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Today's featured article

SMS Lothringen was the last of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class built for the Imperial German Navy. Launched in May 1904, she was named for the then-German province of Lothringen. The ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). She was to be replaced in July 1914 by dreadnought battleships but World War I prevented her retirement. The ship and the rest of II Squadron joined the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet to support a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby in December 1914. She primarily served as a guard ship in the German Bight; in poor condition by 1916, she was withdrawn from fleet service in February. She thereafter patrolled the Danish straits until replaced by the battleship Hannover in September 1917. After the war, she was converted into a depot ship for F-type minesweepers and placed in reserve in March 1920. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Germany.)

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Did you know?

Central Synagogue

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... that the Egyptian-Sudanese singer Nxdia took the "queer anthem" "She Likes a Boy" into the UK Singles Sales Chart?
... that there is a dispute within the Indian communist movement on whether the Communist Party of India was founded in Tashkent in 1920 or Kanpur in 1925?
... that John Gould Stephenson fought at the Battle of Gettysburg while serving as the librarian of Congress?
... that the Swiss Party of Labour expelled its branch in Basel in 1988 after tensions over an occupation movement in the city?
... that between 2006 and 2007, Stacy Hollowell worked for basketball teams in Qatar, China, Bahrain and Lithuania?
... that on June 30, 1973, scientists set the record for the longest observation of a total solar eclipse, at 74 minutes of totality?
... that suffragette Ellen Oliver recognised "daughter of God" Mabel Barltrop as the spiritual child of prophet Joanna Southcott?
... that a ring-tailed monkey named Jenny threw billiard balls down a flight of stairs to alert firefighters to a fire in their own building?

On this day...

May 27: Memorial Day in the United States

Manchu Prince Dorgon

1644 – Manchu regent Dorgon (depicted) defeated rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing.
1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeated the French Army of the Danube, capturing the strategically important Swiss town of Winterthur.
1954 – The security clearance of American nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of Project Y, was revoked.
1967 – Australians voted overwhelmingly for the number of Indigenous Australians to be included in population counts for constitutional purposes and for the federal government to make laws for their benefit.

Diego Ramírez de Arellano (d. 1624)
Julia Ward Howe (b. 1819)
Cilla Black (b. 1943)
Gérard Jean-Juste (d. 2009)

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