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C. O. Brocato (1929–2015) was an American scout, coach and football player best known for his work with the Houston Oilers (later the Tennessee Titans), for which he was a scout from 1974 to 1976, and again from 1981 until his death. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Brocato attended St. John's High School and played college football for Baylor. Drafted in 1953 by the Chicago Cardinals, he left during training camp to pursue a coaching career. He spent eleven years as head coach at his high school alma mater. He was defensive coordinator for Northern Arizona from 1969 to 1970, and for Texas–Arlington from 1971 to 1973. He then joined the Oilers as a scout and became regarded as one of the greatest in history in that role. Brocato helped his team draft several players who went on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also invented the three-cone drill, one of the main events at the NFL Scouting Combine. He was a semifinalist for induction to the Hall of Fame for the classes of 2023 and 2024. (Full article...)

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Espresso and tonic

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... that the banker Charles Merlin played a major role in the trafficking of antiquities between Greece and London in the 19th century?
... that The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Survey made historian Alec Ryrie suspect "there is such a thing as 'Anglicanism' after all"?
... that Civana Kuhlmann overcame four surgeries during her college soccer career to make her professional debut in 2023?
... that the Apollo Lunar Surface Magnetometer experiments confirmed the existence of permanent magnetic fields on the surface of the Moon?
... that writer Ed Brubaker earned more from the residuals for his cameo appearance in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier than he did for his comic from which the film was adapted?
... that Tjarda Struik is the Netherlands' first female mayor to be nearly blind, and a TikTok influencer?
... that stinking tutsan smells like goat?

In the news

Miloš Vučević

An earthquake in Jishishan County, China, leaves more than 100 people dead.
In the parliamentary election, the Serbian Progressive Party (leader Miloš Vučević pictured) regains its parliamentary majority in the National Assembly.
Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah becomes Emir of Kuwait after the death of his half-brother, Nawaf.
The COP28 climate change summit ends with a call to transition away from the use of fossil fuels.
Donald Tusk becomes Prime Minister of Poland in the aftermath of the October parliamentary election.

On this day

December 19

Frontispiece to A Christmas Carol

1828 – Nullification crisis: American vice president John C. Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest, written to protest the Tariff of Abominations, was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives.
1843 – A Christmas Carol (illustration pictured), a novella by Charles Dickens about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by ghosts, was published.
1983 – The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the FIFA World Cup, was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football Confederation.
1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashed into the Musi River in Indonesia, killing 104 people.
2013 – The European Space Agency's spacecraft Gaia was launched with the goal of constructing the largest and most precise star catalogue ever made.

Adelaide of Susa (d. 1091)
Sakakibara Kenkichi (b. 1830)
Kristina Keneally (b. 1968)
Ahmet Emin Yalman (d. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

The greater crested tern (Thalasseus bergii) is a seabird in the tern family, which nests in dense colonies on coastlines and islands in the tropical and subtropical Old World. Its five subspecies breed in the area from South Africa around the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific and Australia, all populations dispersing widely from the breeding range after nesting. The greater crested tern has grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow bill, and a shaggy black crest which recedes in winter. Like all members of the genus Thalasseus, it feeds by plunge diving for fish, usually in marine environments; the male offers fish to the female as part of the courtship ritual. This is an adaptable species which has learned to follow fishing boats for jettisoned bycatch, and to utilise unusual nest sites such as the roofs of buildings and artificial islands in salt pans and sewage works. Its eggs and young are taken by gulls and ibises, and human activities such as fishing, shooting and egg harvesting have caused local population declines. There are no global conservation concerns for this bird, which has a stable total population of more than 500,000 individuals. This greater crested tern in flight was photographed at Mortimer Bay in Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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