Wikipedia:Recent additions 187

Did you know...

 * ...that John Cartier was eulogized by Edmund Burke for his Governorship of Bengal despite losing a third of the population during the 1770 famine?
 * ...that Colorado State Senate president pro tem Peter Groff is the highest-ranking African-American elected official in the U.S. state of Colorado?
 * ...that Robert Crouch led the Parliamentary campaign on the Crichel Down affair involving his constituency, which forced the resignation of Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Sir Thomas Dugdale?
 * ...that Westmoreland v. CBS demonstrated that  a public figure cannot win a libel suit in the United States unless reckless  and defamatory statements are evidence of actual malice?
 * ...that New Zealand rugby union footballer Jimmy Hunter's 44 tries on the 1905 All Blacks tour is a record that is unlikely to ever to be surpassed?
 * ...that by providing government assistance to vineyard owners so they could replant and redesign their vineyards, the Flurbereinigung restructuring of the late 20th century had a dramatic impact on the German wine industry?
 * ...that the mosque of Hirami Ahmet Pasha (pictured) in Istanbul is the smallest Byzantine church of Constantinople still extant?
 * ...that The Gentleman Usher is the only play in which late 16th-century playwright George Chapman takes a positive view of women?
 * ...that 7th-century duke Waldalenus traded off with the Church his firstborn son against his wife's miraculous fertility?
 * ...that Edgar Allan Poe's 1848 essay Eureka presaged the Big Bang theory and black holes?
 * ...that the air-date of "The Beginning of the End", the fourth season premiere of the television series Lost, means that the season may be interrupted by the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike even if a settlement is reached?
 * ...that since humidity and the cold climate inhibited its production in the Low Countries, salt was imported from Iberia in the Middle Ages?
 * ...that Lord Uxbridge's leg became a tourist attraction after the Battle of Waterloo?
 * ...that the indologist Ernest Bender also published work on the Cherokee language?
 * ...that after the Champagne region, the Loire Valley produces more sparkling wine than any other region in France?
 * ...that a schoolboy's work gives an insight into life at Thomas Rossell Potter's country school "The Hermitage" (pictured) in 19th century England?
 * ...that James Blake Miller, made famous in a 2004 photograph during the Second Battle of Fallujah as the "Marlboro Marine", suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and was discharged exactly one year after his picture made worldwide news?
 * ...that Lawrence Olson, who was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Japan's highest honour for foreigners, for his work on Japanese history, deciphered Japanese messages during World War II for the US Navy?
 * ...that Alpha Kappa Alpha founder Nellie Pratt Russell is remembered with a building named in her and her husband's honor at St. Paul's College?
 * ...that 1.5 million people logged on to the website of the cheddar cheese Wedginald to watch it mature?
 * ...that Greek temples went from small structures of mud and wood (9th century BC) to the classical stone monuments widely known today (6th century BC)?
 * ...that Calimerius, a 3rd century bishop of Milan, was said to have been killed by being thrown into a well after his relics were found submerged in water?
 * ...that it was Napoleon Bonaparte who recalled Captain Bruix (pictured), after he was sacked for being a noble, to continue his distinguished naval career?
 * ...that Seattle, Washington businessman Herman Sarkowsky was a co-founder of both the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers?
 * ...that Clyde Fastlink, a planned £42m dedicated bus service, is an interim measure for Glasgow's proposed light rail system?
 * ...that the Gerald Loeb Award, administered by the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is considered the most prestigious honor in business journalism?
 * ...that Michael Varah, son of Chad Varah, achieved an athletics world record as part of a 4×800m relay team, and then spent 35 years working in the Probation Service?
 * ...that the establishment of Camp Joe Holt, the first significant act to keep Kentucky from fully seceding to the Confederate States of America, had to be done in Indiana?
 * ...that Khanmohammad Ibrahim was the oldest living Indian Test cricketer at the time of his death?
 * ...that the location of the first mass in the Philippines in 1521 remains a matter of dispute?
 * ...that mercury(IV) fluoride (model pictured), the first mercury compound ever to have an oxidation state of 4, was synthesized at 4 degrees above absolute zero?
 * ...that Zen Buddhist scholar Philip Yampolsky was the grandson of Frank Boas, the founder of Columbia University's anthropology department?
 * ...that Ottomar Pinto has served three non-consecutive times as governor in the history of Roraima, Brazil?
 * ...that Canada issues special licence plates available only to war veterans?
 * ...that University of Michigan Wolverine Tyrone Wheatley was not only both a Big Ten rushing and scoring champion, but also a Big Ten 110 meter hurdles champion?
 * ...that in 2002, an officer of the Wellington Free Ambulance was accidentally shot by police during an Armed Offenders Squad training exercise?
 * ...that Alabama lawyer and Republican Party pioneer John Grenier of Birmingham was self-taught in four foreign languages: French, Spanish, German, and modern Greek?
 * ...that Chen Chi-li, late head of Taiwan's United Bamboo Gang, claimed to have killed dissident journalist Henry Liu out of patriotism, and refused the $20,000 payout he was offered?
 * ...that Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (pictured) was a devoted companion to her mother, Queen Victoria, for over forty years?
 * ...that during the five years of fighting in the Cabanagem revolt in Brazil, it is estimated that the population of Pará was reduced from about 100,000 to 60,000?
 * ...that Truong Dinh, who led a guerrilla army that fought French colonials in southern Vietnam against the orders of Emperor Tu Duc, was so effective that the French thought Tu Duc had supported him secretly?
 * ...that Senator Bob Hagedorn introduced legislation to name John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" Colorado's second official state song?
 * ...that Donald Stone Macdonald was a Korean studies expert who served as mayor of Kwangju while a member of the US Department of State?
 * ...that Isocrates developed a personal hatred for Chares of Athens after his closest pupil, General Timotheos, was impeached for refusing to fight in the Battle of Embata during a storm?
 * ...that the South Australian wine industry produces more than half of all Australian wines, including the premium Penfolds Grange and many of the mass produced box wines?
 * ...that the 1948 British Grand Prix (pictured) was the first motor racing meeting ever held on the Silverstone Circuit, which until then had been an aerodrome?
 * ...that University of Colorado football player Jordon Dizon, one of three finalists for the Dick Butkus Award as America's top collegiate linebacker, attended Waimea High School, the westernmost high school in the United States?
 * ...that the Sinologist and Confucius expert Herrlee Glessner Creel was a lieutenant colonel in the US Army during World War II?
 * ...that Australian Bob Marshall won the World Amateur Billiards Championship four times and the Australian championship 21 times in a career spanning 50 years?
 * ...that Franciszek Jarecki, pilot of the Polish Air Force, in 1953 escaped to Denmark together with a Soviet plane MiG-15, which greatly helped the U.S. Air Force fighting in the Korean War?
 * ...that orange snow fell in February of 2007 in western Siberia?
 * ...that Michael Garcia has introduced legislation to lower the legislative age of candidacy in Colorado from 25 to 21 after being himself elected at age 26?
 * ...that Sir James Whitehead, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London in 1888-9, replaced the circus-like elements of the Lord Mayor's Show with a State Procession, and was the arbitrator in the London Dock Strike of 1889?
 * ...that most artists of the Tudor court produced works in many media, including miniatures, panel portraits (pictured), illuminated manuscripts, and decorative schemes for masques and tournaments?
 * ...that sociologist Ralph Larkin published Comprehending Columbine after teaching about the Columbine High School massacre at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice?
 * ...that the publishers of Hindustan Ghadar are said to have memorised over a thousand of its subscribers' names to prevent these being known to British Intelligence?
 * ...that Thai history scholar Benjamin Batson took up his field while posted in Bangkok as a university maths lecturer?
 * ...that a replica of the Old Plantation Flats Light built in 2004 contains the first new lens constructed to Fresnel's patterns in eighty years?
 * ...that there are three unilingually Swedish municipalities in one province of mainland Finland?
 * ...that Felician of Foligno was the first ever bishop to receive the pallium as a symbol of his office?
 * ...that the cost of transporting crushed stone often exceeds its cost at the quarry?
 * ...that the use of speech scrolls (example pictured) developed independently in European and Mesoamerican art?
 * ...that Irish actor Paudge Behan is the son of IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding and Beatrice Behan, the widow of playwright Brendan Behan?
 * ...that The O.C. ' s music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas worked in the music department of over fifty Roger Corman B-movies before her television debut?
 * ...that research into attitude polarization suggests that when people read research that both supports and contradicts their current views, they come to hold their original attitudes more strongly than before?
 * ...that Cecil Hobbs began his interest in Southeast Asian history after his career as a missionary in Burma was ended in 1942 by the Japanese invasion?
 * ...that in 1708 the Bonnington pavilion in Scotland had a "hall of mirrors" designed to give visitors the illusion that they were standing in the middle of the Corra Linn?
 * ...that Anna Seidel, a German Sinologist and expert on Taoism, risked the death penalty by hiding a Jewish friend during World War II?
 * ...that Saint Mary of the Mongols (pictured) is the only Byzantine church in Constantinople to have remained Eastern Orthodox to this day?
 * ...that the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue caused so many cancellations that Sports Illustrated and its publisher Time Warner had to stop delivery to certain subscribers, such as libraries?
 * ...that the skink Chalcides colosii was once considered a subspecies of another species, Chalcides ocellatus (named for its ocelli), despite the fact that C. colosii has no ocelli?
 * ...that Rear-Admiral Henry Blagrove, who died in the destruction of HMS Royal Oak in October 1939, was the first Royal Navy flag officer killed in the Second World War?
 * ...that the Oliver Typewriter Company of Chicago, Illinois produced and sold over one million of the first "visible print" typewriters?
 * ...that German lawyer Horst Mahler had for his own lawyer the future Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schröder?