Wikipedia:Recent additions 147

Did you know...

 * ...that the Bede BD-4 (pictured) was the first homebuilt aircraft to be offered in kit form?
 * ...that Omar Hayssam, a Syrian-born Romanian financier, was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison after a court found him guilty of masterminding the kidnap of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005?
 * ...that the extinct marine reptile Kaganaias is the only ancient aquatic scaled reptile to be found in Asia?
 * ...that the burning of the Torah by Apostomus is noted in the Mishnah as one of five catastrophes to affect the Jews on the seventeenth of Tammuz?
 * ...that Smoky Bay in South Australia was named so after the discoverer noticed large plumes of smoke from fires lit by the area's aboriginal people?
 * ...that almost 1 in 10 of the inhabitants of Pingelap (pictured), a Micronesian atoll, have complete achromatopsia, a rare form of colourblindness which normally only affects 1 in 33,000?
 * ...that Alexander Brodie Spark, influential merchant, magistrate, investor and exporter in Australia during the 19th century, entertained in excess of 800 different guests in his home solely in 1839?
 * ...that John Sebastian Helmcken opposed British Columbia joining Canadian Confederation—until he negotiated the terms himself?
 * ...that Kuh Ledesma was the first Philippine singer to become a recipient of the Salem Music Awards in London in March 1989?
 * ...that the yet unnamed EADS Astrium Space Tourism Project is the first suborbital space tourism project by a major aerospace consortium?
 * ...that Muristan, a complex in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was the location of the first hospital of the Knights of St. John?
 * ...that William Hogarth's 1748 painting The Gate of Calais (pictured) features Hogarth himself about to be arrested as a spy for sketching the gate?
 * ...that Gigantoraptor, a bird-like dinosaur discovered in Inner Mongolia, is thirty-five times larger than its peacock-sized relative, Caudipteryx?
 * ...that Vijaya Dasa, an 18th century Hindu saint from the Karnataka Haridasa tradition, composed about 25,000 devotional songs in the Kannada language?
 * ...that Johann Christoph Altnickol, Johann Christian Kittel, and Johann Caspar Vogler were all students of Johann Sebastian Bach?
 * ...that Vittorio Ambrosio was an Italian general who served an instrumental role in the fall of Mussolini and the eventual Italian renunciation of its alliance with Germany?
 * ...that destructive creativity, a psychological theory, was used by Nazi Germany, and in the Enron and Watergate scandals?
 * ...that Ghum is the highest railway station in India at 2,225 m (7,407 ft)?
 * ...that the Oscar B. Balch House (pictured) was the first building Frank Lloyd Wright designed after returning from an extended trip to Europe with a client's wife?
 * ...that Narayana Hrudayalaya, located in Bangalore, India and one of the largest pediatric heart hospitals in the world, offers a telemedicine service for free?
 * ...that the war elephant army of Basalawarmi, a Yuan Dynasty loyalist and the Prince of Liang, was, according to myth, defeated by ten thousand mice?
 * ...that Mogollon, New Mexico had a reputation as one of the wildest mining towns in the American West?
 * ...that it is believed that Elizabeth I granted a temporary reprieve to the Catholic priest Richard Simpson to forestall invasion by Philip II of Spain?
 * ...that the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment led to the enactment of mandatory arrests, without warrants, when responding police had probable cause that domestic violence had occurred?
 * ...that the antiquarian Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti refused to cede his pair of Hellenistic centaurs (pictured) to Pope Benedict XIV even after being offered a position as a cardinal in return?
 * ...that the Viagens Interplanetarias series of science fiction stories by L. Sprague de Camp was influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian novels?
 * ...that Fort Victoria was established as a Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading post, and eventually grew into the modern capital city of British Columbia?
 * ...that one British bank, as an incentive for university students to open a new account with it, offers free Young Persons Railcards, valid for five years and worth £100?
 * ...that, in Scientology beliefs and practices, Knowledge, Responsibility and Control form the main ingredients of "cause" or effectiveness in life?
 * ...that the tornado that struck Moscow on June 29, 1904 was the first ever recorded in Central Russia?
 * ...that mobbing behavior is seen in species as diverse as the Great Tit (pictured) and California Ground Squirrel?
 * ...that Judith Quiney, one of William Shakespeare's daughters, was illiterate?
 * ...that newspaper editor George D. Prentice expressed regret later in life for fiery anti-Catholic editorials that played a role in the Bloody Monday riot of 1855?
 * ...that Jack Hides led what Lieutenant-Governor Hubert Murray described as "the most difficult and dangerous" patrol ever carried out in Papua?
 * ...that Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna  left her unfaithful husband and became a nun?
 * ...that Sophia Collier used profits from her autobiography Soul Rush, which she wrote at age nineteen, to develop her own soft drink company?
 * ...that Tom Wolfe's The Pump House Gang was published on the same day as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and both went on to become best-sellers?
 * ...that the William H. Copeland House (pictured) was one of three remodeling projects undertaken by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park between 1906 and 1909?
 * ...that Mark Taylor is the only batsman in Test cricket to have made centuries on his debut against four different opponents?
 * ...that over 9,000 animals were killed during the inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre?
 * ...that the USS Grebe survived both World War I and the attack on Pearl Harbor, only to be destroyed by a hurricane in 1943?
 * ...that Swedes have lived in Estonia for more than 700 years, although only a small number are permanently resident there today?
 * ...that New Mexico State Road 6563 takes its number from the wavelength (6563 Å) used by scientists to locate areas of interest on the Sun?
 * ...that despite shortages of money during the construction of the Deerwood Auditorium in Minnesota, the building was substantially completed in time for its first event, a lutefisk supper?
 * ...that Georgia Tech's Brittain Dining Hall (pictured) was designed by its School of Architecture and paid for in part by its Athletic Association?
 * ...that the yacht Fri spearheaded an international protest of a flotilla of yachts in a voyage against atmospheric nuclear tests at Moruroa in French Polynesia in 1973?
 * ...that the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang attempted to stifle the work of Catholic missionaries by appointing them as mandarins in the royal court, claiming a lack of translators?
 * ...that Frederick Rotimi Williams was the first Nigerian to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria?
 * ...that the Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry was one of six train ferries that commenced operations across the Rhine in Germany in the late 19th century?
 * ...that despite having its faculty decimated by Operation Sonderaktion Krakau, the Agricultural University of Kraków continued to hold secret agronomy courses during World War II?
 * ...that the Mosque of Bodrum (pictured) in Istanbul represents the first example of a private burial church of a Byzantine Emperor?
 * ...that one of the most successful weapons of the American Civil War was designed by one of the war's most incompetent generals?
 * ...that Peter of Atroa was accused of exorcising demons by the power of Beelzebub, not the power of Christ?
 * ...that during World War II, Pietro Cardinal Boetto protested against the shelling of Genoa by British warships, and that Time said that this assured "the divine triumph of Italy"?
 * ...that 12th-century Muslim scientist Al-Khazini, who proposed a theory of gravitation long before Isaac Newton, was, in his early life, a slave of the Seljuq Turks?
 * ...that Bob Simpson made a comeback from ten years in international retirement to lead the Indian cricket team at the age of 42 when it was decimated by defections to World Series Cricket?
 * ...that members of the catfish genus Auchenipterichthys are capable of producing sound?
 * ...that Louisville, Kentucky's first parking garage was built in 1953, as an addition to the 1913 Starks Building (pictured)?
 * ...that Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull promulgated by Innocent VIII in 1484, was re-published as the preface to Malleus Maleficarum?
 * ...that Nicolas Chédeville arranged Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons for hurdy gurdy or musette, flute, and violin to amuse French aristocrats who liked to pretend to be peasants?
 * ...that a Romantic poem by Alexandru Hrisoverghi is credited with having inspired historic preservation in Moldavia?
 * ...that the village which later became Chickasaw, Alabama was started as a company town by a local shipyard?
 * ...that the Iran-Pakistan barrier is currently being constructed by Iran along its border with Pakistan to stop illegal migration and thwart terror attacks?
 * ...that Petrus Marcellinus Felix Liberius served in high public office for almost 60 years and led the Roman conquest of southern Spain at the age of 85?
 * ...that Wilco's 2007 album Sky Blue Sky was named after an encounter that singer Jeff Tweedy had with a Memorial Day parade?
 * ...that the Jaffa Road (pictured) in Jerusalem is one of the oldest and longest streets in the city?
 * ...that "Salvem el món" was the first punk song performed in the Eurovision Song Contest?
 * ...that although Pope Gregory XVI condemned railroads as "the road to hell," Vatican City includes the world's shortest national railway system?
 * ...that Olivia Newton-John made at least 16 appearances on The Go!! Show, an Australian popular music television series which aired between 1964 to 1967, before she found international success?
 * ...that Ain-Ervin Mere, commander of the Estonian Sicherheitspolizei, was sentenced to death in 1961 for organizing the holocaust in Estonia, but died as a free man in England?
 * ...that actor Powers Boothe won a 1980 Emmy Award for his portrayal of Jim Jones in the film Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones ?
 * ...that the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Mamilla (pictured) was under construction for 37 years, even though it is only 0.1 square kilometres large?
 * ...that for the jazz album The Meeting, Joseph Jarman returned to the Art Ensemble of Chicago after leaving in 1993 to open a Buddhist dojo in Brooklyn, New York?
 * ...that Abraham of Farshut founded a new Monophysite monastery at Farshut after the monks of his old monastery at Pbow almost all accepted the decision of the Council of Chalcedon?
 * ...that the Ghana Navy was established under British Royal Navy command and headed by D. A. Foreman, a retired British officer commissioned as a Ghana naval officer with the rank of Commodore?
 * ...that in 2003, Kimberly Casiano became the first Hispanic woman to serve on the board of one of the Fortune 1000 top five companies when she was appointed to the board of Ford Motor Company?
 * ...that Augusto Genina's Lo squadrone bianco (1936), released during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, lionized the Italian colonization of Libya?
 * ...that Bagrichthys macracanthus, the black lancer, is the only species of Bagrichthys, a genus of catfishes, that is traded in the aquarium hobby?
 * ...that, in a quest for realism, Théodore Géricault sketched bodies in the morgue before producing the Raft of the Medusa (pictured)?
 * ...that the 2005 movie The Interpreter by film director Sydney Pollack was based on real-life conference interpreters from the United Nations Interpretation Service?
 * ...that the George Furbeck House represents the beginning of a three year period of experimentation by Frank Lloyd Wright which resulted in the first Prairie houses?
 * ...that Emil Rieve was elected president of his local union when he was only 22 years old, and president of the Textile Workers Union of America when he was 46?
 * ...that, partly as a result of the Estonian national awakening, the Estonians had the second highest literacy rate in the Russian Empire?
 * ...that Archaeopotamus is the oldest well-identified genus of hippos, having lived 7.5 million to 1.8 million years ago?
 * ...that Australian pop singer Lynne Randell was the first Australian recording artist to shoot a colour music video for her 1967 hit "Ciao Baby"?