Today in History - February 27 | Ex-leader's widow dies hours after eating birthday cake sent by dictator
The widow of former Russian leader Vladimir Lenin died on February 27, 1939, the day after her birthday.
Nadezhda Krupskaya had eaten a slice of birthday cake sent to her by her husband's successor Joseph Stalin before she fell seriously ill hours later.
The official cause of death was listed as peritonitis.
But Stalin's secretary Alexander Poskrebyshev later claimed the leader had ordered her murder.
At this point in the Soviet Union, critics of Stalin were frequently murdered by the regime.
But sceptics noted other party guests had eaten the cake and were unaffected.
It has also been theorised that her coffee was poisoned.
Krupskaya and Stalin had a long-running animosity.
After Lenin's death, she wanted him to be buried.
Instead his body was embalmed and put on display in Moscow, where it remains to this day.
The daughter of an upper class but impoverished Russian nobleman, Krupskaya had decried the class system and become a Marxist as a student.
It was her politics that led her into a relationship with Lenin.
As an active member of the Communist party, Krupskaya had dedicated her life to education, especially the expansion of public libraries.
Krupskaya had used her status as the widow of the founder of the USSR to publicly criticise Stalin, something few Russians were brave enough to do.
Stalin was so irritated by Krupskaya that he considered finding another woman to serve as "Lenin's widow".
ABBA arrived in Australia for their first tour on February 27, 1977.
ABBA had become the most popular group among Australians since The Beatles, and more than 160,000 concertgoers watched them perform on the tour.
In this photo, hundreds of ABBA fans pack Sydney Airport.
But exhausted from jetlag, the Swedish group did not appear in public upon arrival.
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