Wikipedia:Recent additions 149

Did you know...

 * ...that the range of Nelson's Milksnake (Albino specimen pictured) from Mexico is linked to watercourses and that it was thought to be the same subspecies as the more common Sinaloan Milksnake until 1978?
 * ...that, in 19th and 20th century Romania, Roma people known as Ursari trained brown bears to step on people's backs, as a folk remedy for back pain?
 * ...that according to legend, the Polish Princess Wanda would rather commit suicide than marry a leader of an invading German force?
 * ...that Edwin Lemare was the most highly-paid organ virtuoso of his day?
 * ...that Indian whisky is actually a distilled spirit made mostly from molasses?
 * ...that Glomeris marginata (pictured), a pill millipede, is often confused with the woodlouse Armadillidium, because they both roll themselves up into a ball when disturbed?
 * ...that a Court of Disputed Returns is an independent body that determines disputes about election results in some countries?
 * ...that the world's first birth control clinic was set up in 1930 in the Mandya district of the state of Karnataka, India?
 * ...that Iraqi refugee Wafaa Bilal was shot by more than 60,000 paintballs in a month-long performance art piece in Chicago?
 * ...that the foreman of the jury who acquitted Thomas Hardy of treason during the 1794 Treason Trials in Britain fainted after reading the verdict?
 * ...that Rufous Whistler birds, unlike all other Whistler birds, never forage on the ground but high up in trees or other high places?
 * ...that the Sicilian friar Antonio del Duca lobbied for decades for papal authorization of a more formal veneration of the Seven Archangels?
 * ...that the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (pictured) of Eastern Australia was initially described as a thrush or a flycatcher, though related to neither?
 * ...that the Suwa Shrine survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, although the nearby Urakami Cathedral and surrounding Catholic neighborhoods were completely obliterated?
 * ...that Józef Mianowski, a 19th century Polish academic and personal physician of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, falsified university records to give alibis to Polish insurgents in 1860s?
 * ...that stellar magnetic fields create loops of plasma that arc over the surface of a star?
 * ...that the Mexico tropical cyclone rainfall climatology tells us that one-third of the annual rainfall along the Mexican Riviera, and up to one-half of the annual rainfall within Baja California Sur, is due to tropical cyclones moving up Mexico's west coast?
 * ...that Ba Cut (meaning Short Third), a military commander of the Hoa Hao religious sect in Vietnam, was so named because he cut off his third finger to remind him to fight French colonialism?
 * ...that the Royal Navy ordered the construction of the 'HMS Ledbury (Pennant L90) two days after the outbreak of World War II?
 * ...that the Friends Meeting House (pictured) is the only remaining structure in the ghost town of Benjaminville, Illinois?
 * ...that Mexican singer-actor Antonio Aguilar made over 150 albums and 150 movies in his career?
 * ...that a decline of the population of brook trout in the Straight River in central Minnesota was caused by rising water temperatures, prompting government scrutiny of nearby irrigation operations?
 * ...that Ryszard Bartel's design, the Bartel BM-4, was Poland's first own aircraft built in series?
 * ...that Vlasina Lake in southeastern Serbia is famous for floating islands arising from chunks of peat broken off the shore?
 * ...that political boss John Henry Whallen influenced every election in Louisville, Kentucky from 1885 until his death in 1913?
 * ...that the Empire Gallantry Medal's design was changed twice in its seventeen year existence?
 * ...that areas of the North Fly District in Papua New Guinea's Western Province experience a peak annual rainfall of ten metres?
 * ...that Hancock Manor received wounded men from the Battle of Bunker Hill and entertained both Lafayette and George Washington?
 * ...that the Frieda and Henry J. Neils House (pictured) is Frank Lloyd Wright's only work with marble walls?
 * ...that Key Highway, built to provide better access to the municipal piers in Baltimore in preparation for increased trade through the Panama Canal, is now a truck bypass of the historic Federal Hill neighborhood?
 * ...that the Columbia detatchment of the Royal Engineers built some of the first major roads in British Columbia?
 * ...that the Indian state of Maharashtra has started a project for the location of suitable sites for Jatropha plantations?
 * ...that 173 of the 198 Kwaio arrested during the Malaita massacre were hospitalized for dysentery while awaiting trial in Tulagi, the Solomon Islands?
 * ...that British Labour politician Piara Singh Khabra was the fifth Asian MP, and was the oldest MP sitting in the House of Commons and the only sitting MP to have served in the armed forces during the Second World War at the time of his death?
 * ...the Art Institute of Chicago Building was co-financed by the financiers of the World's Columbian Exposition, which occupied the building for its first six months?
 * ...that the Ordos culture includes some of the easternmost Scythians, who were settled for several centuries in an area about 300 kilometers from modern Beijing in China?
 * ...that the bill of the Magpie Duck (pictured) becomes green as the bird gets older, and its black crown may go completely white?
 * ...that Linus Pauling and Emile Zuckerkandl proposed using protein sequences to estimate the time since genetic divergence, early in the history of molecular evolution research?
 * ...that Irene Jordan of the South Fort George suburb of Prince George, British Columbia had owned a popular brothel that later became the first City Hall of Prince George?
 * ...that "Cherry Pie", the best-known song by the glam metal band Warrant, was a last-minute addition to their 1990 album?
 * ...that the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting was dropped in favor of the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2006, reestablishing a prize not awarded since 1952?
 * ...that the author of the term Third Reich predicted that "Germany might perish because of the Third Reich dream"?
 * ...that the Kodava Hockey Festival held annually in the Kodagu district of the Indian state of Karnataka is one of the largest field hockey tournaments in the world?
 * ...that Iraqi poet Nazik Al-Malaika was the first person to write in free verse in Arabic?
 * ...that Tom Dennison got a mayor elected eight times, instigated a race riot and controlled all sale of liquor, gambling and prostitution during his 30+ year reign as Omaha's political boss?
 * ...that the semi-wooded lawn of the Lampert-Wildflower House (pictured) in Belvidere, Illinois provides habitat for five different species of rare plants?
 * ...that after thirty-five ballots, Republican presidential candidates James G. Blaine and John Sherman withdrew their campaigns to support a dark horse candidate named James Garfield at the 1880 Republican National Convention?
 * ...that Kentucky philanthropist Eli Metcalfe Bruce contributed more than $400,000 of his personal fortune to aiding Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War?
 * ...that Semar, although depicted as a clown in Indonesian wayang shadow puppetry, is said to be the guardian spirit of Java and a god in human form?
 * ...that litigation in the Vice Admiralty Court was frustrated after Justice Jeffery Bent absconded with its seal when he was not re-appointed to the Supreme Court?
 * ...that Canadian musician Richard Bell was a member of Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band and became a member of The Band during the 1990s?
 * ...that Herb Boxer was the first U.S.-born ice hockey player ever drafted by a National Hockey League team?
 * ...that Serranus Clinton Hastings served as chief justice of both the Iowa and California Supreme Courts?
 * ...that O. Rajagopal represented Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, despite living in Kerala?
 * ...that Jeronima de la Asuncion (pictured) was the foundress of the first Catholic monastery in Manila and the Far East?
 * ...that the first online-only correspondence law school started operating in 1998 and graduated its first class in 2002?
 * ...that Major Oscar F. Perdomo downed five Japanese aircraft in a single day and thereby became the United States' last "Ace of a day" of World War II?
 * ...that Gubbi Veeranna's theatre company was the first one in the state of Karnataka, India to employ female artists to portray female characters on the stage?
 * ...that Britartist Tracey Emin's "tent", Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, destroyed in the 2004 Momart warehouse fire, listed 102 names including her grandma and two foetuses?
 * ...that the Polish Coal Trunk-Line, one of the most important rail connections in Poland, was built because post-First World War border changes made old rail lines obsolete?
 * ...that Peter Cochrane and Les Carlyon were the joint inaugural winners of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History?
 * ...that of the more than one million photographic plates made in the studio of Henri Manuel, only five hundred survived World War II?
 * ...that Scotland rugby union player Duncan Macrae won a Military Cross for his actions as part of the 51st Highland Division at Saint-Valery-en-Caux?
 * ...that The Happy Land, a play by W. S. Gilbert and Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, was briefly banned in 1873 for portraying a singing, dancing Prime Minister Gladstone (newspaper illustration pictured)?
 * ...that Challenge 1934 was the fourth and last FAI International Tourist Plane Contest, a major aviation event in pre-war Europe?
 * ...that the United States Supreme Court ruled in Bronston v. United States that statements made under oath which are literally truthful yet misleading cannot be prosecuted as perjury?
 * ...that the "helicopter" damselflies of family Pseudostigmatidae specialize in plucking spiders from their webs?
 * ...that the state of Karnataka, particularly the region belonging to the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, is known as the cradle of banking in India?
 * ...that the Commander-in-Chief's Guard was a unit of the Continental Army that protected George Washington during the American Revolutionary War?
 * ...that Robert Clark made his own alcoholic drink, "Gut Rot 1916", while stranded on Elephant Island in 1916?
 * ...that it may take more than 220 years for eucalyptus trees to form hollows suitable for larger animals?
 * ...that blackface minstrel dancer John Diamond (pictured) won numerous "Ethiopian" dance competitions until he was defeated by a real black man known as Master Juba?
 * ...that the oldest state government building in the US state of Oregon, the 1914 Supreme Court Building in Salem, has a stained glass skylight in the shape of the State seal?
 * ...that nine of the twenty-three Cardinal electors in the 1492 papal conclave&mdash;which elected Rodrigo Borja as Pope Alexander VI &mdash;were nephews of the popes that elevated them?
 * ...that The Jaguar Smile was the first book-length non-fiction work by author Salman Rushdie and was written during a break from the composition of The Satanic Verses?
 * ...that Papyrus 45 may have been one of the earliest manuscripts to collect more than one New Testament genre into a single codex?
 * ...that the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry is the second oldest continuously operating ferry service in the United States?
 * ...that like other bronzewing pigeons, the Common Bronzewing releases a milky substance from its crop to feed its young?
 * ...that Abraham Lincoln's short speech at the Peekskill Freight Depot (pictured) was his only recorded public appearance in Westchester County?
 * ...that Dum Diversas, promulgated by Pope Nicholas V in 1452, authorized Afonso V of Portugal to enslave indefinitely Saracens, pagans, and other "enemies of Christ"?
 * ...that before World War II, the Polish Army prioritized defence planning in case of Soviet attack over a plan against German invasion until the late 1930s?
 * ...that Robert Worth Bingham purchased the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1918 using a bequest from his second wife, to whom he had been married for less than a year before her death?
 * ...that Ben Brocklehurst, one of the last amateur captains in county cricket and later owner and publisher The Cricketer magazine from 1972 to 2003, is the grandfather of cricketer Ben Hutton?
 * ...that the Wall Street Journal tracks median home purchase prices of starter homes as part of its real estate index?
 * ...that Unsung Heroes, a twenty-part North Korean spy film series, cast U.S. Army defectors Charles Jenkins and Joe Dresnok in the role of villains?
 * ...that the Brunel-designed Wharncliffe Viaduct of 1836 (pictured), on the GWR main line in London, is home to a protected colony of bats?
 * ...that Dr. Joseph Rothrock is known as the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania, and is the namesake for Rothrock State Forest?
 * ...that the award ceremony of Turkey's most important film festival, the Golden Orange, is held at the Roman amphitheatre of Aspendos in Antalya?
 * ...that Eric Johnston, president of the MPAA, issued the Waldorf Statement in November, 1947, marking the beginning of the Hollywood blacklist?
 * ...that Frederick Augustus Hely, a justice of the peace and public servant in colonial Australia, was the first man to settle permanently at Narara, Brisbane Water?
 * ...that Jan's Valley, a model settlement built by the Polish state in interwar Poland, was razed barely ten years after its creation by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the Second World War?
 * ...that Mikveh Israel, the first modern Jewish agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel, was founded in 1870 by Charles Netter?