Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 November 27

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From today's featured article

The Battle of Winterthur (27 May 1799) was fought between French forces under André Masséna and elements of the Austrian army under Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The town of Winterthur lies 18 kilometers (11 mi) northeast of Zürich, in Switzerland. Any army holding the town, at the junction of seven crossroads, controlled access to most of Switzerland and entry points into southern Germany. By mid-May 1799, the Austrians had wrested control of parts of Switzerland from the French. After defeating Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's 25,000-man Army of the Danube at the battles of Ostrach and Stockach, the Austrian army prepared to unite its three main forces on the plains surrounding Zürich. The French Army of Switzerland and the Army of the Danube, now both under the command of Masséna, sought to prevent this merger. The Austrians pushed the French out of the Winterthur highlands and consolidated their forces on the plateau north of Zürich, leading to the French defeat in the First Battle of Zürich a few days later. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

A Polaris missile launch

... that the United States supplied ballistic missiles (example pictured) to Great Britain under the Polaris Sales Agreement?
... that Irene Ovonji-Odida advocated for the East African Community to broaden its scope beyond that of a trade bloc?
... that PS Duchess of Fife received a battle honour for saving 1,633 Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk?
... that Frank P. Gates designed 18 buildings on the campus of the University of Mississippi?
... that the Pragmatic Sanction of 1712, allowing a Habsburg princess to become Queen of Croatia, is evoked in the Constitution of Croatia as a demonstration of Croatian millennial statehood?
... that mezzo-soprano Mechthild Georg, a voice teacher at the Musikhochschule Köln, performed music by C. P. E. Bach at the first Rheingau Musik Festival?
... that the phrase "fit in or fuck off" – an organizational paradigm – has conceptually been appropriated to other contexts?
... that on one day of his 1908 U.S. presidential campaign, William Jennings Bryan gave 30 speeches?

In the news

Rohingya refugee camp at Kutupalong

At least 305 people are killed in a terrorist attack on a mosque in Bir al-Abed, Egypt.
Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeds Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe following a military coup.
The Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs signs an accord with their counterpart in Myanmar to facilitate the return of Rohingya refugees (camp pictured) to Rakhine State.
Former Republika Srpska military leader Ratko Mladić is sentenced to life imprisonment by the ICTY for genocide and war crimes in the Bosnian War.
Scientists describe ʻOumuamua, the first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System.

On this day...

November 27

First Eddystone Lighthouse

1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, one of the most severe storms to strike southern Great Britain, destroyed the first Eddystone Lighthouse (pictured) off Plymouth.
1856 – King-Grand Duke William III unilaterally revised the constitution of Luxembourg, greatly expanding his powers.
1919 – The first fraternity exclusively for collegiate band members, Kappa Kappa Psi, was founded on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
1944 – Between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of ordnance exploded at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot in the largest non-nuclear explosion in the United Kingdom.
2009 – A bomb exploded under a high-speed train travelling between Moscow and Saint Petersburg derailing it, killing 28 passengers and injuring more than 90 others.

Horace (d. 8 BC) · Jacopo Mazzoni (b. 1548) · Georg Forster (b. 1754)

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From today's featured list

Karthi

The 2014 Indian Tamil-language drama film Madras has won 24 awards from 51 nominations. Madras was written and directed by Pa. Ranjith. The film features Karthi (pictured) and Catherine Tresa in the lead roles, with Kalaiyarasan, Riythvika and Rama playing supporting roles. At the 62nd Filmfare Awards South, Madras was nominated in eleven categories, winning Critics Award for Best Actor (Karthi), Best Female Debut (Tresa), Best Supporting Actress (Riythvika) and Best Male Playback Singer (Pradeep Kumar for "Aagayam Theepidicha"). At the 9th Vijay Awards, it received fifteen nominations and won three, Best Supporting Actor, Best Male Playback Singer and a Special Jury Award. Madras received thirteen nominations at the 4th South Indian International Movie Awards ceremony and won six awards, including those for Best Director and Best Male Playback Singer. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A 1960 Opel Olympia Rekord P1 in original condition. An executive car introduced in August 1957 by Opel as a replacement for the previous year's Opel Olympia Rekord, it was larger than its predecessor and sold very well in West Germany. It was replaced in mid-1960 by the Opel Rekord P2.

Photograph: Berthold Werner

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