Wikipedia:Recent additions 163

Did you know...

 * ...that the heart of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc (pictured) remained intact after his self-immolation in response to the religious policies of South Vietnam's Ngo Dinh Diem, leading Buddhists to regard him as a bodhisattva?
 * ...that militia company commander John Giles Adams may have been killed by his own men during the 1832 Black Hawk War as he tried to order them to battle?
 * ...that Singaporean anime distributor Odex is asking for legal settlements from children as young as nine years old for copyright infringement through file-sharing?
 * ...that the Latécoère 611, a reconnaissance flying boat for the Vichy French Navy, switched sides and joined the Free French after the Allied Invasion of North Africa in 1942
 * ...that Nireah Johnson, a transgender woman, was murdered by Paul Moore after Moore discovered Johnson was a biological male?
 * ...that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in both licensed and unlicensed versions?
 * ...that following the militia victory at the 1832 Battle of Horseshoe Bend (battlefield pictured) men under Colonel Henry Dodge scalped the eleven dead Kickapoo warriors?
 * ...that Major League Baseball for Nintendo was the first ever video game licensed by the MLB?
 * ...that the 42nd Infantry Division was formed in 1912 and fought both on the Eastern and Western Fronts of World War I, was the last regular division created in the Imperial German Army?
 * ...that when John Kuester became head men's basketball coach at Boston University, he was the youngest head coach in NCAA Division I?
 * ...that Oscar Monnig donated one of the largest private collections of meteorites to Texas Christian University?
 * ...that the location of William D. Brown's Lone Tree Ferry landing, which prompted the founding of Omaha, Nebraska, was lost to historians until 2004?
 * ...that Maria Longworth Nichols Storer became the first American woman to found a music festival when she planned and raised money for the now annually celebrated Cincinnati May Festival?
 * ...that in 1991 Heinz Barth, former Obersturmführer in the Waffen-SS, was granted a "war victim" pension while in jail for war crimes for involvement in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of 1944?
 * ...that the tower of Paul Rudolph's The Concourse (pictured) is octagonal in plan, as the number "8" is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture?
 * ...that the early settlers of Savanna, Illinois fended off a Native American attack in a bloodless battle known as the Plum River raid?
 * ...that Bob McGrory managed the English football team Stoke City for a period of 17 years, having previously played for the club for 14 years?
 * ...that Erik Chisholm, former dean and director of the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, was a Scottish musician often known as "Scotland’s forgotten composer"?
 * ...Cable 243 by the Kennedy administration, which authorised preparations for a coup against South Vietnam's Ngo Dinh Diem, came after Kennedy's advisers signed off, wrongly believing that Kennedy had already approved?
 * ...that the Malinta Tunnel (pictured), a bomb-proof bunker on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines, was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and lined with concrete bought from the Japanese?
 * ...that the Zip to Zap, originally intended as a 1969 spring break alternative in Zap, North Dakota, was the only riot quelled by the National Guard in the history of North Dakota?
 * ...that Albert F. A. L. Jones, awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1987 for his services to astronomy, is an amateur astronomer in New Zealand?
 * ...that causing a stack buffer overflow is one of the oldest and most reliable methods for hackers to gain unauthorized access to a computer?
 * ...that William Joseph Snelling, one of the first American realists, wrote the earliest accurate literary portrayal of the lifestyle of Plains Indians?
 * ...that Lutgardis (pictured) is reported as having levitated and dripped blood from her forehead when entranced?
 * ...that Stillman Creek became ironically known as "Stillman's Run" following the 1832 Isaiah Stillman-led debacle at the Battle of Stillman's Run?
 * ...that matron literature is also known as hen lit, a play on the notion that it is chick lit for older women?
 * ...that under Archbishop Alwyn Rice Jones, the Church of Wales reformed its rules to permit the ordination of women priests and to allow divorcees to remarry in church?
 * ...that, despite being relatively small compared to other members of its genus, the Black Hawk-Eagle feeds on animals such as monkeys and toucans?
 * ...that Byron's poem Darkness was written based on predictions that the sun would burn out on July 18 1816?
 * ...that, in 1906, Durham Stevens (pictured) predicted the approximate date of the annexation of Korea by Japan?
 * ...that as a result of the 1832 Sinsinawa Mound raid the residents of Platteville, Wisconsin nearly fled to Galena, Illinois?
 * ...that the Bulldog Bash, one of the largest motorcycle festivals in Europe, was originally organized by the Hells Angels motorcycle club for bikers?
 * ...that Sir Arthur Wellesley referred to the Battle of Sabugal as "one of the most glorious that British troops were ever engaged in"?
 * ...that Lakeridge Health Whitby was the first combination medical hospital and psychiatric hospital in North America?
 * ...that Socrates, the last defender of orality in ancient Greece, denounced writing as 'inhuman' because it weakened the mind, the memory and the prospects for finding truth through dialogue?
 * ...that Jewish Croatian sculptor Oscar Nemon settled in England, and is best known for his many public statues of Sir Winston Churchill (example pictured)?
 * ...that dead bodies in Britain were often transported along special corpse roads?
 * ...that the tiyanak is an infant-like creature from Philippine mythology that is said to attack tourists with its fangs and claws?
 * ...that the Black Hawk Tree in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin was so revered that it grew from the middle of a road without being cut down?
 * ...that the lament of Jheronimus Vinders on the death of Josquin des Prez has been used for a computer game in modern times?
 * ...that the Spanish Paralympic basketball team were stripped of their gold medals from the 2000 Sydney Games because ten of their players did not have a disability?
 * ...that U.S. Senator Carl Hayden (pictured) once used an Apperson Jack Rabbit to pursue and capture two train robbers?
 * ...that the first Festival of the Flowers in Medellín, Colombia took place on May 1, 1957 but was moved to August in 1958 to celebrate the independence of Antioquia?
 * ...that the Top 14 competition in French rugby union will test a change to the sport's bonus point system in the upcoming 2007-08 season?
 * ...that the Double Seven Day scuffle refers to a fight in Saigon in 1963 between South Vietnamese secret police and journalists covering the Buddhist crisis?
 * ...that 19th century American poet Thomas Holley Chivers accused his former friend Edgar Allan Poe of plagiarizing "The Raven" and "Ulalume" from his own work?
 * ...that the landscape architecture design projects of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (pictured) reads like a guide to the National Park Service-managed sites of Washington, D.C. : National Mall, Jefferson Memorial, White House grounds, and Rock Creek Park?
 * ...that, in 1964, J. N. L. Baker, Bursar of Jesus College, Oxford became the first member of the University of Oxford to hold the post of Lord Mayor of Oxford?
 * ...that plant morphology is the science of the physical form and external structure of plants?
 * ...that the Italian conquest of British Somaliland was the only successful Italian campaign of World War II without German support?
 * ...that 19th century U.S. Congressman Thomas D. English had an ongoing feud with Edgar Allan Poe, which inspired "The Cask of Amontillado"?
 * ...that in 1924 Baptist minister Herbert Dunnico became the first British Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) to vote against a Labour government?
 * ...a four-year old boy lama visiting Singapore's Amitabha Buddhist Centre caused a stir when over 10,000 people from all walks of life, including some Christians and Hindus, sought blessings from him?
 * ...one reason for the African Wild Dog name controversy is that endangered African Wild Dogs are being confused with feral domestic dogs?
 * ...that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem “Kubla Khan” drew inspiration from Mary Wollstonecraft's (pictured) Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark?
 * ...that with Calcutta developing in the 18th century, the Janbazar neighbourhood was gradually taken over by the Portuguese, Armenians, half-castes and others, to become a grey area between Black and White Towns?
 * ... that the Salvation Army officer, Sir Arthur McIlveen, was known for playing a phonograph in the battlefields of World War II, and was the unofficial padre to many brigades?
 * ...that the Apple River Fort near Elizabeth, Illinois was completed in about one week during the Black Hawk War of 1832?
 * ...that Susan Kiefel is only the third woman appointed to the bench of the High Court of Australia?
 * ...that Antonio Bagioli, musical director for one of the first Italian opera companies to tour the United States, stayed behind for love, rather than continuing on to Cuba?
 * ...that the Amman Message was a statement issued by King Abdullah II of Jordan calling for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world?
 * ...that American pool player Jimmy Wetch (pictured) gave up life as a and went pro after he was robbed of his winnings at gunpoint in 1993?
 * ...that the six permutations of the vector (1,2,3) form a hexagon in 3d space, the 24 permutations of (1,2,3,4) form a truncated octahedron in four dimensions, and both are examples of permutohedra?
 * ...that Rangayana is the only repertory in India that is sponsored by the government?
 * ...that the Protector lock, a lock design by A. C. Hobbs, which was said by Hobbs himself to be impossible to crack, was defeated only one or two years after its patenting?
 * ...that Vasanta Habba, an annual cultural event organised by Nrityagram in Bangalore, is considered to be the classical Woodstock of India?
 * ...that chess grandmaster Yasser Seirawan invented a new chess variant in 2007, Seirawan chess, which features two new pieces to the chess: elephant and hawk?
 * ...that Balfour, Orkney was built in 1782 to house tenants evicted to make way for the house now called Balfour Castle, then partly demolished later to improve the castle's view?
 * ...that Theudimer who signed the Treaty of Orihuela with the Moors conquering Spain was the same Visigothic count who had defended the peninsula from the Byzantine navy a decade or so earlier?
 * ...that portal hypertensive gastropathy, (example pictured) a condition seen in patients with liver cirrhosis, makes the surface of the stomach look like the skin of a snake?
 * ...that Ion Calvocoressi won an immediate Military Cross in Libya in 1942, and was married to the sister of Ludovic Kennedy for over 60 years?
 * ...that Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia from 466 to 496, often influenced and changed the tides of war as a result of his negotiations with numerous war leaders?
 * ...that advocates for pregnant patients' rights in the United States urge that a pregnant woman be allowed the company of her partner, friends, and/or family for emotional support during labor and delivery?
 * ...that Czech amateur astronomer Kamil Hornoch has discovered over 40 extragalactic supernovae?
 * ...that the Golden Mile Complex (pictured), which was designed as an avant-garde building with a stepped terrace structure, was once described as a "vertical slum" by a Singapore Nominated Member of Parliament?
 * ...that epistemology questions how we know, while agnotology questions why we do not know?
 * ...that the use of Congreve rockets during the bombardment of Fort McHenry led to the line, "And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air" in the U.S. National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner?
 * ...that Prabhat Kalavidaru, a theatre group based in Bangalore has performed the fairytale, Cinderella over 1000 times since 1977 and that few artists have acted in each of those performances?