Wikipedia:Recent additions 26

Did you know...

 * ...that the 1402 Korean Kangnido map fully depicts the Old World, from Europe and Africa to Japan, long before European explorations?
 * ...that actress Peggy McCay, now known for her role on Days of our Lives, first became popular as the heroine on Love of Life in 1951?
 * ...that in 1969 noted writer Norman Mailer ran for Mayor of New York City advocating New York City secession?
 * ...that Joseph Haines was a well-known London song-and-dance man, comedian, and eccentric in the 17th century?


 * ...that death due to the Parapoxvirus is one of the main reasons for the decline of the number of Red squirrels on the British Isles?
 * ...that Roman embassies to China are reported in Chinese historical accounts from as early as 166?
 * ...that United Kingdom corporation tax is charged with reference to accounting periods?
 * ...that Angel Ramos, the founder of the second-largest Spanish speaking television network in the United States, Telemundo, was orphaned at the age of 3?


 * ...Gilbert Stuart's famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington was given as a gift to William Petty, Lord Shelburne?


 * ...that although Admiral Robert Calder arguably saved Britain from invasion in the battle of Cape Finisterre he was court-martialled for his failure to win a more decisive victory?
 * ...that Disney characters will regularly appear in 3D on television for the first time in the children's television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse?
 * ...that the Panjdeh Incident in 1886 almost led to full-scale war between the British Empire and Imperial Russia over their competing interests in Afghanistan?
 * ...that a bass run is an instrumental break in which the main vocal or melody line rests and the bass instruments and line are given the forefront?


 * ... that the General Ban Chao led a Chinese military expedition to the doorstep of Europe during the 1st century CE?
 * ...that Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands appointed the task of guarding the royal palaces to the Koninklijke Marechaussee (Royal Constabulary) in 1908?
 * ...that Antonín Dvo&'s Cello Concerto in b minor was considered so great, that Johannes Brahms, the composer's mentor who had never written one himself, commented: "Why on earth didn't I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!"?


 * ...that the Williams X-Jet is a tiny flying platform that can carry a person for up to 45 minutes at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour (96 km/h) and heights of up to 10,000 ft (3,050 m)?
 * ...that the BBC coat of arms was adopted in 1927 and uses heraldic symbols to depict the various qualities of broadcasting?
 * ...that blues-harp, rather than a type of harp, is a style of playing an ordinary diatonic harmonica that originated in the blues in which the in-drawn notes are made primary and the blown notes secondary?
 * ...that England football captain Eddie Hapgood was forced by diplomats to give a Nazi salute before a match with Germany in 1938?


 * ...that a congressional reporter mistranscribed testimony about a U.S. nuclear test from the 1962 Sedan nuclear test, leading to fears that a nuclear weapon had actually been tested in the Sudan?
 * ...that tree frogs have been used as barometers because they respond to approaching rain by croaking?
 * ...that Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick in the 1953 FA Cup Final at Wembley, becoming the first player ever to do so?
 * ...that the passamezzo antico, a favorite chord progression in sixteenth-century Europe, whose variants later include the passamezzo moderno or Gregory Walker, the American Gregory Walker, and the twelve bar blues?


 * ...that The J.M. Smucker Co. was granted a patent on a sealed crustless sandwich, a type of peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it is often used as an example of a frivolous patent?
 * ...that Robert Mardian, the political co-ordinator for the Committee to Re-elect the President, was convicted for his part in the Watergate scandal but later had the conviction overturned because his lawyer had fallen ill?
 * ...that with the Secret Treaty of Dover signed between England and France, King Charles II attempted to convert England to Catholicism?
 * ...that a double tonic is a basic chord progression or melodic motion extremely common in African, Asiasn, and European music consisting of a "regular back-and-forth motion" most commonly between notes a whole tone apart?


 * ...that rocket engine maker Thiokol, who made the Space Shuttle's booster rockets, also built airbags for Mars Pathfinder and the Mazda Miata?
 * ...that the sled dog Togo is considered one of the heroes commemorated by the Iditarod dog sled race which is currently running across the U.S. state of Alaska?
 * ...that the Bovo-Bukh, a very popular chivalric romances written in Yiddish, was based on the Anglo-Norman romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton, by way of the Italian language romance of Buovo d'Antona?
 * ...that the flightless adzebill was a large predatory bird that lived in New Zealand, and was initially thought to be a kind of moa?


 * ...that sandwich toasters are sometimes called "jaffle irons" in Australia?
 * ...that Nat Lofthouse was the England football team's highest goalscorer of all-time for eight years?
 * ...that parlour music is a term used to describe the unified style common to popular and semi-popular European lite-classical and popular, and folk-like music from 1790 until 1900?
 * ...that Kyiv Arsenal is one of the oldest and most famous industrial companies of the Ukrainian capital Kiev?


 * ...that the High Bridge that still stands over the Harlem River in New York City was designed by John B. Jervis as part of the Croton Aqueduct project in the 1840s?
 * ...that the 2004 Dean v. Utica U.S. federal case expanded the First Amendment rights of high school journalists, which had been limited by the Supreme Court's 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ruling?
 * ...that despite a sight-impairment disability, Carl G. Fisher became a notable American entrepreneur, who helped develop sealed beam headlights, the Lincoln Highway (the first U.S. transcontinental paved roadway), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the resort city of Miami Beach, Florida?
 * ...that Lysa Hora hill in the Ukrainian capital Kiev is both a historical fortress and a mystical"bald mountain" where the witches are believed to gather for their sabbaths?