Wikipedia:Recent additions 164

Did you know...

 * ...that Shushanik Kurghinian (pictured) was the first revolutionary female poet in Armenian literature?
 * ...that German leaders of the World Confederation of Labour were sentenced to Nazi concentration camps in the 1930s for their political opposition to the growth of authoritarian governments in Europe?
 * ...that Downtown Omaha is home to 31 historic buildings, two historic districts, and the site of the largest loss of historic buildings ever from the National Register of Historic Places?
 * ...that the S.S. Christopher Columbus, the only whaleback passenger liner ever built, carried 1.8 million passengers to and from the World's Columbian Exposition in a single season?
 * ...that the Romanian politician and socialite Pantazi Ghica was identified as the "black-faced, hunchbacked and greedy" person depicted, alongside other liberals, in one of Mihai Eminescu's most famous poems?
 * ...that when Democratic congressman A. Jeff McLemore opposed President Woodrow Wilson over the United States' entry into World War I, the Texas legislature redrew the state's congressional districts in 1917 to force him to run against another incumbent?
 * ...that the Weinhard Brewery (pictured) managed to survive prohibition by producing near-beer, root beer and syrup, which were marketed as "Gourmet Elixirs"?
 * ...that the Vladimirka, a road by which convicts marched to the Siberian katorga, is mentioned in the works of Herzen, Nekrasov and Dostoevsky?
 * ...that rainbow sharks are Cyprinids, making them relatives of goldfish, carp and minnows?
 * ...that Franklin D. Roosevelt threatened Postmaster General James Farley and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr.'s jobs if they did not make sure a new post office was built in his hometown of Hyde Park?
 * ...that Yingzao Fashi is a Chinese technical treatise on architecture and craftsmanship written during the mid-Song Dynasty?
 * ...that despite being portrait painter to Queen Victoria, John Partridge's career plummeted after a dispute with Ramsay Richard Reinagle over altering one of his paintings?
 * ...that public support for the revitalization of Esther Short Park (pictures) located in Vancouver, Washington, increased in 1997 after the mayor was attacked by a transient in the park?
 * ...that Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The New Yorker, was convinced to write for The Atlantic Monthly when publisher David G. Bradley purchased ponies for Goldberg's children?
 * ...that although an Iron Workers union member planted the dynamite in the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, the 21 people who died in the explosion and fire were all workers and not managers?
 * ...that U.S. Representative John Y. Brown was censured by his peers for unparliamentary language during a speech denouncing General Benjamin F. Butler?
 * ...that Major League Baseball relief pitcher Ramón Peña, younger brother of All-Star catcher Tony Peña, allowed no home runs to any of the 88 batters he faced despite 6.00 career earned run average?
 * ...that arms, munitions, and Vietcong documents were planted prior to raids on South Vietnam's Buddhist pagodas as a pretext to crush protests over religious discrimination?
 * ...that Arkhyz is the site of a former world's largest telescope and the oldest functioning church (pictured) in Russia?
 * ...that molecular evolutionist Morris Goodman used protein sequence data to reconstruct the evolutionary history of hemoglobin and called this the first "hard evidence of Darwinian evolution"?
 * ...that American musician Wade Mainer is credited with bridging the gap between old-time mountain music and Bluegrass?
 * ...that the Young Christian Workers movement, founded by Joseph Cardijn, had 2 million members in 69 countries at the time of his death?
 * ...that during the Russo-Japanese War, the London Times refitted the Chinese ship Haimun, creating the world's first ship dedicated to war correspondence covering the on-going naval battles?
 * ...that the Kościuszko Mound in Kraków, Poland, erected by Cracovians in 1823 and modeled after prehistoric mounds, became a strategic lookout for the occupying Austrian army?
 * ...that the crown prince and princess of Denmark and Iceland helped lay the cornerstone for the post office in Rhinebeck, New York?
 * ...that the song "I Am a Child of God" is related to a phrase used in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a declaration of a basic belief of Mormonism?
 * ...that approximately 10,000 people were sent to an emergency field hospital at a quarantine station on Ninoshima (pictured), an island near Hiroshima, following the atomic bombing in 1945?
 * ...that the open habitat of grassy balds in the forested Appalachian Mountains may be relicts of grazing pressure from Pleistocene megaherbivores?
 * ...that Eleanor Davies-Colley was the first woman admitted as fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England?
 * ...that David Yudelman asserts that South African Apartheid predates the traditional demarcation of the National Party's 1948 rise to power?
 * ...that Al Hopkins and his group The Hill Billies originated the term "hillbilly music", and were the first to play country music for a United States president and the first to play country in a film?
 * ...that as an Illinois State Senator James M. Strode introduced legislation authorizing a loan used to begin construction on the Illinois and Michigan Canal?
 * ...that the Major League Baseball pitcher Carl Zamloch was also a professional magician?
 * ...that a ditch excavated to fend off marauding Maratha soldiers, was filled up when the city was never attacked, to form a road from Shyambazar's five-point crossing?
 * ...that the Cisternoni of Livorno (example pictured) are early examples of buildings with a utilitarian purpose concealed behind a Neoclassical façade?
 * ...that Swiss pharmacologist Hartmann F. Stähelin led the R&D of both the anti-cancer drug etoposide and cyclosporine A, an immunosuppressant used in organ transplantation?
 * ...that Les Chouans, Honoré de Balzac's novel about royalist forces in France, was the first book he published without using a nom de plume?
 * ...that in the 1990s, business process outsourcing company PeopleSupport gave their employees job titles such as gladiator, crusader, and marketing mechanic?
 * ...that the book Historia naturalis palmarum, by German botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, was described by E. J. H. Corner as "the most magnificent treatment of palms that has been produced"?
 * ...that 159 soldiers of the Malay Regiment fought against a 13,000-strong Japanese force to defend a hill position in Singapore’s Kent Ridge Park?
 * ...that the mud shrimp Pestarella tyrrhena (pictured) has been used as bait by fishermen for over 200 years?
 * ...that while the first union was founded in 1927, Tanzania did not have a significant labor movement until the 1940s?
 * ...that several universities now offer courses on the politics of Harry Potter?
 * ...the first edition of Patience and Sarah, winner of the 1971 Stonewall Book Award, was self-published and all copies sold by the author after six publishers rejected it for not being marketable?
 * ...that in group theory words are any written product of group elements and their inverses?
 * ...that the Mosque of Amr in Fustat, originally built in 642 CE, was the first mosque ever built in Egypt?
 * ...that the Thomas Wilson, (pictured) a whaleback freighter, was the last such freighter built without hatch coamings?
 * ...that the construction of the John T. Loughran Bridge in Kingston, New York, led to the creation of the Rondout-West Strand Historic District?
 * ...that Takakia is a genus of moss first discovered in the Himalayas in 1861, but no fertile plants were known until collected in 1993 in the Aleutian Islands?
 * ...that Roosevelt's World War I volunteers, a unit similar to Roosevelt's Rough Riders of the Spanish-American War, were authorized by the U.S. Congress to fight in France in 1917, but President Woodrow Wilson refused?
 * ...that DeWitty, the largest African American village ever founded in Nebraska, existed for only 29 years?
 * ...that the first Italian football (soccer) club, Torino Football and Cricket Club, was founded by Edoardo Bosio (pictured) in 1887?
 * ...that Jakob Künzler was an eyewitness to the Armenian Genocide, the subject of his 1921 book In the Land of Blood and Tears?
 * ...that Kentucky lieutenant governor John W. Stevenson ascended to the governorship following the death of sitting governor John L. Helm just five days into his term?
 * ...that the first customer of the Maine Diner, which has been featured on NBC's Today Show, crashed into a pole in the parking lot?
 * ...that the SMS Hannover and her four sister ships represented the last Deutschland class pre-dreadnought battleships?
 * ...that while Sanskrit is the liturgical language for many Indian religions, only one daily newspaper, the Sudharma, uses it?
 * ...that the famous portrait "Pinkie" (pictured) by Thomas Lawrence depicts poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's aunt?
 * ...that 62 people died in a fire on the sets of the TV serial The Sword of Tipu Sultan in Mysore, India?
 * ...that A Tragedy by 19th century poet, singer and composer Theo Marzials is frequently referred to as the worst poem ever written in the English language?
 * ...that six months after his nomination James W. Stephenson was forced to withdraw from the 1838 election for Governor of Illinois?
 * ...that the Japanese science fiction film I.K.U. was the first pornographic film ever screened in the Sundance Film Festival?
 * ...that Murray's Ranch, a former guest ranch in Apple Valley, California, was unique in that it was owned by African-Americans and catered primarily to an African-American clientele?
 * ...that the Central Fells, a group of hills in the English Lake District (Eagle Crag pictured), are generally lower than the surrounding hills?
 * ...that St. Mary's Basilica is the oldest church in Bangalore and the only basilica in the Indian state of Karnataka?
 * ...that James D. Henry died four days after the people of New Salem, Illinois supported him for the office of Governor of Illinois?
 * ...that under English criminal law, intoxication is technically not a defence, but negates the mens rea for specific intent offences?
 * ...that Harlem on the Prairie, a 1937 race movie, is billed as the first "all-colored" western musical?
 * ...that Labour Party politician Ruth Dalton, who was the shortest serving MP in British history, represented Bishop Auckland for 92 days?
 * ...that Michiel Daniel Overbeek was the first amateur astronomer to detect supernova-related gamma ray burst effects?
 * ...that before the Hôtel de la Chambre (pictured) was constructed in 1860, Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies used various meeting places, including a primary school in the town of Ettelbruck?
 * ...that the Chicago based Lincoln Towing Service uses satellite tracking to provide towing services for landlords with tenant parking problems?
 * ...that Adolf Hitler served in the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division during World War I?
 * ...that a clock tower added to the old Washington County Courthouse in 1891 did not have a working clock?
 * ...that the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that during an outbreak of an itch mite in August 2004, 54% of the population of Crawford County, Kansas, or about 19,000 people, suffered from its bites?
 * ...that in 1945, Congregationalist minister Geoffrey Nuttall became only the second nonconformist theologian to become a Doctor of Divinity at Oxford?