Most viewed Wikipedia articles on December 23 , 2022
Hatchand Bhaonani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj is a French thief, fraudster and serial killer. Sobhraj preyed on Western tourists, throughout the Hippie Trail of Southeast Asia during the 1970s.
Alexander Woods, better known by his stage name Big Scarr, was an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee, and was signed to Gucci Mane's 1017 Records. He was best known for his track "SoIcyBoyz", which features Pooh Shiesty, Foogiano and Tay Keith. He released his debut mixtape, Big Grim Reaper, on April 16, 2021. The tape peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200.
Lionel Andrés Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains both the Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered as the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record six Ballon d'Or awards and a record six European Golden Shoes. He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won a club-record 33 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles and six Copas del Rey. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (455), a La Liga and European league season (50), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (185), a La Liga and European league season (21) and the Copa América (12). He has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country.
Nusret Gökçe, nicknamed Salt Bae, is a Turkish butcher, chef, and restaurateur, who owns Nusr-Et, a chain of luxury steak houses. His technique for preparing and seasoning meat became an Internet meme.
Christopher L. Streveler is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Minnesota and South Dakota. Streveler previously played two seasons for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the second to last Hellenistic state and the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander. Her native language was Koine Greek, and she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language.
Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction film directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the mineral unobtanium, a room-temperature superconductor. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Jenna Marie Ortega is an American actress. She first became known for her role as Young Jane on The CW romantic comedy-drama series Jane the Virgin (2014–19). She then received recognition for her role as Harley Diaz on the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle (2016–18), for which she won an Imagen Award in 2018.
The following notable deaths occurred in 2022. Names are reported under the date of death, in alphabetical order. A typical entry reports information in the following sequence:
- Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent nationality, what subject was noted for, cause of death, and reference.
Franco Harris is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks. After playing college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, he was selected by the Steelers in the first round of the 1972 NFL Draft, the 13th overall pick. He played his first 12 years in the NFL with the Steelers; his 13th and final year was spent with the Seahawks. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.
Kylian Mbappé Lottin is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Widely considered as one of the best players in the world, he is known for his dribbling, explosive speed, and clinical finishing.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro GOIH ComM is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Juventus and captains the Portugal national team. Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards and four European Golden Shoes, both of which are records for a European player. He has won 31 major trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship, and one UEFA Nations League title. Ronaldo holds the records for the most goals (134) and assists (41) in the history of the UEFA Champions League. He is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,000 professional career appearances and has scored over 750 senior career goals for club and country. He is also the second male to score 100 international goals, and the first European man to achieve the feat.
Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Johnson and Ram Bergman. It follows a master detective investigating the death of the patriarch of a wealthy, dysfunctional family. The film features an ensemble cast including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.
This list contains the top 20 posts with the most likes on the photo and video-sharing social networking service Instagram. The most-liked post on Instagram is a photo of an egg, which has been liked by close to 55 million different accounts as of February 2021. The post is also the most-liked internet post of all time of any website. The like function has been removed in certain countries such as Canada and Australia in a trial to reduce the negative effects of "competition" on the platform.
Wednesday is an upcoming American horror comedy television series, based upon the character Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family. Produced by MGM Television, the series is set to premiere on Netflix during the fourth quarter of 2022.
Alice in Borderland is a Japanese science fiction suspense-thriller drama streaming television series based on the manga of the same name by Haro Aso. The series stars Kento Yamazaki as Arisu, a young man who finds himself lost in an abandoned Tokyo alongside his best friends, Chōta and Karube. As they begin their search for civilization, the trio quickly finds out that they are trapped in a city in which they are forced to participate in risky, violent, and dangerous games, pushing their own "emotional and physical limits" in the process to survive.
Zachary Kapono Wilson is an American football quarterback for the BYU Cougars.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the founder and CEO of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. He also manages assets through Alameda Research, a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm he founded in October 2017.
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! (1984) and Real Genius (1985), as well as the military action film Top Gun (1986) and the fantasy film Willow (1988).
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's association football championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022. This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the first in a Muslim-majority country. This will be the second World Cup held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. In addition, the tournament will be the last to involve 32 teams, with an increase to 48 teams scheduled for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The reigning World Cup champions are France.
Cirkus is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by Rohit Shetty Picturez, T-Series and Reliance Entertainment. The film stars Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma in a dual role alongside Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez. It is officially adapted from Angoor (1982) which was based on Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors. It also features Deepika Padukone and Ajay Devgn in special appearances.
George Reginald Cohen is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He spent his entire professional career with Fulham, and won the 1966 World Cup with England. He has been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame and is the uncle of rugby union World Cup winner, Ben Cohen.
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champion is France, which won its second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote.
The White Lotus is an American satire comedy television miniseries created, written and directed by Mike White that premiered on HBO on July 11, 2021.
Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin is an American actor, musician, and podcaster. Regarded as one of the most successful child actors of the 1990s, he was placed on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars" and on E!'s list of the "50 Greatest Child Stars".
Babylon is an upcoming period drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in the lead roles.
YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service, created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—was bought by Google in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion and now operates as one of the company's subsidiaries. YouTube is the second most-visited website in the world after Google Search, according to Alexa Internet rankings.
ChatGPT is a prototype artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI that focuses on usability and dialogue. The chatbot uses a large language model trained with reinforcement learning and is based on the GPT-3.5 architecture.
Kaikala Satyanarayana was an Indian actor, producer, director, and politician who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. He appeared in over 750 films and served as the Member of Parliament in the 11th Lok Sabha representing Machilipatnam constituency from Telugu Desam Party. He was the recipient of the 2011 Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and 2017 Filmfare Award for lifetime achievement in Telugu cinema.
Damián Emiliano Martínez Romero is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Aston Villa.
Caroline Ellison is the CEO of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. According to an anonymous source cited by the Wall Street Journal in November 2022, Alameda Research owed $10 billion to cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The source said FTX had lent the trading firm money from customer funds at FTX.
William Trevor Lawrence is an American football quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). Considered among the best collegiate quarterbacks of all time, he went undefeated as a freshman at Clemson, concluding with a victory in the 2019 National Championship Game. Lawrence set the Clemson record for career quarterback wins, losing only the 2020 National Championship and 2021 Sugar Bowl. Following his collegiate success, he was selected first overall by the Jaguars in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Diego Armando Maradona was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award. Maradona's vision, passing, ball control, and dribbling skills were combined with his small stature, which gave him a low centre of gravity allowing him to manoeuvre better than most other players. His presence and leadership on the field had a great effect on his team's general performance, while he would often be singled out by the opposition. In addition to his creative abilities, he possessed an eye for goal and was known to be a free kick specialist. A precocious talent, Maradona was given the nickname "El Pibe de Oro", a name that stuck with him throughout his career. He also had a troubled off-field life and was banned in both 1991 and 1994 for abusing drugs.
The 2022/23 PDC World Darts Championship is the upcoming 30th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event will take place at the Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2022–3 January 2023.
On 9 December 2019, at 14:11 NZDT, the volcanic island Whakaari / White Island in New Zealand's northeastern Bay of Plenty region explosively erupted. There were 47 people on the island at the time. Twenty-two people were killed, including two who are missing and declared dead, and a further 25 people suffered injuries, many of whom suffered severe burns. The ongoing seismic and volcanic activity in the area as well as heavy rainfall, low visibility and toxic gases hampered recovery efforts over the week following the incident.
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is an American actor and producer. He has received various accolades for his work, including three Golden Globe Awards and three nominations for Academy Awards. He is one of the highest-paid actors in the world. His films have grossed over $4 billion in North America and over $10.1 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing box office stars of all time.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, or simply Jack Ryan, is an American political action thriller television series, based on characters from the fictional "Ryanverse" created by Tom Clancy, that premiered on August 31, 2018, on Prime Video. The series was created by Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland. Cuse serves as an executive producer alongside John Krasinski, Michael Bay, and Mace Neufeld, among others. Krasinski also stars in the series as the title character, making him the fifth actor to portray the character after Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine from the film series.
Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed an exacting system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a deeply technical understanding of how tonal range is recorded and developed in exposure, negative development, and printing. The resulting clarity and depth of such images characterized his photography.
Madelyn Renee Cline is an American actress. She is known for her starring role as Sarah Cameron on the Netflix teen drama series Outer Banks.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship contested by the national football teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries; 60 matches, including the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the final, will be hosted by the United States while neighboring Canada and Mexico will each host 10 matches. The tournament will be the first hosted by three nations.
The following is a list of characters from A Certain Magical Index light novel, manga and anime series, and its side-story manga and anime series titled A Certain Scientific Railgun and A Certain Scientific Accelerator. The series primarily takes place in Academy City, a city filled with students who strived to become powerful espers and were brought into conflict by the appearance of sorcerers.
The 2021 NFL Draft will be the 86th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft is scheduled to be held from April 29 – May 1, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Jacksonville Jaguars will select first overall.
Emily in Paris is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Darren Star, which premiered on Netflix on October 2, 2020. The series stars Lily Collins as the eponymous Emily, an American who moves to Paris to provide an American point of view to a French marketing firm. There, she struggles to succeed in the workplace while searching for love and experiencing a culture clash with her "boring" and mundane Midwestern upbringing. It also stars Ashley Park, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, Camille Razat, and Bruno Gouery. In November 2020, the series was renewed for a second season by Netflix.
Janelle Monáe Robinson is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, actress, and record producer. Monáe is signed to Atlantic Records, as well as to her own imprint, the Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations. Monáe won an MTV Video Music Award and the ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2010. Monáe was also honored with the Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award in 2015 and the Trailblazer of the Year Award in 2018. In 2012, Monáe became a CoverGirl spokesperson. Boston City Council named October 16, 2013 "Janelle Monáe Day" in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in recognition of her artistry and social leadership.
Emory Andrew Tate III is a British-American kickboxer, commentator and businessman.
A brownie or broonie (Scots), also known as a brùnaidh or gruagach, is a household spirit from Scottish folklore that is said to come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep and perform various chores and farming tasks. The human owners of the house must leave a bowl of milk or cream or some other offering for the brownie, usually by the hearth. Brownies are described as easily offended and will leave their homes forever if they feel they have been insulted or in any way taken advantage of. Brownies are characteristically mischievous and are often said to punish or pull pranks on lazy servants. If angered, they are sometimes said to turn malicious, like boggarts.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world.
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season centered around it.
Ronnie Keith Ryan Hillman is a former American football running back. He played college football at San Diego State. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft.
Wikipedia is a multilingual open-collaborative online encyclopedia created and maintained by a community of volunteer editors using a wiki-based editing system. It is one of the 15 most popular websites as ranked by Alexa, as of January 2021 and The Economist newspaper placed it as the "13th-most-visited place on the web". Featuring no advertisements, it is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American non-profit organization funded primarily through donations.
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, and environmentalist. He is best known for making science fiction and epic films. Cameron first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further critical and commercial success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the comedy thriller True Lies (1994). His other big-budget productions include Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, also garnered him nominations in the same categories.
Mount Takahe is a 3,460-metre-high (11,350 ft) snow-covered shield volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the Amundsen Sea. It is a c. 30-kilometre-wide (19 mi) mountain with parasitic vents and a caldera up to 8 kilometres (5 mi) wide. Most of the volcano is formed by trachytic lava flows, but hyaloclastite is also found. Snow, ice, and glaciers cover most of Mount Takahe. With a volume of 780 km3 (200 cu mi), it is a massive volcano; the parts of the edifice that are buried underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are probably even larger. It is part of the West Antarctic Rift System along with eighteen other known volcanoes.
The Banshees of Inisherin is an upcoming drama film written and directed by Martin McDonagh.
The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in men's international football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, the governing body for football in Argentina. Argentina's home stadium is Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti in Buenos Aires.
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. was an American singer, comedian and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1930 to 1954. He made over seventy feature films and recorded more than 1,600 different songs.
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, known as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Brazil national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world.
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress, author, and fashion entrepreneur. She rose to prominence for her performance in the film Almost Famous (2000), for which she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Raising Helen (2004), The Skeleton Key (2005), You, Me and Dupree (2006), Fool's Gold (2008), Bride Wars (2009), Nine (2009), Deepwater Horizon (2016), Mother's Day (2016) and Marshall (2017).
Lily Jane Collins is a British-American actress and model. The daughter of English musician Phil Collins and American actress Jill Tavelman, she was born in Surrey and moved to Los Angeles as a child.
Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, known professionally as XXXTentacion, was an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Despite being a controversial figure due to his widely publicized legal issues, XXXTentacion gained a cult following among his young fanbase during his short career through his depression and alienation-themed music. He was often credited by critics and fans for his musical versatility, with his music exploring emo, trap, lo-fi, indie rock, nu metal, hip hop, R&B and punk rock.
The Marble Index is the second solo album and third studio album by German musician Nico, which was released in November 1968 on Elektra Records. The avant-garde sound introduced in the album—a stark contrast with her folk pop debut, Chelsea Girl—was the result of the combination of Nico's droning harmonium and somber vocals, and producer John Cale's musical arrangements, which were inspired by modern European classical music. Nico envisioned the release as an attempt to get artistic legitimacy, thus also drastically changing the looks that had initially made her famous as a fashion model.
Elon Reeve Musk is a business magnate, industrial designer and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and ranked 25th on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019. A centi-billionaire, Musk became the richest person in the world in January 2021, surpassing Jeff Bezos.
The Ballon d'Or is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football that is one of the oldest and generally regarded as the most prestigious individual award for football players. It has been awarded since 1956, although between 2010 and 2015, an agreement was made with FIFA, and the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year and known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. However, the partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award The Best FIFA Men's Player. The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d'Or are considered as winners by both award organisations.
Erling Braut Haaland is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Norway national team. A prolific goalscorer, he is recognised for his pace, athleticism, strength and precise off-the-ball movement, and he has been considered as one of the best young footballers in the world.
Stephen Laurel "tWitch" Boss is an American freestyle hip hop dancer, choreographer, actor, television producer, and television personality. In 2008, he was the runner-up in the American So You Think You Can Dance. Since 2014, he has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show as a DJ. He is also featured in Ellen's Game of Games as a sidekick to DeGeneres. Since 2018, he and his wife Allison Holker have hosted Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings on the Freeform Network and Disney+.
Vera-Ellen was an American dancer and actress. She is remembered for her solo performances as well as her work with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor. She is best known for her starring roles in On the Town (1949) with Kelly and White Christmas (1954) with Kaye.
Walter Bruce Willis is an American actor and film producer. Born in Germany to a German mother and American father, Willis moved to the U.S. with his family when he was two years old. His career began on the off-Broadway stage in the 1970s. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and has since appeared in over 70 films, gaining widespread recognition as an action hero after his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013) and other subsequent roles.
Alice in Borderland is a Japanese suspense manga series written and illustrated by Haro Aso. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Shōnen Sunday S magazine from November 2010 to March 2015, and later moved to Weekly Shōnen Sunday in April 2015 and finished in March 2016.
Jenna Nicole Mourey, better known by her pseudonym Jenna Marbles, is an American YouTube personality, vlogger, comedian, and actress. As of September 2019, her channel has approximately 3.3 billion video views and 20 million subscribers. As of Nov 2020 it is the 177th most subscribed channel on YouTube. Mourey is the first social media star to have a wax figure displayed at Madame Tussauds Museum in New York City.
Home Alone is a 1990 American comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Catherine O'Hara. Culkin stars as eight-year-old Kevin, who defends his home from burglars Harry and Marv after his family accidentally leaves him behind on their vacation.
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films based on characters that appear in American comic books by DC Comics, produced by DC Films and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The franchise also includes comic books, short films, novels, and video games. The DCEU, much like the original DC Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, its neighbour to the southwest, marking a major escalation of the Russo‑Ukrainian War that had been ongoing since 2014. The campaign was preceded by a prolonged Russian military buildup since early 2021, and demands by Russia to legally prohibit Ukraine from joining NATO, an alliance of European states with the U.S. and Canada. Days prior to the invasion, Russia recognised of two self-proclaimed Ukrainian states, the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, followed by an incursion of the Russian Armed Forces to the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine on 21 February.
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. He is best known for portraying James Bond in the eponymous film series, beginning with Casino Royale (2006), which brought him international fame. As of January 2021, he has starred in three more instalments, with a fourth set to be released in late 2021. Other notable roles include his breakthrough role in the drama serial Our Friends in the North (1996), the historical drama film Munich (2005), and the mystery thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).
Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary character originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts on Christmas Eve of toys and candy to well-behaved children, and either coal or nothing to naughty children. He is said to accomplish this with the aid of Christmas elves, who make the toys in his workshop at the North Pole, and flying reindeer who pull his sleigh through the air.
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me", "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There", and "This Ole House". She also had success as a jazz vocalist. Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. She continued recording until her death in 2002.
Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners, a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box-office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights, and merchandise.
The Whale is an upcoming American psychological drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and written by Samuel D. Hunter, based on his play of the same name. The film stars Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, and Ty Simpkins.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States, or America, is a country primarily located in North America, consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area. With a population of more than 328 million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City.
Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. It is also known as the Festival of Lights.
Zoe Yadira Saldaña Perego is an American actress. After her performances with the theater group Faces, she was in two 1999 episodes of Law & Order. Her film career began a year later with Center Stage (2000) portraying a ballet dancer.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is among those who are credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was successfully detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico. Oppenheimer later remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." In August 1945, the weapons were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer and actress. She was certified as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced several African-American female artists.
The Immaculate Reception is one of the most famous plays in the history of American football. It occurred in the AFC divisional playoff game of the National Football League (NFL), between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 23, 1972. With the Steelers trailing in the last 30 seconds of the game, Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a pass attempt to John Fuqua. The ball either bounced off the helmet of Raiders safety Jack Tatum or off the hands of Fuqua, and, as it fell, Steelers fullback Franco Harris scooped it up and ran for a game-winning touchdown. The play has been a source of unresolved controversy and speculation ever since, as many people have contended that the ball only touched Fuqua or that it hit the ground before Harris caught it, either of which would have resulted in an incomplete pass by the rules at the time. Kevin Cook's The Last Headbangers cites the play as the beginning of a bitter rivalry between Pittsburgh and Oakland that fueled a historically brutal Raiders team during the NFL's most controversially physical era.
White Christmas is a 1954 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film Holiday Inn.
Blast Corps is a 1997 action game, developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64, in which the player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 levels, the player solves puzzles by transferring between vehicles to move objects and bridge gaps. It was released in March 1997 in Japan and North America. A wider release followed at the end of that year.
Charlbi Dean Kriek was a South African actress and model. She was best known for her roles in the Spud films (2010–2013) as well as the superhero drama series Black Lightning (2018) and the Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness (2022).
Avatar 3 is an upcoming American epic science fiction film directed, со-produced, co-written, and co-edited by James Cameron. It is the second of four planned sequels to his film Avatar (2009) and will be the sequel to Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), making it the third film in Cameron's Avatar franchise. Cameron is producing the film with Jon Landau, with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver originally announced as his co-writers; it was later announced that Cameron, Jaffa, Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno took a part in the writing process of all of the sequels before being assigned to finish the separate scripts, making the eventual writing credits unclear. Cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Dileep Rao, Giovanni Ribisi, and Matt Gerald are all expected to return from the first two films. Reprising their roles from the second film are Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, and Oona Chaplin.
Love Actually is a 2003 Christmas-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. It features an ensemble cast, composed predominantly of British actors, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous film and television projects. Mostly filmed on location in London, the screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as the tales progress. The story begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out in a weekly countdown until the holiday, followed by an epilogue that takes place one month later.
Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California, and a flagship service of the namesake company Facebook, Inc. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country located mostly in the southern half of South America. Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the fourth largest in the Americas, the second largest in South America after Brazil, and the largest Spanish-speaking nation by area. The sovereign state is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires, which is the federal capital of the nation as decided by Congress. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris SG, or simply Paris or PSG, is a French professional football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. PSG are France's most successful club, having won more than 40 official honours, including nine league titles and one major European trophy. Their home ground is the Parc des Princes.
Several films are scheduled for release in 2022. Some films have announced release dates but have yet to begin filming, while others are in production but do not yet have definite release dates.
Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American actress who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before she made her film acting debut in the crime film Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Connelly continued modeling and acting, starring in a number of films, including the horror film Phenomena (1985), the musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986), the romantic comedy Career Opportunities (1991), and the period superhero film The Rocketeer (1991). She gained critical acclaim for her work in the science fiction film Dark City (1998) and for playing a drug addict in Darren Aronofsky's 2000 drama Requiem for a Dream.
Yellowstone is an American drama television series created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson that premiered on June 20, 2018 on the Paramount Network. It stars Kevin Costner, Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, and Gil Birmingham. The series follows the conflicts along the shared borders of a large cattle ranch, a Native reservation, and land developers. In June 2019, Paramount Network renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on June 21, 2020. In February 2020, Paramount Network renewed the series for a fourth season, ahead of the premiere of its third season.
Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms.
Samuel Henry John Worthington is an English-born Australian actor and writer. He is best known for playing Jake Sully in the Avatar film series, Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation, and Perseus in Clash of the Titans as well as its sequel Wrath of the Titans. He then transitioned to more dramatic roles, appearing in Everest (2015), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), The Shack (2017), Manhunt: Unabomber (2017), and Fractured (2019). He also voiced the protagonist, Captain Alex Mason, in the video games Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012) and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018).
Cassidy Jacqueline Hutchinson is a former White House aide and assistant to former U.S. President Donald Trump's White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Pearling or genital beading is a form of body modification, the practice of permanently inserting small beads made of various materials beneath the skin of the genitals—of the labia, or of the shaft or foreskin of the penis. As well as being an aesthetic practice, this is usually intended to enhance the sexual pleasure of partners during vaginal or anal intercourse.