Wikipedia:Recent additions 200

Did you know...

 * ...that British-American philanthropist Rhoda Pritzker reportedly wore a life preserver on her entire trans-Atlantic voyage to the United States in 1939 due to the threat of German U-boat attacks?
 * ...that the Italian government submitted the Medici villas (pictured) in Tuscany for designation as a World Heritage Site in 2006?
 * ...that one of the most important advances in psychology in the medieval Muslim world was the establishment of the first psychiatric hospitals?
 * ...that in Slavic vampire folklore, vampires could take the form of butterflies?
 * ...that because of the laws pertaining to birth aboard aircraft and ships, that it is possible for a person born in a British ship, anchored at a United States port, with a Chinese father and a Turkish mother, to have quadruple nationality?
 * ...that German-born Guenther Podola was the last man to be hanged in Britain for killing a police officer?
 * ...that the Koitsenko were the honorary elite of the Kiowa dog soldiers, who tribal lore says called themselves that because they had dreams or visions of dogs?
 * ...that the genus Entomocorus includes a catfish species that lives only one year?
 * ...that in the year 1214, the Scot Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill, Lord of Kintyre, stole the treasures of Derry from its monastery?
 * ...that Independence Day Award is the highest state award given by the Government of Bangladesh?
 * ...that dhakis (pictured), traditional Bengali drummers, kill more than 40,000 egrets, pheasants, herons and open bill storks every year to decorate their instruments with feathers?
 * ...that British Conservative politician Sir John Loveridge published poetry and exhibited paintings and sculpture after serving 13 years as a member of Parliament?
 * ...that the Aboriginal Community Court is an Australian court which aims to reduce the overrepresentation of aboriginal criminal offenders in the justice system?
 * ...that because of Canada's controversial cancellation of the Avro Arrow, 428 All Weather Fighter Squadron of the RCAF was disbanded on June 1, 1961?
 * ...that New York Giants quarterback Harry Newman threw the first touchdown pass in an NFL Championship Game 75 years ago in the 1933 NFL Championship Game against the Chicago Bears?
 * ...that less than two months after showing what would become the dress of the season for Spring 2006, Roland Mouret split from his backers and took a two-year hiatus from the fashion industry?
 * ...that when San Francisco–based photographer William Rulofson fell to his death, he was heard to have exclaimed, "I am killed"?
 * ...that the Pea Island Life-Saving Station (pictured) on the Outer Banks of North Carolina was the first station of the United States Life-Saving Service to be staffed entirely by an African American crew?
 * ...that the passing lanes of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, California's first freeway, were paved in a different color to encourage drivers to stay in their lanes?
 * ...that Terminonatator ponteixensis is the type and only species described for Terminonatator, a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur from Late Cretaceous of Saskatchewan, Canada?
 * ...that the Cohocksink Creek was once the boundary between two Pennsylvania towns and now runs beneath the streets of the Philadelphia neighborhood of Northern Liberties?
 * ...that 2002's Hurricane Elida was the first hurricane to be observed by the MERIS sensor aboard the ESA's satellite Envisat?
 * ...that the former chief architect of Yerevan, Arthur Meschian, was also one of the founders of Armenian rock?
 * ...that London's Gresham Club (1843-1991) was named after Sir Thomas Gresham, an Elizabethan merchant?
 * ...that violent, porno-chic fashion photography in French and Italian Vogue influenced the sexualized glamor of cosmetics in the 1970s?
 * ...that the Roman Temple of Évora (pictured) in Portugal, was used as a butcher shop for nearly 500 years and thus survived destruction?
 * ...that the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway was San Francisco's first electric streetcar company?
 * ...that the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track constructed for the 1976 Winter Olympics was the first combination track that later served as a model for future tracks of its kind?
 * ...that only the shorter of the two Berks and Hants Railway lines actually entered Hants, the longer being entirely in the county of Berks?
 * ...that Danish film director Pernille Fischer Christensen's first feature film, about the relationship between a beauty shop owner and a transvestite, won a Silver Bear prize at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival?
 * ...that the type specimen of Dromicosuchus had damage to its jaw and neck that may have been inflicted by the teeth of the large carnivore it was found underneath?
 * ...that Tommy Johnson holds the record for the most goals scored by a Manchester City player in a single season?
 * ...that Solomon Bibo was a Prussian-born Jew who became the equivalent of tribal chief of the Acoma Pueblo?
 * ...that the scientific name of the common Australian garden fungus Aseroë rubra (pictured) means 'red disgusting juice'?
 * ...that Indian company Reliance Power attracted US$27.5 billion of bids on the first day of its initial public offering (IPO), equivalent to 10.5 times the stock on offer, thereby creating India's IPO record?
 * ...that the statue of King Louis XVI built in 1829, currently at the Metro Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, was endangered by the Second French Revolution in 1830?
 * ...that Midford Castle was built in the shape of the ace of clubs (♣)?
 * ...that Edwin Q. Cannon was sent by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a missionary to establish the first LDS churches in Sub-Saharan Africa?
 * ...that FPT University, a college in Ho Chi Minh City specializing in information technology, became the first private university in Vietnam when it was established in 2006?
 * ...that Sankey Valley Park, Warrington (pictured) follows the course of the historical Sankey Canal, England's first canal?
 * ...that Scottish film actor Moultrie Kelsall played a pivotal role in saving the dilapidated Menstrie Castle in Clackmannanshire from demolition?
 * ...that during the reign of King Beorhtwulf of Mercia, London, the chief trading centre of Mercia, was attacked twice, in 842 and again in 851, by Viking armies?
 * ...that football manager Yvon Pouliquen led two clubs to victory in the French Cup Final and relegation from the top division in consecutive seasons?
 * ...that the 1956 My Fair Lady by Shelly Manne & His Friends was the first album ever made consisting entirely of jazz versions of tunes from a single Broadway musical?
 * ...that after Comanche prophet Isa-tai promised a coalition of Native American warriors they would be invulnerable in battle and they lost, he blamed a Cheyenne killing a skunk for negating his magic?
 * ...that 2005's Hurricane Kenneth (pictured) brought heavy rainfall to Oahu and Kauai in Hawaii, enough for its name to be considered for retirement?
 * ...that the Japanese visual novel True Tears was adapted into an animated television series that is planned to consist of thirteen episodes?
 * ...that the One Child Policy of the People's Republic of China is based on Ma Yinchu's New Population Theory, which was criticized by the government after its publication in 1957?
 * ...that Stubbins Ffirth drank vomit and smeared bodily fluids over himself in an attempt to prove that yellow fever was not contagious?
 * ...that the death from disease in 951 of Gofraid mac Sitriuc, King of Dublin, was described as divine vengeance for his attack on the Abbey of Kells earlier in the year?
 * ...that the military operation against the dervish forces of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, commonly known as the "Mad Mullah", were described by a British politician as "the cheapest war in history"?
 * ...that the origins of Castle Lake (pictured) in California date to the Pleistocene Era (more than 10,000 years ago) when a glacier carved a basin in the location of the current lake?
 * ...that Milwaukee Hawks player Don Boven fouled out of six consecutive NBA games in 1952–a record that still stands?
 * ...that Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
 * ...that the Two Ladies was a euphemism used for the Ancient Egyptian deities Wadjet and Nekhbet, represented on the royal crowns of the merged Upper and Lower Egypt as a cobra and a vulture, respectively?
 * ...that Inuit fur trader Stephen Angulalik sold umbrellas and parasols at his trading post in Northern Canada, which were covered in white cotton and used by hunters to sneak up on sleeping seals?
 * ...that Kirill Eskov named a genus from the Linyphiidae spider family discovered by him in 1988 after Kikimora, a female spirit in Slavic mythology?
 * ...that Ong Kim Seng is the only Asian artist outside the USA to be admitted into the American Watercolor Society, having won six awards from the society?
 * ...that St Barnabas' Church (pictured), completed in Bromborough, England in 1864, has been called a "well-designed example of the work" of its architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott?
 * ...that the supermassive black hole at the center of the quasar OJ287 has been measured as weighing 18 billion times the mass of the Sun, six times heavier than the previous record holder?
 * ...that Ralph Heikkinen was the first All-American football player from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, being raised in the Finnish-American communities of the Gogebic Range?
 * ...that the new BBC Two sitcom Never Better has been unfavourably compared with other dark sitcoms such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Lead Balloon?
 * ...that the English historian Sir Raymond Carr was knighted for services to History in the New Year Honours List, 1987?"
 * ...that an Enoteca, from the Italian for wine library, is a shop that offers tourists and visitors the opportunity to sample local wines for a reasonable fee?
 * ...there is a belief that a dip in the waters of Papanasam Beach (pictured), one of the beaches in Kerala, washes away sins?
 * ...that the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul disaster, which occurred in 1890 off Kushimoto, led to strengthening foreign relations between Turkey and Japan?
 * ...that amphibious tanks which were used on D-Day were developed by Nicholas Straussler from Hungary?
 * ...that Umberto Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space pays homage to Auguste Rodin's Walking Man?
 * ...that the weedy scorpionfish can vary considerably in color as well as appendages depending on its environment?
 * ...that the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau was created by Henri Matisse himself in 1952?
 * ...that the landmark 1924 case Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England clarified English law on the obligations that a bank has to protect the confidentiality of its customers?
 * ...that Colorado state representative Joe Rice (pictured) resigned from the Glendale city council in 2003 when called up to serve in the U.S. Army in Iraq, where he advised the Baghdad city council?
 * ...that it is expected to take 17 years to design and build the first of Australia's new submarines?
 * ...that investment banker John P. Clay pursued his interest in Sanskrit literature by endowing the Clay Sanskrit Library, a 100-volume series of Sanskrit works translated into English?
 * ...that surface weather observations play a key role in determining aircraft safety at airports?
 * ...that Tommy Fleming was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005, one of five soccer players unanimously selected to represent overlooked players from before the 1950s?
 * ...that Abani Mukherji, co-founder of the Communist Party of India, died in Soviet captivity in the 1930s?
 * ...that Stanfield Wells was the first of more than ten All-American football players from Washinton High School in Massillon, Ohio?
 * ...that a coal mining spoil heap at Writhlington, England was the site for the discovery of fossilised remains of the world's earliest known Damselfly?
 * ...that Richard C. McCarty helped launch the "Decade of Behavior" campaign to bring attention to the importance of behavioral and social research?
 * ...that Charles Moir's first recruit as Roanoke College's basketball coach was Frankie Allen, who would eventually succeed Moir as head coach of Virginia Tech and become the school's first African American head coach?
 * ...that the extinct Greenlandic Norse language is believed to have left loanwords in Kalaallisut?
 * ...that Mohammad Shukri played for the Malaysian Under-15 cricket team at the age of 18, and for the Under-19 team at the age of 20?
 * ...that on August 5 1893, Cub Stricker (pictured) of the Washington Senators baseball team was arrested after intentionally throwing a baseball into the crowd that broke the nose of a fan?
 * ...that Adelaide Johnson, sculptor of a memorial to women's suffrage in the US Capitol, was married in 1896 by a female minister, with two of her busts as bridesmaids?
 * ...that the Directa Decretal (385 AD) was a strongly-worded letter written by Pope Siricius emphatically reminding priests of the perpetual celibacy required of them?
 * ...that graphic artist Rea Irvin's portrait of Eustace Tilly, a dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, appeared on the debut issue of The New Yorker in 1925, and annually each February until 1994?
 * ...that the vote by Stanley Forman Reed to join the majority in Brown v. Board of Education made the ruling unanimous, and helped win public acceptance for the decision?
 * ...that the escape of two teenage brothers from Poland to Sweden under a truck was depicted in the 1989 movie 300 miles to heaven?
 * ...that Karachi’s Lyari River is the major contributor to the annual discharge of 200 million gallons of sewage and Industrial waste into the Arabian Sea?
 * ...that Cliff Friend co-wrote "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", the theme tune of the Looney Tunes cartoon series?
 * ...that French aristocrats saw Jean-François Millet's The Gleaners (pictured) as an alarming glorification of the working classes?
 * ...that Chardonnay grapes are very neutral in flavor with many of the characteristics commonly associated with Chardonnay wine being derived from influences like terroir and the use of oak during winemaking?
 * ...that London's St James's Club (1857-1978) was claimed to be the only gentlemen's club with a room devoted solely to backgammon?
 * ...that the traditional song "Happy Birthday to You" was first sung at the Little Loomhouse of Louisville, Kentucky?
 * ...that before Nielsen BookScan began tracking point of sale data at bookstores, nobody knew how many copies were being sold of literary works that had entered the public domain?
 * ...that when World War I aviator Stephen W. Thompson downed an Imperial German Army Air Service Albatros D.III on February 5, 1918, he became the first American in a U.S. uniform to ever shoot down an enemy airplane?
 * ...that Sydney's Alexandra Canal is an artificial waterway originally planned to join Sydney Harbour to Botany Bay?
 * ...that when Manolo Reyes created and hosted one of South Florida's first Spanish-language newscasts in 1960, the station received a number of complaints from non-Spanish speakers?
 * ...that St John the Evangelist's Church, Weston, Runcorn, Cheshire is known as "The Choirboys' Church" because its choirboys wrote thousands of letters to raise money to build it?
 * ...that the largest private home in the U.S. in 1790, Hampton Mansion (pictured), was occupied by the same family until 1948 and is the first national historic site selected by the U.S. National Park Service for architectural significance?
 * ...that Louisville's Eleven Jones Cave is the only known location for the Louisville cave beetle, Pseudanophthalmus troglodytes?
 * ...that "Big" Alma Spreckels once successfully sued an ex-lover for "personal defloweration"?
 * ...that the church of Hagia Thekla in Constantinople, now a mosque, was rebuilt by Emperor Isaac I Komnenos as thanks for surviving a hunting accident?
 * ...that the six episodes of the Japanese original video animation series FLCL were produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which included Gainax, Production I.G, and Starchild Records?
 * ...that Hurricane Henri of 1979 was only one of four tropical cyclones in the 20th century to enter the Gulf of Mexico and not make landfall?
 * ...that Alameda Street was built by Los Angeles County, California as a "truck boulevard" to the port?
 * ...that Jeffrey Miles, a chief justice in Australia, once heard a case in which a woman sought damages for losing the opportunity to work as a prostitute following a fall in a supermarket?
 * ...that Mount Rumpke is a landfill, that at 1,045 feet above sea level, it is the second highest point in Ohio?
 * ...that American lyric soprano Helen Jepson was first soprano on the original recording of Porgy and Bess?
 * ...that Böttcherstrasse in Bremen, Germany, is an unusual ensemble of expressionist architecture?
 * ...that Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's La Grande Odalisque (pictured) is thought to be painted with between two and five vertebrae "too many"?
 * ...that Susy Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain, wrote a biography of her father at age 13 that was included in his posthumously published work, Chapters from my Autobiography?
 * ...that the Chief Industrial Magistrate's Court heard the first Australian criminal prosecution of a bank for failing to protect its employees from armed holdups by improving safety at branches?
 * ...that Towson (Md.) Methodist Church's membership split in two in a dispute over the American Civil War and didn't reunite for 90 years?
 * ...that Capitol Offense, the rock band of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has opened for REO Speedwagon, Percy Sledge, Willie Nelson, and even Grand Funk Railroad?
 * ...that Lorenzo Sawyer was the first judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit?
 * ...that the main house of the Thaddeus Hait Farm (pictured, right), is built of wood and stone, an unusual combination in a Federal style building?
 * ...that Blessed Veronica of Milan unsuccessfully tried to teach herself to read until an apparition of the Virgin told her that spiritual lessons were more important?
 * ...that Hurricane Ava was the first Pacific hurricane flown into by NOAA aircraft?
 * ...that since its original completion in 1972, the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in Oberhof, Germany has undergone three separate renovations?
 * ...that the Frauenfriedenskirche (pictured) at Frankfurt am Main (Germany) is an unusual expressionist church, decorated with monumental mosaics?
 * ...that two new amphibious warfare ships of Australia to be added to the nation's fleet starting in 2012 will each be able to carry an entire infantry battalion and up to 16 helicopters?
 * ...that The Expert at the Card Table, one of the most famous books on magic and card tricks, was written in 1902 by S. W. Erdnase, an author whose identity has been an enduring mystery for over 100 years?
 * ...that Robert Campbell Reeve, the founder of Reeve Aleutian Airways, set a new world record for the highest landing of a ski equipped aircraft at 8750 ft on Mount Lucania in 1937?
 * ...that the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque (pictured) in Istanbul features a cypress tree with a chain that was swung between two people who gave contradictory statements to determine which one was telling the truth?
 * ...that William Melmoth's 1711 work The Great Importance of a Religious Life Consider'd went through thirty editions and sold over 420,000 copies by the end of the century?
 * ...that Polly Horvath's award-winning 2001 children's novel Everything on a Waffle tells the story of Primrose Squarp, an 11-year old girl whose parents are lost in a typhoon?
 * ...that Hurricane Greg caused one of Mexico's highest rainfall totals from a Pacific hurricane?
 * ...that the original land deed requires that a jail cell from the original Dutchess County courthouse be preserved in the current building?
 * ...that the Nepalese Maoist Newar National Liberation Front sponsored the 'Miss Newa' beauty pageant despite having previously demonstrated against them?
 * ...that William Hogarth's The Distrest Poet (pictured) depicts a very poor family living in a squalid garret while the man of the family, who fancifully pursues a literary career without regarding his family's poverty, attempts to write a poem entitled "Upon Riches"?
 * ...that London's historic United University Club (1821-1972) is now occupied by the London Centre of the University of Notre Dame?
 * ... that Francisco de Quevedo's 1626 novel El Buscón, a major work of Spanish literature, was published without the permission of the author?
 * ...that Operation Camargue was one of the largest operations of the First Indochina War but it failed to snare the Viet-Minh's Regiment 95?
 * ...that in 1920, George Shima controlled 85% of California's potato market, earning him the nickname "The Potato King"?
 * ...that Think!, the Jeopardy! theme song composed by show creator Merv Griffin, earned royalties of over $70 million (U.S.) since it debuted on the show in 1964?
 * ...that Le chemin de fer, a piano composition by Charles-Valentin Alkan, is the first musical depiction of a railway?
 * ...that Hugh Denis Macrossan was one of the shortest serving chief justices of Queensland and that his brother and his nephew also became chief justices of that Australian state?
 * ...that Cyclone Inigo (pictured) caused more casualties before forming than after?
 * ...that R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wanted to produce Uncle Tupelo's album March 16–20, 1992 after seeing the band perform a cover version of the Louvin Brothers' "Great Atomic Power"?
 * ...that American mathematician and classical pianist Leonard Gillman received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1953, a decade after completing the required coursework?