Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 February 27

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From today's featured article

Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman (1845–1863) was one of more than one hundred Native Hawaiians and Hawaiian-born combatants who fought in the American Civil War while Hawaii was still an independent kingdom. His father was a merchant from Massachusetts and his mother, Kinoʻoleoliliha, was a Hawaiian noble. He returned to the United States with his father for his education, but ran away from school without his family's knowledge and enlisted in the Union Army as a private. Despite his mixed-race ancestry, he avoided the racial segregation imposed on other Hawaiian recruits of the time and was assigned to a white regiment. He fought in the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign and befriended Robert G. Carter, a memoirist of the Civil War. On the march to Fredericksburg, he was separated from his regiment and captured by Confederate guerrilla forces. He was marched to Richmond and incarcerated in Libby Prison, where he contracted a lung disease from the harsh conditions. He died on February 27, 1863, after his release on parole in a prisoner exchange. His legacy has sparked renewed interest in the role Hawaiians played in the Civil War. (Full article...)

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Moon carrot flowers

... that moon carrot rust, which infects the moon carrot (pictured), was thought extinct in Britain, but was re-discovered in 2009?
... that the anthropologist Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann, who made field trips to villages in Slavonia, Transylvania, and Turkey, met Jews after they were liberated from Theresienstadt?
... that the potentially explosive trifluoroperacetic acid is not commercially available, yet can be quickly prepared in three different ways using hydrogen peroxide?
... that the Blue Castle Project is a proposed nuclear power plant that will increase Utah's electrical generation capacity by 50 percent?
... that the Ciomadul volcano in Romania last erupted less than 50,000 years ago and is still potentially active?
... that Kathleen N. Straus served three consecutive eight-year terms on the Michigan State Board of Education, ending when she was age 93?
... that in Osmanoğlu and Kocabaş v. Switzerland, the court ruled that compulsory mixed-gender swimming lessons in public school do not violate the freedom of religion of Muslim families?
... that the Point Abino Light Tower on Lake Erie derives its name from a Jesuit missionary who lived on the point in a log cabin atop a dune?

In the news

Artist’s impression of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system

Moonlight wins Best Picture, and La La Land wins in six categories, at the Academy Awards.
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
Astronomers announce that the star TRAPPIST-1 hosts seven exoplanets (artist's impression pictured), some orbiting in its habitable zone.
South Sudan and the United Nations declare a famine in parts of the country.
A suicide bombing at a shrine in Sehwan, Pakistan, kills at least 83 people and injures more than 250 others.

On this day...

February 27: Shrove Monday (Western Christianity, 2017); Losar in Bhutan and Tibet (2017); Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia (2017)

Manuel Belgrano

907 – Abaoji, a Khitan chieftain, was enthroned as Emperor Taizu, establishing the Liao dynasty in northern China.
1812 – Manuel Belgrano (pictured) raised the Flag of Argentina, which he designed, in the city of Rosario, during the Argentine War of Independence.
1940 – American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14, which today is used extensively as the basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological and geological samples.
1982 – The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, known for its performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas, gave its last performance.
2002 – A violent riot in Gujarat, India, killed at least 1,000 people (mostly Muslims), possibly having been triggered by a train fire that killed 58 Hindu pilgrims.

Chelsea Clinton (b. 1980) · Ivan Pavlov (d. 1936)

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Billy Crystal

The 69th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 1997, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 1996. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Billy Crystal (pictured) hosted for the fifth time, having last emceed the 65th ceremony held in 1993. The English Patient won nine awards including Best Picture. Other winners included Fargo with two awards including Best Actress for Frances McDormand. The telecast garnered 40 million viewers in the United States. (Full list...)

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Ellen Terry (1847–1928) was an English actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Born into a family of actors, she began performing as a child and toured widely in Britain in her teens. Among other comic and dramatic roles, she gained fame for her portrayals of Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, opposite Henry Irving, both in Britain and America. She later managed the Imperial Theatre in London, lectured, and continued to act until 1922.

Photograph: Julia Margaret Cameron

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