Wikipedia:Recent additions 186

Did you know...

 * ...that Oregon's longest covered bridge is the Office Bridge and is the only one west of the Mississippi River with a sidewalk?
 * ...that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally oversaw the design of the post office (pictured) in Poughkeepsie, New York?
 * ...that though legend says the mid-way bend in Pittsburgh's Armstrong Tunnel was a mistake and that the engineer responsible killed himself in shame, the chief engineer, Vernon R. Covell, did not commit suicide?
 * ...that the antibody class IgE was discovered by the Japanese scientist Kimishige Ishizaka?
 * ...that after the death of Ukrainian novelist Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, a museum was built in his hometown of Vinnytsia, films were made and his son was executed for having counter-revolutionary contacts?
 * ...that Major Carl Mothander, the leader of Swedish volunteers in the Estonian War of Independence, later wrote books on Estonian politics that were banned in Finland?
 * ...that world champion bridge player Paul Soloway earned the most masterpoints in history?
 * ...that before becoming King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII was a frequent visitor to the luxurious Belle Époque brothel Le Chabanais in Paris and had himself built a special "love seat" there?
 * ...that New York Journal cartoonist and illustrator Nell Brinkley created the "Brinkley Girl" (pictured), an iconic representation of independent working women popular in the early 20th century?
 * ...that South Vietnamese Special Forces under Ngo Dinh Diem, which were used mainly for repressing dissidents, also attacked pagodas during the Buddhist crisis and killed a giant carp that had attracted pilgrims?
 * ...that U.S. professor of oriental studies Earl H. Pritchard was the first ever recipient of the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, in recognition of his work on military intelligence in World War II?
 * ...that actuaries can use the Schuette–Nesbitt formula to calculate the net single premium for life annuities and life insurances?
 * ...that the main cargo of the Peggy Stewart, burned in the 1774 Annapolis Tea Party, was not tea but 53 indentured servants?
 * ...that former Swansea mayor Percy Morris called for Swansea Castle to be demolished and redeveloped because it was a "shambles"?
 * ...that ANDRILL is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica to gather information about global warming over the last 65 million years?
 * ...that one T206 Honus Wagner baseball card (pictured) was sold for US$500,000 to Treat Entertainment and Wal-Mart in 1995 for use as the top prize in a promotional contest?
 * ...that British submariner Arthur Hezlet torpedoed the heavy cruiser Ashigara, the largest Japanese warship sunk by the Royal Navy Submarine Service during the Second World War?
 * ...that Trafalgar Square's original fountains were made from stone quarried near Boddam in Aberdeenshire?
 * ...that the membership of the Ghanaian national labor federation Trades Union Congress fell by 58% after a law requiring civil servants to be members was repealed in 1966?
 * ...that despite British Conservative MP Denis Keegan winning a marginal constituency by over 7,000 votes, he ended his political career after one term, preferring to work for the trade association for television shops?
 * ...that turret deck ships incurred lower canal tolls because tonnage measurements used to calculate those tolls did not account for the vessels' unique shape?
 * ...that Field Marshal Sir John Stanier was the first British Chief of the General Staff after the Second World War who had not seen active service?
 * ...that knopper galls, caused by the eggs laid by gall wasps, develop as a chemically induced distortion of growing acorns on Pedunculate Oak trees?
 * ...that aloin (pictured), a natural stimulant-laxative produced by the aloe plant, is no longer deemed safe and effective by the US FDA?
 * ...that an operational nuclear reactor and an orbiting satellite are high points in 2007 of science and technology in Colombia?
 * ...that strikebreakers are used more frequently in the US than in any other industrialized country?
 * ...that adjoining the house where the Cato Street conspirators intended to kill all of the cabinet, was the home of Archbishop of York, Edward Harcourt, who was entertaining the Prince Regent and the Dukes of Cambridge, Cumberland and Wellington?
 * ...that Bob Woodward has twice won the Worth Bingham Prize: in 1972 for reports on Watergate and in 1987 for covering covert action in United States foreign policy?
 * ...that despite a history of identifying Communist intrigues, British Parliamentarian Percy Daines demanded that Marcus Lipton name his sources or withdraw the claim that Kim Philby was a Soviet spy?
 * ...that one of the founders of modern Russian psychiatry, Pavel Jacobi, brother of the painter Valery Jacobi, participated in the January Uprising in Poland and volunteered in the Army of the Vosges led by Giuseppe Garibaldi?
 * ...that Alexei Mikhailovich was the only Imperial Russian Grand Duke to bear the name and patronymic of a Tsar?
 * ...that the Flower class corvette HMS Bryony (pictured) was sunk before she could even be launched?
 * ...that the coat of arms of Andalusia bears the Pillars of Hercules, the ancient name given to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar?
 * ...that, by joining the Democratic caucus in 2007, Rep. Debbie Stafford became the first Colorado state legislator to switch parties in two decades?
 * ...that shortly after the Revolution of 1848, the socialist feminist Jeanne Deroin became the first woman to stand in a national election in France?
 * ...that the Sanskrit literature scholar Barbara Stoler Miller, whose translation of the Bhagavad Gita helped to popularise Indian literature in the United States, also translated Spanish poetry?
 * ...that, although sentenced to death during the Great Purge, Soviet politician Sergey Kavtaradze was set free and reinstated by Joseph Stalin, and was eventually his representative in Iran and Romania?
 * ...that Mute Swans ring for lunch at the Bishop's Palace in Wells, UK?
 * ...that Michael Rowntree was Chairman of Oxfam for six years, and is one of only two people ever to be elected as its Chair Emeritus?
 * ...that the covering of the Senne River (construction pictured) created the major boulevards of Brussels?
 * ...that synthetic analogues of Camptothecin, a cytotoxic quinoline alkaloid isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, are being used as anti-cancer drugs?
 * ...that the Doric-style temple in Mote Park near Maidstone in Kent commemorates the review by George III and William Pitt the Younger of a militia formed to repel Napoleon?
 * ...that the British motor tanker SS Atheltempler, part of Convoy PQ-18 to aid the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany, was sunk north of Bear Island?
 * ...that Alan Entwistle, a leading Hindi language scholar, continued researching for ten years despite a terminal brain tumour?
 * ...that The Big Blowdown, a crime novel by American author George Pelecanos (pictured), was the recipient of the International Crime Novel of the Year award in France, Germany and Japan?
 * ...that the Nurses and Midwives Tribunal of New South Wales can order the suspension or removal of a nurse or midwife from practice?
 * ...that Amanita ocreata, the death angel, can be confused with an edible mushroom when young?
 * ...that the seventh century hermit Goar of Aquitaine (pictured) is said to have suspended his cloak on a beam of sunlight?
 * ...that the sweating mushroom is called so from the symptoms of its poisoning?
 * ...that Charles Hucker, a leading historian on Imperial China, was awarded the Bronze Star in World War II and wrote plays?
 * ...that the Pasig River reverses its flow of water from Manila Bay to Laguna de Bay when there is a high tide during the dry season?
 * ...that when Barry Cohen sued under the Hyde Amendment,   the U.S. Government was forced to pay a record-setting $2.9 million in legal fees  for the "vexatious, frivolous" prosecution of his client?
 * ...that tariffs imposed by the Austrian Empire on the export of Piedmontese wines to Austrian controlled areas of Italy was one of the underlying sparks of the revolutions of 1848–1849?
 * ...that J. L. Wilkinson was named the manager of the All Nations professional baseball team after the previous manager absconded with the gate proceeds?
 * ...that Rajo Jack, one of the first African-American racecar drivers, pretended to be Portuguese to avoid racism?
 * ...that when analyzing relationships of the harvestmen it is found that they are not true spiders, as often believed, but are in fact more closely related to scorpions?
 * ...that although flowers of the deciduous tree Tilia tomentosa (pictured) are pollinated by honeybees, the nectar is somewhat toxic to bumblebees?
 * ...that the German scientist Günter Wirths was brought to the Soviet Union after World War II, where he later was awarded a Stalin Prize for his contribution to the Soviet atomic bomb project?
 * ...that Sisnando Davides, a Mozarab who had previously served Abbadid Seville, was the first Christian governor of Coimbra and Toledo after their reconquest?
 * ...that Florida attorney Ellis Rubin claimed his client was driven to nymphomania by the side-effects of Prozac?
 * ...that Ramon Zamora, the Filipino film actor popularly dubbed the "Bruce Lee of the Philippines," won an award imitating Adolf Hitler on the gag show Super Laff-In?
 * ...that the history of sherry has been greatly influenced by many of the world's major empires and civilizations including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Moors, Spanish and English?
 * ...that Lauriston Sharp, a professor of anthropology at Cornell University, studied indigenous culture of four continents?
 * ...that Gal, Bishop of Clermont was known to be so even-tempered that once a man who had insulted him repented on the spot and threw himself at his feet?
 * ...that the British composer William Denis Browne chose the grave site on Skyros for his friend, poet Rupert Brooke, just months before he himself was killed during the Gallipoli campaign in World War I?
 * ...that the brightly coloured shells of the Liguus snails (pictured) are so prized by collectors that some varieties are now extinct?
 * ...that in 2007, Phil Collins' 1981 hit In the Air Tonight reached Number 13 in the UK Singles Chart after appearing in Cadbury's Gorilla advertising campaign?
 * ...that after Anthony Kemp returned to England where he was questioned about his involvement in the overthrow of William Bligh as Governor of New South Wales, he again went south and became known as the "father of Tasmania"?
 * ...that Bonawentura Niemojowski, a Polish politician during the Congress Poland period, became one of the most vocal supporters of the November Uprising against the Russian Empire and a leader of the revolutionary Polish government?
 * ...that Wendy Kaminer's critique of the self-help movement, I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, was highlighted among The New York Times ' "Notable Books of the Year 1992"?
 * ...that Peire d'Alvernhe is the only troubadour in whose works appear the Occitan phrase for "courtly love"?
 * ...that Gerard of Lunel became widely venerated after it was reported snakes carried bread to him and his brother while they were trapped by a flood in a cave?
 * ...that 4,400 year old dugout canoes have been found at the bottom of Lake Phelps in Pettigrew State Park (pictured), a North Carolina state park named for J. Johnston Pettigrew, a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg?
 * ...that Anglican clergyman Chad Varah founded the Samaritans, the world's first crisis hotline, in 1953, at a time when he was also writing for the Eagle comic?
 * ...that famous tenor Antonio Giuglini used to jaywalk through traffic on London's Brompton Road while flying his kite?
 * ...that Julia Evangeline Brooks, an incorporator of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, was a dean of girls at Danbury High School?
 * ...that Sir Rowland Whitehead, 5th Baronet was a Briton born in Kenya, a banker engaged with charities, a hyperpolyglot who wrote about cybernetics, and a church warden who skydived?
 * ...that the civil rights of Panama's Chinese minority, today the largest in Central America, were curtailed from 1903 until they received full citizenship under the constitution passed in 1946?
 * ...that despite having only $300,000 to the incumbent's $4 million in campaign funds, Greg Ballard won the 2007 mayoral election in Indianapolis, one of the biggest electoral upsets in Indiana history?
 * ...that the British Hawkins-class heavy cruiser HMS Frobisher (pictured) in 1944 was involved in Operation Neptune as a member of Gunfire Bombardment Support Force D allocated to Sword Beach in the D-Day landings?
 * ...that Jerrold Wexler helped save a transaction to purchase the Denver Nuggets, helped save Goldblatt's from bankruptcy and led the Drake Hotel to a National Register of Historic Places listing?
 * ...that Serhii Vasylkivsky was the first painter after Taras Shevchenko to draw upon Ukrainian historical and ethnographic themes?