Wikipedia:Recent additions 154

Did you know...

 * ...that the first chancellor of the University of Houston, Andrew Davis Bruce, was a former lieutenant general in the US Army and the founder of Fort Hood?
 * ...that the first railway in Germany, the Bayerische Ludwigsbahn, was originally mostly horse-hauled because of the high cost of importing coal from Saxony?
 * ...that in 1894 officials in Whiteside County, Illinois paid a man $1.50 per day to watch the construction of Lyndon Bridge (pictured[)?
 * ...that Vanvoorstia bennettiana is the only protist on the IUCN's Red List?
 * ...that though musicologist Knud Jeppesen wrote that without voice crossing "no real polyphony is possible," many counterpoint exercises prohibit it?
 * ...that all of the publications of 17th century Milanese historian Gregorio Leti were listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum?
 * ...that during engineering work in 1979, the collapse of the Penmanshiel Tunnel severed the main railway line between London and Edinburgh for five months?
 * ...that the American neurophysiologist Ralph W. Gerard developed an intracellular recording microelectrode, that revolutionized research in neurobiology?
 * ...that the architect Hans Price was responsible for the distinctive look of buildings in Weston-super-Mare, England, during the Victorian era?
 * ...that the Malvern Roller Mill (pictured) was closed in 1942 due to shortages caused by World War II?
 * ...that the modern-day role of women in the Philippines is similar to their social status during pre-colonial times?
 * ...that despite over a hundred years of scientific study, fierce debate still rages about how arthropods' heads are constructed?
 * ...that the Australian native Dagger Hakea is an effective plant for sheltering small birds such as the Superb Fairy-wren, especially in the natural landscaping style of gardening?
 * ...that the Union Station in Omaha, Nebraska was the first Art Deco style train station in the United States?
 * ...that besides taking the athletes' oath, Paul Aste also competed on the bobsleigh track that he designed for the 1964 Winter Olympics?
 * ...that Charles Sargeant Jagger sculpted three World War I memorials, all in London?
 * ...that John Little, established in 1845, is the oldest department store in Singapore?
 * ...that General Ulysses S. Grant's Civil War dispatch boat Monohansett was a chartered Martha's Vineyard ferry?
 * ...that English missionary Andrew White, the "Apostle of Maryland," celebrated the first Catholic mass in the original Thirteen Colonies on March 25, 1634 on St. Clement's Island?
 * ...that 40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan was born in an apartment above a 19th century commercial building (pictured) in downtown Tampico, Illinois?
 * ...that Pelton's Rose Gentian was recently discovered by a retired mechanic and is only found in a single county in Arkansas?
 * ...that an unnamed hurricane in 1975 attained hurricane status further north than any other Pacific hurricane before dissipating near Alaska?
 * ...that the Poker players alliance hired former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato to help overturn Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that makes it illegal for financial institutes to deal with online gambling sites?
 * ...that Father Joseph Le Caron, the first European to see Lake Huron, also assisted at the first Catholic mass in Quebec and performed the first Christian marriage in Canada?
 * ...that the naval history of China goes back as far as the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC-481 BC)?
 * ...that the Tarxien Temples (pictured) in Malta were discovered when the owner of a field figured that the large stones his workers kept hitting while ploughing may have some archaeological significance?
 * ...that those opposed to the construction of the Stroudwater Navigation used poetry to support their cause?
 * ...that fear of retaliatory terminations is a leading obstacle to union organizers in their efforts to unionize a workplace?
 * ...that the demolition of the Jobbers Canyon Historic District in Omaha, Nebraska represents the largest loss of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places to date?
 * ...that in three days of nearly non-stop negotiations, Nathan Feinsinger mediated an end to a 1947 pineapple workers' strike which threatened the entire Hawaiian economy?
 * ...that girls received the right to inherit the Danish throne as the result of a referendum in 1953?
 * ...that Marcin Dunin, primate of Poland, was once interned and arrested by the Prussian authorities?
 * ...that a "witch's egg" (pictured), the immature form of the carrion-odoured common stinkhorn, is eaten in parts of France and Germany?
 * ...that Anna Mae Winburn led the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the only integrated, all-female big band of the 1940s?
 * ...that the first Baptist baptism in Ukraine took place in 1864 on the river Inhul of today's Kirovohrad Oblast?
 * ...that the First cabinet Gerhardsen in 1945 featured the first female Norwegian Government minister, Kirsten Hansteen?
 * ...that at the 25th CMA Music Festival in 1996, country music artist Garth Brooks signed autographs for 23 hours and 10 minutes without taking a single break?
 * ...that the Danish land laws referendum of 1963 is the only referendum in the history of Denmark to have been held by a minority of parliament?
 * ...that many modern breeds of hound trace their bloodlines back to the extinct Southern Hound (pictured) and North Country Beagle?
 * ...that the Israeli four-door Jeep Wrangler-based AIL Storm was produced before Jeep's own model?
 * ...that the Mayfair Club, the real life underground gambling hall loosely depicted in the movie Rounders, was in the mid-80's the training grounds for five poker superstars who have since won 20 World Series of Poker titles?
 * ...that French Jesuit Pierre Nicolas d'Incarville introduced the Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) and Pagoda Tree (Styphnolobium japonicum) to Europe?
 * ...that Lorenzo M. Tañada was the longest-serving senator in Philippine history?
 * ...that the Narasinganavar family residing in the Indian state of Karnataka is one of the largest undivided families in the world?
 * ...that the snow events of the 2014 Winter Olympics will be hosted in the ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana (pictured), which had its origin in the Tsar's hunting lodge?
 * ...that the United States superhero film John Hancock went through four directors before succeeding in being made with director Peter Berg?
 * ...that The New 7th Storey Hotel, a budget hotel catering to backpackers in Singapore, is actually nine storeys high and was the tallest building in the Beach Road area in the 1950s?
 * ...that George W. Taylor assisted unions by mediating more than 2,000 strikes, but also helped draft New York's Taylor Law—which banned strikes by public employees?
 * ...that Ossubtus xinguense is an endangered species of fish that has an unusual downturned mouth which gives the appearance of a beak?
 * ...that Australian bishop Sydney James Kirkby, who presided at the synod to elect the successor of Archbishop John Charles Wright, actively worked to not be given the job himself?
 * ...that after his defeat in the American Civil War, Union Army General William Sooy Smith (pictured) returned to engineering and helped build the Glasgow Railroad Bridge, winning the Centennial Exposition prize in 1876?
 * ...that the wimple piranha is a specialized predator whose diet consists primarily of fish scales?
 * ...that the Pali Lookout in Hawaii was originally the site of the bloody Battle of Nu'uanu, where 400 warriors were driven over a cliff by Kamehameha I?
 * ...that the Hungarian-born Jew Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln was successively a Presbyterian missionary in Canada, a British Member of Parliament, an international double agent, a German right-wing politician, and a Buddhist abbot in China?
 * ...that in a Danish referendum in 1916 64.2% of the voters were in favour of selling the Danish West Indian Islands to the United States?
 * ...that despite only being eight inches tall, the Tiny Hawk, a raptor found throughout much of the central neotropics, successfully hunts hummingbirds?
 * ...that the Vefa Kilise Mosque (pictured) in Istanbul is one of the first examples of byzantine churches of Constantinople which were converted into mosques by the Ottomans?
 * ...that Emma Crawford was described as "the principal benefactress" of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane for her work in establishing several religious schools?
 * ...that the Augustinian monk Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro arranged for the crowning of Francesco Petrarch as the first poet laureate since antiquity?
 * ...that Polish I Corps in Russia, originally intended to fight for the Triple Entente against the Central Powers, was forced to ally itself with the German Ober Ost forces?
 * ...that the railway stop in Sjisjka in Swedish Lapland was built partly because it was the only place in the country where the letters SJ, the acronym for the Swedish national railway, occurred in the name twice?
 * ...that Delta Sigma Theta Sorority founder Myra Hemmings starred, co-produced and co-directed the 1941 film Go Down, Death! The Story Of Jesus and the Devil?
 * ...that the Illinois Central Stone Arch Railroad Bridges (pictured) in Dixon, Illinois were constructed without the use of bonding materials?
 * ...that the German historian Albert Brackmann argued that the Poles should be pushed farther eastwards, into the Ukraine?
 * ...that advertising executive Lois Wyse came up with the slogan "With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good!"?
 * ...that Michael Dadap, the popular Filipino guitarist, is married to the eldest sister of American cellist Yo-Yo Ma?
 * ...that after the Battle of Deir ez-Zor in World War II, most Syrian troops avoided capture by changing into civilian clothes?
 * ...that the Kallanai dam, built by Karikala Chola to support agriculture in ancient Tamil country, is considered the oldest water-regulation structure still in use?
 * ...that the papal election of 1061, the first carried out solely by cardinal bishops, resulted in a war between Pope Alexander II and Antipope Honorius II?
 * ...that the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile's French neoclassical building was built to commemorate the centenary of the independence of Chile?
 * ...that while Mary Wollstonecraft (pictured) wrote her revolutionary treatise the Rights of Woman in six weeks, its novelistic sequel, The Wrongs of Woman, was still unfinished at her death, despite a year's work?
 * ...that the site of a crashed JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft is now marked with a sculpture of a crumpled paper aeroplane?
 * ...that the Craigflower Manor and Schoolhouse are among the oldest Canadian buildings of their type?
 * ...that, owing to Henry Babson's selective breeding work, thousands of Arabian horses today have "Babson-influenced" bloodlines?
 * ...that the Australian White-naped Honeyeater derives its Latin epithet lunatus from the crescent-shaped markings on its nape?
 * ...that the Hibbs Bridge on the Snicker's Gap Turnpike, which partly replaced the first toll road in the United States, still carries traffic, and is being rebuilt in its original state?
 * ...that the village of Montgomery, New York, was originally named Ward's Bridge?
 * ...that the "Amerikansky Golland" class submarines ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy also served in the Soviet and United States navies?
 * ...that Roman Catholic priest Paul Couturier helped establish the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity?
 * ...that in the Muslim tradition, Bahira (pictured) was a Christian monk who foretold to the adolescent Muhammad his future prophetic career?
 * ...that, in addition to horror fiction, Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay on interior decorating called The Philosophy of Furniture?
 * ...that Raeapteek in Tallinn, Estonia is one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe?
 * ...that brewer and politician Michael Thomas Bass introduced legislation into the British House of Commons to ban organ grinders as nuisances?
 * ...that Gunnhild, "Mother-of-Kings", the wife and queen of Erik Bloodaxe of Norway, was rumored to be a witch?
 * ...that after the HMS Tyger wrecked in 1742, the crew survived 56 days on a desert island and another 56 days sailing to Jamaica in small boats, at a loss of only 11 out of 281 men?
 * ...that Benjamin Pearse, later an influential provincial politician in British Columbia, came to Vancouver Island working for Hudson's Bay Company?
 * ...that 19th century Polish noble and farmer Stanisław Chełchowski (pictured) published academic works ranging from ethnography through agriculture to mycology?
 * ...that musician Ian Craig Marsh, once of pop groups The Human League and Heaven 17, began his career in a band called "Musical Vomit"?
 * ...that global mining magnate Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. was the inspiration behind the character Auric Goldfinger in author Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger?
 * ...that Danny Barcelona was a Filipino American self-taught drummer for Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars jazz band?
 * ...that Indian youth Meraj Khalid Noor was used for political campaigning in Muslim-dominated areas of Bihar as he resembled Osama Bin Laden?
 * ...that the prosperous Caspian Sea port of Abaskun disappeared from records in the 13th century?
 * ...that the Code of Ur-Nammu is the world's oldest extant example of a legal code?