Wikipedia:Recent additions 198

Did you know...

 * ...that the 1951 Polish-Soviet territorial exchange was one of the biggest border corrections in Europe after 1945?
 * ...that although South African rugby union player Werner Greeff scored only four tries, one of them was named his country's try of the year in 2002?
 * ...that the Canadian Order of Military Merit has three different classes?
 * ...that Siam Park, a water park under construction in Adeje, Tenerife, will have the world's largest collection of Thai buildings outside Thailand?
 * ...that, despite being added to California's state highway system in 1933, the portion of State Route 190 over the Sierra Nevada remains unconstructed?
 * ...that in addition to the 22 suspects listed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney in the notorious unsolved Black Dahlia case of 1947, about 60 people confessed to the crime?
 * ...that the Genoese troubadour Simon Doria was podestà of both Savona and Albenga?
 * ...that the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track (pictured) in Altenberg, Germany was constructed under armed security on order from East Germany's Stasi minister Erich Mielke?
 * ...that New Zealand rugby union footballer Ali Williams did not start playing the game until he was 17 years old, but had earned three international caps before he was 22?
 * ...that John "Jack" Frost, the highest-scoring South African Air Force ace of World War II, went missing in action on June 16, 1942, and his body and plane have never been found? - new article/collaboration.
 * ...that only 10% of the monuments to the American Civil War in Kentucky were dedicated to Union forces, even through the state produced 90,000 Union troops compared to 35,000 for the Confederacy?
 * ...that the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment of the Polish Army destroyed a large part of the SS Germania Regiment, in a night bayonet attack during the Polish September Campaign?
 * ...that Czech figure skater Petr Barna was the first to successfully land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition, at the 1992 games held in Albertville, France, earning him a bronze medal?
 * ...that in Greek mythology, Dorus is the name of the son of Hellen who was the eponymous founder of the Dorians?
 * ...that Colorado state representative Cherylin Peniston won two Fulbright Scholarships while a public school teacher?
 * ...that coach Harry Kipke had to travel to the home of All-American Maynard Morrison in 1930 to seek his father's permission to switch Morrison from a fullback to a center?
 * ...that the Roman emperor Probus may have introduced Syrah vines to the Côte-Rôtie wine region with cuttings from the Sicilian province of Syracuse?
 * ...that the tropical fish cleftbelly trevally (A. atropos, pictured) has no scales on its chest between its pectoral and pelvic fins?
 * ...that the first major international chess tournament took place in London in 1851?
 * ...that California State Route 174, which includes a historic 1924 bridge, was not designated a State Scenic Highway due to opposition by residents concerned about their property rights?
 * ...that Helen Abbott Michael, originally trained as a pianist, became a plant chemist and earned her MD after a chance purchase of Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics on a trip to Europe?
 * ...that Yvon Pedneault is the only person to have worked full-time for all three Montreal daily papers, as well as every television station that has carried Montreal Canadiens games?
 * ...that Lód, the most recent book by Polish science-fiction writer Jacek Dukaj, is an alternate history novel of over 1000 pages?
 * ...that a trio of pet Mexican Spinytailed Iguanas released on Gasparilla Island, Florida by a resident in the 1970s has led to a current population explosion of over 12,000 lizards?
 * ...that the Westinghouse Time Capsules (pictured) of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair were made of special metal alloys to resist corrosion for 5000 years, the time span of all previous recorded human history?
 * ...that the Soviet 16th 'Lithuanian' Rifle Division had more enlisted Jews than any other division in the Red Army?
 * ...that Lilstock church only holds one service a year, and the last marriage held there was in 1834?
 * ...that Ben Finney, one of the Polynesian Voyaging Society founders who designed, built, and sailed the Hokulea on its first voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti, wrote his thesis on surfing for his M.A. degree?
 * ...that the ticket lottery site for the December 2007 Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert featuring Led Zeppelin, crashed due to over a billion page views of fans seeking to purchase the 20,000 tickets on sale?
 * ...that yards from scrimmage, total offense, all-purpose yardage, and return yards are all American and Canadian football statistics to measure advancement of the football?
 * ...that the testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty, High Duke of Poland, in 1138, led to the fragmentation of Poland which lasted for 200 years?
 * ...that smocking (sampler pictured) is an embroidery technique that mimics the effects of elastic?
 * ...that the Soviet 383rd Rifle Division was originally comprised completely of miners from the Ukrainian Donets Basin?
 * ...that the Caltech hacker who used a remote control to alter the scoreboard at the 1984 Rose Bowl received college credit for the prank?
 * ...that radio broadcaster Scruff Connors hosted a continuous 36-hour program to raise funds for cancer research in 1980?
 * ...that the marketing campaign for the reality television series Paranormal State featured the first commercial use of directional audio in a billboard?
 * ...that only 42 players have scored five or more goals in an NHL game since the league started in 1917?
 * ...that Hilf al-Fudul was a 7th-century alliance created by various Meccans, most notably Muhammad, to establish fair commercial dealing?
 * ...that a steam-powered portable engine (example pictured) drove the dynamo for the first floodlit football match in the UK in 1878?
 * ...that the 1929 film The Surprise of a Knight is the earliest known gay, hardcore pornographic film in American cinematic history?
 * ...that the Byzantine Empire and the Mongol Empire formed an alliance in 1263, and 4,000 Mongol soldiers were dispatched in 1282 to help defend Constantinople?
 * ...that, according to the martyrology, the early 4th century Christian martyr Aedesius of Alexandria was tortured and drowned for striking a judge who had been forcing consecrated virgins to work in brothels?
 * ...that the Midwestern United States territory band leader Nat Towles' fear of losing his best musicians kept him from striving for national prominence in the 1930s and 40s?
 * ...that Oxford economist Włodzimierz Brus could not return to his homeland, Poland, in the 1990s, because his wife Helena Wolińska faced charges for her involvement in the execution of General Fieldorf?
 * ...that the thirteen episodes of the Rental Magica anime were shown in a nonlinear order, meaning that the order the episodes were aired in is different from the episodes' chronological order?
 * ...that the future headquarters of the European Central Bank will be located at the Frankfurt Grossmarkthalle (pictured), the former wholesale markets, an example of expressionist architecture by Martin Elsaesser?
 * ...that although Horse-eye jack (Carnax latus) generally fear scuba divers, schools of them have been known to swarm divers because they are attracted to the bubbles a person exhales?
 * ...that despite never surpassing 2,500 copies in circulation, the Jewish anarchist journal Germinal had a readership on four continents as a result of Eastern European Jewish migration?
 * ...that the BBC's Bitesize online study resource has sections in Welsh and Gaelic?
 * ...that All-American fullback Bill Daley is the only person ever to win Little Brown Jug games playing for both Minnesota and Michigan?
 * ...that in Frendak v. United States the court ruled that a competent defendant, who experts testified was probably insane when he committed the crime, cannot be forced to use the insanity defense?
 * ...that Indianapolis's Scottish Rite Cathedral (pictured) is the largest building dedicated to Freemasonry in the United States, and features many measurements in multiples of 33?
 * ...that many streets in Coconut Grove, Northern Territory, Australia are named after victims of the shipwreck of SS Gothenburg off the coast of Queensland in 1875?
 * ...that the German Agricultural Society sets the assessment scale for the German wine classification system?
 * ...that due to a lack of freight crossings of the Hudson River, trains must take a 280-mile (450 km) detour, the Selkirk hurdle, to cross into New York City from the south or west?
 * ...that the Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse, a cyclo-cross race held in Overijse, Belgium, was won 11 consecutive times in the 1980s by former four-time world champion Roland Liboton?
 * ...that the sources of William Shakespeare's Hamlet lie in legends which may trace to an Indo-European origin?
 * ...that Nigerian John Ezzidio, who was freed from a slave ship and landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1827, became the city's mayor eighteen years later, in 1845?
 * ...that All-American footballer Paul G. Goebel (pictured) recommended Gerald Ford to the coach of the Michigan football team and later urged Ford to run for Congress?
 * ...that Nicholas Medforth-Mills, grandson of King Michael of Romania, is third in the line of succession to the defunct throne of Romania, and future Head of the Romanian Royal Family?
 * ...that some animals interrupt their hibernation a couple of times during winter so that they can sleep?
 * ...that the U.S. Navy and NSF Plateau research station on the Antarctic Plateau, though operational for only three years from 1966 to 1969, measured the coldest average monthly temperatures on Earth?
 * ...that the sources of William Shakespeare's Hamlet lie in legends which may trace to an Indo-European origin?
 * ...that besides a mobile library, the Mobile Public Library also operates a system of libraries with eight branches and a local history and genealogy division with permanent addresses in Alabama?
 * ...that the Black Spiny-tailed Iguana (pictured) of Central America is the world's fastest lizard, being clocked at 21.7 miles per hour?
 * ...that State Route 70, a National Scenic Byway through California's Feather River Canyon, was constructed using an access road laid out by the Utah Construction Company when it built the Western Pacific Railroad in the canyon?
 * ...that the B-24 Liberator in which Air Marshal Sir Peter Drummond was travelling when lost at sea in 1945 had previously been the personal transport of Winston Churchill?
 * ...that Yve Lavigueur, who initially became famous as a member of a family that won the biggest lottery jackpot in Canadian history in 1986, later published a book in 2000 on how they lost it all?
 * ...that the atmosphere of Triton produces a surface pressure only 1/70,000th of that on Earth?
 * ...that the 1920 French film Le Menage Moderne Du Madame Butterfly is the earliest known hardcore pornographic film to depict bisexual and homosexual intercourse?
 * ...that it took an act of the Ohio General Assembly in 1894 to settle a property dispute regarding the Pennsylvania Company's use of the state-owned Walhonding Canal (pictured) lands for one of the its railroads?
 * ...that businessman Petr Kellner is the wealthiest man in the Czech Republic with an estimated net worth of US$6 billion?
 * ...that Peter Shergold is currently Australia's most senior public servant?
 * ...that the Marion, Illinois Tornado Outbreak in 1982 killed ten people and extensively damaged the town of Marion, Illinois?
 * ...that the main opposition party of Zambia, the United National Independence Party, boycotted the 1996 Zambian general election after its leader was prevented from standing in the presidential election?
 * ...that Russian lawyer Vasily Aleksanyan was imprisoned just five days after his promotion to the position of Executive Vice-President of Yukos oil company?
 * ...that German-American inventor Philip Diehl invented the ceiling fan in 1887 using a sewing machine motor?
 * ...that the Emir of Katsina in northern Nigeria Usman Nagogo played polo with the highest handicap of any African?
 * ...that during the War of the Spanish Succession, 10,000 French soldiers attempted to take Schloss Hellenstein (pictured), a castle near Heidenheim in the Swabian Alb, but retreated without firing a shot because it was deemed too costly to attack?
 * ...that a legend says that when Philip de Braose irreverently spent the night in a church dedicated to Saint Afan, he was struck blind the next morning and his hunting dogs went mad?
 * ...that in attempting to stop U-30 from sinking the SS Fanad Head, two Blackburn Skuas managed to cripple themselves with their own bombs, causing them to crash?
 * ...that although Bernard Natan directed and acted in hardcore heterosexual and bisexual pornographic films from 1920 to 1927, by 1929 he owned the giant French movie studio Pathé and later helped develop the anamorphic film lens?
 * ...that while neighboring Bordeaux estates were still looking for a cure to heal their infected grapevines, Château Pavie-Macquin was one of the first to begin grafting phylloxera resistant American rootstock on their vines?
 * ...that the question before the U.S. Supreme Court in Stogner v. California was whether ex post facto laws should also apply to sex offenders victimizing minors?
 * ...that Klevener de Heiligenstein, one of the few Alsatian wines that are not varietally labeled, is made from the Savagnin rose grape that is almost indistinguishable from Gewürztraminer (pictured)?
 * ...that Eddie Hill was the first drag racer to hold the land and water quarter mile speed records simultaneously?
 * ...that Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes survived the 1959 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crash almost uninjured, but was executed by hanging a year and a half later?
 * ...that Ukrainian realist artist Apollon Mokritsky played the significant role of introducing the former serf and talented artist Taras Shevchenko to the Ukrainian and Russian intelligentsia?
 * ...that Jerry Mathers as The Beaver, was one of the few stars of the classic TV series Leave It to Beaver who appeared in the pilot It's a Small World, which never aired as an episode within the series?
 * ...that Flight Lieutenant Eric Lock was the most successful British ace during the Battle of Britain, shooting down 16.5 German aircraft over the course of the 17-week long battle?
 * ...that the Peruvian playwright Juan de Espinosa Medrano wrote plays both in Spanish and in Quechua during the 17th century?
 * ...that Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia (pictured) shared his mistress with one of his cousins for almost two decades?
 * ...that college football's 2007 Holiday Bowl featured a bizarre play, involving a non-player staff member of the Texas Longhorn team?
 * ...that until the French Revolution, the Belgian village of Moorsel was divided into two distinct sections?
 * ...that one of the music scores depicted by Caravaggio in his painting The Lute Player is by Franco-Flemish composer Jacquet de Berchem?
 * ...that Dennis Robbins, formerly a member of the rock band The Rockets, was the first artist signed to Giant Records' country music division?
 * ...that the Society of the Friends of Peasants had significant influence on the Danish Constitution of 1849?
 * ...that the Battle of Kansas was the crash program initiated by U.S. Army Air Force General Hap Arnold to expedite construction of the B-29 Superfortress at Boeing's massive plants in Wichita, Kansas?
 * ...that British police detective Walter Dew was involved in hunting both Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen?
 * ...that a group of Lakota Indian separatists have announced that they are withdrawing from treaties between their tribe and the United States and are setting up an independent Republic of Lakotah (pictured)?
 * ...that Sicilian Mafia boss Giuseppe Falsone has been on the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy since January 1999, a list of criminals considered extremely dangerous by the Polizia di Stato?
 * ...that slain Canadian Mi'kmaq activist Nora Bernard was responsible for the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history?
 * ...that during the Bisbee Deportation, Phelps Dodge Corporation executives seized control of the town's telegraph and telephones to prevent news of the kidnappings from being reported?
 * ...that the Dewoitine D.33 was an aircraft built in 1930, set a long distance record in that year, and was used extensively by Air France?
 * ...that Italian aeronautical engineer Corradino D'Ascanio developed a record-setting early helicopter in 1930 and designed the original Vespa motor scooter in 1946?
 * ...that former Los Angeles Clipper center Josh Moore has signed a 2007 contract to play in Iran, in possible violation of U.S. sanctions against that country?
 * ...that the current Foreign Minister of Chile, Alejandro Foxley (pictured), served both in the cabinet of Salvador Allende in the 1970s and in the first cabinet after the restoration of democracy in 1990? This is false and was featured in El Mercurio as "the new Wikipedia error".
 * ...that Tang Chinese scholar Yao Silian was the lead author of the official histories of both Liang and Chen Dynasties?
 * ...that the Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne, based on the 1755 Lisbon earthquake exhibits Voltaire's rejection of optimism and Providence, and is considered an introduction to his famous work Candide?
 * ...that Hurricane Rick of 1997 caused coffee prices on the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York to jump 4.7% because it threatened coffee crops at a time when they were vulnerable to winds blowing them down?
 * ...that Tabasco sauce heir Edward Avery McIlhenny was an arctic explorer who in 1897-98 helped to rescue over a hundred whaling fleet sailors stranded at Point Barrow, Alaska?
 * ...that although former Michigan Wolverines wide receiver, Marquise Walker, was selected in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft, he was Jon Gruden's first draft pick as Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach.
 * ...that red and black were the most common colors of traditional Ukrainian embroidery (pictured)?
 * ...that the Boy Rangers of America was an early scouting program in the United States for boys ages 8 through 12, a precursor to the Cub Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America?
 * ...that Elise Primavera, author and illustrator of the 1999 book Auntie Claus, says she gets her best ideas in the shower?
 * ...that the Taiwan Cypress (Chamaecyparis taiwanensis) is treated as a species by Taiwanese botanists, and as a variety of the Hinoki cypress (C. obtusa) in the Occident?
 * ...that Cuban politician Raúl Chibás defected to the United States via motor boat to Miami after initially supporting Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution?
 * ...that through directing, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority founder Osceola Macarthy Adams helped to start careers of Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte?
 * ...that the year 1345 saw both the completion of the Notre Dame de Paris (pictured) and the writing of important works on Buddhist cosmology?
 * ...that LPI Media is the largest publisher of gay and lesbian material in the United States with its magazines alone having more than 8.2 million copies distributed each year?
 * ...that during the Spanish Civil War, Eduard Pons Prades forged his age so that he could join the Republican army at age 16?
 * ...that, after eluding capture for three months when his B-25 bomber was shot down behind enemy lines in World War II, Bob Chappuis was the MVP of the Rose Bowl 60 years ago?
 * ...that Jose R. Velasco's research on the coconut was instrumental in him becoming a National Scientist of the Philippines?
 * ...that the Fruit and Vegetable Hall at the Fremantle Markets (pictured) was rebuilt using recycled materials following a fire in 1992?
 * ...that Ade Schwammel of the Oregon Agricultural College football team was part of the 1933 "Pyramid Play", where a player stood on the shoulders of two others to block a kick, a ploy since banned?
 * ...that Dohäsan, last undisputed Principal Chief of the Kiowa people, was battlefield leader in the First Battle of Adobe Walls, one of the largest ever fought between the Plains tribes and the U.S. Army?
 * ...that the Battle of Kostiuchnówka during the Brusilov Offensive in summer 1916 is considered the largest and most vicious of the battles involving the Polish Legions?
 * ...that scientist and concert pianist Manfred Clynes used principles of neuroscience to develop SuperConductor, a computer program that can "perform" classical music with its own expressive intonation?
 * ...that the conclusions of the fact-finding McNamara Taylor mission (Maxwell Taylor pictured) to South Vietnam were drafted before the trip had started?
 * ...that French adventurer Marie-Charles David de Mayréna was supposed to negotiate treaties with the local people in an 1888 expedition to present-day Vietnam, but instead formed a new Kingdom of Sedang with himself as the king?
 * ...that the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in Victoria features a collection of busts of all 25 predecessors of the recently elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd?
 * ...that when the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad opened to the public in 1892 it took 14 minutes to travel the 3.6 mile (5.8 km) route?
 * ...that French anarchist Théodule Meunier, responsible for several bombings in Paris in 1902, was featured as a Sherlock Holmes antagonist in René Réouven's L'Assassin du Boulevard?
 * ...that Ukrainian impressionist Ivan Trush painted a number of portraits of famous Ukrainians, among them Vasyl Stefanyk, Lesya Ukrainka, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykola Lysenko, and Ivan Franko?
 * ...that the Society for Savings Building (pictured), a high-rise building in Cleveland, is widely considered to be the first modern skyscraper in the state of Ohio?
 * ...that portrait painter John Michael Wright painted both Charles II and the daughter of Oliver Cromwell?
 * ...that quarterbacks Billy Joe Tolliver and David Archer were teammates as backups in the National Football League, but competed against each other as starters in the Canadian Football League?
 * ...that the capture of King Louis IX during the Seventh Crusade prompted as many as 60,000 young shepherds in France to participate in the Shepherds' Crusade in 1251?
 * ...that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sylvan Fox was a classically trained pianist who attended, but never graduated from, the Juilliard School?
 * ...that Pampa Sarovar, the place in Hindu mythology where Shiva's consort Parvati performed penance to show her devotion to him, is a lake in Karnataka?
 * ...that Cuban economist Felipe Pazos was ordered to be executed by Raúl Castro in 1959, but was ultimately spared and allowed to leave the country?
 * ...that the Gothic Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (pictured) in Coimbra, Portugal, stayed abandoned under mud and water for over 300 years before it was rescued in an archaeological intervention?
 * ...that despite its name, the Chicago, Kalamazoo and Saginaw Railway connected neither to Chicago nor Saginaw?
 * ...that the first episode of talk show Shomoyer Kotha drew media attention when a former U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh jokingly commented that Bangladeshis sometimes tend to be conspiratorial?
 * ...that an Anglo-Allied army of 23,000 men failed to capture the Spanish port of Tarragona from a small Franco-Italian force of 1,600 during the Peninsular War, sending the losing general to a court-martial afterwards?
 * ...that the tallest building in Tulsa, Oklahoma is the 667-foot (203 m) BOK Tower?
 * ...that Patricia Kirkwood was the first woman to have her own series on BBC TV?
 * ...that the Soviet Armenian biochemist Norair Sisakian was considered as one of the founders of space biology?
 * ...that United States Navy rear admiral Charles A. Curtze qualified for the 1936 Summer Olympics as a gymnast, but the State Department prohibited him from traveling to Nazi-ruled Germany?
 * ...that the Polish painter Alexander Kucharsky is best known for his portraits of the French royal family, including the doomed Louis XVII (portrait pictured)?
 * ...that, in November 2002, autonomous regions replaced departments as the first-level administrative subdivisions of Peru in an attempt to achieve an effective decentralization of the country?
 * ...that the Prospect Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway is the only reference route in New York owned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation?