Wikipedia:Recent additions 194

Did you know...

 * ...that Zinfandel (pictured) was grown for table grapes in Boston long before it made wine in California?
 * ...that Stanley Green, the "Protein Man", walked up and down Oxford Street in London every day for 25 years, sometimes in green overalls to protect himself from spit, warning passers-by about the dangers of too much protein &mdash; and sitting?
 * ...that The Enchanter is the last work of fiction written by Vladimir Nabokov in Russian but was first published in English after his death?
 * ...that the writer and diplomat Maurice Francis Egan introduced President Theodore Roosevelt to William Butler Yeats at a White House lunch?
 * ...that the Little War was the smallest and least successful of the three conflicts in the Cuban War of Independence?
 * ...that Clifford Last, a son of the author of the Housewife, 49 diaries, migrated from Britain to Australia after the war and became a noted abstract sculptor?
 * ...that Glenn Vaad was elected to seats on his local town board, school board, sanitation board, and county commission before winning election to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2006?
 * ...that stitch markers (pictured) are mnemonic devices that demonstrate the underlying mathematical basis of crochet?
 * ...that after sinking the SS City of Cairo, Kapitän zur See Karl-Friedrich Merten gave the survivors directions to the nearest land, and parted with the words "Goodnight, and sorry for sinking you"?
 * ...that Cornelius Shea, the founding president of the Teamsters, spent more than five years in Sing Sing prison for slashing and stabbing his mistress 27 times?
 * ...that when the old All Saints Church, Marple was replaced by a new church 30 metres away in 1880, the tower from the old church was retained and is now used as a free-standing bell-tower?
 * ...that as Oregon State University athletic director, Percy Locey agreed to play the 1942 Rose Bowl at the opposing team's home field due to the attack on Pearl Harbor?
 * ...that Ron Halcombe was the first player to be called for throwing in major Australian cricket by three different umpires?
 * ...that the pun riddle “What do you call a spicy missile? A hot shot!” was generated by computer as part of computational humor research?
 * ...that Libya was the first country to purchase the Palmaria, an Italian-made self-propelled 155mm howitzer, ordering 210 units in 1982?
 * ...that the man intensely reading in the oil portrait: The Bookworm (pictured) represents the inward looking attitudes that affected Europe during the time of its creation?
 * ...Robert Hett Chapman was the second president of the The University of North Carolina and instituted the first Bible study classes at the university?
 * ...that the Creusot steam hammer, with its massive 100 ton hammer and 750 ton anvil, was the world's largest steam hammer on its completion in 1877 and is the largest surviving steam hammer today?
 * ...that Mount Urpín is home to 35 endangered animal species, despite its proximity to downtown Banská Bystrica?
 * ...that theatre director David Warren landed a directing role on Desperate Housewives after giving the show's creator, Marc Cherry, his first acting job twenty years prior?
 * ...that HMCS Esquimalt was the last Royal Canadian Navy warship lost to enemy action in World War II?
 * ...that Jack Blott, an All-American football center for the Michigan Wolverines, had a Major League Baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds lasting only two games?
 * ...that, as of December 2007, more than half of registered players of rugby union in Belgium are teenagers and pre-teens?
 * ...that recreational parachutist Jacques-André Istel wrote a children's book claiming that the center of the world is located in Felicity, California, a town Istel founded?
 * ...that Clinton Thomas Dent made eighteen failed attempts to climb the Aiguille du Dru (pictured) before making the first ascent in September 1878?
 * ...that Nationalism and Culture, the magnum opus of German anarchist Rudolf Rocker, was lauded by three Nobel Prize laureates?
 * ...that the energy elasticity of India in 2005 was 0.80?
 * ...that the first act of Paul John Hallinan as Archbishop of Atlanta, an office he assumed in 1962, was to order the desegregation of all Catholic schools and institutions in the Archdiocese of Atlanta?
 * ...that the L class destroyer HMS Legion rescued 1,560 crew members of the torpedoed aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal?
 * ...that cricketer Ian Meckiff was chaired off the ground by angry spectators as a hero after he was sanctioned for illegal bowling?
 * ...that two of the four judges depicted in The Bench, a 1758 oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist William Hogarth, were half asleep in court?
 * ...that the Army Cyclist Corps, which operated the bicycle infantry of the British Army, only existed for four years?
 * ...that after placing fifth in the original Judgment of Paris wine tasting, the 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon made by Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards won the 2006 rematch?
 * ...that Kurt Vonnegut's short story 2BR02B is mentioned in his later book God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, where it is attributed to Vonnegut's fictional alter ego Kilgore Trout?

22 December 2007

 * ...that Enriqueta Favez (pictured), a Swiss woman, studied medicine and served as an army surgeon in the Napoleonic Wars disguised as a man, went to Cuba in the 1820s and married a local woman?
 * ...that the 1957 accident on the Saint-Paul ramps claimed twenty-seven lives, making it among Réunion's deadliest road accidents?
 * ...that No. 112 Squadron RAF was the first unit from any air force to use the "Shark Mouth" logo on P-40 fighter planes?
 * ...that pole splitting is a frequency compensation technique that can be used to improve the step response of an electronic amplifier?
 * ...that "Majulah Singapura", the national anthem of Singapore, was originally a theme song for events held by Singapore's City Council during colonial times?
 * ...that the Invasion of Minorca, 1781, by Spanish and French forces succeeded, after more than five months, because the British defenders had no fresh vegetables?
 * ...that the conventional name of the Darius Painter, an Apulian red-figure vase painter, is derived from his name vase, which carries the depiction of Darius the Great of Persia?
 * ...that the community of West Union, Oregon, has the oldest Baptist church west of the Rocky Mountains?
 * ...that actor Ben Kingsley has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming film reportedly inspired by the life of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Guru of Sex?
 * ...that the Joshua Hendy Iron Works - a struggling business with only 60 employees by the late 1930s - ended World War II having supplied the engines to almost 30% of America's 2,700 Liberty ships (pictured)?
 * ...that French winemakers in Jurançon once promoted their white Manseng wines with the slogan "Manseng means Jurançon means Sex"?
 * ...that the phrase dental hygiene is credited to Alfred Fones who founded the first dental hygiene school and whose cousin was the first qualified dental hygienist?
 * ...that Peter Baume, Chancellor of the Australian National University from 1994 to 2006, was elected to the Australian Senate for the Liberal Party of Australia in the 1974 federal election?
 * ...that the permanent headquarters of the United States Department of Justice was built 65 years after the creation of the department&mdash;and 146 years after the creation of the post of Attorney General?
 * ...that German-born anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker's book Pioneers of American Freedom traces the origins of American anarchism back to Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln?
 * ...that the star Alpha Persei is also known by the traditional name of Mirfak, Arabic for 'elbow', and the name Hinali'i, commemorating a tsunami in Hawaiian folklore?
 * ...that George Orwell spent a month in September 1931 living rough in a Hopper hut?