 7,000 others.

On this day

December 6: Saint Nicholas Day (Western Christianity); Independence Day in Finland (1917)

Aerial view of Camp X

963 – Leo VIII was ordained a bishop, claiming the Holy See as an antipope supported by Otto the Great.
1803 – Haitian Revolution: Nearly all the final French ships in Haiti were captured by the Royal Navy when they attempted to evade the blockade of Saint-Domingue.
1907 – A mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 362 people and led to the establishment of the United States Bureau of Mines.
1941 – The British Secret Intelligence Service established a facility known as Camp X (pictured) in Ontario, Canada, to train covert agents in clandestine operations.
2015 – In the Venezuelan parliamentary election, the ruling United Socialist Party lost control of the National Assembly for the first time in 16 years.

Maria de Dominici (b. 1645)
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (b. 1721)
Pete Rozelle (d. 1996)

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Today's featured picture

The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) is a large species of wading bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Breeding in sub-Saharan Africa, it eats mainly carrion, scraps and faeces, but will opportunistically eat almost any animal matter it can swallow. It occasionally eats other birds including Quelea nestlings, pigeons and doves, pelican and cormorant chicks, and even flamingos. During the breeding season, adults scale back on carrion and take mostly small, live prey since nestlings need this kind of food to survive. Common prey at this time may consist of fish, frogs, insects, eggs, small mammals and reptiles such as crocodile hatchlings and eggs. Though known to eat putrid and seemingly inedible foods, these storks may sometimes wash food in water to remove soil. Increasingly, marabous have become dependent on human garbage and hundreds of the birds can be found around African dumps or waiting for a handout in urban areas. Those eating garbage have been seen to devour virtually anything that they can swallow, including shoes and pieces of metal, and those conditioned to eating from human sources have been known to lash out when refused food. This marabou stork was photographed in Queen Elizabeth National Park in southwestern Uganda.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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