User:Darwinek/DYK

This is a list of my "Did You Know" contributions.


 * ... that Lake Enriquillo is the only saltwater lake in the world inhabited by crocodiles?
 * ...that land under cultivation has grown from under 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) in 1976 to more than eight million acres (32,000 km²) in 1993 thanks to the irrigation in Saudi Arabia?
 * ...that American photographer George W. Ackerman took over 50,000 photographs during a nearly 40-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture?
 * ...that the American photographer Arthur Rothstein is famous mostly for his photographs of Gee's Bend in Alabama, a poor African American tenant community?
 * ...that the Ichkeul Lake in Tunisia is placed on UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites in danger, as the dam construction on the lake’s feeder rivers has produced major changes to the ecological balance of the lake and wetlands?
 * ...that the Great Synagogue in Danzig (pictured), one of the most impressive synagogues of its time, was demolished by the city council of the Free City of Danzig even before the German invasion of Poland began?
 * ...that the Polish community is the only national (or ethnic) minority in the Czech Republic that is linked to a specific geographical area?
 * ...that the Polish writer Gustaw Morcinek survived three Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War?
 * ...that about 1,400 people of Fryštát died in 1623 because of bubonic plague?
 * ...that Třinec Iron and Steel Works produces more than a third of the steel in the Czech Republic?
 * ...that Jablunkov is the easternmost town of the Czech Republic?
 * ...that 141 buildings in Těrlicko were destroyed during the construction of Těrlicko Dam?
 * ...that the annual Gorolski Święto is the largest cultural and folklore festival in the Zaolzie region?
 * ...that Dombrau, a village in the present-day Czech Republic, was in 1901 bought by a member of the Rothschild banking family of Austria?
 * ...that the town of Orlová in the Czech Republic was named for the eagle that, legend has it, caused the premature birth of Kazimierz, son of Duke Mieszko and his wife, Ludmiła, on the spot where the town was founded?
 * ...that the region of Cieszyn Silesia was in 1920 divided by the Spa Conference between Poland and Czechoslovakia and remains divided to date?
 * ...that Przemysław I Noszak, Duke of Cieszyn unsuccessfully tried to negotiate peace between England and France fighting the Hundred Years' War?
 * ...that African-American Lemuel A. Penn, murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on suspicion of being a civil rights activist, was actually a soldier and Bronze Star recipient?
 * ...that Hiram Wesley Evans (pictured), the second Imperial Wizard of the "second" Ku Klux Klan, boasted of having helped re-elect Calvin Coolidge as U.S. President?
 * ...that Georg Beess, the last noble owner of the château (pictured) in Hnojník was expelled to Germany in 1946, although the mayor of Hnojník refused to sign the decree to expel him?
 * ... that the poem Płyniesz Olzo po dolinie, by Polish poet and educator Jan Kubisz, became the unofficial anthem of Cieszyn Silesia?
 * ... that Polish poet Adolf Fierla survived Dachau and Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps?
 * ... that Polish poet Paweł Kubisz was sentenced in 1928 by Czech authorities for 13 months in prison for alleged transport of illegal literature to Slovakia and conspiring against the Czechoslovak Republic?
 * ... that Polish writer Gustaw Przeczek was a member of the Cultural Committee of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia in the 1950s?
 * ... that Polish writer Adam Wawrosz fought in the Polish Army in the Battle of Kock during World War II?
 * ... that Dr. Wacław Olszak, Polish physician and former mayor of Karviná, Czechoslovakia, was murdered by Nazis just ten days after the war started?
 * ... that chaplain Władysław Gurgacz, member of the Polish anti-communist resistance, opposed lethal force, but was nonetheless executed by the Polish communist authorities?
 * ... that Polish publicist and politician Jan Ludwik Popławski was one of the first chief activists and ideologues of the right-wing National Democracy political camp?
 * ... that Czech politician Petr Zenkl, who survived two Nazi concentration camps, was forced to escape to the West after communists took power in Czechoslovakia by coup d'état in 1948?
 * ... that the church (pictured) in the Doly district of Karviná, Czech Republic, still holds masses, despite leaning 6.8° due to extensive coal undermining?
 * ... that Ujazdów Avenue in Warsaw was renamed after Stalin in 1953, but the traditional name was restored three years later?
 * ... that the new building of the Warsaw University Library (pictured) in Warsaw, Poland, was consecrated on 11 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II?
 * ... that the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom in Warsaw, Poland, preserves cells in which Nazis tortured and killed Polish resistance fighters?
 * ... that with over 1.2 million burials, the Bródno Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Warsaw, Poland?
 * ... that Polish minority politician in Czechoslovakia, Augustyn Łukosz, was a deputy in the autonomous Silesian Parliament in Poland before his death at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp?