Wikipedia:Recent additions 168

Did you know...

 * ...that the European Union directive about anti-smoking warnings on cigarette packs have led to a surge of sales of cigarette cases?
 * ...that Samuel Rivera, mayor of Passaic, New Jersey, was permitted to take office despite the fact that he had been convicted of a felony in his native Puerto Rico in the 1970s?
 * ...that the centre of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is crossed by an 18th century aqueduct (pictured) nicknamed Arcos da Lapa?
 * ...that Eduardo Malapit, mayor of Kauai, Hawaii, from 1974 to 1982, was the first mayor of Filipino descent in the United States?
 * ...that abrasion has destroyed the 14th century Church in Trzęsacz, Poland, near the Baltic Sea, except for part of its southern wall?
 * ...that the proposed BBC television special Planet Relief, created to raise awareness of climate change, was cancelled before it was made, for fear that it would be biased against climate sceptics?
 * ...that retired General Volney F. Warner has publicly criticized the Iraq War; his granddaughter, First Lieutenant Laura Margaret Walker, served in Afghanistan and was the first female graduate of West Point to die in combat?
 * ...that the 1952 Farnborough Airshow DH.110 crash is the last time spectators were killed in an accident at a British air show?
 * ...that the Valois Tapestries (pictured), recording festivities at the court of Charles IX of France, include portraits of many members of the House of Valois–but none of the King?
 * ...that Kentucky governor Flem D. Sampson declined the Du Pont family's offer to purchase Cumberland Falls and donate it to the state for a state park?
 * ...that Nayachar Island in the Hooghly River was chosen as the location for a major chemical hub based on experience in developing Jurong Island in Singapore?
 * ...that bellboy Johnny Roventini was paid $1 to page a hotel lobby for a "Call for Phillip Morris", unknowingly performing a screen test for a 40-year career as living trademark?
 * ...that wind assistance has caused the non-ratification of many potential world records in athletics?
 * ...that Australian World War I general Sir Charles Rosenthal (pictured) was the model for a character in one of D. H. Lawrence's novels?
 * ...that judge Otto Richard Skopil, Jr. was nominated to the federal district court by a Republican U.S. President and to the federal court of appeals by a Democratic President?
 * ...that the Fique is a natural fiber obtained of furcraea plants, typical of Colombia, which is used in the fabrication of ropes, fabrics, tapestry and handcrafts?
 * ...that French Canadian ornithologist Charles-Eusèbe Dionne became an elective fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union before he ever received a college degree?
 * ...that during an emergency, U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo planes can be modified with the Modular Airborne FireFighting System and used to help fight forest fires?
 * ...that during the Western Schism Thomas de Rossy, Franciscan friar and Bishop of Galloway, challenged any bishop of England to fight in single combat?
 * ...that in the early 1940s, HMS Ceres (pictured), a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy, was involved in the evacuation and later recapturing of British Somaliland?
 * ...that the shrub Stirlingia latifolia is commonly known as "Blueboy" because wall plaster turns blue if made using sand taken from where the plant occurs?
 * ...that Ah Jook Ku, a journalist and writer based in Hawaii, was the first Asian American reporter for the Associated Press, as well as the first Asian American female reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin?
 * ...that Mercedes Reaves, a Puerto Rican research engineer and scientist, is responsible for the design of a viable, full-scale solar sail at the NASA Langley Research Center?
 * ...that the disastrous defeat of Yaroslav the Wise's sons at the Alta River led to a popular uprising in Kiev and dethronement of Grand Prince Iziaslav?
 * ...that Ildephonsus of Toledo regarded the Nicene Creed as comprising "sufficient knowledge for salvation" and considered it to be a pact (foedus) between a believer and God?
 * ...that Denton Hall (pictured), once the home of General Fairfax, the English Civil War commander-in-chief, was later sold for less than the value of the timber on the estate?
 * ...that the California aerial firefighting force is operated by the CDF Aviation Management Program?
 * ...that Santanachelys gaffneyi is the earliest known sea turtle?
 * ...that the Australian war memorial at Mont St. Quentin was not replaced for over 30 years after its destruction by the German Army in 1940?
 * ...that the calligraphic script of the Ford Motor Company logo is credited to Childe Harold Wills?
 * ...that the Journal of Molecular Evolution, founded in 1971, was the first scientific journal dedicated to this field?
 * ...that Jordan de Exeter, sheriff of Connacht, died fending off a Hebridean pirate raid in 1258?
 * ...that Otto Schimek was himself later executed for refusing to join a firing squad executing a Polish family in 1944?
 * ...that unlike most plesiosaurs, Leptocleidus once lived in shallow lagoon environments and likely visited brackish and fresh water systems such as the mouths of rivers?
 * ...that the C-class light cruiser HMS Carlisle (pictured) was damaged by German bombers during the Allied landings in Sicily and spent the rest of the war in Alexandria harbour?
 * ...that Isaac Homer Van Winkle served for 23 years as Oregon Attorney General, the longest of any attorney general in the state’s history?
 * ...that the French Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities took almost 50 years to complete from A to Z?
 * ...that while the Ukrainian Chortkiv offensive was eventually pushed back by the Polish army, the initial successes of this desperate attack by the Ukrainian Galician Army is considered its finest hour in the Polish-Ukrainian War?
 * ...that zaojing, an elaborately-ornamented wooden ceiling, shaped like a well and often painted with water plants, was believed by the ancient Chinese to prevent wooden buildings from burning?
 * ...that Boston Legal actress Meredith Eaton-Gilden (pictured) is also a practicing clinical psychologist?
 * ...that there was a lighthouse on the roof of The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, which could be seen by ships 29 km away?
 * ...that, at the age of 21, Henry III's favorite Anne de Joyeuse enjoyed precedence over all other dukes and peers of France, with the exception of the Capetians?
 * ...that shortly after Appalachian State's 2007 college football upset of Michigan at Michigan, ecstatic Appalachian State students tore down a goalpost at their own stadium 600 miles (1000 km) away?
 * ...that westbound trains can arrive unexpectedly on the eastbound track at Bedminster railway station to ease congestion at nearby Bristol Temple Meads?
 * ...that a portion of the money used to purchase land for the publicly owned Noble Woods Park in Hillsboro, Oregon, came from private pledges?
 * ...that water vapor is probably present in the tenuous atmosphere of Mercury, being brought to the planet by comets?
 * ...that the German Communist Party member Martin Hoop, who worked undercover for the Communists in early 1933 before he was arrested and murdered by the Nazi regime in May 1933, was a supporter of Weimar Republic presidential candidate Ernst Thälmann?
 * ...that Charles de Talleyrand described his wife, Catherine Grand (pictured), as "an Indian, very beautiful, very lazy, the most idle woman he had ever known"?
 * ...that the luxurious Kazanowski Palace in Warsaw, built in the 1620s, was destroyed in the 1650s and never rebuilt?
 * ...that the Singapore's DHL Balloon is the world's largest tethered helium balloon?
 * ...that stained glass in Marston Bigot church in Somerset, England is from the abbey of Altenberg in Germany and depicts a scene from the early life of Saint Bernard?
 * ...that the Shelly was an Israeli cargo vessel that sank after being accidentally rammed by a cruise liner, killing two crewmembers?
 * ...that the real objective of the 1732 Treaty of Three Black Eagles, in which Prussia, Austria and Russia agreed to support the Portugese Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém in elections to the Polish throne, was to create a rift between France and Prussia?
 * ...that Kentucky governor Augustus E. Willson was once a junior partner in the law firm of Supreme Court justice John Marshall Harlan?
 * ...that the Attacotti were first mentioned as marauders in Roman Britain, and after their defeat they joined the Roman legions as auxiliaries?
 * ...that the government of Singapore has introduced the "Punggol 21-plus" plan to re-vitalise Punggol New Town (pictured), after an unsuccessful attempt in the late 1990s?
 * ...that in 717 Al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi‎ became the first Muslim commander ever to cross the Pyrenees mountain range?
 * ...that James Dahlman, Omaha, Nebraska's "perpetual mayor," was regarded as the "wettest mayor in America" after the number of saloons doubled during his term?
 * ...that Queen Victoria sanctioned the British South Africa Company to issue the British South Africa Company Medal in honour of the troops who served in the Matabele Wars?
 * ...that Portuguese soldier and explorer Francisco Barreto led an expedition to Monomotapa in search of legendary gold mines, but died along the way along from tropical diseases, as did many of his men?
 * ...that Emmy-nominated actor Leon Russom portrayed two different characters in two different branches of the Star Trek franchise?
 * ...that several mountains, a chain of craters, a learned society and a botanical genus are named after Louis Ramond de Carbonnières?
 * ...that the first direct observational evidence that Cygnus X-1 was a black hole were made at the David Dunlap Observatory (pictured) outside Toronto?
 * ...that the Polish historian and survivor of the Nazi German Operation Sonderaktion Krakau Stanisław Kutrzeba formed an underground university in defiance of Nazi edicts?
 * ...that in 2005, during D1 Grand Prix's end of season US vs Japan event at Irwindale Speedway, US drifting driver, Vaughn Gittin, Jr. became the first to break the all-Japanese stranglehold?
 * ...that centenarian Nittoor Srinivasa Rau, was the first chief of the Central Vigilance Commission of India and also the first to translate Mahatama Gandhi's autobiography to Kannada?
 * ...that although the Youguo Temple collapsed in 1847 when the Yellow River flooded, its Iron Pagoda has survived six floods and remained intact for almost one thousand years?
 * ...that Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando and Nick Nolte were all born to German-American families in Omaha, Nebraska?
 * ...that the medieval village of Babington in Somerset, England was destroyed around 1705 to make way for a new manor house?
 * ...that the largest sea turtles ever to have swum the oceans belonged to the family Protostegidae?
 * ...that birds and dinosaurs are combined in the Pandinosauria clade because the former (early bird pictured) descended from the latter? (was removed as article doesn't exist, and fact questioned)
 * ...that the Permanent North American Gaeltacht is an officially designated Irish speaking area in English/French speaking Ontario, Canada, the first of its kind outside of Ireland?
 * ...that basketballer Jim Krebs wrote a humorous article for Sports Illustrated about surviving a plane crash during his third season in the NBA?
 * ...that model Albert Reed, selected to appear in September 2007 on the United States television show Dancing with the Stars, admits that he cannot dance?
 * ...that Kristjan Jaak Peterson (1801–1822) was the first university student ever to self-identify as Estonian, thus contributing to the Estonian National Awakening?
 * ...that as part of Smirnoff vodka's Sea advertising campaign, parent company Diageo toured England with an installation capable of making saline or polluted water potable?
 * ...that Scots' Dike was constructed by the English and the Scots in 1552 to mark the division of the Debatable Lands and thereby settle the exact boundary between the kingdoms of Scotland and England?