Wikipedia:Recent additions 204

Did you know...

 * ...that American painter George Cooke's Interior of St. Peter's Rome (pictured), measuring 17 by 23.5 feet, was the largest oil painting of its time, and still ranks among the world's largest?
 * ...that the physical and chemical properties of water are markedly different when it is heated under pressure at temperatures between 100 and 374°C?
 * ...that during the 2004-2005 vintage, the European Union wine growing zones accounted for nearly 70% of worldwide wine production?
 * ...that Ancient Tondo became so prosperous that the Kingdom of Brunei had to attack it and set up a rival settlement to keep it in check?
 * ...that Academy Award-nominee Tamara Jenkins spent time at Yaddo, the artists' colony in Saratoga Springs, New York, to write her screenplay for The Savages?
 * ...that the first Styxosaurus fossil to be discovered had about 250 stones in its stomach that it probably swallowed for ballast?
 * ...that the Owyhee Dam near Adrian, Oregon, was the tallest dam of its type in the world when it was completed in 1932?
 * ...that at Traverse des Sioux on the Minnesota River (pictured), Sioux tribes were induced to enter into an 1851 treaty, ceding 24 million acres (9.7 million ha) for seven cents per acre?
 * ...that the SIA Building, a skyscraper in Singapore, is the flagship building of Singapore Airlines?
 * ...that Sir George Everest, after whom Mount Everest was named, is buried at St Andrew's Church, Hove, despite being born in Wales, dying in London and having no apparent connection with the church or town?
 * ...that the case of Styllou Christofi, the penultimate woman to be hanged in Britain, failed to cause a public outcry because she, in the opinion of her executioner Albert Pierrepoint, was not very glamorous?
 * ...that the environment of Florida supports the breeding of 34 species of non-native fish, a higher number than any other place on earth?
 * ...that Master of Wines, David Peppercorn and his wife Serena Sutcliffe questioned the authenticity of Imperial bottles of Château Pétrus owned by Hardy Rodenstock, inciting a controversy?
 * ...that the 1996 TV film Hidden in America reminded viewers that on any given night, up to five million children in America go to bed hungry?
 * ...that the Tumblagooda sandstone contains the earliest record of animals walking on the land?
 * ...that the first postage stamps of Israel (pictured) were issued on May 16 1948, within 48 hours of the independent republic being proclaimed?
 * ...that while only three Avro Chinooks, Canada's first jet engine design, were ever built, it led to the very successful Orenda design that followed?
 * ...that Michel van der Aa became the first Dutch composer to win the prestigious Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1999?
 * ...that swimming Hall of Famer Harry Holiday won 6 NCAA championships, and set 7 world and 18 American records in the mid-1940s but never competed in the Olympics due to World War II?
 * ...that passing the Level 4 diploma program from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust is strongly encouraged before taking the Master of Wine examination?
 * ...that despite a requirement from the Michigan Legislature it connect three counties within ten years of its founding, after 21 years the St. Joseph Valley Rail Road had completed only 7.5 mi of track, all in St. Joseph County?
 * ...that halos commonly used in Georgian imagery of royalties are missing in wall paintings of Georgian monarchs (examples pictured) discovered at the Betania Monastery?
 * ...that American trauma surgeon Tom Shires operated on both Texas governor John Connally and gunman Lee Harvey Oswald after the assassination of John F. Kennedy?
 * ...that the Pickering Operations Complex, a high-rise telecommunication hotel in Singapore, has 8 refrigerating plants each with a capacity of 300 tons, and 16 control centres?
 * ...that Lepoglava prison (Croatian: Kaznionica u Lepoglavi) is the oldest and largest prison located in Croatia?
 * ...that Gay Talese's The Kingdom and the Power from 1969, about the personalities that shaped The New York Times, is credited with beginning the trend of books that report about the media?
 * ...that the only Carnegie library built in Washington County, Oregon, was the first Hillsboro Public Library that opened in 1914?
 * ...that the Academy of Music in Warsaw (pictured), the oldest and largest music school in Poland, is named after the most famous of its students, Fryderyk Chopin?
 * ...that Chiquibul National Park surrounds the ancient Mayan site of Caracol?
 * ...that Flora Solomon pioneered staff benefits programs at Marks & Spencer that influenced the development of the British National Health Service and Labour's concept of the welfare state?
 * ...that Billy Mercer became caretaker assistant manager of Sheffield Wednesday in October 2006, having previously played for rivals Sheffield United?
 * ... that SGX Centre, a twin building development in Singapore, was built at a location to be the gateway to the new downtown?
 * ...that the international ice hockey career of Art Berglund spanned five decades?
 * ...that sea otter conservation efforts have included successful translocations of sea otters (pictured) from Alaska to British Columbia and Washington?
 * ...that 1-methylcyclopropene, a synthetic plant hormone, is used to keep produce from ripening prematurely and to keep cut flowers from wilting?
 * ...that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that an employer lockout during a whipsaw strike is not an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act?
 * ...that Thomas Mullins was cashiered in 1815 for failing to have his regiment pick up fascines and ladders, contributing to the British defeat at the Battle of New Orleans?
 * ...that Caesars Indiana's The Glory of Rome is the largest riverboat in North America, and the largest riverboat casino in the world?
 * ...that Spanish anarchist Joan Peiró served as Minister of Industry in the Spanish government, and was later executed by the government of Francisco Franco?
 * ...that Emery Molyneux's 16th-century terrestrial and celestial globes (pictured) were the first to be made in England and by an Englishman?
 * ...that the USA's first locally designed jet engine, the Lockheed J37, spent ten years in development but was never used on a production aircraft?
 * ...that Murray Klein, the co-owner of Zabar's food market, sold Beluga caviar at a loss rather than lose a high profile publicity and price war with archrival Macy's, which was later dubbed the "Beluga caviar war" by the press?
 * ...that ethnographer Eric Mjöberg, leader of the first Swedish scientific expedition to Western Australia's Kimberley region, smuggled out indigenous human remains and that 90 years later, Sweden returned all 18 boxes of them?
 * ...that the first post-war survey of sympathy for Nazism in Germany was conducted in 1947 by the Allensbach Institute?
 * ...that the Bradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route and the first road connecting Riverside County, California USA to the Colorado River?
 * ...that of the fifty examples of Antonio del Pollaiuolo's Renaissance engraving Battle of the Nudes (pictured) known in modern times, sixteen are in the United States?
 * ...that with the 2008 bird flu outbreak in West Bengal, 16,000 birds were destroyed in Itahar, but health workers retreated from villages that refused to kill their birds?
 * ...that a New York appeals court recently ruled that Sneha Anne Philip died in the collapse of the World Trade Center even though she had been missing since the night before the attack?
 * ...that the Kaimai Tunnel running through the Kaimai Ranges is the longest rail tunnel in New Zealand?
 * ...that butterfly motifs in the textiles of Oaxaca reflect pre-Christian spiritual beliefs among the Mazatec people?
 * ...that Tomotley, a Native American historic site in Monroe County, Tennessee, is currently submerged by an artificial lake?
 * ...that Charlie Fonville broke a 14-year-old shot put world record by almost twelve inches at the 1948 Kansas Relays but was not allowed to stay with the other athletes because he was African-American?
 * ...that childless Emperor Lý Thái Tông built Hanoi's One Pillar Pagoda (pictured), which resembles a lotus in a pond, after dreaming that the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara handed him a baby son?
 * ...that Bion J. Arnold designed an experimental single-phase alternating current electric locomotive for the Lansing, St. Johns and St. Louis Railway, but a fire destroyed it before it could be tested?
 * ...that just three years after it was founded, the Spanish labor union Solidaridad Obrera became the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo?
 * ...that Hofstra University named its business school after former NASDAQ director Frank G. Zarb?
 * ...that the fungus Boletus luridus may cause nausea and vomiting if consumed with alcohol, or not thoroughly cooked?
 * ...that outspoken British judge Melford Stevenson once described a case before him as a "pretty anaemic kind of rape" because the accused's ex-girlfriend was the victim?
 * ...that Seattle's Cascade neighborhood (pictured), declared "blighted" in the 1960s after it was cut off from nearby Capitol Hill by Interstate 5, nonetheless contains seven designated Seattle Landmarks?
 * ...that Donald Cameron ('Taillear Dubh na Tuaighe') ("Black Tailor of the Axe") got his nickname after killing the rival Scottish Highlands clan chief in battle with a Lochaber axe?
 * ...that Japanese submarine I-17 was the first Axis ship to shell the United States mainland in World War II triggering an "invasion" scare along the West Coast?
 * ...that Thomas E. Latimer, a one-term mayor of Minneapolis, also played a key role in the landmark freedom of the press case Near v. Minnesota?
 * ...that after being captured from the French, HMS Donegal went on to capture two French ships at the Battle of San Domingo?
 * ...that Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich was saved from execution during the Russian Revolution by the writer, Maxim Gorky?
 * ...that underneath Mount Parish, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, lies a network of World War II air raid precaution tunnels (pictured) totalling 1.8 km in length?
 * ...that in 1802 John Francis Rigaud published a translation of Leonardo da Vinci's Treatise on Painting?
 * ...that publication of comics in Hungary largely stopped during World War II due to Nazi pressure?
 * ...that over nine percent of ballots were rejected for both questions in the British Columbia recall and initiative referendum, 1991?
 * ...that among the students of Polish pianist Aleksander Michałowski was Jerzy Żurawlew, who founded the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competitions in 1927?
 * ... that Skerryvore, off the west coast of Scotland, considered by some to be the world's most graceful lighthouse, was built by an uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson?
 * ...that St Mary's Church, Widnes has a wayside pulpit (pictured) incorporated into its boundary wall?
 * ...that American film maker John Korty’s studio in Marin County inspired George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to establish studios in the San Francisco Bay Area?
 * ...that Omaha, Nebraska pioneer gambler Dan Allen was buried with his madam girlfriend under a concrete slab with columns resembling bedposts?
 * ...that the Athina B became a temporary tourist attraction after becoming beached at an English seaside town?
 * ...that two-time Olympic diving gold medalist Bob Webster won his first collegiate diving title for a junior college with no pool, training off a board in his coach's back-yard sand pit?
 * ...that, at his death, Charlesworth Samuel was one of only two sitting Members of Parliament who attended the first session of the Parliament of Antigua and Barbuda in 1981?
 * ...that voice announcer Bob LeMond, who announced on the original, lost pilot episode of I Love Lucy, had to re-record his original lines for the show once the episode was rediscovered in the early 2000s?
 * ...that in his Nuova Cronica (illustration pictured), the 14th century Florentine banker Giovanni Villani described the destruction of the original Ponte Vecchio bridge during the flood of November 4, 1333?
 * ...that leading Canadian human rights activist Kalmen Kaplansky died in 1997 on International Human Rights Day?
 * ...that Noble Ellington, a veteran member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature from Winnsboro in the northeastern portion of his state, is involved in legal action so that his wife may continue to serve as his legislative secretary?
 * ...that Jesse Lowe, the first mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, is credited with naming the city after the local Native American Omaha Tribe?
 * ...that the only New Deal housing project with spacious, wide-open areas was Lockefield Gardens?
 * ...that the Santa Cruz sheep breed numbers less than 200 individual animals?
 * ...that Russian critics considered Armenian actor and poet Petros Adamian one of the best tragedians of the world for his interpretations of Hamlet and Othello?
 * ...that Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (pictured) was the first British princess to marry a commoner in over five hundred years?
 * ...that Boletus pulcherrimus, a large red and brown pored mushroom from California and New Mexico, stains dark blue when cut or bruised?
 * ...that award-winning financial analyst Dana Telsey was first hired at a mutual fund company after her mother met a former neighbor on the street and asked him "Can you give Dana a job?"
 * ...that sparkling wine was produced in the Languedoc wine region of Limoux long before it was produced in Champagne?
 * ...that an engineer for the Michigan United Railways devised a special shoe which allowed the motorman to cut ice build-up on the third rail, in response to Michigan's harsh winters?
 * ...that the tilted trees in Canada's Taiga Shield, caused by repeated freezing and thawing of the shallow soil's permafrost, have been likened to a "drunken forest"?
 * ...that American Judge Herbert Jay Stern, who served on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, presided over a jury trial in the U.S. court for Berlin, Germany, which was the subject of the book and movie Judgment in Berlin?
 * ...that when Canterbury Presbyterian Church (pictured) closed in 2004, its congregants were absorbed by a nearby church that had split from Canterbury twice in its 178-year history?
 * ...that director Li Yu's Fish and Elephant is often considered the first lesbian-themed film to come out of mainland China?
 * ...that the Sumter-class attack transports USS Warren (APA-53), and USS Wayne (APA-54) collectively earned 11 battle stars for WWII service and were both converted postwar into container ships?
 * ...that Arsenio Lacson was the first person to be elected to three terms as mayor of Manila?
 * ...that Czar Peter I of Russia not only stayed as a blacksmith's personal houseguest at what is now called the Czar Peter House in Zaandam, but also paid a widow boarding there to move out so there would be room for him?
 * ...that Barton Academy in Mobile was the first public school in the U.S. state of Alabama?
 * ...that Canadian biochemist Archibald Macallum used measurements of ionic concentrations in blood sera to argue for the ancient marine origin of all vertebrates?
 * ...that the sarcophagus of King Gustav I of Sweden and his consorts at Uppsala Cathedral (pictured) had once been confiscated by authorities in Antwerp because the Flemish sculptor Willem Boy was in debt?
 * ...that Leonard Skierski was one of fourteen Polish generals to be murdered by the NKVD in the Katyn massacre of 1940?
 * ...that the network of railways in Plymouth, England, once served 28 stations, but today just six stations remain in use?
 * ...that the first Lutheran church in Omaha, Nebraska became the largest Lutheran congregation in the United States by the 1920s?
 * ...that visitors to James Whitcomb Riley's boyhood home inspired Riley to write many of his poems, including Little Orphant Annie?
 * ...that Pandora Jewelry's charm bracelets feature a patented thread system that allows beads to be evenly spaced across the band?
 * ...that the disappearance of jellyfish from Kāne'ohe Bay has generated concerns about maintenance of the local yellowtail scad population?
 * ...that the 18th-century artist William Peters regretted the erotic works he had painted (example pictured) when he became an Anglican minister later in his life?
 * ...that the construction of the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home was paid for by the owner's contract to supply hardtack to Union troops in the American Civil War?
 * ...that Gregorio Perfecto High School is named after the politician, Gregorio Perfecto, who signed the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines with his own blood?
 * ...that Thomas Masterman Hardy's first command was HMS Mutine, a ship he had himself captured at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife?
 * ...that, according to legend, the Northumbrian princess and saint Osana's grave is said to have trapped the concubine of the priest of the church in which she was buried?