Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 February 27

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Kenneth Horne (1907–1969) was an English comedian and businessman. His burgeoning career with the Triplex Safety Glass company was interrupted by wartime service with the Royal Air Force. While serving in a barrage balloon unit and broadcasting as a quizmaster on the BBC radio show Ack-Ack, Beer-Beer, he met the entertainer Richard Murdoch, with whom he wrote and starred in the comedy series Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (1944–51). After demobilisation Horne returned to his flourishing business career, keeping his broadcasting as a sideline. He later became the chairman and managing director of toy manufacturers Chad Valley. In 1958 Horne suffered a stroke and gave up his business dealings to focus on his entertainment work. He was the anchor figure in Beyond Our Ken (1958–64). When the programme came to an end, he recorded four series of the comedy Round the Horne (1965–68). Before a planned fifth series, Horne died of a heart attack. A 2002 BBC radio survey to find listeners' favourite British comedian placed Horne third, behind Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Operation Hardboiled – "The Unnatural" (The X-Files) – Oryzomys

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the Westinghouse Atom Smasher (pictured), a 65-foot (20 m) Van de Graaff generator built near Pittsburgh in 1937, was instrumental in the development of practical applications of nuclear science for energy production?
• ... that Col. Frederick Henry Rich investigated over 250 railway accidents—​including Staplehurst, in the aftermath of which Charles Dickens tended the injured?
• ... that Charlie Hebdo issue No. 1178 had the highest print run in the history of the French press?
• ... that according to the Adhyatma Upanishad an intelligent person avoiding truth gets into an illusory state, in the same way as a reed pulled out does not remain straight?
• ... that Teddy Schwarzman beat out thirty other film producers to acquire the screenplay for The Imitation Game?
• ... that twenty runners from a single town will be participating in the 2015 Boston Marathon?
• ... that French Nazi-collaborator and art dealer Achille Boitel sold Woman with a Carnation by Lucas Cranach the Elder to Hermann Göring?
• ... that a national cricket fighting tournament is held annually on Chongming Island?

• British soldier Joshua Leakey (pictured) is awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the war in Afghanistan.
• A gunman kills eight people and commits suicide in the Czech town of Uherský Brod.
• Birdman wins four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, at the Academy Awards.
• In stock car racing, Joey Logano wins NASCAR's Daytona 500.
• Prokopis Pavlopoulos is elected President of Greece.
• Limpet teeth are found to have the highest tensile strength among biomaterials, outperforming spider silk.

Ongoing:

Boko Haram – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine

Recent deaths:

Clark Terry – Daniel Topolski – D. Ramanaidu

February 27: Independence Day in the Dominican Republic (1844)

• 380 – Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire as a result of the Edict of Thessalonica.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: A Patriot victory in the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge resulted in the capture or arrest of 850 Loyalists over the following days.
• 1900 – FC Bayern Munich, Germany's most successful football club, was founded by eleven players led by Franz John.
• 1933 – The Reichstag building in Berlin, the assembly location of the German Parliament, was set on fire (pictured), a pivotal event in the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany.
• 2002 – A violent riot in Gujarat, India, where at least 1,000 people (mostly Muslims) were killed, was triggered by a train fire.

More anniversaries: February 26 – February 27 – February 28

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Loren Pankratz is an American psychologist who has testified across the United States on multiple cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, often defending mothers falsely accused of harming their children. He has also written on a variety of subjects, including the paranormal, magic, and phenomena such as dancing manias and moral panics.

Photograph: Susan Gerbic