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George E. Mylonas (1898–1988) was a Greek archaeologist of ancient Greece and of Aegean prehistory. He excavated widely, particularly at Olynthus, Eleusis and Mycenae, where he made the first archaeological study and publication of Grave Circle B, the earliest known monumentalized burials at the site. Mylonas was born in Smyrna, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and received an elite education. In 1924, he began working for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. He took part in excavations at Corinth, Nemea and Olynthus under its auspices. He studied and taught at universities in Greece and the United States. He was prominent in the Archaeological Society of Athens and in efforts to conserve the monuments of the Acropolis of Athens. He had co-responsibility for the excavation of Mycenae's Grave Circle B in the early 1950s, and from 1957 until 1985 he excavated on the citadel of the site. His excavations at Mycenae have been credited with bringing coherence to the site. (Full article...)

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Kwan Man-ching

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... that in 1967 two mathematicians published PhD dissertations independently disproving the same thirteen-year-old conjecture?
... that Shalom Nagar, executioner of war criminal and Nazi Party official Adolf Eichmann, said he was selected at random for the role?
... that Kevin Roose wrote a viral article about artificial intelligence rhetoric after an AI bot attempted to convince him to leave his wife?
... that Karl Thielscher began refereeing American football games less than a month after retiring from playing the sport professionally?
... that between February and August 1918 the Petergofsky District mobilized more than 20 combat units for the Red Army?
... that a South Korean actor sold his belongings and went $7 million into debt to keep his amusement park running?

In the news (For today)

Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 (aircraft pictured) crashes near Aktau International Airport, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.
A multi-vehicle crash in Minas Gerais, Brazil, leaves 41 people dead.
A car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, kills five people and injures more than two hundred others.
In France, Dominique Pelicot and 49 other men are convicted of the serial rape of his then-wife Gisèle Pelicot.

In two days

December 28

Canadian Armour Passing Through Ortona

893 – An earthquake destroyed the city of Dvin, Armenia, resulting in about 30,000 casualties.
1862 – American Civil War: Union forces defeated a Confederate cavalry unit at the Battle of Van Buren, capturing three steamboats, Confederate troops, and various supplies.
1918 – At the Irish general election, Constance Markievicz was elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the first female member of Parliament, although she never took her seat.
1943 – World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division captured the Italian town of Ortona (depicted).
2018 – Netflix released Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, its first interactive content for adults.

Andrea Gritti (d. 1538)
Albert Christoph Dies (d. 1822)
Shen Congwen (b. 1902)
Philomena Franz (d. 2022)

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The Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator was a facility developed by NASA in the early 1960s to study human movement under simulator lunar gravity conditions. It was located at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia and was designed to prepare astronauts for the Moon landings during the Apollo program. The simulator was tilted at a 9.5-degree angle from the vertical and test subjects were suspended on their side by cables at the same angle. This set-up allowed the trainees to walk along the surface while experiencing only one-sixth of Earth's gravity. It was also used to study the physiological effects on the astronaut's body during movement. In total, 24 astronauts used the simulator to train for lunar missions, including all three astronauts of the Apollo 1 mission. This photograph, taken in 1963, shows a test subject being suited up by two technicians on the Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator.

Photograph credit: NASA

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