text:
924

Year 924 (CMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

January—March

 * January 5 – The monastery of San Martín de Albelda is founded in the Kingdom of Navarre in what is now the city of Albelda de Iregua in Spain, by orders of King Sancho Garcés I and Toda Aznárez, monarchs of Navarre, to celebrate the previous year's recapture of the cities of Nájera and Viguera.
 * January 20 – China's Emperor Zhuangzong reverses an initial decision to spare the life of General Li Jitao after discovering that Li is continuing to plot the overthrow of the government, and has Li executed.
 * February 12 – (1 Dhu al-Qi'dah 311 A.H.) Ahmad ibn Kayghalagh is removed from office as the Abbasid Governor of Egypt by the Caliph al-Muqtadir after less than six months in office and is replaced by Takin al-Khazari. who, following his death, sack and burn the city of Pavia. They Hungarian forces penetrate as far as the Pyrenees.

 * March 24 – Hungarian Magyar forces led by General Szalárd, capture Pavia, capital of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, at the request of the Holy Roman Emperor Berengar. Later, after crossing the Alps via the St. Bernard Pass, the Magyars pillage Provence, Septimania and Nismes in southern France).
 * March – A group of 1,800 warriors of the Qarmatians of Bahrayn attack and destroy the returning Hajj caravans at al-Habir. Some of the more prominent pilgrims, who were returning to Baghdad from Mecca, are taken to Al-Ahsa Oasis to be held for ransom. The event leads to the downfall and execution of the Abbasid Caliphate's vizier, Ibn al-Furat.

April—June

 * April 7 – After having made a new alliance with the Hungarians, the Holy Roman Emperor Berengar I, King of Italy, is assassinated in Verona by one of his guards. Rudolph II, King of Burgundy and a claimant to the throne, takes full control of the Kingdom of Italy, while the office of the Holy Roman Emperor will not be re-created until 38 years later.
 * June 15 – Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Furat, the Grand Vizier of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir since returning to power in August 923, is removed from office by the Caliph,and is replaced by Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Khaqani. On July 24, he is executed along with his son, al-Muhassin, for his brutality during his rule and for failing to prevent the March attack by the Qarmatians on Iraqi Muslim pilgrims.
 * June – Fruela II, King of Asturias in what is now Portugal, becomes the new ruler of the Kingdom of León and the Kingdom of Galicia in Spain upon the death of his younger brother, King Ordoño II, who dies after a 14-year reign. The ascent of Fruela reunites Asturias, Galicia and Leon. Fruela, who is not popular with the nobles, orders the assassination of the sons of Olmundo.

July—September

 * July 17 – Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons, is killed in battle at Farndon-Upon-Dee while leading an army against a revolt by some of the Cambrians and Mercians. During his 25-year reign, he gained direct control over Mercia, including some of the Danelaw, the Danish-occupied areas. Edward's oldest son, Æthelstan, is proclaimed the new King of England, while some supporters among the West Saxons support Ælfweard, to be Edward's successor as King of Wessex.
 * August 2 – Ælfweard of Wessex, briefly a claimant for the throne of England and favored by the nobility of Wessex,dies at the age of 23 only sixteen days after the death of his father.
 * August – At Seorabeo (now Gyeongju in South Korea), Gyeongae becomes the new monarch of the Kingdom of Silla upon the death of his older brother, King Gyeongmyeong.
 * September 7 – Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Tsar Simeon I, ruler (knyaz) of the Bulgarian Empire, leads the burning of the Church of St. Mary of the Spring in Constantinople.
 * September 9 – After pllaging the suburbs of Constantinople, Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria meets with the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos on the Golden Horn to arrange a truce, according to which Byzantium will pay the Bulgarians an annual tribute in exchangefor the return of some cities on the Black Sea coast.

October—December

 * November 9 – Byzantine co-Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos concludes a treaty with the Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria and provides the Bulgarian monarch with "gold and silver shields and lances."
 * November – (Shaban 312 AH) Hamd bin Khazar, leader of the Zenata Berber nomads in the high plateau of central Algeria, sets an ambush that kills Massala ibn Habus, the Fatimid Governor of Tahert.
 * December 25 – Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos are promoted to the position of co-Emperors of Byzantium, joining Constantine VII, Romanos I and Christopher, creating a pentarchy with five monarchs.

Europe

 * Fall – Bulgarian–Serbian War: Tsar Simeon I sends a punitive expedition force against Serbia, led by Theodore Sigritsa and Marmais, but they are ambushed and defeated. Zaharija, prince of the Serbs, sends their heads and armour later to Constantinople (approximate date).
 * Winter – The Hungarians invade Saxony and force King Henry I (the Fowler) to retreat into the Castle of Werla. He makes a pact and agrees to pay them tribute for 9 years. They return to the Po Valley and sack the cities of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua (Northern Italy).

Asia

 * Emperor Taizu of the Liao Dynasty leads a campaign to the West. He reaches the former capital of the Uyghur Kingdom on the Orkhon River. The Zubu begin to pay tribute to the Khitan Empire.
 * Emperor Zhuang Zong of Later Tang bestows the chancellor title on Gao Jixing (Prince of Nanping) and creates the Nanping State (Central China). The Qi State falls to Later Tang.

Births

 * Fujiwara no Koretada, Japanese statesman and waka poet (d. 972)
 * Fujiwara no Yoritada, Japanese nobleman and regent (d. 989)
 * Gao Baoxu, king of Nanping (Ten Kingdoms) (d. 962)
 * Li Jingda, prince of Southern Tang (d. 971)
 * Nyaung-u Sawrahan, king of the Pagan dynasty (d. 1001)
 * Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, Emperor of Viet Nam (d.979)

Deaths

 * January 20 – Li Jitao, general of Later Tang
 * April 7 – Berengar I, king of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor
 * April 11 – Herman I, archbishop of Cologne
 * May 17 – Li Maozhen, Chinese warlord and king (b. 856)
 * June 16 – Li Cunshen, general of Later Tang (b. 862)
 * July 17 – Edward the Elder, king of Wessex
 * July 18 – Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Furat, Abbasid vizier (b. 855)
 * August 2 – Ælfweard, son of Edward the Elder
 * Damian of Tarsus, Muslim governor
 * Gyeongmyeong, king of Silla (Korea)
 * Marmais, Bulgarian nobleman
 * Ordoño II, king of Galicia and León
 * Raymond II, Frankish nobleman
 * Theodore Sigritsa, Bulgarian minister
 * Yuan Xiangxian, Chinese general
 * Zaharija, prince of Serbia (approximate date)

title: 924


text:
925

Year 925 (CMXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * May 15 – Nicholas I Mystikos, twice the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and having reigned a second time since 912, dies at the age of 73.
 * June 29 — Stephen II becomes the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, succeeding Nicholas I.
 * Fall – John Mystikos, chief minister (paradynasteuon), is deposed and sent into exile in a monastery. He is replaced by the chamberlain (protovestiarios) Theophanes, who becomes the closest adviser of Emperor Romanos I. At this time the Byzantine Empire has been embroiled in a protracted and disastrous war with Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria.

Europe

 * Summer – King Fruela II dies after a reign of only 14 months. He is succeeded by his son Alfonso Fróilaz who ascends the throne. With the support of King Jimeno II of Pamplona (later Navarra), Sancho Ordóñez, Alfonso, and Ramiro (the sons of the late King Ordoño II) revolt and drive their cousin Alfonso to the eastern marches of Asturias, then divide the kingdom amongst themselves. Alfonso IV ("the Monk") receives the crown of León, and Sancho I is acclaimed king of Galicia.
 * Alberic I, duke of Spoleto, attempts to seize Rome on his own account. Pope John X organizes an uprising and expels him. Alberic flees to Orte, where he sends out messengers calling on the Magyars for assistance. But a mob in Orte, informed by papal agents, rises up and murders Alberic (approximate date).
 * King Rudolph II of Burgundy (who also rules Italy) and his father-in-law, Burchard II of Swabia, lead a Burgundian expeditionary force over the Great St. Bernard Pass to confront Hugh of Provence. They head to the city of Ivrea where Rudolph's forces begin a civil war against Lombard partisans.
 * Tomislav, duke of the Croatian duchies of Pannonia and Dalmatia, is crowned as king of Croatia. He forges an alliance with the Byzantines during the struggle with the Bulgarian Empire (approximate date).

Africa

 * A Fatimid expeditionary force led by Jafar ibn Obeid lands in Abruzzo (Southern Italy). They overrun Apulia all the way to the city of Otranto. After defeating the Byzantine garrisons, the Arabs lay siege to the castle of Oria (which shortly after is destroyed). The defenders are massacred and the remainder (mostly women and children) are taken as slaves back to North Africa.

Asia

 * Winter – Former Shu, one of the Ten Kingdoms in China, is invaded by Later Tang forces of Emperor Zhuang Zong, who incorporates the kingdom into his domains.
 * A visiting Uyghur delegation spurs the development of Khitan small script, based on alphabetic principles (approximate date).

Religion

 * Ha-Mim proclaims himself a prophet and a messenger of Islam, among the Ghomara Berbers near the city of Tétouan (modern Morocco).

Births

 * May – Bruno I, archbishop and duke of Lotharingia (d. 965)
 * Basil Lekapenos, Byzantine chief minister (d. 985) (approximate date)
 * Conrad I, king of Burgundy (approximate date)
 * Fujiwara no Kanemichi, Japanese statesman (d. 977)
 * Gerberga, Frankish noblewoman (approximate date)
 * Gwangjong (personal name: Wang So), king of Goryeo (d. 975)
 * John I Tzimiskes, Byzantine emperor (approximate date)
 * Judith, duchess regent of Bavaria (d. 985)
 * Li Fang, Chinese scholar and official (d. 996)
 * Pan Mei, general of the Song dynasty (d. 991) (approximate date)
 * Qian Hongzun, heir apparent of Wuyue (d. 940)
 * Thietmar, Margrave of Meissen (approximate date)
 * Widukind of Corvey, Saxon chronicler (approximate date)

Deaths

 * March – Bertha, duchess regent of Lucca and Tuscany (b. 863)
 * May 15 – Nicholas I Mystikos, Byzantine patriarch (b. 852)
 * May 23 – Zhao Guangyin, chancellor of Later Tang
 * July – Fruela II, king of Asturias and León
 * August 3 – Cao, Chinese empress dowager
 * December 10 – Sancho I, king of Pamplona
 * December 28 – Wang Zongbi, general of Former Shu
 * December 30 – Wang Shenzhi, founder of Min (b. 862)
 * Alberic I, duke of Spoleto (approximate date)
 * Cathal mac Conchobair, king of Connacht
 * Abu Bakr al-Razi, Persian philosopher (approximate date)
 * Sueiro Belfaguer, Portuguese nobleman (b. 875)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 925


text:
929

Year 929 (CMXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * January 16 – Emir Abd al-Rahman III of Córdoba, Spain, proclaims himself caliph and creates the Caliphate of Córdoba. He breaks his allegiance to, and ties with, the Fatimid and Abbasid caliphs.
 * February 3 – Guy, Margrave of Tuscany, second husband (third lover) of the Roman noblewoman Marozia, dies. He is succeeded by his brother Lambert as margrave of Tuscany.
 * Early 929 – Siege of Gana: German king Henry the Fowler besieges Gana with an East Frankish army and conquers the stronghold. He establishes the fort of Meissen nearby.
 * Early 929 – Henry the Fowler invades Bohemia from the north and marches on Prague. Duke Arnulf I of Bavaria invades Bohemia from the south. The Bohemians capitulate.
 * Summer – The Slavic-Arab leader Sabir defeats a small Byzantine fleet and seizes Termoli (in Molise, on the Adriatic coast). He returns to Africa laden with booty and slaves.
 * September 4 – Battle of Lenzen: Slavic forces (the Redarii and the Obotrites) are defeated by a Saxon army near the fortified stronghold of Lenzen (modern Germany).
 * October 7 – Charles the Simple, former king of West Francia, dies in prison at Péronne, leaving Rudolph with no opposition except that of Herbert II, Count of Vermandois.

Asia

 * Mpu Sindok, ruler of the Mataram Kingdom, moves his court from Central to East Java (modern Indonesia), probably after the eruption of Mount Merapi and/or invasion from Srivijaya.

Religion

 * Pope Leo VI dies at Rome after a 7-month reign. He is succeeded (probably handpicked–by Marozia from the Tusculani family) by Stephen VII as the 124th pope of the Catholic Church.

Births

 * September 29 – Qian Chu, king of Wuyue (d. 988)
 * al-Ta'i', Abbasid caliph of Baghdad (d. 1003)
 * Fujiwara no Kaneie, Japanese statesman (d. 990)
 * Guo Zhongshu, Chinese painter (approximate date)
 * Saigū no Nyōgo (Princess Kishi), Japanese waka poet (d. 985)
 * William, archbishop of Mainz (d. 968)

Deaths

 * January 28 – Gao Jixing, founder of Chinese Jingnan (b. 858)
 * February 3 – Guy ("the Philosopher"), margrave of Tuscany (Italy)
 * February 12 – Leo VI, pope of the Catholic Church
 * March 26 – Wang Du, Chinese warlord and governor (jiedushi)
 * April 9 – Cui Xie, Chinese official and chancellor
 * June 7 – Ælthryth, English princess and countess of Flanders (b. 877)
 * Before August 16 – Sancho Ordóñez, king of Galicia (Spain)
 * October 7 – Charles the Simple, Frankish king (b. 879)
 * Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Ahmad al-Madhara'i, Abbasid fiscal director
 * Abu'l-Musafir al-Fath, Sajid emir of Azerbaijan (Iran)
 * Al-Batani, Muslim astronomer and mathematician
 * Ashot II, king of Armenia (approximate date)
 * Gao Yu, Chinese chief strategist
 * Indra III, ruler of Rashtrakuta (India)
 * Lothar I, Frankish nobleman (b. 902)
 * Lothar II, Frankish nobleman (b. 874)
 * Padla II, prince of Kakheti (Georgia)
 * Thumal the Qahraman, Abbasid female judge
 * Zhao Jingyi, Chinese general and governor

title: 929


text:
Talk:Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Her Little Friends
In this article it says there is a dispute over whether or not Virginia acutally wrote the letter to the editor, simply becuase they don't believe Virginia would say something like "my little friends". I completey disagree, you see, Virginia had the spirit of christmas, and she believed in Santa Clause, but her "little friends" (small-minded, in her view), shot her down and told her there was no santa clause. Virginia was talking about how lame she thought her friends were for saying that, not how old they were...come on, of course Virginia wrote that, and yes, Virginia looks down upon her little friends. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.187.254.238 (talk • contribs) 25 December 2006

I own all of the 1893 issues of the children's magazine "Wide Awake." In the Post Office section readers' letters were published. Children would write "I am a little girl of eleven," or "I had a party and invited my little friends." It seems to have been a common practice for girls who were not yet in their teenage years to refer to themselves and their same-age friends as little girls or little friends.

After reading those Wide Awake letters it makes sense that Virginia would tell the Sun what her little friends had to say about Santa Clause. That's the way "little girls" used to express themselves. Karenthewriter (talk) 15:36, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

For those who question that a young person could write such a letter, just read nearly anything published for children of the time to read. Once you have, I think you'll realize that children of that time are a WHOLE LOT MORE LITERATE than children of today. As such, I have no problem with "Virginia" being the author of the letter. 2600:8800:786:A300:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 13:14, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Team-B-Vital Improvement Drive
Hello all!

This article has been chosen as this week's effort for WP:Discord's #team-b-vital channel, a collaborate effort to bring Vital articles up to a B class if possible, similar to WP:Articles for Improvement. This effort will run for up to seven days, ending early if the article is felt to be at B-class or impossible to further improve. Articles are chosen by a quick vote among interested chatters, with the goal of working together on interesting Vital articles that need improving.

This is a special Christmas selection and double article week: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus + Ebenezer Scrooge

Thank you! -- ferret (talk) 01:11, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Plaque
@Randy Kryn, Could you elaborate on how you determined that the plaque is encyclopedically relevant to the article? The HuffPost source is an article by the president of The Studio School and readtheplaque is simply a picture of it. I think to merit inclusion it would need a reliable secondary source talking about it. There's one new york times column mentioning that they planned to add it but that's all I could find. I think including this substantial of a mention is somewhat excessively promoting The Studio School given the abject lack of secondary coverage. Plaques such as this really arent that difficult to put up and don't mean all that much IMO. Eddie891 Talk Work 14:23, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

 * I'd be OK reducing the mention to a sentence, perhaps as a compromise? I just think it's currently given too much prominence Eddie891 Talk Work 14:34, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. Historical plaques are touchstones about important moments in the past, often a surprise for people who wander by them. And the ceremony means a lot to those who attend who knew the individual personally. In England Blue plaques mark the spot of an event and are welcomed in a neighborhood. Before I saw your note here was going to leave a note on your talk page and got into reading your interesting user page. I see you're going for the Good standard on this article, nice work and a nice subject to improve. Randy Kryn (talk) 15:10, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Synopsis
For GA breadth purposes, shouldn't the article contain a synopsis of the Santa Claus article itself? czar 02:10, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

 * Good point, . My thinking to date had been that most people could get the gist simply from reading the famous line "yes, virginia, there is a santa claus", but it can't hurt to have a summery. Added. The film MOS plot guideline suggests that summaries be 400-700 words-- could we not simply include the editorials whole text? Eddie891 Talk Work 17:30, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Since the source is in the public domain, it wouldn't be a copyright issue to include it, but editorially, I don't think that's for the best. What did the sources summarize about its content/flourishes? Those are the parts worth noting in any summary for a general audience. czar  00:50, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

The Church picture
A question, is this page planned to be featured this Christmas season? If so then I won't ask that the Church image be replaced for now, or until the deletion discussion is completed if it's not complete by the time of the feature page (and please alert this talk page to the deletion discussion). The photo is likely from 1868, anyone who would have a claim of copyright is gone, it is now a historical photo which exists in the public domain, per its upload page. Randy Kryn (talk) 20:02, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't know if there are plans to nominate this for this Christmas, but I doubt it would happen this year -- FAC's rarely run less than 15-20 days, and most take longer than that. Re the publication date, I'm not an image expert, but in the image discussions I've seen at FAC the approach has been that the first evidence of publication has to be taken as the date for copyright purposes.  It's entirely possible nobody plucked this picture from this private collection until recently. Mike Christie (talk - contribs -  library) 21:04, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * , I certainly have no plans to nominate for TFA this year, I’m too realistic wrt the promotion times, but the fac cannot materially progress towards closure with an image of dubious copyright status., copyright as Mike says above isn’t based upon when the image was taken, but its first verifiable publication date, in this case the image’s upload. This isn’t a standard case of BRD, because we cannot assume an image is in the PD without proof— and copyright violation can’t remain in an article. It’s frustrating for encyclopedic purposes, but we do have to respect the US’s frustrating and frankly absurd copyright laws. Eddie891 Talk Work 23:03, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * And I'm sorry to seem so Bah Humbuggy in the Christmas season, but it would be nice to get this article through FAC while my motivation lasts this December for a potential featuring next year Eddie891 Talk Work 23:10, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Next year will be fine, and this will pass feature status at that point, so for this Christmas let's put the photo back until the discussion at the nomination page is complete. Published or not published, the legal wording is: "Under the copyright law, the creator of the original expression in a work is its author. The author is also the owner of copyright unless there is a written agreement by which the author assigns the copyright to another person or entity, such as a publisher." The photographer who took the photo in 1868 is the copyright holder according to law. There is no indication that the photographer is doing much complaining that Wikipedia has used the image worldwide since 2006. Erring on the side of caution while engaged in a feature nomination is prudent, but this situation falls outside of that, as there is really no feasible copyright concern. Please add back the image to the page for, yes Eddie891, there is a Santa Claus (and he seems kind of irritated that one of his champions has been masked on Wikipedia, and has been seen loading up his sleigh with coal). Randy Kryn (talk) 07:00, 4 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you for withdrawing the nomination because of the pre-publishing before 1902 status. Christmas wishes and many gifts of plenty to you! Randy Kryn (talk) 07:02, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

TFA blurb/ article lead
Hi, , , and (FA reviewers), and. I revised the lead a bit recently and was wondering if anyone had any feedback on it. I think it flows better now. Those changes have not been made to the blurb that will be on the main page (at Today's featured article/December 24), so any suggestions about whether to tweak that one would also be appreciated. I honestly have been thinking the first sentence in the blurb is really long and maybe shouldn't mention the title of the editorial until later on, for readability? Eddie891 Talk Work 16:02, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure the reader needs to know the title in the blurb at all if the space can be better use. Also his middle name. Wehwalt (talk) 17:21, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Courtesy ping to . Gog the Mild (talk) 14:45, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * The blurb seems fine and contains needed information and relevant links, and of course the title should be the first thing mentioned as it is a well-known iconic wording (and the title of the feature article). Church's middle name is prominent in his descriptor and article as his common name. Randy Kryn (talk) 14:49, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Honestly don't think the title is that relevant to the lead (Randy, the title is not "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", which is the well-known wording.) Eddie891 Talk Work 14:54, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I thought you meant move the common name further down in the blurb. Randy Kryn (talk) 14:56, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * "the editorial was initially published anonymously". Maybe 'uncredited', or similar rewording? "anonymously" sounds as if Church was deliberately trying to hide himself, rather than this being normal practice for editorials. Gog the Mild (talk) 14:58, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Sure, done Eddie891 Talk Work 14:59, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I think we might be able to change "has been cited as the most reprinted newspaper editorial in the English language" to "is the most reprinted" in the TFA blurb to avoid two passive voices in a row. Eddie891 Talk Work 14:58, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. But the original and proper name of the editorial probably should be in the first paragraph (EDIT: or start of the second paragraph, where I've moved it). Please don't make too many large changes to the lead, this went through the feature process and if changes are going to be made like this then let's add back the image of Church which was a major talking point during the discussion and "removed" as a compromise to get the article passed as a feature. Randy Kryn (talk) 15:09, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * If something was removed in order "to get the article passed as a feature", it should not be added back. The place to have had that debate was at FAC. If consensus has been reached, it should stand. Gog the Mild (talk) 15:30, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's what I'm saying. The page was passed as a feature which, for example, included Church's full name and the formal name of the editorial high in the lead. Randy Kryn (talk) 15:39, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I think the revised phrasing works fine. Eddie891 Talk Work 21:22, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Not sure if they have seen this, but courtesy ping to -- what do you think about the tweaked lead? Could the blurb be tweaked a bit too? Eddie891 Talk Work 21:23, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Just because something has to be added or retained to get it featured does not mean we have to include it in the blurb. We have limited and set space and have to make editorial judgments that are different from what goes on at FAC. And yes, deletion or shortening to an initial of a middle name is just the sort of thing that goes on here to save spaces. That's what blurb writers do, they're saving a bit here and a bit there to get it under 1025. I don't have an opinion as to whether there should be a change in the blurb. Wehwalt (talk) 21:38, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Have just re-read the blurb and it's just about perfect. The author's full name per direct link (and the name used in most of the sources and on his tombstone) is important per accuracy and encyclopedically crediting the author of the iconic and historically important editorial. The first line in the blurb: ""Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" is a line from an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church", says it all very well. Randy Kryn (talk) 04:22, 21 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm just seeing this now, coming from the TFA blurb. But I think we really ought to include a sentence summarizing what the editorial actually says, since right now that's absent, and it's left to the reader to infer from the title (which doesn't alone make clear whether it's arguing that Santa is physically real, or just the Santa spirit is real, or something else). {{u| Sdkb  }}  talk 23:02, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

US-Centric?
It could be just me, but here in the UK I have never heard of this item that is "widely reprinted during the holiday season". Does "reprinted" mean "reprinted in the US"? Also, statements such as "soon appeared in other papers", "other newspapers began to republish the editorial", "often appears in newspaper editorial sections during the Christmas and holiday season" -- do these refer only or primarily to the US, or do they also apply to other English-speaking countries? It seems to me that this item might be a piece of primarily US culture, but the article wording does not fully make this clear, beyond describing its origins. On the other hand, if very many people from other English-speaking countries are familiar with it and have seen it reprinted locally then fair enough. 2A00:23C8:7B09:FA01:E1B9:CFD4:BE54:6FEB (talk) 17:57, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It's certainly generally unknown in Britain. I think it's purely a US thing. Is it known in Canada? --Ef80 (talk) 14:38, 26 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree, and added "The editorial is widely reprinted in the United States" in the lead. Other statements seem pretty unambiguous to me, particularly because sourcing doesn't really make clear in my memory of it. Eddie891 Talk Work 13:11, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Miracle on 34th Street
When I think of an early Santa film, the first film that comes to mind is Miracle on 34th Street. It deals with the reality question surrounding Santa Claus. I was actually surprised that it was not mentioned in the "Yes, Virginia…" article. Santa belief has been a regular mention by some skeptics and atheists regarding the "Is there a God?" question, and regarding religious belief or "faith" in general. Misty MH (talk) 05:26, 25 December 2023 (UTC) Misty MH (talk) 05:26, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

 * I agree that there are a lot of similarities between the two, but haven't seen any sources discussing them together. Eddie891 Talk Work 13:10, 27 December 2023 (UTC)


text:
928

Year 928 (CMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * King Rudolph I loses the support of Herbert II, count of Vermandois, who controls the prison at Péronne in which former King Charles III (the Simple) is imprisoned. Herbert brings him before William I (Longsword), count of Rouen, for homage and then to Rheims as leverage to blackmail Rudolph to make him cede sovereignty over Laon (Northern France).
 * June 5 – Louis III (the Blind), former king of Provence (Lower Burgundy), dies at Arles after a 27-year reign (of which 23 are sightless). He is succeeded by his brother-in-law Hugh I who is King of Italy. With the approval of his kinsman Rudolph I, Hugh strips Louis's son and heir, Charles Constantine, of his inheritance and proclaims himself as ruler of Provence.
 * Winter – King Henry I (the Fowler) subdues the Polabian Slavs who live on the eastern borders. He then marches against the Slavic Hevelli tribes and seizes their capital, Brandenburg. Henry invades the Glomacze lands in the middle Elbe valley, where he besieges and destroys the main castle called Gana (the later Albrechtsburg) at Meissen (Saxony).

Britain

 * King Hywel Dda (the Good) of Deheubarth makes a pilgrimage to Rome, he becomes the first Welsh ruler to undertake such a trip. Hywel begins the codification of medieval Welsh law and mints his own coinage.

Italy

 * Summer – A Fatimid fleet under Sabir al-Fata raids Byzantine southern Italy. It captures a locality named ('the caves') in Apulia and sacks the cities of Taranto and Otranto. The inhabitants are carried off to North Africa as slaves.

Asia

 * Ishanavarman II dies after a 5-year reign and is succeeded by his uncle Jayavarman IV as king of the Khmer Empire (modern Cambodia). He moves the capital north from Angkor to Koh Ker.

Religion

 * Summer – Pope John X is deposed and imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo at Rome by order of the Roman senatrix Marozia after a 14-year reign. He is succeeded by Leo VI as the 123rd pope of the Catholic Church.
 * Leo VI abolishes the Nin Bishopric and transfers bishop Gregory (Grgur Ninski) to Skradin. This ends the long running dispute between the Split and Nin Bishoprics in the Croatian kingdom.
 * July 18 – Tryphon succeeds Stephen II as patriarch of Constantinople (until 931).

Births

 * August 14 – Qian Hongzuo, king of Wuyue (d. 947)
 * Dub mac Maíl Coluīm, king of Scotland (d. 967)
 * Pietro I Orseolo, doge of Venice (d. 987)
 * Qian Hongzong, king of Wuyue (d. 971)
 * Shi Shouxin, Chinese general (d. 984)

Deaths

 * January 20 – Zhao Guangfeng, Chinese official and chancellor
 * June 5 – Louis the Blind, Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperor
 * July 18 – Stephen II, patriarch of Constantinople
 * November 8 – Duan Ning, Chinese general
 * Al-Layth ibn Ali ibn al-Layth, Saffarid emir
 * Diogo Fernandes, count of Portugal
 * Huo Yanwei, Chinese general (b. 872)
 * Ishanavarman II, king of the Khmer Empire
 * John X, pope of the Catholic Church
 * Siyahchashm, Justanid ruler (mahdi)
 * Tomislav, duke and king of Croatia
 * Wang, empress dowager of Wu
 * Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj, Sajid emir
 * Zhang Juhan, Chinese official (b. 858)

title: 928


text:
576

Year 576 (DLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 576 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Byzantine Empire

 * Byzantine–Sassanid War: A Persian army under King Khosrau I breaks through the Caucasus into Anatolia (modern Turkey). They attack the cities of Theodosiopolis and Caesarea, but are thwarted. Khosrau is forced to retreat and sacks Sebasteia. On the way home, he is intercepted by a Byzantine force under Justinian (magister militum of the East), and severely defeated near Melitene. The royal baggage is captured, and many Persians drown, while escaping across the Euphrates.

Europe

 * Baduarius, son-in-law of the Byzantine emperor Justin II, is sent to Italy to resist the Lombard conquest. He leads an aborted counter-assault against the Lombards and dies soon after.
 * The Visigoths under King Liuvigild establish the capital of their kingdom in Toledo, located in central Spain (approximate date).

Asia

 * The Göktürks under Tardu cross the Cimmerian Bosporus into the Crimea, and besiege the city of Panticapaeum (Ukraine).
 * Jinji becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Silla.

Births

 * Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, friend of Muhammad (approximate date)
 * Gao Shilian, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (d. 647)

Deaths

 * May 28 – Saint Germain, bishop of Paris
 * Baduarius, Byzantine aristocrat (approximate date)

title: 576


text:
927

Year 927 (CMXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * May 27 – Simeon I, emperor (tsar) of the Bulgarian Empire, dies of heart failure in his palace at Preslav after a 34-year reign. He is survived by four sons and succeeded by his second son Peter I, who signs a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire. The peace is confirmed by Peter's marrying Maria Lekapene (the daughter of Christopher Lekapenos, son and co-emperor of Romanos I). The treaty restores the borders to those established by several treaties (thus recognizing Bulgaria's possession of Macedonia).
 * July 12 – King Æthelstan of Wessex claims his kingdom and receives the submission of High-Reeve Ealdred I of Bamburgh and probably also of Owain ap Dyfnwal, King of Strathclyde, at Eamont Bridge. He unifies the various small kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, creating the Kingdom of England, and also secures a pledge from King Constantine II of Scotland, that he will not ally with the Viking kings. This summer also Kings Hywel Dda of Deheubarth and Owain of Glywysing and Gwent submit to the overlordship of Æthelstan at Hereford. The borders between England and Wales are set at the River Wye.
 * Summer – The Hungarians fight in Rome, helping Margrave Peter against Pope John X. They then go to southern Italy, and conquer the cities of Taranto and Oria.
 * August 15 – Led by the Slavic Sabir, the Fatimids from Sicily, capture and destroy Taranto. They enslave much of the population.

Asia

 * Later Baekje, one of the Later Three Kingdoms of Korea, sacks the Silla capital at Gyeongju. King Gyeongae commits suicide and Gyeongsun is placed on the throne by the Later Baekje king Kyŏn Hwŏn.
 * October/November – The Qarmatian invasion of Iraq begins.
 * 7 December – The Sajid emir of Adharbayjan, Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj is defeated and captured by the Qarmatians near Kufa.

Religion

 * The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is recognised as autocephalous, by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
 * September 14 – Cele Dabhaill mac Scannal, Irish preacher and abbot, dies on his pilgrimage at Rome.

Births

 * March 21 – Taizu, emperor of the Song Dynasty (d. 976)
 * Amlaíb Cuarán, Viking king of Scandinavian York (d. 981)
 * Ch'oe Sung-no, Korean politician and poet (d. 989)
 * Fantinus, Italian hermit and abbot (approximate date)
 * Fujiwara no Anshi, empress consort of Japan (d. 964)

Deaths

 * January 13 – Berno of Cluny, Frankish monk and abbot
 * January 14 – Wang Yanhan, king of Min (Ten Kingdoms)
 * May 27 – Simeon I, emperor (tsar) of the Bulgarian Empire
 * August 24
 * Doulu Ge, chancellor of Later Tang
 * Wei Yue, chancellor of Later Tang
 * September 14 – Cele Dabhaill mac Scannal, Irish abbot
 * November 7 – Zhu Shouyin, general of Later Tang
 * November 20 – Xu Wen, general and regent of Wu (b. 862)
 * Abdallah ibn Muhammad, Abbasid vizier (or 926)
 * Shahid Balkhi, Persian philosopher and poet
 * Gyeongae, king (55th ruler) of Silla (Korea)
 * Ha-Mim, Moroccan prophet and messenger of Islam
 * Ibn al-Dahhak, Kurdish chieftain (approximate date)
 * Miró II, count of Cerdanya and Besalú (Spain)
 * Ren Huan, general and chancellor of Later Tang
 * Sin Sung-gyom, Korean general (Three Kingdoms)
 * Sigtrygg Cáech, Viking king of Scandinavian York
 * Zhang Ge, politician and chancellor of Former Shu

title: 927


text:
Deep Blue (chess computer)

Deep Blue was a chess-playing expert system run on a unique purpose-built IBM supercomputer. It was the first computer to win a game, and the first to win a match, against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. Development began in 1985 at Carnegie Mellon University under the name ChipTest. It then moved to IBM, where it was first renamed Deep Thought, then again in 1989 to Deep Blue. It first played world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in 1996, where it lost four games to two. It was upgraded in 1997 and in a six-game re-match, it defeated Kasparov by winning two games and drawing three. Deep Blue's victory is considered a milestone in the history of artificial intelligence and has been the subject of several books and films.

History
While a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, Feng-hsiung Hsu began development of a chess-playing supercomputer under the name ChipTest. The machine won the North American Computer Chess Championship in 1987 and Hsu and his team followed up with a successor, Deep Thought, in 1988. After receiving his doctorate in 1989, Hsu and Murray Campbell joined IBM Research to continue their project to build a machine that could defeat a world chess champion. Their colleague Thomas Anantharaman briefly joined them at IBM before leaving for the finance industry and being replaced by programmer Arthur Joseph Hoane. Jerry Brody, a long-time employee of IBM Research, subsequently joined the team in 1990.

After Deep Thought's two-game 1989 loss to Kasparov, IBM held a contest to rename the chess machine: the winning name was "Deep Blue", submitted by Peter Fitzhugh Brown, was a play on IBM's nickname, "Big Blue". After a scaled-down version of Deep Blue played Grandmaster Joel Benjamin, Hsu and Campbell decided that Benjamin was the expert they were looking for to help develop Deep Blue's opening book, so hired him to assist with the preparations for Deep Blue's matches against Garry Kasparov. In 1995, a Deep Blue prototype played in the eighth World Computer Chess Championship, playing Wchess to a draw before ultimately losing to Fritz in round five, despite playing as White.

Today, one of the two racks that made up Deep Blue is held by the National Museum of American History, having previously been displayed in an exhibit about the Information Age, while the other rack was acquired by the Computer History Museum in 1997, and is displayed in the Revolution exhibit's "Artificial Intelligence and Robotics" gallery. Several books were written about Deep Blue, among them Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion by Deep Blue developer Feng-hsiung Hsu.

Deep Blue versus Kasparov

Subsequent to its predecessor Deep Thought's 1989 loss to Garry Kasparov, Deep Blue played Kasparov twice more. In the first game of the first match, which took place from 10 to 17 February 1996, Deep Blue became the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. However, Kasparov won three and drew two of the following five games, beating Deep Blue by 4–2 at the close of the match.

Deep Blue's hardware was subsequently upgraded, doubling its speed before it faced Kasparov again in May 1997, when it won the six-game rematch 3½–2½. Deep Blue won the deciding game after Kasparov failed to secure his position in the opening, thereby becoming the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in a match under standard chess tournament time controls. The version of Deep Blue that defeated Kasparov in 1997 typically searched to a depth of six to eight moves, and twenty or more moves in some situations. David Levy and Monty Newborn estimate that each additional ply (half-move) of forward insight increases the playing strength between 50 and 70 Elo points.

In the 44th move of the first game of their second match, unknown to Kasparov, a bug in Deep Blue's code led it to enter an unintentional loop, which it exited by taking a randomly selected valid move. Kasparov did not take this possibility into account, and misattributed the seemingly pointless move to "superior intelligence". Subsequently, Kasparov experienced a decline in performance in the following game, though he denies this was due to anxiety in the wake of Deep Blue's inscrutable move.

After his loss, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw unusual creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that during the second game, human chess players had intervened on behalf of the machine. IBM denied this, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM had dismantled Deep Blue after its victory and refused the rematch. The rules allowed the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play that were revealed during the course of the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine's log files, but IBM refused, although the company later published the logs on the Internet.

The 1997 tournament awarded a $700,000 first prize to the Deep Blue team and a $400,000 second prize to Kasparov. Carnegie Mellon University awarded an additional $100,000 to the Deep Blue team, a prize created by computer science professor Edward Fredkin in 1980 for the first computer program to beat a reigning world chess champion.

Chess
Kasparov initially called Deep Blue an "alien opponent" but later belittled it, stating that it was "as intelligent as your alarm clock". According to Martin Amis, two grandmasters who played Deep Blue agreed that it was "like a wall coming at you". Hsu had the rights to use the Deep Blue design independently of IBM, but also independently declined Kasparov's rematch offer. In 2003, the documentary film Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine investigated Kasparov's claims that IBM had cheated. In the film, some interviewees describe IBM's investment in Deep Blue as an effort to boost its stock value.

Other games
Following Deep Blue's victory, AI specialist Omar Syed designed a new game, Arimaa, which was intended to be very simple for humans but very difficult for computers to master; however, in 2015, computers proved capable of defeating strong Arimaa players. Since Deep Blue's victory, computer scientists have developed software for other complex board games with competitive communities. The AlphaGo series (AlphaGo, AlphaGo Zero, AlphaZero) defeated top Go players in 2016–2017.

Computer science
Computer scientists such as Deep Blue developer Campbell believed that playing chess was a good measurement for the effectiveness of artificial intelligence, and by beating a world champion chess player, IBM showed that they had made significant progress. Deep Blue is also responsible for the popularity of using games as a display medium for artificial intelligence, as in the cases of IBM Watson or AlphaGo.

While Deep Blue, with its capability of evaluating 200 million positions per second, was the first computer to face a world chess champion in a formal match, it was a then-state-of-the-art expert system, relying upon rules and variables defined and fine-tuned by chess masters and computer scientists. In contrast, current chess engines such as Leela Chess Zero typically use reinforcement machine learning systems that train a neural network to play, developing its own internal logic rather than relying upon rules defined by human experts.

In a November 2006 match between Deep Fritz and world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik, the program ran on a computer system containing a dual-core Intel Xeon 5160 CPU, capable of evaluating only 8 million positions per second, but searching to an average depth of 17 to 18 plies (half-moves) in the middlegame thanks to heuristics; it won 4–2.

Software
Deep Blue's evaluation function was initially written in a generalized form, with many to-be-determined parameters (e.g., how important is a safe king position compared to a space advantage in the center, etc.). Values for these parameters were determined by analyzing thousands of master games. The evaluation function was then split into 8,000 parts, many of them designed for special positions. The opening book encapsulated more than 4,000 positions and 700,000 grandmaster games, while the endgame database contained many six-piece endgames and all five and fewer piece endgames. An additional database named the "extended book" summarizes entire games played by Grandmasters. The system combines its searching ability of 200 million chess positions per second with summary information in the extended book to select opening moves.

Before the second match, the program's rules were fine-tuned by grandmaster Joel Benjamin. The opening library was provided by grandmasters Miguel Illescas, John Fedorowicz, and Nick de Firmian. When Kasparov requested that he be allowed to study other games that Deep Blue had played so as to better understand his opponent, IBM refused, leading Kasparov to study many popular PC chess games to familiarize himself with computer gameplay.

Hardware
Deep Blue used custom VLSI chips to parallelize the alpha–beta search algorithm, an example of symbolic AI. The system derived its playing strength mainly from brute force computing power. It was a massively parallel IBM RS/6000 SP Supercomputer with 30 PowerPC 604e processors and 480 custom 600 μm CMOS VLSI "chess chips" designed to execute the chess-playing expert system, as well as FPGAs intended to allow patching of the VLSIs (which ultimately went unused) all housed in two cabinets. The chess chip has four parts: the move generator, the smart-move stack, the evaluation function, and the search control. The move generator is a 8x8 combinational logic circuit, a chess board in miniature.

Its chess playing program was written in C and ran under the AIX operating system. It was capable of evaluating 200 million positions per second, twice as fast as the 1996 version.

In 1997, Deep Blue was upgraded again to become the 259th most powerful supercomputer according to the TOP500 list, achieving 11.38 GFLOPS on the parallel high performance LINPACK benchmark.

title: Deep Blue (chess computer)


text:
932

Year 932 (CMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Summer – Alberic II leads an uprising at Rome against his stepfather Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, after he is insulted at the wedding of his mother, Marozia. Alberic seizes the Lateran Palace, and Hugh escapes with an escort out of the city. Marozia is captured and put in prison. Alberic takes control of the city and appoints himself as the ruler (princeps) of Rome.
 * Doge Orso II Participazio retires voluntarily to a monastery, marking the end of the Participazio dominance of the Venetian dogeship. He is succeeded by Pietro II Candiano, the son and namesake of the earlier doge Pietro I.
 * Pietro II and Capodistria make a trade agreement without imperial authorization, the self-proclaimed "Marquis" Wintkar forbids repaying any debts to Venice. Pietro begins an economic blockade of Istrian cities.

Asia

 * Emir Mardavij ibn Ziyar invades Tabaristan and captures the city of Gorgan. The Daylamite military leader Makan ibn Kaki tries to reclaim his territories, but fails. He seeks refuge among the Samanids and enters the service of their ruler Nasr II. He appoints him as governor of Kirman (modern Iran).
 * October 31 – Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir is killed while fighting against the forces of general Mu'nis al-Muzaffar. Al-Muqtadir's brother al-Qahir is chosen to succeed him.

Religion

 * Summer – Pope John XI is forced to grant power over Rome to his half-brother Alberic II, who is invested as "Prince and Senator of all Romans". John is to resign himself to spiritual leadership of the Catholic Church.

Births

 * August 28 – Richard I, duke of Normandy (d. 996)
 * September 26 – Al-Mu'izz, Fatimid caliph (d. 975)
 * Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Arab prince and poet (or 933)
 * Miskawayh, Persian philosopher and historian (d. 1030)
 * Sancho I (the Fat), king of León (approximate date)

Deaths

 * May 6 – Qian Liu, Chinese warlord and king (b. 852)
 * May 18 – Ma Shaohong, general of Later Tang
 * June 1 – Thietmar, duke of Saxony
 * June 10 – Dong Zhang, Chinese general
 * August 15 – Ma Xisheng, king of Chu (b. 899)
 * October 31 – Al-Muqtadir, Abbasid caliph (b. 895)
 * Fujiwara no Sadakata, Japanese poet (b. 873)
 * Isaac Judaeus, Arab Jewish physician (approximate date)
 * Orso II Participazio, doge of Venice
 * Reginar II, Frankish nobleman (b. 890)
 * Rollo, duke of Normandy (approximate date)

In fiction

 * The film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is set in this year.

title: 932


text:
Cello (web browser)

Cello is an early, discontinued graphical web browser for Windows 3.1; it was developed by Thomas R. Bruce of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. It was released as shareware in 1993. While other browsers ran on various Unix machines, Cello was the first web browser for Microsoft Windows, using the winsock system to access the Internet. In addition to the basic Windows, Cello worked on Windows NT 3.5 and with small modifications on OS/2.

Cello was created because of a demand for Web access by lawyers, who were more likely to use Microsoft Windows than the Unix operating systems supporting earlier Web browsers, including the first release of Mosaic. The lack of a Windows browser meant many legal experts were unable to access legal information made available in hypertext on the World Wide Web. Cello was popular during 1993/1994, but fell out of favor following the release of Mosaic for Windows and Netscape, after which Cello development was abandoned.

Cello was first publicly released on 8 June 1993. A version 2.0 was announced, but development was abandoned. Version 1.01a, 16 April 1994, was the last public release. Since then, the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School has licensed the Cello 2.0 source code, which has been used to develop commercial software.

The browser is no longer available from its original homepage. However, it can still be downloaded from mirror sites.

Development and history
The development of Cello started in 1992, with beta versions planned for June 1993 and a release for July 1993. It was publicly announced on 12 April 1993.

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School created the first law site on the Internet in 1992 and the first legal website in 1993. However, at the time, there were no web browsers for the Microsoft Windows operating system, which was used by most lawyers. Thus, to allow lawyers to use their website, the Legal Information Institute developed the first Windows-based Web browser. This was made possible by a grant from the National Center for Automated Information Research.

Although other browsers at the time were based on CERN's WWW libraries called libwww, PCs of the time were not powerful enough to run the UNIX-oriented code. As a result, Thomas Bruce had to rewrite most of the WWW libraries to work on Microsoft Windows. Unlike most commercial browsers at that time, Cello used none of Mosaic's source code and thus had a different look and feel.

Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division at Microsoft wrote in a June 1994 email: We do not currently plan on any other client software [in the upcoming release of Windows 95], especially something like Mosaic or Cello. Nevertheless, on 11 January 1995, Microsoft announced that it had licensed the Mosaic technology from Spyglass, which it would use to create Internet Explorer. On 15 August 1995, Microsoft debuted its own web browser Internet Explorer 1 for Windows 95. While it did not ship with the original release of Windows 95, it shipped with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95.

Usage
When released in 1993, Cello was the only browser for the Microsoft Windows platform. Shortly after launch, Cello was being downloaded at a rate of 500 copies per day. As such, it achieved a fair amount of use and recognition within the legal community, including a number of PC users with between 150,000 and 200,000 users. In 1994, most websites were visited using either the Cello browser or the Mosaic browser. Despite having fewer features than Mosaic, Cello continued to be used due to its simpler interface and lower system requirements. Cello was praised for being easy to install, because it wasn't necessary to install Win32s or a TCP/IP stack for Windows 3.1. Following the release of Windows 95, which offered a much better TCP/IP interface, Cello fell into disuse and was abandoned.

By 1995, Cello, like the Mosaic browser, was overshadowed by two newer browsers — Netscape and Internet Explorer — and fell into disuse. By 1999, Cello was considered to be a "historical" browser.

Cello is considered to be one of the early casualties of the first browser wars.

Features
Cello had the following features: • inline graphics support: GIF, XBM, PCX, and BMP.

• PostScript viewing and sound playing

• File saving and printing.

• Editing support for local files via an external editor. Integration with the HTMLAssistant Windows-based HTML helper/editor.

• File caching ad infinitum using a file-based cache with user-specified "low water mark".

• DDE and OLE drag-and-drop support. Cello can be invoked and controlled through the use of DDE macros in other programs. URL arguments on the command line are also supported.

• "Peek mode", permitting partial retrieval of files of large or unknown size.

• Local file mode for HTML delivery on standalone machines or machines with LAN connections only.

• Support for HTML "mailto:" scheme with integrated email sending client.

• Support for the full HTML+ ISO-LATIN character set, including specialized legal symbols, foreign characters, etc.

• User-selectable sound players, viewers, editor, and Telnet and TN3270 clients.

• Comprehensive online documentation in Windows Help format.

• Simple user interface.

• Fully extensible support for viewing downloaded files in an unlimited number of PC-binary file formats using the standard Windows Associate... scheme.

• Bookmarks

• Local browsing

• Simpler interface (compared to Mosaic)

Unlike Mosaic, Cello did not have toolbar buttons, and instead commands were accessed through pull-down menus.

Cello supported the following protocols: HTTP 1.0, Gopher (but not Gopher+), read-only FTP, SMTP mailing, Telnet, Usenet, CSO/ph/qi directly and WAIS, HyTelnet, TechInfo, Archie, X.500, TN3270 and a number of others through public gateways.
 * Supported Protocols

Cello supported the following FTP servers: most Unix servers (including SunOS, System V, and Linux), IBM VM, VMS systems, Windows NT, QVTNet, NCSA/CUTCP/Rutgers PC servers, FTP Software PC server, HellSoft NLM for Novell.
 * Supported FTP servers

Cello works best with a direct Ethernet connection, but it also supports SLIP and PPP dialup connections through the use of asynchronous sockets. Cello has an integrated TCP/IP runtime stack.
 * Internet Connection

Release history
The following versions were released:

Although Cello 2.0 had been announced, development ceased before a public release.

IBM released a fix for their TCP/IP V2.0 stack so that Cello would work with OS/2 WinOS/2 on 9 February 1994.

Browser comparison table
The following table shows how Cello compared to browsers of its time.

Derivatives

 * The first edition of BURKS, a project to produce non-profit CD-ROMs of resources for students of Computer Science, was based on Cello.
 * InterAp, by California Software Inc, was based on Cello and featured a web browser with Telnet, FTP, and a Visual Basic-compatible scripting language called NetScripts.
 * A version of Lovelace came bundled with Cello.

Technical
While originally Cello required the Distinct Corporation's TCP/IP stack, with the release of Cello Beta Version .8, Cello dropped support for Distinct, and became exclusively Winsock-based.

Originally, although Cello could run on OS/2, OS/2's implementation of Winsock had bugs that prevented Cello from accessing the Internet. The bug, APAR #PN52335, was later fixed allowing Cello to properly work on OS/2.

The user agent for Cello is.

DDE support
Cello featured Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support. OLE support and DDE client support were planned, but never released.

An example of how to invoke Cello from a Microsoft Word macro:

System requirements
Cello has the following system requirements:
 * Processor: 80386(386SX) at 16 MHz or better
 * Operating System: Windows 3.1 / 3.11 / Windows NT 3.5 / OS/2.
 * Ram: 2 MB RAM, 4 MB RAM recommended
 * A TCP/IP connection running Winsock

Criticism
Cello was not very stable and its development halted early.

Cello did not render graphics well and required that the user reload the webpage when resizing the window. Like most browsers at the time, Cello also did not support any web security protocols. It was also said that Cello rendered html "crudely" and pages would appear jaggedly.

Cello also had sub-par performance in accessing the Internet and processing hypermedia documents.

title: Cello (web browser)