Wikipedia:Recent additions 18

Did you know...



 * ... that New Place is the name given to Shakespeare's final home in Stratford-upon-Avon?
 * ...that Joy Page was the last actress from the 14 credited performers in Casablanca to die?
 * ...that Muixeranga is a name given to ancient acrobatic street dances and human castles?
 * ...that Europe's most powerful supercomputer, MareNostrum, will be used in human genome research, protein research, weather forecasting and the design of new drugs?
 * ...that a waterbuck is a diurnal antelope from Western and Central Africa?
 * ...that Jan Kulczyk is currently the richest Pole, with a fortune estimated at 12.5 billion Polish złoty (around 4 billion U.S. dollars)?
 * ... that Canadian painter Sophie Pemberton, who painted her award-winning Little Boy Blue in 1897, taught painting to local female artists?
 * ... that 25 passengers and crew mysteriously disappeared from MV Joyita in 1955?
 * ... that Alexander "Sawney" Bean was rumored to be the head of an incestous family that murdered and cannabilized over 1000 people before they were all caught and executed?
 * ... that the cathedral of the town of Zvartnots was depicted in the first issue of 100 Armenian dram banknotes?
 * ...that in aerial firefighting, fire retardants are colored red to mark where they've been dropped?
 * ...that Long-billed Pipits breed on dry open slopes with rocks and low vegetation?
 * ...that "POP" is a nickname for Pacific Ocean Park, a 28 acre (110,000 m²) amusement park built on a pier at Santa Monica, California?
 * ...that Graftgold is an independent computer games developer formed in 1983 when Steve Turner decided to quit his day job as a commercial programmer?
 * ...that the Adelaide O-Bahn is a guided busway in Australia that runs from the Adelaide central business district to the Tea Tree Plaza shopping mall in Tea Tree Gully?
 * ...that a shortage of amphibious vehicles made supply very difficult for the Americans in the Battle of Guam?
 * ...that a large titanosaur nesting ground was recently discovered in Auca Mahuevot, in Patagonia, Argentina, and another colony has reportedly been discovered in Spain?
 * ...that the British Seafarers' Union was formed in Southampton in October 1911?
 * ...that the film adaptation of the book Night Watch, written by Sergey Lukianenko was such a success that ticket sales were only exceeded by The Lord of the Rings?
 * ...that goanna oil was sold amongst early European settlers of Australia as a panacea much like snake oil was in the Old West?
 * ... that Cameron Bright and Nicole Kidman wore flesh-colored swimsuits during the filming of the bathtub scene in Birth?
 * ... that Thomas Middleton's 1624 play A Game at Chess was considered so scandalous that the Globe Theatre was closed and the actors and author were put on trial?
 * ...that the airfields captured in the Battle of Tinian were used for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
 * ...that elementary school recess teaches children the importance of social skills and physical education?
 * ...that the Norse mythological figure Helgi Hundingsbane earned his nickname by killing a king called Hunding?
 * ...that the Australian singer Jade MacRae started learning the piano at age 8?
 * ...that collecting Toyon branches for Christmas became so popular in Los Angeles, California in the 1920s, that the state passed a law forbidding collecting?
 * ...that the Pokémon character Sableye eats rocks and lives in a cavern?
 * ...that British World War I officer James Edward Edmonds wrote nearly half of the 29-volume History of the Great War?
 * ...that Fort Caspar in present-day Casper, Wyoming was founded in 1859 at a prominent crossing of the Emigrant Trail across the North Platte River?
 * ...that the Arctic Winter Games are held biennially for athletes from the "circumpolar North"?
 * ...that Navajo codetalkers directed naval gunfire onto Japanese positions in the Battle of Saipan?
 * ...that the Japanese manga character Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo can command his own body hair to perform various martial arts?
 * ...that the villain Scar of Disney's Lion King was based on a Barbary lion?
 * ...that Kaiyō Maru, a Japanese steam warship, was the flagship of Admiral Enomoto Takeaki of the rebel Republic of Ezo in the Boshin War?
 * ...that the European Robotic Arm will be able to travel around the exterior of the International Space Station under its own control?
 * ...that the 1961 vintage of Château Latour is consistently listed among the greatest red wines of all time?
 * ...that in the Battle of the Rice Boats in the American Revolutionary War, the militia of the Province of Georgia drove a squadron of the Royal Navy out of the Savannah River?
 * ...that Kotetsu, a Japanese ironclad battleship, was originally intended to be Stonewall of the Confederate States Navy but was not delivered until after the end of the American Civil War?
 * ...that Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov fought in the Napoleonic Wars, founded Odessa, and commanded the Russian invasion of the Caucasus in 1844?
 * ...that Lear's Macaw is a Brazilian parrot that nests in sandstone cliffs?
 * ...that British broadcaster Simon Bates received critical acclaim for his feature item Our Tune, in which he read out tragic true stories?
 * ...that at its height, the World War II Polish resistance group Bataliony Chłopskie had 175,000 members?
 * ...that the fictional character Axel Brass is able to go without sleep or sustenance for years?
 * ...that the Dutch naval Lieutenant Jan van Speijk detonated his own ship in Antwerp harbour during the Belgian Revolution?
 * ...that the Ritz Hotel in London was the first hotel to offer a private bathroom for every guest room?
 * ...that the Munich Soviet Republic declared war on Switzerland, for their refusal to lend 60 locomotives?
 * ...that the California Republican Assembly supported Tom McClintock in the 2003 California recall election?
 * ...that Ten-gō sakusen was the last major Imperial Japanese Navy operation in World War II?
 * ...that the British plan for the battle of Bazentin Ridge in 1916, was dismissed beforehand by one French commander as "an attack organized for amateurs by amateurs"?