December is the twelfth and final month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. It is the last of seven months to have a length of 31 days. December got its name from the Latin word decem because it was the tenth month of the year in the calendar of Romulus c. 750 BC which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month; the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name. In Ancient Rome, as one of the four Agonalia, this day in honor of Sol Indiges was held on December 11, as was Septimontium. Dies natalis was held at the temple of Tellus on December 13, Consualia was held on December 15, Saturnalia was held December 17–23, Opiconsivia was held on December 19, Divalia was held on December 21, Larentalia was held on December 23, the dies natalis of Sol Invictus was held on December 25; these dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar.
The Anglo-Saxons referred to December–January as Ġēolamonaþ. The French Republican Calendar contained December within the months of Nivôse. December contains the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the day with the fewest daylight hours, the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, the day with the most daylight hours. December in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to June in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. In the Northern hemisphere, the beginning of the astronomical winter is traditionally 21 December or the date of the solstice. Meteor showers occurring in December are the Andromedids, the Canis-Minorids, the Coma Berenicids, the Delta Cancrids, the Geminids, the Monocerotids, the Phoenicids, the Quadrantids, the Sigma Hydrids, the Ursids; the zodiac signs for the month of December are Capricorn. December's birth flower is the narcissus. December's birthstones are the turquoise and tanzanite; this list does not imply either official status or general observance.
List of observances set by the Bahá'í calendar List of observances set by the Chinese calendar List of observances set by the Hebrew calendar List of observances set by the Islamic calendar List of observances set by the Solar Hijri calendar In Catholic tradition, December is the Month of the Advent of Christ. National Egg Nog Month National Impaired Driving Prevention Month National Fruit Cake Month National Pear Month No Gender December See Movable Western Christian observances See Movable Eastern Christian observancesTuesday following fourth Thursday of November: December 1 Giving Tuesday First Friday: December 4 Farmer's Day Gospel Day First Sunday: December 6 Good Neighborliness Day Sindhi Cultural Day Second Monday: December 14 Green Monday National Tree Planting Day December 15, unless the date falls on a Sunday December 16: December 15 Koninkrijksdag Winter Solstice: December 21 Blue Christmas Brumalia Dongzhi Festival Global Orgasm Korochun Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere.
Sanghamitta Day Shalako Yaldā Yule in the Northern Hemisphere Ziemassvētki December 22, unless that date is a Sunday, in which case it's moved to the 23rd: December 22 Forefathers' Day December 26, unless that day is a Sunday, in which case the 27th: December 26 Boxing Day Day of Good Will Family Day Thanksgiving Start of Boxing Week November 25 – December 10: 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence December 1 Battle of the Sinop Day Bifocals at the Monitor Day Damrong Rajanubhab Day Day of Restoration of Independence Eat A Red Apple Day Feast for Death of Aleister Crowley First President Day Freedom and Democracy Day Great Union Day Military Abolition Day National Day Republic Day Restoration of Independence Day Rosa Parks Day Self-governance Day Teachers' Day World AIDS Day Day Without Art December 2 Armed Forces Day International Day for the Abolition of Slavery National Day National Day National Fritters Day December 3 Doctors' Day United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities December 4 National Cookie Day Navy Day Saint Barbara's Day-related observances: Barbórka Eid il-Burbara Thai Environmen
Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak was a Russian author most famous for his novels and short stories about life in the Ural Mountains. Mamin-Sibiryak was born in Visim, Perm Governorate in the Urals, into the family of a factory priest, he was first educated at home, studied in the Visim school for worker's children. He attended the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary and the Perm Theological Seminary. In 1872 he entered the veterinary section of the Saint Petersburg Medical Academy. In 1876, not having finished the academy, he transferred to the Law Faculty of St Petersburg University, he studied there for one year and left, due to health and financial difficulties. In the summer of 1877, he returned to his family in the Urals, his father died all the difficulties of the family fell on Mamin-Sibiryak. In order to find work and educate his brothers and sister the family moved to the large cultural center of Yekaterinburg. There, he married Maria Alekseeva who became his literary adviser as well as his friend.
During these years, he made numerous trips around the Ural region and studied its history, economics and daily life. From the beginning of the 1880s, he was occupied with literary work. In 1890, he divorced his first wife and married the actress M. Abramova from the Yekaterinburg Dramatic Theatre and moved to St Petersburg. Abramova died a year leaving a sick daughter, Alyonushka, in the arms of a distraught father. A series of travel sketches From the Urals to Moscow were published in the Moscow newspaper Russkie Vedemosti, his sketches In the Mountains and stories At the Border of Asia and In Bad Souls were published in the journal Delo. Many were signed with the pseudonym D. Sibiryak. Sibiryak means "Siberian" in Russian. Dmitry explained how his friends gave him the name: "I first tried out the names'Rasskazov' and'Tomsky', but they weren't right! My name was an object of fun to my fellow ordinands. Why were we'Mamin' and not'Tyatin'? They decided. After all, Yekaterinburg is the other side of the Urals, Russians regard everything beyond the Urals, including Siberia, as all one!"
His first major work was The Privalov Fortune, serialized to great success in the journal Delo. The publication of the novel Mountain Nest in 1884 in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski cemented the reputation of Mamin-Sibiryak as an accomplished realist. Repeated trips to the capital extended Mamin-Sibiryak's literary contacts, he became acquainted with Gleb Uspensky, Vladimir Korolenko and others. During these years, he sketches. From 1899 until his death, he was associated with the Sreda literary group, the Znanie publishing company, ran by fellow Sreda member Maxim Gorky, his last major works were the novels Traits from the Life of Pepko, Falling Stars and the story "Mumma". In his novels and stories he portrayed the life of the Urals and Siberia in the reform years of the development of capitalism in Russia and the consequent rifts in public consciousness, legal norms and morals, his most well known works are The Privalov Fortune, Mountain Nest, Bread, the novella Okhonna's Brows and the collections Ural Stories and Siberian Stories.
His known children's books included Tales for Alyonushka, Grey Neck, Summer Lightning. The Privalov Fortune, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow. Misgir, The Father Elect, from Little Russian Masterpieces, Vol 2, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1920. Verotchka's Tales, E. P. Dutton & Company, New York, 1922. From Archive.org Wintering Station on Chill River, from A Bilingual Collection of Russian Short Stories, Vol 1, Random House, 1965. Tales For Alyonushka, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978. A Gold Nugget, from In the Depths: Russian Stories, Raduga Publishers, Moscow, 1987
Viasa Flight 897 refers to an international scheduled Rome–Madrid–Lisbon–Santa Maria–Caracas passenger service that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal on 30 May 1961, shortly after takeoff from Portela Airport. There were no survivors among the 61 occupants of the aircraft. Named Fridtjof Nansen, the aircraft involved in the accident was a Douglas DC-8-53, registration PH-DCL, owned by KLM and operated on Viasa's behalf. With constructor's number 45615/131, the airframe was the newest one of the type in KLM's fleet at the time the accident took place; the crash of Viasa Flight 897 occurred on the third leg of a trip that originated in Rome and was scheduled to conclude in Caracas, Venezuela. Intermediate stops were to be made in Madrid, Lisbon, on Santa Maria Island. At the time the airliner lifted off from Lisbon at 01:15 UTC, the nighttime sky had a cloud base of 3,700 feet. A few minutes after take off the DC-8 entered a spiral dive to the left shortly after sending two short messages to Air Traffic Control.
The pilot over-corrected to the right and the aircraft struck the sea with a pitch angle of 25° nose down. The cause for the crash of Viasa Flight 897 was never determined by either Portuguese or Dutch authorities; the official report out of Portugal concluded "Notwithstanding a thorough, time-consuming investigation, in which many authorities and experts co-operated, it was not possible to establish a probable cause of the accident." The Netherlands, as state of registry for the aircraft, commented: "Though there are no direct indications in this respect, the Board regards it as possible that the accident was due to the pilot or pilots being misled by instrument failure, in particular of the artificial horizon, or to the pilot having been distracted, so that a serious deviation from the normal flight path was not discovered in time." At the time it occurred, Flight 897 was the third fatal crash of a big jetliner since they were introduced into service in 1958. It was the worst civilian aviation incident to take place in Portugal until the crash of TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 in 1977.
Graveyard spiral Sensory illusions in aviation Spatial disorientation Other aircraft that crashed shortly after takeoff, while turning above a dark ocean: Air India Flight 855 Flash Airlines Flight 604 Pan Am Flight 816 Final report - GPIAA