Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 July 27

Lancaster's childhood home on
Elgin Crescent with a blue plaque

Osbert Lancaster (4 August 1908 – 27 July 1986) was an English cartoonist, architectural historian and stage designer. He became known in the 1930s for his books on architecture, aiming to amuse the general reader while demystifying the subject. Several of the terms he coined as labels for architectural styles such as "Pont Street Dutch" have gained common usage, and his books have continued to be regarded as important works of reference on the subject. In the Daily Express from 1938 to 1981 he drew the "pocket cartoons", a form he introduced to Britain. They featured a cast of regular characters, led by his best-known creation, Maudie Littlehampton, through whom he expressed his views on the fashions, fads and political events of the day. In 1951 he was commissioned to create costumes and scenery for a new ballet, Pineapple Poll. Between then and the early 1970s he designed new productions for the Royal Ballet, Glyndebourne, D'Oyly Carte, the Old Vic and the West End. (Full article...)

Builders Building

• ... that the Builders Building (pictured), originally built to house construction industries, would eventually be home to the Chicago Board of Education and later be renovated into a hotel?
• ... that BTS's Japanese single "Lights" surpassed one million pre-orders in Japan and broke the 24-year-old record of Celine Dion's 1995 single "To Love You More"?
• ... that Priscilla Johnson McMillan is the only individual who personally knew both President John F. Kennedy and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald?
• ... that Lel and Polel are considered divine twins in Slavic mythology?
• ... that many structures in the Shackelford County Courthouse Historic District were built in the 1880s after Albany, Texas, became the terminus of the now-defunct Texas Central Railroad?
• ... that harpsichords built and restored by Claude Mercier-Ythier were played in thousands of concerts and on hundreds of recordings?
• ... that Walter Lord's book The Dawn's Early Light was called "the definitive book about the burning of Washington during the War of 1812" by the Los Angeles Times?
• ... that a peace treaty signed between Venice and the Byzantine Empire in 1277 allowed both parties to fight one another over possession of Negroponte, without violating its terms?

Comet NEOWISE seen from Split, Croatia

• A security breach in the administration system of
  a bitcoin scam
  .
• At least sixteen people are killed in
  border clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani
  armed forces.
• Comet NEOWISE (pictured) is visible to the naked eye
  in the Northern Hemisphere.

July 27: José Celso Barbosa Day in Puerto Rico

Charles Fryatt

• 1689 – First Jacobite rising: Scottish and Irish Jacobites defeated Williamite forces at Killiecrankie, Scotland.
• 1778 – The Battle of Ushant, the first encounter between the French and British fleets in the American Revolutionary War, ended indecisively and led to political disputes in both countries.
• 1916 – First World War: British mariner Charles Fryatt (pictured) was executed in Bruges, Belgium, after a German court-martial found him guilty of being a franc-tireur.
• 1955 – After straying into Bulgarian airspace, El Al Flight 402 was shot down by two MiG-15 fighter jets, resulting in the deaths of all 58 on board.
• 1990 – Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group, began a coup attempt against the government of Trinidad and Tobago by taking hostages, including Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson, before surrendering five days later.