Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 February 28

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From today's featured article

Soviet Guards insignia

The 15th Tank Corps of the Soviet Union's Red Army fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 during World War II, participating in the capture of Grodno and the Augustów Forest. The tank corps was re-formed in 1942 under Major General Vasily Koptsov as part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army (Soviet Guards insignia pictured) and saw combat in the Kozelsk Offensive, taking heavy losses in proportion to the territory gained. The corps was transferred to the southern front in the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive during January 1943, where it helped encircle thousands of Axis troops around the river Don. In February 1943, the unit fought in Operation Star, capturing the key city of Kharkov in eastern Ukraine. After the Soviet advance outran its supply lines, the corps was worn down and virtually destroyed by a German counteroffensive in the Third Battle of Kharkov. It was later rebuilt as part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army and fought in Operation Kutuzov. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Russian naval operations off the coast
of Syria

... that Vice-Admiral Viktor Sokolov was thanked by the chief of the Russian general staff for commanding a naval task force during the intervention in Syria (naval operations shown)?
... that Mark Williams won a snooker match at the 2020 World Grand Prix despite suffering from gout?
... that the U.S. government has tried to prevent Omar Lorméndez Pitalúa from accessing the international financial sector?
... that Alte Liebe (Old Love) is a novel about a couple married for 40 years, told by a couple married longer but separated, with chapters written alternately by wife and husband?
... that South Korean businessman Chung Mong-won, an honorary consul of Slovenia, will be inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2020?
... that Los Angeles streetwear fashion brand Advisory Board Crystals has released a collaborative T-shirt with Wikipedia and rapper Lil Wayne?
... that the military of the Sasanian Empire used an uncharacterized device or technique called panjagan to fire a volley of five arrows?
... that John Thomas Baldwin, a botanist at the College of William & Mary, fined a group of students $100 after they cut down one of his specimens for use as a Christmas tree?

In the news

Hosni Mubarak

Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak (pictured) dies at the age of 91.
Thirty-eight people are killed and more than two hundred others are injured in riots in North East Delhi, India, during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein is convicted of two felony sex crimes.
Shootings in Hanau, Germany, leave eleven people dead and five others wounded.

On this day

February 28: Kalevala Day / Finnish Culture Day

Ranavalona III of Madagascar

1874 – In one of the longest cases ever heard in an English court, the claimant in the Tichborne case was convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the missing heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
1897 – Ranavalona III (pictured), the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of Madagascar, was deposed by French military forces.
1904 – The most successful football club in Portugal, S.L. Benfica, was founded in Lisbon as Sport Lisboa.
1963 – Chicago alderman Benjamin F. Lewis was murdered in his office by unknown assailants two days after having been reelected.
1985 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launched a mortar attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary station in Newry, Northern Ireland, killing nine people.

Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway (b. 1261) · Alfred von Schlieffen (b. 1833) · Charles Bassett and Elliot See (d. 1966)

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From today's featured list

Hemant Soren

The chief minister of Jharkhand is the chief executive of the Indian state of Jharkhand. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, the state's governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the Jharkhand government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Six people have served as the state's chief minister since Jharkhand's formation on 15 November 2000. Three of them, including the inaugural officeholder Babulal Marandi, represented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His successor Arjun Munda, also of the BJP, is the longest-serving chief minister; he served for over five years, across three terms. Hemant Soren (pictured) of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is the incumbent. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Youth is the second in a series of allegorical oil-on-canvas paintings by American artist Thomas Cole, entitled The Voyage of Life, which represent man's journey through life. In the painting, an enthusiastic young man takes the tiller of the boat, leaving the angel who previously guided it on the shore. He glides through a serene, verdant landscape, with lofty trees and towering mountains. In the distance, a castle hovers in the sky, a white and shimmering beacon representing the ambitions and dreams of man. This painting, along with the other three in the series, was painted in 1842 and is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting credit: Thomas Cole

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