Wikipedia:Recent additions 201

Did you know...

 * ...that in Greek mythology Gorgythion was one of the fifty sons of King Priam of Troy?
 * ...that the Comanche War Chief Santa Anna was the first Comanche or Kiowa Chief to visit Washington D.C. in 1847, and was so overwhelmed with what he saw, he immediately advised his people to seek peace?
 * ...that three of the 18 holes at the Powelton Club's golf course (pictured) had to be redesigned a year after they were built when the land they were on was condemned to build U.S. Route 9W?
 * ...that Józef Haller de Hallenburg was one of the key shapers of scouting in Poland?
 * ...that in order to combat the erosion of fan loyalty towards professional teams, the Nashville Predators employ customer relationship management techniques to collect information about the demographics and psychographics of their fans?
 * ...that Almaco jack have been known to remove parasites on their skin by rubbing up against scuba divers?
 * ...that footballer John Hewitt scored the fastest recorded goal in Scottish Cup history, timed at 9.6 seconds?
 * ...that for establishing the first successful sugar beet processing plant in the United States, E. H. Dyer became known as the father of the American beet sugar industry?
 * ...that the 1951 Gold Coast legislative election was the first to be held in Africa under universal suffrage?
 * ...that Australian Ingo Renner has won the World Gliding Championships four times and set two world gliding records?
 * ...that so many squatters were living on the property of José Joaquin Estudillo (pictured) that it became known as "Squatterville"?
 * ...that root nodules on the plant Myrica cerifera fix nitrogen faster than some legumes?
 * ...that HMS Chanticleer had been scheduled to survey South America, but was in such poor condition that the Beagle was selected instead for the 1831 voyage that established Charles Darwin as a naturalist?
 * ...that Nazi Germany planned to starve tens of millions of Jews, Poles and Soviet citizens in order to simultaneously eliminate "surplus population" and feed German citizens and their army?
 * ...that Opera Jawa is a 2006 Indonesian-Austrian musical film that features traditional Javanese classical music and dance in a setting of opera, inspired by the Ramayana?
 * ...that offensive tackle Rich Strenger told reporters that Michigan Wolverines football coach Bo Schembechler ran a more strenuous training camp at the college level than he experienced in the NFL with the Detroit Lions?
 * ...that E.Wedel (pictured), a famous confectionery company of Poland, retained its logo even under the Polish communist government?
 * ...that Leonard Bernstein created controversy with his remarks about Glenn Gould during a New York Philharmonic concert on April 6, 1962?
 * ...that Ripley's Believe It or Not! "Wild Goose Chase" feature on J. Dewey Soper's six year, 30,000 mile search for the Blue Goose nesting grounds earned him the nickname "Blue Goose Soper"?
 * ...that Comanche War Chief Carne Muerte's name means "Dead Meat" in Spanish?
 * ...that William B. Hornblower was nominated for a seat on the United States Supreme Court in 1893, but his nomination failed, largely due to a feud with Senator David B. Hill?
 * ...that over 10,000 people attended the 1876 dedication of the Confederate Monument in Bowling Green, Kentucky?
 * ...Hungarian company Zsolnay (its fountain pictured), known for its manufacture of decorative tiles, became the largest company in Austro-Hungary prior to WWI?
 * ...that the poisonous mushroom Russula emetica, commonly known as "the sickener", is hoarded and eaten by the Red Squirrel?
 * ...that preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office, an example being the United States presidential primary?
 * ...that the Belgian cartoonist Karl Meersman was at first disqualified from a drawing contest at age thirteen, because the jury did not believe his drawing had been created by a child?
 * ...that The Drug Years, a documentary chronicling illicit drug use in the United States, features never-before-seen film of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' acid-fueled bus trip across America in 1964?
 * ...that Ian Browne and Tony Marchant won the tandem track cycling at the 1956 Olympics after being eliminated?
 * ...that the Unknown Confederate Soldier Monument (pictured) in Hart County, Kentucky is unique for being built with geodes, and for honoring a Louisiana soldier who died accidentally by his own rifle?
 * ...that Mayor Frank E. Rodgers served 48 years as mayor of Harrison, New Jersey, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-serving mayor in United States history?
 * ...that James A. Forbes planned to build the first flour mill in California, but delays in construction allowed competitors to flourish, driving down prices and forcing him into bankruptcy?
 * ...that for a pure wave motion in fluid dynamics, the Stokes drift velocity is the average velocity when following a specific fluid parcel as it travels with the fluid flow.
 * ...that Jack Brod was the last remaining original tenant of the Empire State Building, New York City, at the time of his death in 2008?
 * ...that Earnshaw Cook performed his early baseball statistics calculations with a mechanical calculator and slide rule, the latter of which resides in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum?
 * ...that an abundance of olivine in a nearby collapsed cinder cone gives the sand of Mahana Beach (pictured) a distinctive green coloration?
 * ...that Helmut Dähne holds the official motorcycle lap record on the 20.8 km long Nordschleife track in Germany since 1988?
 * ...that the ten Revenue Marine cutters authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1790 – including the Vigilant, Active, General Green, Massachusetts, Scammel, South Carolina and Eagle – comprised the U.S. Federal government's first "armed force afloat"?
 * ...that the Latin familia must be translated as "household" rather than as "family", since neither classical Greek or Latin had a word corresponding to modern-day family?
 * ...that the 2003 book Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by ethnohistorian Matthew Restall debunks seven popularly held beliefs about how Spanish conquistadors conquered the Aztecs?
 * ...that when politics threatened funding for the Fuji class battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1893, Emperor Meiji offered to pay from the expenses of the Imperial Household himself?
 * ...that the first radio network in North America was created by the Canadian National Railway in 1923?
 * ...that the 1937 film Natalka Poltavka (poster pictured), directed by Vasyl Avramenko, was the first Ukrainian language film produced in the United States?
 * ...that Entoloma sinuatum was implicated in 10% of mushroom poisonings in Europe in the mid-20th century?
 * ...that Walter Bowart was a proponent of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, the writer of a seminal book on mind control, as well as a prolific publisher and editor of both newspapers and magazines?
 * ...that in the process of carbonic maceration, which is used to produce Beaujolais wine, fermentation takes place inside the individual grape berry?
 * ...that William Larkin was identified as the Jacobean era portraitist formerly known as "The Curtain Master" by art historian Roy Strong?
 * ...that 250,000 kilometers (150,000 miles) of roads complement air, pipeline, hiking trail, and waterway travel to provide transportation in Saskatchewan?
 * ...that straight pool champion "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore earned his nickname by appearing at a professional tournament wearing the required tuxedo, but nevertheless sporting cowboy boots and his signature white Stetson hat?
 * ...that during the Revolt of the Admirals, future four-star admiral Charles D. Griffin (pictured) wrote the congressional testimony whose delivery caused Chief of Naval Operations Louis E. Denfeld to be fired?
 * ...that construction of Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area was the last project completed by the US Civilian Conservation Corps in the state of Georgia?
 * ...that Ruth Maier, an Austrian Jew who found refuge in Norway until her deportation and death at Auschwitz in 1942, has been called "Norway's Anne Frank"?
 * ...that Alice Stebbins Wells was the first female police officer in the Los Angeles Police Department?
 * ...that the film State of Play, which began principal photography on January 11, 2008 with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck in the lead roles, was originally set to star Brad Pitt and Edward Norton?
 * ...that Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers, who won a Grammy for writing the crossover song "I Swear", recorded an album in 1995 as the duo Baker & Myers?
 * ...that Clem Hill (pictured), batting with Roger Hartigan against the 1907–08 England touring team at the Adelaide Oval, set an Australian Test record partnership for the eighth wicket which stands to this day?
 * ...that the Italian wine Orvieto was historically made with noble rot but unlike other botrytized wines, such as Sauternes, the fungus was introduced after harvest in humid storage caves?
 * ...that Iranian dutar player and vocalist Qorban Soleimani is credited with inventing a new form of the ancient Azeri stringed instrument the gopuz?
 * ...that the Alvin C. York Institute in Tennessee, which opened in 1929, was established as a private agricultural school by World War I hero Alvin York?
 * ...that Scott Shafer, hired in January 2008 as the Michigan Wolverines defensive coordinator, started in football as a high school and college quarterback in Ohio?
 * ...that London's Army and Navy Club stands on a site once partly occupied by the house of the actress Moll Davis, a mistress of King Charles II?
 * ...that the Right Revd Graham Charles Chadwick served as a naval intelligence officer in World War II and was expelled from South Africa for anti-apartheid activism?
 * ...that The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul (pictured) was a manuscript translated, scribed, and embroidered for queen Katherine Parr by future queen Elizabeth I when the latter was eleven years old?
 * ...that Robert McGill Loughridge co-authored the English and Muskogee Dictionary in 1890, the first English dictionary of the Creek language?
 * ...that Cyclone Elita in January 2004 crossed Madagascar three times, an unusual event but not unprecedented?
 * ...that German record producer and journalist Uwe Nettelbeck changed the face of German rock music in the early 1970s?
 * ...that the SS Tararua sank off the Catlins in 1881, in New Zealand's worst civilian shipping disaster?
 * ...that Entally was home to the poor and the depressed, and a neighborhood where Mother Teresa started her active life in Kolkata, India?
 * ...that Philadelphia publisher F. A. Davis brought electricity to St. Petersburg, Florida, and founded nearby Pinellas Park after hearing a lecture on Florida's medical benefits?
 * ...that the northern half of Oklahoma State Highway 95 was once part of U.S. Route 56?
 * ...that St. Elizabeth's Church (pictured), constructed in memory of a Russian princess, is the only Russian Orthodox church in Wiesbaden, Germany?
 * ...that the director of the 1981 Spanish film Deprisa, Deprisa (English: Hurry, Hurry!) was accused of paying his cast in hard drugs?
 * ...that Academy Street was part of Poughkeepsie's first planned neighborhood?
 * ...that Prince Esper Ukhtomsky's account of Nicholas II's Eastern tour, Travels in the East of Nicholas II, was written in close consultation with the Tsar himself?
 * ...that after his father told him to "Get out and make a living and don't ask me for a dollar!", James Rand, Jr. founded American Kardex, which purchased his father's company five years later?
 * ...that the German Renaissance castle Schloss Brenz now regularly hosts concerts?
 * ...that intelligence analyst Richard Barlow was fired for claiming that the Pentagon had falsified information about weapons of mass destruction in 1989?
 * ...that the British First World War general Sir William Peyton served as Delhi Herald of Arms Extraordinary at the Delhi Durbar of 1911?
 * ...that Domhnall mac Raghnaill (pictured) was the founder of the MacDonald clan?
 * ...that according to market researcher Mintel on green marketing patterns, only 12% of the U.S. population can be identified as True Greens, consumers who seek out and regularly buy so-called green products?
 * ...that architect, former partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and founder of Lucien Lagrange Architects, Lucien Lagrange was a high school dropout?
 * ...that DBS Building Tower One, the tallest building in Singapore when completed in 1975, is an example of brutalist architecture?
 * ...that a tornado outbreak in 1974 caused Owsley Brown Frazier to start a firearm collection large enough for a museum?
 * ...that rugby union footballer George MacPherson was the captain of the first Scotland team to ever win a Five Nations Grand Slam?
 * ...that in 1792, Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith of the New York City Sheriff's Office became the first law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty in the United States?
 * ...that opera singer Jessie Bartlett Davis (pictured) volunteered to pay for the publishing of the parlor song I Love You Truly, the first song written by a woman to sell one million copies?
 * ...that the Felixstowe Fury was a five-engined triplane flying boat that crashed in 1919, the day before a planned 8,000 mile (12,900 km) flight from England to South Africa?
 * ...that the South Korean film The Host was recognized as Best Picture at the 1st Asian Film Awards, held in 2007?
 * ...that Othniel Charles Marsh named two species of the dinosaur Coelurus from the same quarry, not knowing that the bones belonged to the same skeleton?
 * ...that the Weekly Arizonian, first published in 1859, was Arizona's first newspaper?
 * ...that annual construction of the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun in Switzerland takes three weeks, fifteen ice workers, 5,000 m³ of snow, and 4,000 m³ of water?
 * ...that members of the Appalachian Volunteers were charged with sedition in 1967 for plotting the violent overthrow of Pike County, after the group's successful efforts led to closure of a Kentucky coal mine?
 * ...that American swimmer Nancy Merki began swimming at age 8 after contracting polio, and set three national swimming records at age 13?
 * ...that the Felbrigge Psalter (pictured) is the oldest embroidered bookbinding in England?
 * ...that Frank Loughran played for the Socceroos at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, scoring a goal in the first game his adopted country of Australia ever played in Olympic soccer?
 * ...that in the Polish-Austrian War of 1809, part of the War of the Fifth Coalition, Polish forces under Józef Antoni Poniatowski neutralized an Austrian force twice their size and liberated most of the Austrian-held Polish territory?
 * ...that New York City-born mathematician Judith Roitman serves as the guiding teacher of the Kansas Zen Center?
 * ...that pitcher Bill Zuber was the winning pitcher for a game played on September 21, which gave the Boston Red Sox 100 victories for the 1946 season?
 * ...that Edward Kennon replaced John S. Hunt, III, on the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 1972, and that both politicians were nephews of former Louisiana governors?
 * ...that there is a plan to shift Kolkata's traditional wholesale market in Posta (pictured), to the newly developed New Town?
 * ...that the Zarah Leander film La Habanera takes place in 1937 Puerto Rico but was filmed in the Canaries during the Spanish Civil War?
 * ...that the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary is Canada's largest wildlife refuge, covering 26,000 square miles (67,000 km²)?
 * ...that in the churchyard of Morwenstow Church is the preserved figurehead of the Scottish brig The Caledonia, which was shipwrecked nearby in 1843?
 * ...that the effects of head trauma on memory can be seen by the post-operative results of HM, a patient who has been unable to form any new long-term memories since a surgical procedure performed in the 1950s?
 * ...that the Rufous-crowned Sparrow, a medium-sized sparrow of the southwestern United States and Mexico, has a subspecies endemic to the Todos Santos Islands that has not been seen since the 1970s?
 * ...that the story of Stephen Foster visiting what is now My Old Kentucky Home State Park may have started in order to raise the sale value of the property?
 * ...that in the 1936 expansion of the Ronaldsway Airport, workers discovered a mass grave believed to hold the remains of soldiers who died during the 1275 Battle of Ronaldsway?
 * ...that the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track (pictured) in Lake Placid, New York was the first track to host the bobsleigh and luge world championships outside of Europe, doing so in 1949 and 1983, respectively?
 * ...that in 1924, English light heavyweight boxer Jack Bloomfield fought American Tommy Gibbons in the first ever boxing match to be held at London's famed Wembley Stadium?
 * ...that although the opposition gained 40% of the vote in the 1990 Mongolian legislative election, it only received 14% of the parliamentary seats?
 * ...that Queen Elizabeth II was given a Louisville Stoneware musical box at the 2007 Kentucky Derby?
 * ...that Victoriatown, a Canadian village bulldozed by the Montreal government in preparation for Expo 67, was used as a setting for Ha Jin's award-winning novel, Waiting: a Novel?
 * ...that Joan Ingpen and her pet dachshund Williams were the founding partners of the Ingpen & Williams classical music talent agency?
 * ...that the last ever train on the Plymouth to Launceston line failed to complete its journey on 29 December 1962 due to heavy snow?
 * ...that British Conservative MP Sir Adam Butler called in the receivers at the DeLorean Motor Company while serving as minister for economic development in Northern Ireland in 1982?
 * ...that Przemysław I Noszak, Duke of Cieszyn unsuccessfully tried to negotiate peace between England and France fighting the Hundred Years' War?
 * ...that City Academy High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, became the first charter school in the U.S. when it opened its doors to 30 students on September 7, 1992?
 * ...that neurologist Michael Ashby, an expert witness for the prosecution in the 1957 trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams, was widely blamed for its failure because his evidence was too indecisive?
 * ...that the Texas Tower lighthouses were based on the design of off-shore oil platforms?
 * ...that, after helping enact abstinence-only sex education as a school board member, Colorado state senator Scott Renfroe attempted to amend statewide comprehensive sex ed standards to exempt schools in his native Weld County?
 * ...that the Elizabethan Sir John Thynne (pictured) was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London?
 * ...that the Japanese make-up artist Shu Uemura gained critical acclaim for transforming actress Shirley MacLaine into a Japanese woman?
 * ...that Soviet literature declared Russian the "world language of internationalism", denouncing French as the "language of fancy courtiers" and English as the "jargon of traders"?
 * ...that the ancient Olympic athlete Milo of Croton reportedly drank 10 liters of the Calabrian wine Cirò every day, and that the same wine is still being produced today?
 * ...that in O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner, the United States Tax Court is presented for the first time with the issue of whether sex reassignment surgery is tax deductible?
 * ...that fake names and scenes were given to actors auditioning for roles in the upcoming episode titled "Confirmed Dead" of the fourth season of ABC's television series Lost to limit the leak of spoilers?
 * ...that the more than two centuries old Gun and Shell Factory at Cossipore, a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, is the oldest surviving factory in the Indian subcontinent?
 * ...that Charles Le Gendre (pictured), was born in France, married in Belgium, but died an American general in 1899, working for King Gojong, Emperor of Korea?
 * ...that during the 1917 Kazan Gunpowder Plant fire, its manager Vsevolod Luknitski died after flooding explosives with water, in order to save the whole city from a major explosion?
 * ...that a large coastal defense gun was temporarily installed at Oregon's scenic Cape Perpetua during World War II?
 * ...that of the members of Australia's Quietly Confident Quartet that won the 4 &times; 100 m medley relay at the 1980 Olympics, Mark Tonelli, Mark Kerry and Neil Brooks were either suspended or expelled by the Australian Swimming Union while Peter Evans refused coaching orders to train harder?
 * ...that the St. James-Belgravia Historic District of Louisville, Kentucky, the site of the 1883-87 Southern Exposition, has buildings modeled after London's Belgravia?
 * ...that space artist Jon Lomberg (artwork pictured) was Carl Sagan's principal artistic collaborator on many projects such as Cosmos and the Voyager Golden Record?
 * ...that Lyrcus is the name shared by two ancient Greek figures?
 * ...that Omar Osama bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, has proposed a 3000-mile horse race to replace the Dakar rally, canceled the week before due to al-Qaeda threats?
 * ...that the Tingari cycle in Australian Aboriginal mythology embodies a vast network of Aboriginal Dreaming songlines that traverse the Western Desert region of Australia, and is frequently the subject of Aboriginal Art?
 * ...that Republican Governor Bobby Jindal supported Joel Chaisson, a Democrat, to become the new president of the Louisiana State Senate?
 * ...that a successful experimental system must be stable and reproducible enough for scientists to make sense of the system's behavior, but unpredictable enough that it can produce useful results?
 * ...that St George's Church, Brighton (pictured) became so popular after Queen Adelaide started attending that in order to increase its seating capacity, master builder Thomas Cubitt built an extra gallery in one week?
 * ...that the trophy awarded to the first winners of Norwegian film award Amanda, at a weight of 4.5 kg (9.92 lbs), was difficult for some recipients to lift?
 * ...that future Soviet psychiatrist Yuri Nuller was sent into the Gulag for supposedly being recruited by the French secret service at the age of three?
 * ...that the Peter C. DuBois House in Beacon, New York was reused as a sanatorium for much of the 20th century?
 * ...that the unsuccessful, day-long Rebellion of Cao Qin within Beijing, China in 1461 forced the Tianshun Emperor to blockade the gates of the Forbidden City with debris stripped from the Imperial Waterway?