Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/January

31 January 2006

 * 22:34, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Column of Phocas, erected in 608 to flatter the Eastern Roman Emperor Phocas, was the very last addition made to the Roman Forum?
 * ...that Chuvash dragons of Turkic myth are said to assume human form and to visit men and women at night in order to have sexual intercourse with them?
 * ...that Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan was the "Yankee Doodle" in the George M. Cohan Broadway musical "Little Johnny Jones" and the basis for Ernest Hemingway's short story "My Old Man"?
 * ...that the Hoba meteorite is the largest known meteorite ever found on earth?


 * 11:19, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that in the Vatican's Cortile del Belvedere Bramante created the first monumental formal garden design of the Renaissance?
 * ...that Leif J. Sverdrup was a immigrant from Norway to the United States who became a civil engineer and led the project to build the 17 mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World after completion in 1964?
 * ...that Mikhail Gerasimov used exhumed skulls to reconstruct faces of more than 200 people, including Friedrich Schiller, Ivan the Terrible, and Tamerlane?
 * ...that the rise of ticket prices in the new Covent Garden Theatre led to the so-called Old Price Riots, which lasted for more than two months in 1809?


 * 05:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Lanzón, the main religious figure of the Chavín culture of the ancient Andes, was kept in a dark chamber underneath the main temple of Chavín de Huantar?
 * ...that Thomas Metcalfe served in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly, in both houses of the U.S. Congress, and as Governor of Kentucky?
 * ...that Jacobus de Teramo wrote a dialogue, in which Lucifer takes Jesus Christ to court, for trespassing in the Harrowing of Hell, with Belial as his lawyer?
 * ...that amateur wrestling Olympic gold medalist Robin Reed could pin every member of the 1924 United States Olympic wrestling team, despite being in the second lowest weight class?

30 January 2006

 * 21:55, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Alexander Aircraft Company, which produced Eaglerock biplanes in Colorado, was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world for a brief period between 1928 and 1929?
 * ...that the Tagish Lake meteorite originally came from a part of the asteroid belt which existed when our solar system was being formed?
 * ...that the Russian Field Marshal Ivan Gudovich lost his left eye fighting the Turks in Armenia in 1807?
 * ...that the Coraopolis Bridge, designed by Theodore Cooper, started life as the third Pittsburgh Sixth Street Bridge and the 400 foot truss sections were floated 12 miles downstream to be reused rather than scrapped?


 * 12:20, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Alexander Buturlin, who was in charge of the Russian army when it took Berlin in 1760, was better known for his tall stature and good looks than for military talents?
 * ...that a bristlecone pine tree named Prometheus, the oldest tree and oldest non-clonal organism ever known to exist, was cut down in 1964 by Forest Service personnel for research purposes?
 * ...that Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film director was kidnapped in 1978 under orders from future North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and forced to direct a giant-monster film, Pulgasari?
 * ...that CHIJMES, a historic building complex in Singapore, began life as a Catholic convent in the 1850s and has been gazetted as a national monument?

29 January 2006

 * 22:49, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace accommodates 332 portraits of Russian generals who took part in the Napoleonic Wars?
 * ...that placenta accreta can see the placenta attach itself not only to the muscle of the uterus but also to the bladder or other organs?
 * ...that Alfred Hayes, author of the poem "Joe Hill", was also a novelist and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter whose credits ranged from Italian neorealism to the American TV series Mannix?
 * ...that the former Automobilwerk Eisenach in Thuringia, once part of BMW, was taken over by the Soviet Union in 1945, and resumed production under the BMW logo until 1951 when BMW regained control over its trademark and logo?

27 January 2006

 * 09:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Bateleur is a medium-sized eagle in the bird family Accipitridae found in Africa?
 * ...that Fort Pocahontas in Virginia was constructed by African-American soldiers of the United States Colored Troops in 1864 and was used for on-location filming of the 2005 motion picture The New World?
 * ...that the Zograf Monastery on the Holy Mountain was burnt down by a Catalan pirate raid in 1275?
 * ...that the Visiting Forces Agreement allows U.S. soldiers accused in Filipino crimes to stay under U.S. custody until the trial is over?

26 January 2006

 * 22:18, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Svinesund Bridge crosses the border between Sweden and Norway?
 * ...that the name of the Indo-European thunder god has been reconstructed by etymologists as *?
 * ...that the United States Department of Justice attorney James A. Baker, who has defended Bush administration intelligence policy in Congressional testimony and court cases, is not related to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III?
 * ...that Bridei III's victory in the Battle of Dunnichen led to the expulsion of Northumbrians from southern Pictland?

25 January 2006

 * 23:05, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris accomplished the world's first powered flight in 1856, with a glider that was pulled behind a running horse?
 * ...that the original site of the Heide Museum of Modern Art was an "idyllic refuge of inspiration" for many Australian artists during the 1930s through 1950s?
 * ...that the Battles of Corbridge were important in deciding the fate of the Viking kingdom of York and the Anglo-Saxon earldom of Northumbria?
 * ...that metolazone is a medicine used to treat congestive heart failure and hypertension?


 * 11:34, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi was the most prolific practitioner of Palladian architecture in Saint Petersburg?
 * ...that the Caucasian Shepherd Dog is generally a low activity dog, seemingly lethargic when not working, but extremely agile and convincing when it feels that its family is threatened?
 * ...that the Viking Great Army pillaged and conquered much of England in the late ninth century?
 * ...that, according to tradition, the twisting Solomonic columns of baroque architecture are based on the design of columns taken from Solomon's Temple and brought to Rome by Constantine?

24 January 2006

 * 23:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Nepenthes rajah, the most famous of all pitcher plants, produces traps up to 40 cm in height and has been known to catch prey as large as rats, frogs and lizards?
 * ...that the F-34 tank gun was put into service in the T-34 tank by a conspiracy of its makers, and it was only after enthusiastic tank crews had praised its merits in letters from the front that Stalin gave official permission to start its manufacture?
 * ...that benshi were the people who narrated Japanese silent films until the 1930's?
 * ...that the fourteen nations designated Major non-NATO ally are the only countries outside of NATO to whom the United States government will consider selling depleted uranium anti-tank rounds?


 * 15:19, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the British Parliament first guaranteed diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors in 1709, after Count Andrey Matveyev, a Russian resident in London, had been subjected by British bailiffs to verbal and physical abuse?
 * ...that the Marienberg Abbey in Italy is the highest abbey in Europe at 1,340 meters (4,400 feet), and allegedly suffered from vampire attacks during the Black Death?
 * ...that Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, enacted into law by all fifty states, governs secured transactions in the United States?
 * ...that the Hutsonville Bridge was a self-anchored suspension bridge that was controversially torn down in 1988, at the insistence of the Indiana Department of Transportation, despite the demolition company offering to donate 100,000 USD to preserve it instead?


 * 00:23, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...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 Jeff Hawke, a science fiction comic strip, almost perfectly predicted the date of the first human moon landing more than ten years before?
 * ...that El Gobernador, Central Pacific Railroad's 4-10-0 steam locomotive, had to be shipped from the shops in Sacramento, California in five large subassemblies due to its enormous size?
 * ...that the People's Republic of China attempted to promulgate a second round of orthographical reform in 1977, only to retract it 9 years later amidst mounting opposition and confusion?

23 January 2006

 * 09:20, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that there were only 3 steel dams built in the United States, although at one time steel dams were thought to offer many competitive advantages over other types of dam?
 * ...that the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang was built in 1982 to commemorate the "victory" of Korea over Japan in the WWII?
 * ...that the German films based on the works of Edgar Wallace are generally considered a distinct subgenre of crime film?
 * ...that Durga Khote was famous for her character roles and was the heroine of the first Marathi talkie?

22 January 2006

 * 22:52, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the tower of the Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin is lit in the school colors, orange and white, to signify the academic and athletic triumphs of the University?
 * ...that the Russian academician Aleksey Shakhmatov attempted to reconstruct the earliest Slavonic chronicle, supposedly compiled at the court of Yaroslav the Wise in the mid-11th century?
 * ...that the 17 muscles of the hip work together in complex ways to produce a wide range of movement?
 * ...that Ibrahim Hussein Berro was recently identified as the suicide bomber in the 1994 AMIA Bombing in Buenos Aires?

20 January 2006

 * 17:57, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg, opened in 1785, was the largest shopping mall of the 18th-century Russia and remains one of the oldest continuously existing department stores in the world?
 * ...that Shane Warne Cricket '99, a Playstation cricket game is endorsed by the Australian bowler, Shane Warne?
 * ...that the phrase "Up to eleven", inspired by a scene from the 1984 film This is Spinal Tap, was entered into the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in 2002 with the definition "up to maximum volume"?
 * ...that Nicolas des Escuteaux's novels are regarded as more adventurous than sentimental, and show the influence of the Renaissance Hispano-Portuguese adventure novel?


 * 10:49, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Peter the Great's eldest daughter, Anna Petrovna, died in childbirth aged 20, but all the living Romanovs descend from her?
 * ...that the phrase The King is dead. Long live the King! was first used following the accession of Charles VII in 1422?
 * ...that the Select Vestries Bill is read in the House of Lords at the start of each session of Parliament before a debate on the Queen's Speech, to demonstrate that the House chooses and sets its own business independently of the Crown?
 * ...that Malcolm Perry was the first doctor to attend to President Kennedy and performed a tracheotomy which inadvertently destroyed ballistics evidence key to determining who assassinated the president?


 * 04:07, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Norway applied thrice to join the European Union, but failed to accede all three times?
 * ...that Chuck Muncie was a star running back for The University of California during the 1970s, where he broke six school rushing records that stand to this day?
 * ...that it is alleged that during the Battle of Ramree Island, crocodiles contributed to the near wiping out of a World War II Japanese garrison?
 * ...that in 1912 Arthur Rose Eldred became the first Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and his descendants are still involved in Scouting?

19 January 2006

 * 19:40, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that prehistoric inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay Area fished the bat ray in large numbers, while more recently it is mostly taken by oyster growers who mistakenly believe it feeds on their oysters?
 * ...that psychological offender profiling was used by British police for the first time in capturing John Duffy, the so-called Railway Killer?
 * ...that while they were part of the hit television war sitcom Dad's Army, Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender were also acting in the radio series Parsley Sidings?
 * ...that Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński was a high-ranking commander of the Polish Army, a veteran of World War I, Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Soviet War, and was executed by the Soviets during the Polish Defensive War of 1939?


 * 11:24, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that in his design for Karlskirche in Vienna the architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach aspired to synthesize the main ideas found in the most important sacred structures of past and present?
 * ...that the Virgo Stellar Stream is the proposed name for a stream of stars in the constellation of Virgo which are thought to be the remains of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy that is in the process of merging with the Milky Way?
 * ...that Michael Bates was an Olympic bronze medalist sprinter and a Pro Bowl American football player?
 * ...that the founders of the Communist League in Denmark, had departed from the Left Socialists in 1972 even though they had been in majority in that party?

18 January 2006

 * 22:39, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Dupuy de Lôme was a 19th century French naval architect, who developed the first steam battleship, the first sea-going ironclad warship, and the first large airship in history?
 * ...that in Baroque Rome, when the Austrian-born artist-designer Johann Paul Schor was not collaborating with Bernini, he might be called on to design sculptural architecture to be executed in sugar at a banquet?
 * ...that the Jinricksha Station is Singapore's last reminder of the once ubiquitous rickshaw, which was phased out after World War II?
 * ...that a puddle was blamed for the death of a mediæval merchant who drowned while crossing it, believing it to be only shallow, when it was actually deep enough to engulf him and his horse?


 * 03:09, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Francis Birtles was an Australian adventurer who set many long distance cycling and driving records including becoming the first man to drive a car from England to Australia in 1927?
 * ...that the Bulldozer Exhibition has got its name because the Soviet authorities actually used bulldozers to disperse the spectators and destroy the paintings of the participating Moscow nonconformist artists?
 * ...that Akira Machida is the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan, and that there have been 15 Chief Justices of Japan since 1947?
 * ...that Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club is the Venezuelan soccer club with the most appearances in the Copa Libertadores?

17 January 2006

 * 18:31, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the French Navy's Le Napoléon (1850) was the first steam battleship in history?
 * ...that Hussein Khan Nakhichevanski was the only Muslim to be appointed General-Adjutant of the Emperor of Russia?
 * ...that the 1927 silent film The Scar of Shame is an early example of a "race movie," in which a feature film was made by a black cast exclusively for black audiences?
 * ...that quarterback Bill Kenney is the only player named Mr. Irrelevant (an "award" traditionally given to the last selection of the NFL Draft) to appear in the Pro Bowl?


 * 06:48, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that sculptor Pavel Sokolov designed sphinxes for Egyptian Bridge, griffins for Bank Bridge, and lions for Bridge of Four Lions in Saint Petersburg?
 * ...that the history of Judaism in Japan started in 1861 when approximately fifty Jewish families settled in Yokohama?
 * ...that Kishan Shrikanth, age ten, is in the process of directing a Kannada-language feature film, C/o Footpath, which will almost certainly make him the youngest director ever to release a commercial feature film?
 * ...that John Crocker, a British corps commander in World War II, served as a both a private and a general in the British Army?

16 January 2006

 * 21:57, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the North American Phalanx was a mid-19th century Utopian community in Monmouth County, New Jersey based on the idea of French socialist Charles Fourier?
 * ...that prolific designer Adrian created costumes for over 200 films during his career at MGM?
 * ...that Walther Flemming, a German histologist, discovered mitosis (cell division), chromatin and chromosomes, and that this is considered one of the 100 most important scientific discoveries in history?
 * ...that The Chesterfield Kings, a veteran garage rock band from Rochester, New York, are currently suing their longtime record label over nonpayment of royalties, and are being represented by a lawyer who played keyboards on several of their albums?


 * 12:31, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Anatoly Durov was one of the founding fathers of the Soviet circus?
 * ...that the history of writing began in the 4th millennium BC out of neolithic proto-writing?
 * ...that Chemmeen, a popular Malayalam novel, was made into a colour Cinemascope film, one of the first in Malayalam film industry?
 * ...that the official title of the "Stars on 45 Medley", which names a total of 11 different songs, makes it the longest-titled song ever to make the Billboard charts in the United States?

15 January 2006

 * 22:11, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne was once described as "the best cinema that was ever built or is ever likely to be built"?
 * ...that in 1911 baseball player Ed Konetchy and the St. Louis Cardinals were involved in a train wreck that killed 12 and injured 47, and Konetchy and manager Roger Bresnahan led the rescue effort?
 * ...that the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor is a US$1 billion biotechnology initiative that gets its funding from Michigan's settlement with the tobacco industry?
 * ...that many Russians celebrate the new year twice: once on the January 1 New Year of the Gregorian calendar and again on the Julian calendar Old New Year in mid-January?

13 January 2006

 * 18:04, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Indonesia is the world's fourth largest producer of coffee?
 * ...that although Thomas S. Hamblin preferred ballet and opera, he staged low-brow melodrama, farce, and variety acts at the Bowery Theatre?
 * ...that the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, though not written by Saint Jerome himself, was the most widely-used martyrology during the Middle Ages?
 * ...that Gilles Joye, a Renaissance composer, was known for brawling and frequenting brothels&mdash;but later became a priest?
 * ...that Dawn Steel was the first woman to head a major Hollywood film studio?


 * 09:31, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that at Cirque d'hiver (the "Winter Circus") in Paris, the idea of stylish evening circus performances for fashionable audiences was invented by Louis Dejean?
 * ...that "truthiness," a word made by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report, was selected as the 2005 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society?...that Yaroslav of Halych's repudiation of his wife led to a popular uprising, in the course of which his favorite concubine was burnt alive?
 * ...that alligation is a practical method for solving arithmetic problems related to mixtures?

12 January 2006

 * 22:05, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Frederick Marrable resigned his post as Chief Architect to the Metropolitan Board of Works in London when they offered him a derisory salary raise?
 * ...that hypostatic abstraction is the name given to the process describing how the proposition "X is Y" is transformed to "X has Y-ness"?
 * ...that the city of Barreiras in Bahia, Brazil remained isolated for nearly a decade in the 1960s when the power plant closed?
 * ...that Zhang Mao became the ruler of Former Liang when a magician had his brother (the then-governor) assassinated?


 * 09:56, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Tegernsee Abbey in Bavaria was founded by the nobleman Otkar, supposedly after his son had been killed during a game of chess by the son of King Pippin III with the chessboard?
 * ...the United Nations Angola Verification Mission II was a peacekeeping mission that monitored the 1990 ceasefire and 1991 Bicesse Accords?
 * ...that in the iconic 1955 Richard Avedon photograph, supermodel Dovima posed wearing a Dior evening dress standing with circus elephants?
 * ...that four EU-Russia Common Spaces were articulated during the Moscow EU-Russia summit in May 2005?


 * 00:37, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Count Orlov's Marble Palace, decorated with 32 shades of Russian marbles, currently houses the largest exhibition of Pop Art in Saint Petersburg?
 * ...that Australian sprinter Stanley Rowley is the only Olympic participant to win medals for two countries at the same Olympic Games?
 * ...that Kanyasulkam, written by Gurajada Apparao in 1892, is the first Telugu play dealing with social issues?
 * ...that the Seleucid era was a system of numbering years from the return of Seleucus I Nicator to Babylon in 312 BC?

11 January 2006

 * 11:38, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the French submarine Plongeur, built in 1863, was the first submarine in the world not to use human power for propulsion?
 * ...that L. V. Prasad had the unique distinction of acting in the first talkies in three different Indian languages: Hindi, Telugu and Tamil?
 * ...that the Mount Victoria Tunnel is 623 metres long and was the first New Zealand tunnel to have air conditioning?
 * ...that the Caribbean Club in Key Largo, Florida was built by former millionaire promoter Carl Graham Fisher as "a poor man's retreat" and became famous as a filming site for the 1947 film Key Largo starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall?

10 January 2006

 * 22:36, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Brutus de Villeroi was a French engineer who created the USS Alligator, the U.S. Navy's first submarine, in 1862?
 * ...that the Zagreb mid-air collision over Croatia in 1976 was one of the deadliest mid-air collisions?
 * ...that apart from cellmate George McKnight, U.S. Navy officer George Thomas Coker was the only POW to escape from the "Hanoi Hilton"?
 * ...that only six of the 12 Eurozone member states have not yet issued €2 commemorative coins, and only four have no plans to do so by 2006?


 * 19:38, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that New York City authorities asked the Museum of Sex not to locate itself within 500 feet of a church or school?


 * 08:03, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Khreschatyk is the main street of Ukrainian capital Kiev on which Orange Revolution and other historical events mainly took place?
 * ...that the Ramona Valley in San Diego County California is the country's 162nd American Viticultural Area, and only the third such AVA designated in Southern California by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau?
 * ...that the nature of the female orgasm is a field of research for academics studying female sexuality?
 * ...that the All Sky Automated Survey is a Polish astronomical project based in Chile, controlled remotely from Poland through the Internet, and that it has discovered two comets since 1996 with a tiny budget?

9 January 2006

 * 23:45, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that there are many multi-headed animals in mythology and fiction, but there have also been numerous real animals that had two heads?
 * ...that the fighter pilot Aleksandr Kazakov destroyed 32 German and Austro-Hungarian planes during WWI, while his formal tally of 17 is explained by the fact that only planes crashed in the Russian-held territory were officially counted?
 * ...that the asteroid 7796 Járacimrman, discovered in 1996 on Kleť Observatory and named after the famous fictitious Czech genius Jára Cimrman, proved to be the lost asteroid that had already been observed in 1973 on Brera-Merate Observatory in northern Italy?
 * ...that the Russian singer Alla Bayanova, who celebrated the 80th anniversary of her stage performance back in 2003, recently collaborated with Marc Almond on several duets?


 * 13:34, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Albert Einstein's brain was preserved after his death, and has been used in debates about the correlation between neuroanatomy and genius?
 * ...that botanist Edgar Anderson was a founding member of the Society for the Study of Evolution and an active member of the Religious Society of Friends?
 * ...that Chester Racecourse is the oldest horse racing course in the England, built on the site of a blocked harbour in 1533?
 * ...that after Tony Kiritsis was declared "not guilty by reason of insanity" in 1977, Indiana legislators amended the law to provide for verdicts of "guilty but mentally ill" and "not responsible by reason of insanity"?


 * 06:30, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that a Knox County, Ohio, tradition credits members of the Snowden Family Band with writing the song "Dixie"?
 * ...that Paul Posluszny, a linebacker for Penn State's football team, was recently named college football's best defensive player of the year?
 * ...that Variation and Evolution in Plants is one of the four canonical texts of the modern evolutionary synthesis and that all four texts were compiled following the authors' presentation of the Jesup Lectures at Columbia University?
 * ...that Drayton Hall, built 1738–42, near Charleston, South Carolina, is considered one of the most handsome Neo-Palladian houses in North America?

8 January 2006

 * 21:26, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that Central Fire Station, the oldest existing fire station in Singapore, had only four portable water pumps when it was completed in 1908?
 * ...that Henry Paget, known as "the dancing Marquess", inherited his peerage at the age of 23 and spent so much on clothes, jewelry and parties that he went bankrupt with debts of £544,000 at the age of 28?
 * ...that the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division was a Ukrainian military formation in the German armed forces during the World War II and that it fought against the Red Army in Graz, Austria?
 * ...that Aliwalia is the earliest known carnivorous dinosaur, and was huge for its time?

6 January 2006

 * 05:54, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Pentastomida are parasitic invertebrates commonly known as tongue worms because of their resemblance to vertebrate tongues?
 * ...that Rattlesnake James, the last man to be hanged in California, was convicted of drowning his wife after a failed first attempt to kill her with rattlesnake venom?
 * ...that Robin Williams' A Night at the Met won a Grammy for Best Comedy Performance Single or Album, Spoken or Musical?
 * ...that Richard Butler and his father were 31st and 23rd Premiers of South Australia, respectively?

5 January 2006

 * 14:46, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that a palinode is a type of retraction poem championed by Chaucer?
 * ...that although there are 75 West Indian women who have played one-day international cricket, only 54 of them have represented the West Indies?
 * ...that the same visual hallucinations of geometric patterns, known as form constants, are seen in near-death experiences, synesthesia, and drug-enduced hallucinatory visions?
 * ...that Ampelosaurus was a European dinosaur that bore spikes on its back up to 20 cm long?


 * 05:40, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Marian column on which Our Lady stands on Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome originally supported the vault of the Basilica of Constantine at the Roman Forum and was the only one such column to survive the Basilica's destruction in an earthquake?
 * ...that as part of Fukubukuro, a New Year's custom in Japan, merchants offer bags of merchandise for prices much lower than the normal value of the items inside?
 * ...that the first Australian national sporting team to wear the now traditional green and gold team colours were the Australian cricket team that toured England in 1899?
 * ...that Estela Ruiz claims to have seen and spoken with the Blessed Virgin Mary in South Phoenix, Arizona continually from 1988 to 1998?

4 January 2006

 * 17:38, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that using an orthotropic deck instead of a concrete deck reduced the mass of the Golden Gate Bridge by 11,160 metric tons?
 * ...that Alice Nelson and Sam the Butcher were engaged to be married in the final season of the sitcom The Brady Bunch?
 * ...that Space.com is a space and astronomy news website launched in 1999 by CNN anchor Lou Dobbs?
 * ...that James McClinton was the first African American mayor of Topeka, Kansas, appointed by the city council in December 2003, but that the electorate of the city passed a referendum the following year to strip the office of political power?


 * 10:45, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Chickens War of 1537 was a protest in Kingdom of Poland, and it was named so by the victorious opposition, who claimed that the instigators only succeeded in nearly total consumption of chickens in Lesser Poland?
 * ...that the Miranzai Valley is a fertile mountain valley in the Kohat district of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan?
 * ...that the Cowboy Trail is the longest rails to trails conversion project in the United States?
 * ...that James Sadleir was expelled from the British House of Commons in 1857 after helping his brother take £288,000 from the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank, fled from justice, and ended up murdered in Geneva?


 * 02:00, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the campus of Michigan State University has 676 buildings, with a total of 2.073 million m&sup2; of floor space?
 * ...that Teatro Campesino or "farmworkers theater" began perfoming in 1965 on flat bed trucks in the fields with the United Farm Workers in Delano, California and still puts on performances today?
 * ...that The Squirrels, Seattle-based practitioners of the "Frankenstein method of song arrangement", recorded a "Stars on 45"-style medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz, which was among the 142 7-inch records that British DJ John Peel set aside in a box to grab if his house ever caught fire?
 * ...that a quadrature phase booster is a specialised form of transformer used to control the flow of electric power on electricity transmission networks?

3 January 2006

 * 12:27, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Sky Ride at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress carried 4.5 million fairgoers in "rocket cars" 60 m above ground, before being demolished in 1934?
 * ...that Earl Morrall was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1968, after replacing the injured Johnny Unitas, and led the Colts into Super Bowl III?
 * ...that Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov was renowned for his expertise at artificially inseminating mares?
 * ...that some scientists, in response to the popular idiom dismissing the possibility, have conducted experiments to compare apples and oranges?

2 January 2006

 * 23:00, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
 * ...that the Family Viewing Hour was mandated by the FCC to keep the earliest one hour in U.S. prime-time television "safe" for the entire family?
 * ...that by the time American football player Nat Moore retired in 1986, he had broken almost every receiving record of the Miami Dolphins?
 * ...that Go.com partnered with Goto.com in 2001, even though a judge had ordered Go.com to pay Goto.com $21.5 million earlier for having a similar logo?
 * ...that a dead-rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches?