Wikipedia:Recent additions 25

Did you know...

 * ...that sow thistles are named because they were fed to lactating sows?
 * ...that Mary Hallaren was the first woman to join the United States Army?
 * ...that in Lebanon, the spice mixture Za'atar is thought to bring physical strength and keep the mind alert?
 * ...that Dutch magician Fred Kaps was the only magician to win the magic world championship three times?


 * ...that while mine owner Franklin B. Gowen was the president of the Reading Railroad, he was also the special prosecutor in the trial to break up the clandestine Molly Maguires society?
 * ...that Barbarossa is an award-winning German-style board game by Klaus Teuber from 1988 in which the players have to sculpt plasticine to earn points?
 * ...that the children's anime series The Littl' Bits has aired in Japanese, English, Spanish, Polish, German, and Italian?
 * ...that Nils Liedholm is the last surviving member of the famous footballing Gre-No-Li trio?


 * ...that the Nasrani Menorah is the symbol of the Knanaya community in South India, acknowledged as Christian Jews by the Vatican?
 * ...that NASA inventor and scientist, Dr. Pedro Rodriguez is the son of the renowned Puerto Rican salsa singer, the late Pellin Rodriguez?
 * ...that Italian mathematician Guido Castelnuovo secretly taught geometry to Jewish students during World War II?
 * ...that the UN estimates that 150,000 people died during the Liberian Civil War, with 850,000 refugees fleeing to neighboring countries?


 * ...that from 1908 to 1940, over 100,000 of the 447 different models for Sears Catalog Homes were sold in the United States?
 * ...that a Punnett square is a tool in genetics developed by British geneticist Reginald Punnett, and which biologists use to this day to predict the probability of possible genotypes of offspring?
 * ...that the Ochil Hills are a Devonian lava extrusion whose southern fault line is particularly prominent today as an escarpment?
 * ...that balancing the ticket has been an important part of American presidential politics since 1830


 * ...that the Meadow Vole is a common rodent species found from Alaska to Florida, and that the subspecies from Florida is endangered?
 * ...that Robert Koldewey led an archeological dig in modern day Iraq which he believed to be the location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for 18 years?
 * ...that Melissa McIntyre, best known for her role in Degrassi: The Next Generation made her television debut in the 1997 series, Timesweep, in which she played an extraterrestial being?
 * ...that Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev worked on mechanical linkage design for over thirty years which led to his work on Chebyshev polynomials?
 * ...that Leo Tolstoy's play The Living Corpse played in New York City in both Yiddish (1911) and German (1916) before it was ever presented there in English (1918)?
 * ...that weatherman Alex Deakin has a masters degree in astrophysics?
 * ...that the Russian avant-garde art collective UNOVIS signed most of their works with a single black square, partly as a homage to a similar work by their leader, Kazimir Malevich?
 * ...that school bus yellow is a specific shade of yellow formally adopted as the standard color for school buses in the United States in 1939, following a conference funded by the Rockefeller Foundation?
 * ...that an amateur baseball tournament held on August 16, 1933 in the Christie Pits, ended with Nazi-symphatisers unveiling a flag depicting a swastika?
 * ...that during the "dawn-to-dusk" publicity run for the CB&Q's Pioneer Zephyr on May 26 1934, the train reached a top speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h)?


 * ...that The Yiddish King Lear by Jacob Gordin is not a translation of Shakespeare's King Lear, but that the title is an acknowledgement of the roots of the plot?
 * ...that Ulysses S. Grant awarded Bolama to Portugal, who made it the first capital of Portuguese Guinea?
 * ...that when he was promoted to president of the Great Northern Railway in 1919, Ralph Budd was the youngest American railroad president up to that date?
 * ...that Boxcar is an Australian electronic band that sometimes performed wearing gas masks?


 * ...that the Slovak National Theatre hosted its first performance, the Czech opera Hubička by Bedřich Smetana, at its opening on March 1, 1920?
 * ...that in the history of neurology, Ancient Egyptians described the effect of high transection of the spinal cord in humans?
 * ...that empty nest syndrome is a form of depression that affects parents when a child leaves home?
 * ...that Sue Rubin, the subject of the documentary film Autism Is a World, was considered mentally challenged until she learned to communicate with a keyboard?


 * ...that Slovakia Summit 2005 between Presidents Bush and Putin will mark the first occasion when a sitting President of the United States visits Slovakia?
 * ...that Representative Edith Nourse Rogers sponsored the G.I. Bill and the legislation that created the Women's Army Corps before becoming the longest-serving woman in the U.S. Congress?
 * ...that The Patty Duke Show challenged the scope of special effects on television in the 1960s, with Patty Duke playing two roles?
 * ...that John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset was one of the most noted cricketers of the mid-to-late 18th century?
 * ...that Elmer Robinson was the 33rd mayor of San Francisco?
 * ...that Ferdinandea was a volcanic island near Sicily which was claimed by four countries when it appeared in 1831, but was destroyed by erosion less than a year later?
 * ...that Andy the Clown performed at Chicago White Sox games for 30 years, outlasting an attempt to replace him with two new mascots?
 * ...that Arthur Ronald Nall Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket - grandfather of British TV celebrity Lord Brocket - was a known Nazi sympathiser?
 * ...that Devils & Dust, the upcoming folk album from Bruce Springsteen, will be his nineteenth released album?


 * ...that Hungarian-born composer Mátyás Seiber was killed in a car crash while on a lecture tour of South Africa?
 * ...that a Pd/H2 electrode is a reference electrode similar to a standard hydrogen electrode (with platinum), but with the added ability to absorb molecular hydrogen?
 * ...that Hamilton Palace in Scotland was lent for use as a naval hospital during World War I, by Alfred Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton?
 * ...that Obolon CJSC, the largest Ukrainian brewer based in Kiev, was the first private company of the independent Ukraine?


 * ...that the ancient marketplace of Rhapta on the east African coast is believed to have been an important link in bringing the spices cinnamon and cassia west by merchants?
 * ...that Leonid Kadeniuk, the first astronaut of independent Ukraine, made his first space flight on NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997, and had been training for such a mission since 1976?
 * ...that Godfrey Ho, a Hong-Kong based filmmaker, has been credited under more than 20 different pseudonyms?
 * ...that the clapping game Mary Mack may refer to the Battle of Hampton Roads?


 * ...that the Western Railway Corridor, built in the late 1800s, links Limerick to Sligo through the West of Ireland?
 * ...that scotopic sensitivity syndrome is a form of dyslexia which makes it very difficult for a person to read black text on white paper?
 * ...that Playland, often called Rye Playland, is America's only government owned and operated amusement park?
 * ...that faculty members at the Stanford Institute for International Studies include Condoleezza Rice and William Perry?


 * ...that the first person to formally convert to Buddhism in America was Charles T. Strauss, a New York businessman, in 1893?
 * ...that a fire-control system is a computer which is designed to assist a weapon system in hitting its target(s)?
 * ...that girls in Poland wear red lingerie underneath their dresses during a studniówka (high school ball)?


 * ...that the poorly studied Evermannellidae family, or Sabertooth fish, have oversized, inward curving teeth suggestive of the sabertooth cats' teeth?


 * ...that Julia A. Moore inspired the character of Emmeline Grangerford in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
 * ...that the Asiatic Society of Bombay possesses one of the only two surviving original copies of Dante's The Divine Comedy?
 * ...that rugby union player Wayne Shelford suffered a ripped scrotum during an All Blacks match against France?
 * ...that the film David and Lisa, shot in black-and-white for just $183,000, was nominated for the 1962 Academy Award for Directing?


 * ...that the Battle of Appomattox Court House signalled the end of the American Civil War?
 * ...that Reginald Hill's novel "A Clubbable Woman" was his first story about Dalziel and Pascoe?
 * ...that tumor markers are chemical substances found in blood that arise from the presence of cancerous tissues?
 * ...that the Squirrel Nut Zippers were influenced by the energetic sounds of 1920s hot jazz?