WednesdayWed, December 23rd Edition Go Back

On this day in 2023

On this day in 2022

• DEATHS
• Colin Jillings, New Zealand thoroughbred horse trainer (W. S. Cox Plate 1993 The Phantom Chance; 4 x Auckland Cup winners; 5 x NZ Derby winners), who died at 91.
• George Cohen, Rugby Player.
• MOVIES: DECEMBER 23 2022
• Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody is released. The joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration of the life and music of Whitney Houston, the greatest female R&B pop vocalist of all time. Tracking her journey from obscurity to musical super stardom
• MOVIES: NOT RATED
• Joyride is released. Fleeing from his father, Irish 12-year-old Mully steals a taxi and is shocked to find a woman, Joy, in the back seat with a baby. Joy has decided to give her child away to a friend, and Mully needs to get some distance from his debt-ridden dad, who’s after the cash Mully has with him. And so two lovable rogues, a complicated middle aged mother and a troubled adolescent, go on a journey across Ireland, gradually finding the friendship, love and learning they never knew they needed in each other.
• Living is released. An ordinary man (Bill Nighy), reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful.
• No Bears is released. Two parallel love stories in which the partners are thwarted by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition, and the mechanics of power.
• MOVIES: NR
• Corsage is released. Empress Elisabeth of Austria is known for her beauty and fashion trends. But in 1877, she celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image. With a future of only ceremonial duties in front of her, she rebels against her public image and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.
• MOVIES: PG13
• Women Talking is released. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith. Based on the novel by Miriam Toews.
• MOVIES: R
• The Pale Blue Eye is released. West Point,1830. A world-weary detective (Christian Bale) is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case — a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).
• Babylon is released. From Damien Chazelle, Babylon is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
• GAMING: SWITCH
• Sports Story for Switch is released. Sports story is a game about sports, but not always. Various non-sporting pursuits provide variety. Alternate activities like dungeon exploration, stealthy infiltrations and fishing expeditions mean something unexpected waits around every corner. Sometimes it is even sports.Here are some of the things you can do in the game:* Embark on a golfing adventure in both ordinary and fantastical places.* Undertake full-time study at a renowned tennis academy.* Make friends and enemies in your quest for sporting excellence.* Dungeons, espionage, mini games, buried treasure and you get to meet the queen.* Make your coach proud by competing in Decasportathon.
• SPORTS
• Washington Capitals center Alex Ovechkin scores two goals to move past Gordie Howe on most NHL career goals list in 4-1 win over visiting Winnipeg Jets.

On this day in 2021

• DEATHS
• Bob McCammon, Canadian ice hockey coach (Philadelphia Fllyers 1978-84, Vancouver Canucks 1987-91), who died at 80.
• GAMING: PC
• Scarf for PC is released. What does it mean to be a hero? To fulfil your destiny? Or to rebel against it? Scarf is an exciting adventure that blends the lyricism of a walking simulator with a 3D platform game to offer an allegorical journey through three beautiful worlds. The Meadow, the Desert, and the Mountain are places filled with mystery. Will you discover their secrets? And at what price?

On this day in 2020

• DEATHS
• Rika Zarai, World Music Singer.
• Leslie West [Weinstein], American rock guitarist (Mountain - "Mississippi Queen" ; "Theme for an Imaginary Western"), who died of cardiac arrest at 75.
• John Edrich, Cricket Player.
• MOVIES: M
• Sylvie's Love is released. In Sylvie’s Love, the jazz is smooth and the air sultry in the hot New York summer of 1957. Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), a saxophonist, spends late nights playing behind a less-talented but well-known bandleader, as member of a jazz quartet. Sylvie (Tessa Thompson), who dreams of a career in television, spends her summer days helping around her father’s record store, as she waits for her fiancé to return from war. When Robert takes a part-time job at the record store, the two begin a friendship that sparks a deep passion in each of them unlike anything they have felt before. As the summer winds down, life takes them in different directions, bringing their relationship to an end. Years pass, Sylvie’s career as a TV producer blossoms, while Robert has to come to terms with what the age of Motown is doing to the popularity of Jazz. In a chance meeting, Sylvie and Robert cross paths again, only to find that while their lives have changed, their feelings for each other remain the same.
• GAMING: SWITCH
• Super Meat Boy Forever for Switch is released. Super Meat Boy Forever takes place a few years after the events of Super Meat Boy. Meat Boy and Bandage Girl have been living a happy life free of Dr. Fetus for several years and they now have a wonderful little baby named Nugget. Nugget is joy personified and she is everything to Meat Boy and Bandage Girl. One day while our heroes were on a picnic, Dr. Fetus snuck up on them, beat Meat Boy and Bandage Girl unconscious with a shovel and kidnapped Nugget! When our heroes came to and found that Nugget was missing, they knew who to go after. They cracked their knuckles and decided to never stop until they got Nugget back and taught Dr. Fetus a very important lesson. A lesson that can only be taught with punches and kicks.The challenge of Super Meat Boy returns in Super Meat Boy Forever. Levels are brutal, death is inevitable, and players will get that sweet feeling of accomplishment after beating a level. Players will run, jump, punch and kick their way through familiar settings and totally new worlds.What’s better than playing through Super Meat Boy Forever once? The answer is simple: Playing through Super Meat Boy Forever several times and having new levels to play each time. Levels are randomly generated and each time the game is completed the option to replay the game appears and generates a whole new experience by presenting different levels with their own unique secret locations. We’ve handcrafted literally thousands of levels for players to enjoy and conquer. You can replay Super Meat Boy Forever from start to finish several times before ever seeing a duplicate level. It is truly a remarkable feat of engineering and a monumental example of ignoring the limits of rational game design and production.
• Fatal Fury: First Contact for Switch is released. The popular Fatal Fury series in its NEOGEO POCKET debut! The legendary lone wolves are spitting sparks in their latest adventure! Can you survive this explosive battle?!

On this day in 2019

• EVENTS
• Mariah Carey was being sued by a former nanny who was seeking compensation for "emotional distress"after working for the singer. Maria Burgues filed the lawsuit claiming that she was fired after complaining about her working conditions. Burgues alleged that she was paid $25 (£19) an hour to look after Carey’s children and had to travel with them when the singer went on tour – but wasn’t paid for the extra work. She also claimed that the bodyguard of Carey’s children, Marcio Moto, used to make her feel threatened by shouting at her..
• SPORTS
• Alan Harrington, Welsh soccer defender (11 caps; Cardiff City 348 games), who died at 86.
• Duncan MacKay, Scottish soccer defender (14 caps; Celtic 162 games), who died at 82.

On this day in 2018

• DEATHS
• (Ann) "Honey" Lantree, British rock drummer (The Honeycombs), who died at 75.
• SEPERATIONS
• American singer Miley Cyrus (26) weds Australian actor Liam Hemsworth (28) in Franklin, Tennessee; divorce in 2020.
• SPORTS
• Honey Lantree drummer with English beat, pop group The Honeycombs died aged 75. The Honeycombs scored the Joe Meek produced 1964 UK No.1 single 'Have I The Right', which featured Lantree who was one of the few female drummers in bands at that time. The song’s beat was enhanced by having the members of the group stamp their feet on the wooden stairs to the studio to add to the drum sound..

On this day in 2017

• DEATHS
• Roger Carmillet, Race Car Driver.
• POLITICS
• Maurice Hayes, Irish politician (European Person of the Year 2003), who died at 90.

On this day in 2016

• EVENTS
• United Nations Security Council adopts a landmark resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. Resolution 2334 was moved by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela and passed 14-0 with a US abstention..
• BIRTHS
• Hammy The Corgi, TikTok Star, born in North Carolina.
• DEATHS
• Heinrich Schiff, Austrian cellist and conductor, who died at 65.
• Meto Jovanovski, Novelist.
• Piers J Sellers, English astronaut and climate scientist, who died of cancer at 61.
• MOVIES: NOT RATED
• I, Daniel Blake is released. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the latest from legendary director Ken Loach is a gripping, human tale about the impact one man can make. Gruff but goodhearted, Daniel Blake (Dave Johns) is a man out of time: a widowed woodworker who’s never owned a computer, he lives according to his own common sense moral code. But after a heart attack leaves him unable to work and the state welfare system fails him, the stubbornly self-reliant Daniel must stand up and fight for his dignity, leading a one-man crusade for compassion that will transform the lives of a struggling single mother (Hayley Squires) and her two children. [IFC Films]
• MOVIES: PG13
• A Monster Calls is released. 12-year-old Conor (Lewis MacDougall), dealing with his mother’s (Felicity Jones) illness, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a Monster appears at his bedroom window. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth.
• MOVIES: R
• Why Him? is released. Over the holidays, Ned (Bryan Cranston), an overprotective but loving dad and his family visit his daughter at Stanford, where he meets his biggest nightmare: her well-meaning but socially awkward Silicon Valley billionaire boyfriend, Laird (James Franco). The straight-laced Ned thinks Laird, who has absolutely no filter, is a wildly inappropriate match for his daughter. The one-sided rivalry-and Ned's panic level-escalate when he finds himself increasingly out of step in the glamorous high-tech hub, and learns that Laird is about to pop the question. [20th Century Fox]
• Silence is released. Two Jesuit priests, Sebastião Rodrigues and Francis Garrpe, travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate, banned Catholicism and almost all foreign contact. There they witness the persecution of Japanese Christians at the hands of their own government which wishes to purge Japan of all western influence. Eventually the priests separate and Rodrigues travels the countryside, wondering why God remains silent while His children suffer.
• TV SERIES
• Sense8: Season 2 is released. Capheus (Toby Onwumere, who replaced Aml Ameen), Kala (Tina Desai), Lito (Miguel Angel Silvestre), Nomi (Jamie Clayton), Riley (Tuppence Middleton), Sun (Donna Bae), Will (Brian J. Smith) and Wolfgang (Max Riemelt) are on the run from Whispers (Terrence Mann).
• Trollhunters: Season 1 is released. The animated series from Guillermo Del Toro begins with 15-year-old Jim Lake (voiced by the late Anton Yelchin) finding an amulet that grants him the right to become a Trollhunter, a protector of the underground trolls that includes Blinky (Kelsey Grammer).

On this day in 2015

• WEDDINGS
• TV Host Carson Daly at the age of 42 weds Siri Pinter in a church ceremony.
• Musician Richard Marx at the age of 53 weds TV host and model Daisy Fuentes at the age of 50 in Aspen, Colorado.
• DEATHS
• Alfred G. Gilman, American scientist (1994 Nobel Prize for G-protein discoveries), who died at 74.
• MOVIES: NOT RATED
• 45 Years is released. There is just one week until Kate Mercer's (Charlotte Rampling) 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband (Tom Courtenay). The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate. [IFC Films]
• MOVIES: R
• Where to Invade Next is released. Where to Invade Next is an expansive, rib-tickling, and subversive comedy in which Moore, playing the role of "invader, "visits a host of nations to learn how the U.S. could improve its own prospects. The creator of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine is back with this hilarious and eye-opening call to arms. Turns out the solutions to America's most entrenched problems already existed in the world - they're just waiting to be co-opted.

On this day in 2014

• BIRTHS
• Antwain Lee Fowler, Instagram Star, born in United States.
• DEATHS
• Jerzy Semkow, Polish-French conductor and educator, who died at 86.
• K Balachander, Director.
• Steve Lesage, Race Car Driver.
• TV SERIES
• Mozart in the Jungle: Season 1 is released. The comedy based on the Blair Tindell memoir "Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs & Classical Music, "follows the life of New York Symphony oboist Hailey (Lola Kirke) as Rodrigo De Souza (Gael Garcia Bernal), a new conductor who has unique methods, takes over the orchestra.
• GAMING: XBOX ONE
• Sunset Overdrive and the Mystery of the Mooil Rig! for Xbox One is released. Sunset Overdrive and the Mystery of the Mooil Rig! features new story missions, two weapons, two Amps, one trap, two vanity items PLUS new quests, challenges, Chaos Squad missions, a Night Defense base, and a new boss that promises to keep you busy and distracted from the horrors of reality.

On this day in 2013

• EVENTS
• The Mail On Sunday reported that documents they obtained from the Cabinet Office via the Freedom Of Information Act showed that George Harrison, who passed away in 2001, turned down the chance to be included in the New Year's Honours List in 2000. The OBE was recommended by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who said that Harrison should be recognised for his contribution to the music industry. The citation read: "He was a member of a band that many people would say is the best thing that Britain has ever produced, and possibly the best in the world, The Beatles"..
• DEATHS
• Vito Rizzuto, Italian-Canadian alleged mafia boss, also known as "Montreal's Teflon Don", who died at 67.
• Yusef Lateef, American jazz saxophonist and flautist, who died at 93.
• Ricky Lawson, American musician, who died at 59.
• José Ortiz, Comic Book Artist.
• Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and inventor of the AK-47, who died at 94.
• GAMING: XBOX ONE
• Halo: Spartan Assault for Xbox One is released. Enlist as a Spartan soldier and sharpen your tactical skills in battle. Set between the events of "Halo 3"and "Halo 4, "Halo: Spartan Assault, developed by 343 Industries in conjunction with Vanguard Games, is a new chapter within the Halo universe. Spanning over 30 missions in vibrant, dangerous worlds, dive deeper into the backstory of Human-Covenant wars, the origins of the Spartan Ops program, and unravel a chilling mystery in Operation Hydra. Play through the eyes of either Commander Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis stationed aboard the UNSC Infinity as they fight never-before-seen battles against Covenant forces. You can also join with a fellow Spartan on Xbox Live, in battle against the Flood.