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Location map of Rhodesia in Africa

The Rhodesian government actively recruited white personnel from other countries from the mid-1970s until 1980 to address manpower shortages in the Rhodesian Security Forces during the Rhodesian Bush War. Between 800 and 2,000 foreign volunteers enlisted. This was controversial as international sanctions banned military assistance for Rhodesia due to its illegal declaration of independence and the white minority's dominance. The volunteers were often labelled as mercenaries by opponents of the Rhodesian regime, though the government did not regard or pay them as such. They were motivated by opposition to governments led by black people, anti-communism, a desire for adventure, racism, and economic hardship. The Rhodesian government considered the volunteers to be unreliable and they were often treated poorly by their comrades; this contributed to many deserting. Some modern far-right and white supremacist groups celebrate the volunteers. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Laura Kenny

... that Laura Kenny (pictured) is the most decorated British female athlete in Olympic history?
... that Hanoikids gave free tours of Hanoi to a prime minister of Australia, an American general, and an American senator?
... that the mysterious Longfellow Boom has been attributed to rail cars coupling, secret NORAD flights, an underground meth lab, or a fault line in the Mississippi River?
... that Lotte Ledl, who played characters at the Vienna Burgtheater, in Heimatfilme, in literature adaptations and in crime series, was awarded an honorific title at the age of 89?
... that a mountain in Southern California was used by the Marquardt Corporation as a laboratory to test "highly reactive or toxic" rocket propellant?
... that a member of one of the best-selling boy bands of all time was also signed to the football club Doncaster Rovers?
... that Nintendo denied that Shiver from Splatoon 3 is non-binary?
... that Edward Lloyd was the namesake of Lloyd's of London but not its founder?
... that having large buttocks can be a tactical advantage in hockey?

In the news

Fatafehi Fakafānua

Fatafehi Fakafānua (pictured) is elected prime minister by the legislative assembly of Tonga.
Filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, are found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home.
José Antonio Kast is elected president of Chile.
Sixteen people, including a gunman, are killed in a mass shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

On this day

December 21: December solstice (15:03 UTC, 2025); Dongzhi Festival in China (2025)

Sergei Prokofiev

1124 – Lamberto Scannabecchi was elected pope, taking the name Honorius II.
1872 – HMS Challenger departed Portsmouth on a scientific expedition that laid the foundations of oceanography.
1919 – After serving two years in prison for encouraging people to resist military conscription, anarchist Emma Goldman was deported from the United States to Russia.
1934 – Lieutenant Kijé, the first film composition by Sergei Prokofiev (pictured), premiered.
1995 – In accordance with the Oslo II Accord, Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem in preparation for the transfer of control to the Palestinian National Authority.

William H. Osborn (b. 1820)
Adele Goldstine (b. 1920)
Milan Marjanović (d. 1955)
K. T. Oslin (d. 2020)

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Today's featured video

Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers. The film, released on 21 December 1925, is a prime example of the Soviet montage theory of editing, such as in the "Odessa Steps" scene, which became widely influential and often recreated. Battleship Potemkin is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.

Film credit: Sergei Eisenstein

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