Wikipedia:Today's featured list/October 24, 2014

Demosthenes Practicing Oratory

Stutterers are people who have a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks during which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was one of the 30% of stutterers who have an associated speech disorder—a lisp in his case—yet led his nation through World War II. Demosthenes (pictured) stuttered and was inarticulate as a youth, yet, through dedicated practice, using methods such as placing pebbles in his mouth, became a great orator of Ancient Greece. King George VI was so embarrassed by his stutter that he hired speech-language pathologist Lionel Logue and greatly improved his public speaking. Country singer Mel Tillis stutters when talking but not when singing. English comedian Rowan Atkinson incorporates his stuttering into his work by using over-articulation to overcome problematic consonants. German actor Dieter Thomas Heck started stuttering after being trapped under a staircase after a bombing raid in World War II. (Full list...)