User:Belovedfreak/DYK


 * ...that Tanaz Eshaghian's film Be Like Others explores the experiences of transsexuals in Iran, a country that outlaws homosexuality but sanctions sex-reassignment surgery?
 * ...that Marzieh Meshkini's 2000 film The Day I Became a Woman depicts three stages in the lives of Iranian women, focusing on a nine year old girl, a married woman, and an elderly widow?
 * ...that Mohamed Camara's 1997 film Dakan was the first West African film to explore homosexuality?
 * ...that jazz drummer Butch Ballard was hired by Duke Ellington as a backup drummer due to the excessive drinking of his regular drummer Sonny Greer?
 * ...that Flora Sandes, who served with the Serbian Army, was the only British woman to officially enrol as a soldier in World War I?
 * ...that Jacqueline Audry was the first commercially successful woman film director of post-war France?
 * ...that 17th century actress Julia Glover was sold in marriage by her father for £1,000?
 * ...that in 1582 Ursula Kemp confessed to using familiar spirits to kill her neighbours and was later hanged for witchcraft?
 * ...that Cheryl Dunye's 1996 film The Watermelon Woman was the first feature film to be directed by a black lesbian?
 * ... that legendary princess Yennenga, the "mother" of the Mossi people, was such a great warrior that her father refused to allow her to marry?
 * ... that Safi Faye is a Senegalese film director whose work is better known in Europe than in her native Africa?
 * ... that in her 1992 documentary film Nitrate Kisses Barbara Hammer filmed an elderly lesbian couple making love as part of an exploration of the repression and marginalization of LGBT history?
 * ... that Safi Faye's 1975 film Kaddu Beykat was the first commercially distributed feature film made by a Sub-Saharan African woman?
 * ... that the supreme god of the southern African Bushmen is Cagn, a trickster who shapeshifts into a praying mantis?
 * ... that prior to colonial times, written literature was virtually absent from Burkina Faso, with the country's first novel not published until 1962?
 * ... that much of modern theatre in Burkina Faso has developed from the need to educate rural people?
 * ... that in Burkina Faso, Bwa people use masks made of leaves to represent their god Dwo in performative rituals?
 * ... that Eliza Flower was a 19th-century English musician and composer with whom a young Robert Browning fell in love?
 * ... that Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland was a political hostess who introduced the dahlia to the United Kingdom in 1804?
 * ... that the Kunjin virus, which can be transmitted by mosquitoes and may cause encephalitis in humans, is named for an Indigenous Australian clan living near where the virus was first isolated?
 * ... that Freeheld is an Academy Award winning documentary by Cynthia Wade that follows a New Jersey detective fighting for the right to pass on her pension to her female domestic partner?
 * ... that Med Hondo is an award-winning Mauritanian film director who dubbed the voice of Donkey in the French language version of Shrek?
 * ... that Isaac Baker Brown was an English surgeon who in 1867 was expelled from the Obstetrical Society of London for performing clitoridectomies without his patients' consent?
 * ... that Sarraounia is an award-winning film that depicts a real-life battle between French Colonial Forces and an African queen?
 * ... that tufo is a Mozambican dance said to have originated when the Islamic prophet Mohammed migrated to Medina?
 * ... that Elsa Barker was an American novelist and poet who published three volumes of messages from a dead man?
 * ... that jazz pianist and vocalist Dena DeRose only considered singing professionally after carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis forced her to give up playing the piano?
 * ... that the parish church of Up Hatherley, England, was built because an elderly widow found it difficult to travel to a neighbouring village to worship?
 * ... that according to A Bright Red Scream, millions of Americans regularly use razors, knives or broken glass to intentionally injure themselves?
 * ... that John Scagliotti's 2003 film Dangerous Living was the first documentary about the experiences of gay and lesbian people in the non-Western world?
 * ... that after inheriting her late husband's tools in 1760, Hester Bateman successfully ran a family silversmithing business for 30 years?
 * ... that Rwandan cuisine includes urwagwa, a local beer made from fermented bananas?
 * ... that Cruel and Unusual is a documentary about transsexual women incarcerated in men's prisons?
 * ... that the popularity of the British Landrace pig is partly responsible for the decline of rarer breeds in the United Kingdom?
 * ... that Black Chicks Talking is a book, film, play and art exhibition that explores issues related to Indigenous Australian women?
 * ... that Evelina Haverfield, a British suffragette who was arrested after hitting a police officer in the mouth, threatened to "bring a revolver" next time?
 * ... that approximately 1 in every 10,000 to 20,000 babies are born with a laryngeal cleft, a gap between the oesophagus and trachea which allows food or fluid to pass into the airway?
 * ... that the timeline of Tanzanian history includes the shortest war in history and the first discovery of a new monkey genus since 1923?
 * ... that Fig Trees, an operatic documentary about AIDS activism, is narrated by a singing albino squirrel?
 * ... that the Tutt Brothers were early 20th century American vaudeville producers who created over 40 revues for black audiences?
 * ... that social reformer Isabella Ford was the first woman to speak at a conference of the Labour Representation Committee (which went on to form the British Labour Party)?
 * ... that Barbara Hammer's Tender Fictions, one of a documentary trilogy on LGBT histories, focuses on the "constructedness" of the self?
 * ... that tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe and the American colonies?
 * ... that photographer and artist Zoe Leonard's 1995 exhibition Strange Fruit (for David) featured discarded fruit skins sewn together and decorated?
 * ... that P. T. Barnum named English showman Tom Norman the "Silver King" because of his gift for putting on a show?
 * ... that English dermatologist Henry Radcliffe Crocker was the first doctor to try to diagnose the condition of the Elephant Man (pictured), suggesting that his condition was related to the nervous system?
 * ... that The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister is a BBC drama film based on the life of a 19th-century lesbian industrialist?
 * ... that Pierre Buyoya became president of Burundi twice, following a military coup d'état in 1987, and another in 1996?
 * ... that "Lord" George Sanger was a 19th century circus proprietor who, at the age of 85, was murdered with a hatchet?
 * ... that the parish churches of Ormskirk, Purton and Wanborough are the only churches in England to have both a western tower and a central spire?
 * ... that St Wilfrid's Church and its rectory in Ribchester, Lancashire, were constructed in the 13th century of sandstone rubble?
 * ... that the autobiography of Renaissance medical practitioner Grace Mildmay is one of the earliest written by an English woman?
 * ... that two women who intended to buy Marsh Mill, Thornton, Lancashire, UK, were killed in an accident when the fantail staging collapsed?
 * ... that Little Marton Mill was built in England in 1838 and restored in 1937 to become a memorial?