Wikipedia:Recent additions 224

Did you know...

 * 19:38, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that although he wrote six dozen German songs (or Lieder), Franz Liszt (pictured) was accused by critics of never having had a proper grasp of the German Lied?
 * ... that the Young Australia League was initially formed in 1905 to promote Australian rules football?
 * ... that an original 35 mm film print of the 1987 film A Month in the Country was only rediscovered in 2004 due to the efforts of a fan?
 * ... that Henry A. Smith became the dominant landowner in what is now Interbay, Seattle, Washington by buying when so many others were selling during an 1855–56 Indian War?
 * ... that the St Nicholas Priory in Exeter is being restored with the same methods that were used 500 years ago?
 * ... that Sebastian Hardie were Australia's first symphonic rock band and released their debut album Four Moments in 1975?
 * ... that in order to force certain officials to leave office, Arizona Territorial Governor Lewis Wolfley‎ had their salary payments withheld?


 * 19:38, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that Raphael painted Felice della Rovere, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II, into The Mass at Bolsena (pictured, della Rovere in black), commissioned for the Apostolic Palace?
 * ... that 80% of all British banknotes are contaminated with drugs?
 * ... that Australian ophthalmologist Sir Norman McAlister Gregg discovered the link between rubella and congenital disorders in newborn infants after overhearing several of his patients discussing their illness during pregnancy?
 * ... that Congregation Beth Israel of New Orleans, Louisiana, severely flooded after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was flooded again in 2007?
 * ... that the source of the bomb that brought down Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21 near 100 Mile House, British Columbia in 1965, taking the lives of all 52 aboard, was never determined?
 * ... that session steel guitarist Lloyd Green played professionally in night clubs starting at age ten?


 * 21:33, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the waxcap mushroom Hygrocybe austropratensis (pictured) has been declared an endangered species by the Government of New South Wales?
 * ... that original stained glass from the Miller and Herriott House was removed to a restaurant near Disneyland, prompting one writer to compare the new glass to the wooden leg on Sara Bernhardt?
 * ... that the Guarijío of Mexico prepare an herbal tea, malo en el cuerpo (pain in the body), from Wimmeria mexicana, chamomile, and cilantro?
 * ... that at WWE's No Mercy (2005) pay-per-view, Randy Orton and his father, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, kayfabe locked The Undertaker in a casket and set it on fire?
 * ... that the sexual script is a sociological analysis of what leads up to sexual intercourse?
 * ... that young Heliobolus lugubris lizards scare off predators by imitating certain acid-squirting ground beetles?


 * 15:02, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the Pine Creek Path, a Native American trail along Pine Creek in Pennsylvania, was later used by lumbermen, then its course was followed by a railroad, and today it is a rail trail (pictured)?
 * ... that the New York Mets traded Mike Welch to the Philadelphia Phillies for Hector Mercado, a player who was drafted and traded the same day, only for him to play against the Mets on his major league debut?
 * ... that Japanese director Kei Kumai's Sandakan No. 8 lost the 1975 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film to a film by another Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala?
 * ... that International Association of Athletics Federations' third president, Adriaan Paulen, was part of the Dutch resistance during World War II?
 * ... that during the Great Depression, violence in Seattle's Smith Cove between longshoremen, strikebreakers and police ultimately resulted in the loss of much of the city's maritime traffic to the Port of Los Angeles?
 * ... that the 1932 Southern German football championship final between Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich was halted seven minutes before the end due to Bayern supporters invading the pitch?


 * 14:23, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that Mooers House (pictured), an example of West Coast Victorian architecture, is named for its owner who struck gold after years of prospecting in the Mojave Desert?
 * ... that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's second novel Half of a Yellow Sun won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction?
 * ... that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for a campaign of disinvestment from Israel?
 * ... that there are over three thousand miles of interstate highways and U.S. Routes in the state of Utah?
 * ... that the BEL Weapon Locating Radar was developed after engineers noticed that the Rajendra Radar could unexpectedly detect and track artillery shells?
 * ... that Drukair flights between Kathmandu, Nepal and Paro, Bhutan pass close to Mount Everest?
 * ... that Dustin Lance Black is the only writer on Big Love, a drama about Mormon fundamentalists, who was raised in the Mormon faith?


 * 19:47, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that according to Hindu mythology, the "first king" Prithu chased the Earth in the form of a cow (pictured), who eventually agreed to yield her milk as all the world's grain and vegetation?
 * ... that Childress, a small city in the Texas Panhandle, is named for George Campbell Childress, the author of the Texas Declaration of Independence?
 * ... that Sir Murray Maxwell, a celebrated Royal Navy officer, once spent weeks marooned on an island under attack from pirates following the loss of HMS Alceste in 1817?
 * ... that the brittlegill mushroom Russula betularum grows under birch, while the closely related Russula emetica is found under conifers?
 * ... that on the very same day that baseball player Hector Mercado was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies, he was traded to the New York Mets for Mike Welch?
 * ... that the Fujairah power and desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates is one of the largest operational hybrid desalination plants in the world?


 * 12:43, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the mother of Ivy Gordon-Lennox (pictured) announced in The New York Times that her daughter was not engaged to marry the Earl Winterton?
 * ... that early 20th-century immigrants to the United States are said to have seen New York for the first time from the decks of the ferryboat Yankee?
 * ... that Jacob Kielland, one of the richest persons in Norway in the 1860s, was also the grandfather of novelist Alexander Kielland?
 * ... that the Harwich Force, under Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, oversaw the surrender of German U-boats at the end of the First World War?
 * ... that in 1992, baseball player Steve Rodriguez was named one of the West Coast Conference's top fifty athletes of all time?
 * ... that the dark purple-brown mushroom Russula caerulea is edible and mild-tasting, although the cap skin is bitter if chewed?
 * ... that in the early 1990s, Surət Hüseynov successfully led a military coup d'état in Azerbaijan to become the Prime Minister?
 * ... that Buffalo Gap Historic Village contains fifteen outdoor structures and other artifacts which document West Texas life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?


 * 05:54, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that singer Elvis Presley (pictured) is said to have made an impromptu performance at Colonial Gardens in Louisville's Senning's Park, while visiting his nearby grandparents?
 * ... that non-heterosexual is an umbrella term, describing people who do not or no longer identify as heterosexual?
 * ... that Norwegian Parliament member, Minister of the Navy and Counter Admiral Henrik Steffens Hagerup was also the father of later Norwegian Prime Minister Francis Hagerup?
 * ... that in the 1981 Nepalese national election, one candidate was elected with just 3,137 votes, less than ten percent of what the top candidate received?
 * ... that the diporus subspecies of the Bothrops neuwiedi pitviper is one of the main causes of snakebite injury in Argentina?
 * ... that ice hockey goaltender Hap Holmes won the Stanley Cup four times, with four different teams, in four different leagues?
 * ... that Elaine Stritch's appearance as Colleen Donaghy, in the 30 Rock episode "Hiatus", earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series?


 * 22:59, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the red bolete mushroom Boletus rubellus (pictured), regarded as edible by some, tastes of soap?
 * ... that in 2003, North Korea became the first state to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since it came into force in 1970?
 * ... that Congregation Beth Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, was designed by Percival Goodman to mirror the barns of nearby Pennsylvania Dutch farmers?
 * ... that Francisco de Borja, a cardinal-nephew of Pope Alexander VI, died before learning of his excommunication by Pope Julius II?
 * ... that the margin of victory in the 1994 Alaska gubernatorial election was the smallest in Alaska's history?
 * ... that the design of the flag of Tunisia was altered slightly in its 1999 codification?
 * ... that abolitionist George Bradburn was with Frederick Douglass on an 1843 anti-slavery lecture tour in Indiana, when they were attacked?


 * 16:45, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that country singer Johnny Cash (pictured) covered the song "Johnny 99" by Bruce Springsteen and made it the title song of the album it appeared on?
 * ... that exhaled nitric oxide can be measured in a breath test for asthma and airway inflammation?
 * ... that Mason County, Michigan's courts used an old farmhouse until the county courthouse was built?
 * ... that though first deemed too young for the part, Aksel Hennie won a "Best Actor" Amanda Award in the title role of the Norwegian film Jonny Vang?
 * ... that the papal conclave of 1294 was the only papal conclave celebrated during the lifetime of the preceding Pontiff?
 * ... that the 2008 film Fifty Dead Men Walking is based on an autobiography by British secret agent Marty McGartland, who was later shot six times in an assassination attempt by the IRA?
 * ... that the Florida Railroad was the first railroad to connect the east and west coasts of Florida and the longest railroad to be completed in Florida before the start of the American Civil War?


 * 08:13, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the Spring Street Financial District, known as the "Wall Street of the West", contains Los Angeles's first skyscraper (pictured) and more than twenty historic financial buildings?
 * ... that the screenplay for the upcoming film Maya, starring Tamil actress Namitha, was written by Indian film historian Randor Guy?
 * ... that Royal Marine Matthew Croucher was awarded the George Cross for diving on a live hand grenade?
 * ... that pioneer aviator Bill Lancaster died in the Sahara desert exactly one year after the death of the man he was accused of murdering?
 * ... that cerebral vasculitis, an inflammatory condition of the blood vessels in the brain, is so rare that there are disagreements on how it should be diagnosed?
 * ... that Polish writer Gustaw Przeczek was a member of the Cultural Committee of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia in the 1950s?
 * ... that Seattle, Washington's 3.7 mi Queen Anne Boulevard is designated as a city landmark, but no street sign carries that name?


 * 00:52, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that Mysore mallige (pictured), a variety of Jasmine flower endemic to Karnataka state of India, is patented for its unique quality, attribution and reputation?
 * ... that Samuel Jackman Prescod became the first person of African descent elected to the Parliament of Barbados?
 * ... that Quang Nhuong Huynh's autobiography The Land I Lost won seven awards and was translated into four languages other than English?
 * ... that two games after returning from injury in 2000, Reggie Taylor became the second-ever Scranton baseball player to collect five hits in a game?
 * ... that Sphodromantis viridis, the Giant African Mantis, is kept worldwide as a pet?
 * ... that The Bryson, featured in Raymond Chandler's The Lady in the Lake and the neo-noir film The Grifters, has become a symbol of LA's film noir past?
 * ... that Noel Moore was the civil servant responsible for managing the decimalisation of the United Kingdom's currency?
 * ... that "Fart Proudly" is an essay about flatulence written by Benjamin Franklin?


 * 17:00, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the debtors' prisons in Accomac (pictured), Worsham, and Tappahannock, Virginia, have all survived to the present day?
 * ... that in Burkina Faso, Bwa people use masks made of leaves to represent their god Dwo in performative rituals?
 * ... that a low side window in the 12th-century St Helen's Church, Hangleton, may have been used as a hagioscope by lepers wanting to listen to services without entering the building?
 * ... that the semi-arid, mostly agricultural Cuyama Valley was once one of the most productive oil regions of California?
 * ... that a Bulgarian choir and the Irish singer Joanne Hogg contributed to the soundtrack of the video game Xenogears?
 * ... that former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack began his US presidential campaign in November 2006, nearly two years before the 2008 presidential election?
 * ... that in the 1920s and '30s, various countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Chile issued Art Deco stamps?
 * ... that film director Jens Lien said he was unable to sleep after first reading the script for the dystopian film Den brysomme mannen?


 * 11:01, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that Hughie Lehman (pictured) was the first ice hockey goaltender to pass the puck to his fellow players?
 * ... that while the 2003 Norwegian film Buddy was described as "simple" in the Norwegian press, a U.S. reviewer called it "overly plotted"?
 * ... that Nevada City's Nevada Theatre is the oldest existing theater building in California?
 * ... that William Hayter was secretary of the UK delegation to the Potsdam Conference, later Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and then Warden of New College, Oxford?
 * ... that the residents of Kasungu, Malawi, live in houses made from handmade bricks and straw roofing?
 * ... that film director Jens Lien said he was unable to sleep after first reading the script for the dystopian film Den brysomme mannen?
 * ... that John Liston's portrayal of the character Paul Pry was so popular, the image was stamped into butter?
 * ... that Juan de Borja Lanzol de Romaní, el mayor, the first of ten cardinal-nephews of Pope Alexander VI, crowned Alfonso II of Naples, the future father-in-law of Lucrezia Borgia?


 * 03:29, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the origins of chromatography can be traced to the work of Russian botanist Mikhail Tsvet (pictured), but his work saw little use until the 1930s?
 * ... that Lubbock attorney Warlick Carr filed some thirty civil suits within 24 hours against the Pecos, Texas, financier Billie Sol Estes?
 * ... that almost the entirety of the Australian stout whiting catch is exported to various Asian countries?
 * ... that Lithuanian artist Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas designed interiors for over sixty churches in the United States, Europe and Australia?
 * ... that according to the official English account of the Battle of Skerries in 1316, the English army suffered only one casualty, yet lost the battle?
 * ... that Laila Goody has been called "Norway's most awarded young actress"?
 * ... that the Crawford-Gilpin House is alleged to have once changed owners due to being lost as a wager in a poker game?
 * ... that the Plumed Whistling Duck eats by cropping vegetation rather than diving in water, as other ducks do?


 * 19:42, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that the Plumed Whistling Duck (pictured) eats by cropping vegetation rather than diving in water, as other ducks do?
 * ... that Merten de Keyser printed the first complete French and English Bibles in Antwerp?
 * ... that the Stephen Downing case, also known as the Bakewell Tart murder, has been described as the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history?
 * ... that MLB player Jim Adduci was traded to the San Francisco Giants by the Milwaukee Brewers, only to be returned one week later?
 * ... that the first amateur radio operator in India was licensed in 1921?
 * ... that Martynas Jankus, Lithuanian journalist and "Patriarch of Lithuania Minor", was penalized around forty times by Prussian authorities for his public activities?
 * ... that the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, founded by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, is the oldest Masonic Home foundation in North America?


 * 13:25, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that Charles Martin Hall (pictured), working as an amateur chemist in a shed, developed what became the Hall-Héroult process for extracting aluminium?
 * ... that India's Defence Attaché Brigadier Ravi Datt Mehta was killed in the suicide bombing on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and is being considered for the Kirti Chakra?
 * ... that in August 1934, Dillinger gang member Homer Van Meter was gunned down by police officers in Frogtown?
 * ... that the Blade of the Immortal manga authored by Hiroaki Samura was adapted into an anime series by Bee Train, Production I.G and Pony Canyon?
 * ... that the 30 Rock episode "Somebody to Love" was the first scripted series, which aired during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, to actually make reference to the strike?
 * ... that 29 percent of the population of Birds Landing, California can speak Spanish?
 * ... that Herman Bagger, a Danish immigrant to Norway, became a member of the Norwegian Parliament and mayor of Gjerpen and Skien?


 * 09:49, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that Samuel Johnson (pictured) bragged he could recite an entire chapter of Niels Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland?
 * ... that the Purple-crowned Lorikeet is colloquially known as the "Zit Parrot" from its shrill tsit call?
 * ... that the 17th-century Chinese world map Shanhai Yudi Quantu was derived from the work of Father Matteo Ricci of the Jesuit China missions?
 * ... that Viktor Nogin, mayor of Moscow during the Bolshevik Revolution, is buried in the Kremlin in Red Square, Moscow?
 * ... that in the Texas Revolution battle of Lipantitlán, Texian insurgents captured in 30 minutes a Mexican fort they described as a "second-rate hog pen"?
 * ... that aviator Jack De Garis faked his own suicide by drowning before being the subject of an Australia-wide search in 1925?
 * ... that a 15th-century bell from the Gokoku-ji Buddhist temple in Japan was sent to the U.S. in 1854 and rung when the Naval Academy at Annapolis won the annual Army-Navy football game?


 * 00:54, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that El Molino Viejo  (pictured), a grist mill built in 1816 by native Indian converts from the San Gabriel Mission, is the oldest commercial building in Southern California?
 * ... that John Palmer instigated a major reform of the British postal system in 1784, when his experimental mail coach run from Bristol to London took only 16 hours instead of 38 hours?
 * ... that South Ockendon Windmill had a pair of millstones powered by a waterwheel?
 * ... that Emperor Peter III of Russia was deposed by his wife Catherine and her friend Ekaterina Dashkova after he had made public his plans to divorce Catherine and marry Ekaterina's sister Elisabeth?
 * ... that comedian Al Madrigal’s first television series, The Ortegas, was dropped from the Fox Network schedule in 2003 before any episodes were broadcast?
 * ... that Norwegian politician Christian Birch-Reichenwald was brought in as a government minister by then-Crown Prince Charles in 1858, only to be provoked by the same person to resign three years later?
 * ... that the Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial depicts the historical event of an Union officer aiding a Confederate officer at the Battle of Gettysburg, due to both being Freemasons?


 * 18:51, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that after winning the 2002 Alaska gubernatorial election, Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter Lisa Murkowski (pictured) to serve the rest of his term in the US Senate?
 * ... that architect/engineer Sir Owen Williams returned part of his design fee for the Dollis Hill Synagogue because the congregation was unhappy with the finished structure?
 * ... that the buildings with the sign Silver Dew Winery described by Pat Conroy in his autobiographical book The Water is Wide were once part of the Bloody Point Range Lights on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina?
 * ... that Mark Christensen was a dancer, a pilot, a skateboarder, and a musician before making his filmmaking debut with Box Head Revolution in 2002?
 * ... that Quang Nhuong Huynh was the first Vietnamese to write fiction and non-fiction in English?
 * ... that Riley Hern was the first professional ice hockey goaltender to play on a Stanley Cup-winning team?
 * ... that the College of Letters and Science is the largest college of the University of Wisconsin-Madison?
 * ... that Pierre Abraham Lorillard was the first man to make snuff in North America?


 * 13:39, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ... that there are approximately 2,000 species of mantis (example pictured)?
 * ... that Ukrainian Cossack Grégoire Orlyk was a spy of the French king Louis XV, fought in the Seven Years' War, received a title of a comte and was promoted to the general's rank of Maréchal de camp?
 * ... that monocopters can have one rotating wing or have only one fixed wing and rotate entirely?
 * ... that English headmistress Olive Willis founded Downe House School, where her chauffeur-architect-engineer slept in her bathroom?
 * ... that the Condon Committee report into the Lakenheath-Bentwaters UFO incident in 1956 concluded it was likely that at least one genuine UFO was involved?
 * ... that following Australia's failure to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup, British pie retailer Square Pie produced a "humble pie" filled with kangaroo meat?
 * ... that the sixth emergency special session of the UN General Assembly ended with a call for the total withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan so its people could freely choose their political system?
 * ... that the Romanian poet Anatol E. Baconsky, who debuted as a socialist realist, came to depict the communist regime as an "anti-utopia" shortly before dying in the 1977 earthquake?


 * '05:24, 25 July 2008
 * ... that after Melina (pictured) stripped Torrie Wilson in a bra & panties match at The Great American Bash (2005), referee Candice Michelle stripped Melina and herself as well?
 * ... that there are approximately 2,000 species of mantis (example pictured)?
 * ... that a grand jury found Arizona Territory's "Thieving Thirteenth" legislature exceeded a US$4,000 legal limitation for operating expenses by US$46,744.50?
 * ... that Reinhard von Werneck gave Munich's Englischer Garten much of its current form by almost doubling its area and by creating a new lake, the Kleinhesseloher See?
 * ... that the world's first successful demonstration of laser surgery was held at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital in Melrose, Massachusetts?
 * ... that when playing at the 2008 NME Awards in support of their triple-nominated single "Flux", indie rock band Bloc Party were stunned by the scale of the gig?
 * ... that 30-year Seattle City Council member David Levine served as Seattle's acting mayor on over 250 occasions?
 * ... that diaphragmatic rupture can allow abdominal organs to herniate into the chest cavity and interfere with breathing?
 * ... that lobbyist Stephen Payne was caught on hidden camera in July 2008 offering access to senior U.S. officials in return for a US$250,000 donation to the George W. Bush Presidential Library?