Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 February 15

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From today's featured article

Mark Hanna (1837–1904) was a Republican United States Senator from Ohio and the friend and political manager of President William McKinley. Born in New Lisbon (today Lisbon), Ohio, in 1837, he moved to Cleveland with his family in his teenage years and attended high school with John D. Rockefeller. Hanna made millions as a businessman by his 40th birthday, and turned his attention to politics. Despite Hanna's efforts on his behalf, Ohio Senator John Sherman failed to gain the Republican nomination for president in 1884 and 1888. With Sherman too old to be considered a contender, Hanna used his money and business skills to successfully manage McKinley's presidential campaign in 1896. Declining a Cabinet position, Hanna secured appointment as senator from Ohio after Sherman was made Secretary of State; the Ohio General Assembly re-elected Hanna in 1898 and 1904. He managed McKinley's successful re-election campaign in 1900. Savage cartoons by such illustrators as Homer Davenport lampooned him as McKinley's political master. After McKinley's assassination in 1901, Hanna worked for the building of a canal in Panama, rather than elsewhere in Central America. (Full article...)

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In the news

The genome of a 12,500-year-old Clovis culture infant is sequenced, clarifying the origin of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
At least 76 people are killed when a military plane crashes in Algeria.
In a national referendum, Swiss voters approve re-imposing quotas on immigration from European Union countries.
The earliest human footprints outside Africa are discovered in the United Kingdom.
The Winter Olympics open (ceremony pictured) in Sochi, Russia.

Recent deaths: Sid Caesar – Shirley Temple – Stuart Hall

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On this day...

February 15: National Day in Serbia (1804)

1898 – The United States Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana, Cuba (wreckage pictured), killing more than 260 people and precipitating the Spanish–American War.
1954 – The Canadian and American governments agreed to jointly build the Distant Early Warning Line, a line of radar stations running across the high Arctic.
1989 – The Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had withdrawn from Afghanistan after a nine-year conflict.
1996 – A Long March 3B rocket carrying the communications satellite Intelsat 708 crashed immediately after launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China, destroying a nearby town and killing an unknown number of inhabitants.
2013 – A previously-undetected meteor exploded in mid-air over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with the resulting shock wave injuring more than 1,500 people.

More anniversaries: February 14 – February 15 – February 16

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Today's featured picture

The Crowned Lapwing (Vanellus coronatus) is a bird of the lapwing subfamily found in Africa, coast of the Red Sea to the southern and southwestern parts of the continent. Their diet consists mainly of insects, particularly termites.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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