Wikipedia:Recent additions 153

Did you know...

 * ...that the administrative capital of Samarai (pictured) in Papua New Guinea was demolished in World War II to avoid its falling into Japanese hands?
 * ...that the Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America?
 * ...that Rabanus Maurus's attribution of the Liber Pontificalis to Saint Jerome was the prevailing view throughout the Middle Ages?
 * ...that no piece of goldwork embroidery has ever actually used pure gold?
 * ...that the racially charged Escambia High School riots, which reached a climax in 1976, continued in various forms for five years?
 * ...that despite being dissolved as a kibbutz in the 1980s, Ir Ovot continues to host Christian volunteers working on its Solomonic/First Temple period archaeologic site?
 * ...that the musical piece composed by Will Schaefer for the United States Bicentennial earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination?
 * ...that Observatory Hill, Darjeeling, the site of Darjeeling's oldest Buddhist monastery is now home to a Hindu temple?
 * ...that as the Northern Division headquarters for the Illinois Central Railroad the Amboy Depot (pictured) had authority over 53 train stations?
 * ...that Lee Choon Seng, a Singaporean philanthropist built a Buddhist temple with the intention of liberating the spirits of those killed during the 1942 Battle of Pasir Panjang?
 * ...that the 1922 Swatow Typhoon killed 50,000 people in Swatow (now Shantou, China), out of a total population of 65,000?
 * ...that in three years during World War II, the U.S. Army prisoner of war camp called Camp Atlanta had more occupants than the nearby town of Atlanta, Nebraska has had in its entire existence?
 * ...that auto racing icon Dan Gurney tricked competitors into installing his Gurney flap upside down?
 * ...that voice exchange, the preeminent compositional technique of the medieval Notre Dame school, died out in art music but remains a characteristic feature of rounds?
 * ...as many ballots were cast in four days electing Chris Young (pictured) and Hideki Okajima in the All-Star Final Vote as in ten weeks electing the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game starting lineup?
 * ...that although no fossils of the extinct Malagasy Hippopotamus have been dated within the last 1,000 years, villagers in Madagascar described a similar creature still alive as recently as 1976?
 * ...that the SS Suevic of the White Star Line ran into rocks off the coast of England while steaming at full speed in dense fog at night in 1907 but everyone on board survived?
 * ...that more than 13.5 tonnes of gold was extracted in 13 months at Poverty Reef, near the Australian town of Tarnagulla, Victoria from an area only 3 metres wide and 120 metres deep?
 * ...that before he became Pope Urban IV, Jacques Pantaléon mediated the Treaty of Christburg between the pagan Prussians and the Teutonic Knights?
 * ...that Dungeons & Dragons, an album by Midnight Syndicate, is the only official soundtrack to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game?
 * ...that although Paul MacGillivray's main interest was natural history, he was also the president of the Medical Society of Victoria and a member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria?
 * ...that the American merchant Stephen Sayre (pictured) was committed to the Tower of London on charges of plotting to kidnap King George III?
 * ...that Miss Pittsburgh was the first plane to deliver airmail between Pittsburgh and Cleveland?
 * ...that the Blue-faced Honeyeater of eastern and northern Australia is also known as the "Bananabird" for its fondness for that fruit?
 * ...that cross stitches are part of the embroidery traditions of the Balkans, Middle East, Afghanistan, Colonial America and Victorian England?
 * ...that the 1646 Union of Uzhhorod was brokered by the Basilian monastic order on the model of the earlier Union of Brest?
 * ...that the television drama Hill Street Blues imitated the visual style of The Police Tapes, a low-budget documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx?
 * ...that Rob Mazurek's avant-garde Chicago Underground projects began as a workshop at local jazz club The Green Mill?
 * ...that Darjeeling's Rock Garden (pictured) was built to re-attract tourists following the damage to the industry caused by the actions of the Gorkha National Liberation Front?
 * ...that, during the Basque witch trials, 1,384 children voluntarily reported themselves and denounced their "accomplices"?
 * ...that the versorium, the world's first electrical device, was invented in 1600 by one of Queen Elizabeth I's physicians?
 * ...that the smallest papal election since the expansion of suffrage to all cardinals was undertaken by only six cardinal electors?
 * ...that many Japanese POWs continued to toil in Siberian labor camps ten years after the end of World War II?
 * ...that St. Stephen's is the last remaining Bulfinch-designed church in Boston?
 * ... that the transition from Renaissance to Baroque in instrumental music occurred partly as a result of deliberate actions taken by the Florentine Camerata?
 * ...that Abraham Klausner was the first rabbi at the Dachau concentration camp?
 * ...that Y. G. Parameshwara was the first blind Indian to qualify as a doctor?
 * ...that Fumio Kyuma (pictured) resigned as Japanese Minister for Defense over statements that the atomic bombing of Nagasaki "could not be helped" while also representing Nagasaki in the Diet of Japan?
 * ...that the town of Santikhiri in northern Thailand has been home to a "lost division" of the Republic of China Army since 1961?
 * ...that the church of St John the Divine, Kennington suffered severe bomb damage in 1941 during World War II but was restored and re-opened in 1959?
 * ...that although Lloyd Hunter played trumpet and led a big band for 38 years, he only recorded once, for the race record label Vocalion?
 * ...that airman Timothy Tovell smuggled a French orphan adopted by his squadron as a mascot back to Australia in an empty sack of oats?
 * ...that the fifteenth and sixteenth-century Hochstetter family were for a time on a par with the Fugger and the Welser controlling metal ores in Bohemia, Slovakia, Hungary and Tyrol?
 * ...that the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic is the largest African American parade in the United States?
 * ...that Luxembourg City Hall (pictured) was constructed while all of Luxembourg outside the capital was controlled by rebel forces?
 * ...that Estonia joined World War II in 1940, when the Soviet Union blockaded the country, a Finnish airliner was shot down and three diplomatic couriers were killed?
 * ...that though students and educators agree on the importance of student engagement in learning, there is little consensus on a working definition?
 * ...that the short film 5 Men and a Limo showcases the world's five most prolific English language film trailer voiceover artists narrating a shared limousine ride?
 * ...that a portion of Connecticut Route 108 was part of an early highway system in the town of Stratford, Connecticut?
 * ...that Halsey Ives was involved in six world's fairs, directed the art departments of two of them, and was the first director of the Saint Louis Art Museum?
 * ...that couching, an embroidery technique in which yarn is laid on top of fabric and held in place with small stitches, is featured in the Bayeux tapestry (pictured) and on Central Asian suzani rugs?
 * ...that Claude Pompidou was responsible for choosing much of the art for the Centre Georges Pompidou named after her husband?
 * ...that Dr. Vibhuti Narayan Singh was the last king of the ancient city Benares?
 * ...that Angola gained its independence through the Alvor Agreement, which also marked the transition from the war of independence to civil war?
 * ...that the first Pūnana leo (Hawaiian: "nest of voices"; often translated as "language nest") family-run   Hawaiian language preschool was the first indigenous language immersion preschool in the United States, and was initially opened illegally?
 * ...that the Luxtorpeda, looking more like a cross between a rail bus and a limousine than a train, was the fastest and most luxurious train in interbellum Poland?
 * ...that Salazar's associate Fernando Santos Costa was appointed Deputy Minister of War when he held the junior rank of captain in the Portuguese army?
 * ...that students at Iowa State University are traditionally not considered "true Iowa Staters" until after they have been kissed underneath the Campanile (pictured) at the stroke of midnight?
 * ...that 4th century martyr Emygdius is said to have carried his own severed head away after being decapitated?
 * ...that former professional boxer Giichi Nishihara was the writer-director of such Japanese cult pink films of the 1960s and 1970s as Abnormal Reaction: Ecstasy and Grotesque Perverted Slaughter?
 * ...that Birtles Shorrock Goble, the founders and original singers/songwriters of Little River Band, are legally prevented from using that band name?
 * ...that only two of the fourteen French cardinals were in Italy at the start of the papal conclave, 1549-1550 because a clause of the Concordat of Bologna allowed the pope to redistribute their benefices if they died in Rome?