Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 October 27

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From today's featured article

George Went Hensley (c. 1880–1955) was an American Pentecostal minister. He experienced a religious conversion around 1910 and came to believe that the New Testament commanded all Christians to handle venomous snakes. Although illiterate, he was a licensed minister of the Church of God from 1915 to 1922. He was arrested on moonshine-related charges and sentenced to a term in a workhouse, from which he escaped. He then held revival services in Ohio, and established churches, known as the Church of God with Signs Following, in Tennessee and Kentucky. His services ranged from small meetings in houses to gatherings with hundreds of attendees and media attention. He was arrested for violating laws against snake handling at least twice. He claimed to have survived more than 400 snake bites, but fell ill after being bitten during a service in 1955. He refused medical attention and died the next day. Despite his personal failings—he had conflicts with his family because of his drunkenness, frequent travels, and lack of steady income—Hensley convinced many residents of rural Appalachia that snake handling was commanded by God, and his followers continued the practice after his death. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that there are fifteen runestones in or near Skånela Church (pictured), Sweden?
... that photographer Cecilia Glaisher compiled an illustrated book of ferns during the Victorian fern craze?
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... that YouTube personality Daym Drops became a host on the Travel Channel after posting a YouTube video of himself eating a hamburger from Five Guys?
... that the first owner of the Silas Ferrell House owned two businesses and helped to operate a third?
... that the diary of Christian missionary Elizabeth Barrows Ussher is said to have described "unspeakable cruelty"?
... that lawyer Allen Grubman, seeking his first job, told his interviewer: "I really want to work for you, but I don't come from a very wealthy family, so I can't afford to pay you very much to hire me"?

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In the news

In Formula One, Sebastian Vettel (pictured) wins the Drivers' Championship for the fourth consecutive year.
Astronomers confirm z8_GND_5296, the most distant galaxy ever found, is 30 billion light-years from Earth.
Record levels of smog close schools, highways and the airport in Harbin, China.
Chad, Nigeria, Chile, Lithuania, and Saudi Arabia are elected to the United Nations Security Council, but Saudi Arabia declines its seat.
Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on board.

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On this day...

October 27

1682 – William Penn landed at New Castle, Delaware Colony, on his way to founding the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1838 – Governor of Missouri Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, ordering all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.
1907 – Hungarian gendarmes fired into a crowd of people gathering for the consecration of the local church in Csernova (now Ružomberok, Slovakia), killing fifteen people.
1958 – General Ayub Khan deposed Iskander Mirza in a bloodless coup d'état to become the second President of Pakistan, less than three weeks after Mirza had appointed him the enforcer of martial law.
1981 – Cold War: Soviet Whiskey-class submarine U 137 ran aground near Sweden's Karlskrona naval base (monument pictured), sparking an international incident termed "Whiskey on the rocks".

More anniversaries: October 26 – October 27 – October 28

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Today's featured picture

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is a Masonic building and memorial located in Alexandria, Virginia. Dedicated to George Washington, the first President of the United States and a Mason, the memorial was completed in 1932. Designed by Harvey Wiley Corbett, it is 333 ft (101 m) tall.

Photo: Joe Ravi

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