Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 February 22

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From today's featured article

James Russell Lowell (February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He was the first editor of The Atlantic Monthly and was one of the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who wrote poetry suitable for families entertaining at their firesides, with conventional forms and meters. His first collection of poetry was published in 1841. He was involved in the movement to abolish slavery, using poetry to express his anti-slavery views. In 1848 he gained notoriety with the publication of A Fable for Critics, a book-length poem satirizing contemporary critics and poets. The same year, he published The Biglow Papers, in which he tried to emulate the true Yankee accent in the dialogue of his characters. This depiction of the dialect and his satires were an inspiration to writers like Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken. Lowell went on to publish several other poetry and essay collections, and in later years was ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Court of St James's. (Full article...)

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In the news

Damien Chazelle

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.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV-C37 mission launches a record 104 satellites at once.
Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is killed in Malaysia.
La La Land wins in five categories, including Best Film and Best Director (Damien Chazelle, pictured), at the British Academy Film Awards.

On this day...

February 22

Dolly the sheep

1371 – Robert II became King of Scots as the first monarch of the House of Stuart.
1876 – Swedish woman Karolina Olsson went to sleep and purportedly fell into a state of hibernation for the next 32 years.
1921 – After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drove the Chinese out of Mongolia, the Bogd Khan was reinstalled as emperor.
1997 – Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the birth of Dolly (pictured), the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell.
2011 – A 6.5 M_L earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people and causing around NZ$40 billion damage.

Frédéric Chopin (b. 1810) · Felix Frankfurter (d. 1965)

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A Lufthansa Airbus A320-211 taking off at Stuttgart Airport, Germany. The Airbus A320 family, consisting of the A318, A319, A320, and A321, pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems and side-stick controls in commercial aircraft. Since the 1980s, a total of 7,442 Airbus A320-family aircraft have been delivered, of which 7,122 are in service. The largest A320 fleet is that of American Airlines, with 380 aircraft.

Photograph: Julian Herzog

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