Wikipedia:Recent additions 33

Did you know...

 * ...that many of the scenes Louisa May Alcott depicts in her book Little Women took place when her family was living in The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts?
 * ...that Watson's Hotel is India's oldest cast iron building and is among the "100 Most Endangered Sites"?
 * ...that the French battleship France sank after hitting an uncharted rock during a patrol of Quiberon Bay on August 26, 1922?
 * ...that measuring the levels of certain enzymes called transaminases can help to diagnose some liver diseases?


 * ... that according to Scientology doctrine, the inhabitants of the alien Marcab Confederacy liked to race high-speed automobiles on tracks booby-trapped with atom bombs?
 * ...that the Olympic Javelin is a high-speed rail service announced as part of the public transport regeneration of London in readiness for the 2012 Summer Olympics?
 * ...that the Indian Meteorological Department was set up as a result of a tropical cyclone that hit Calcutta in 1864, and the subsequent famines in 1866 and 1871 due to failing monsoons?
 * ...that Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita defeated Sosso king Soumaoro Kanté at the Battle of Kirina in 1240, securing the future of the Mali Empire?


 * ...that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight contains the world's oldest airworthy survivor of the Battle of Britain, alongside ten other historic aircraft - two of which fought over Normandy on D-Day?
 * ...that shrimp farms are a serious threat to the environment because they cause widespread destruction of mangroves and disperse antibiotics through their wastewater?
 * ...that the Plan of Saint Gall is the only surviving architectural drawing from the 700-year period between the fall of Rome and the 13th century, and is a national treasure of Switzerland?
 * ...that Cyrus K. Holliday was a founder of the city of Topeka, Kansas, as well as the first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad?


 * ...that the main work of the Swedish painter Ernst Josephson, Strömkarlen ((the Nix), was refused by the Swedish Nationalmuseum in 1884, and later bought by Prince Eugén, the youngest son of king Oscar II?
 * ...that soap opera actor Cameron Mathison suffered from Perthes disease as a child, requiring him to wear leg braces for nearly four years?
 * ...that Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne was the only British artillerist to command an army in World War I?
 * ...that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency supported the Chushi Gangdruk guerilla fighters in their attempts to overthrow the Communist Party of China in Tibet in the 1950s?


 * ...that Carolingian art permitted the drawing of human figures during the Iconoclasm controversy of the 9th century?
 * ...that five teams in cricket's 2005 ICC Trophy will be granted official one-day international status for the next four years?
 * ...that in the 1850s, El Hadj Umar Tall founded a short-lived Islamic empire covering modern day Guinea, Senegal, and Mali?
 * ...that PC Stephen Tibble had been in the Metropolitan Police Force for six months before he was killed by an IRA gunman?


 * ...that the only effective way to manage the bacterial plant disease citrus canker is to destroy all infected citrus trees?
 * ...that panel painting was the primary painting medium used in the West, from about the 13th to the 16th century, before canvas and oil paint became the norm?
 * ...that George Gershwin selected tap dance innovator John W. Bubbles to play a major role in his opera Porgy and Bess, even though he did not even read music?
 * ...that after actor Philip Loeb committed suicide, an article in the New York Times noting his passing commented that "He died of a sickness commonly called 'the blacklist'."?


 * ...that the Siglas Poveiras are a proto-writing system inherited from the Vikings and have been used for more than a thousand years by the fishermen of Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal?
 * ...that Massachusetts Avenue, home of Washington D.C.'s Embassy Row, is both the longest and widest avenue in the city?
 * ...that the Dictionary of the Middle Ages (1989) is the largest English language encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, covering over 100,000 topics?
 * ...that J. Willard Marriott grew a small root beer stand to a huge hotel and resort chain, Marriott International?
 * ...that Malian playwright and novelist Massa Makan Diabaté was the descendant of a long line of Malinké griots?
 * ...that Sabine Ehrenfeld, the Overstock.com spokesmodel, is fluent in German, French, English, and Italian and that she is an experienced pilot and equestrian?
 * ... that two widely-used maps of China's historical placenames independently published in Taiwan and China during the 1980s are both called Historical Atlas of China?
 * ...that in 1990, Czech and Slovak politicians "fought" the Hyphen War, a political battle over whether "Czechoslovakia" should be spelled with a hyphen?


 * ...that the largest solar plant of the Alps was built on Loser mountain in Austria at 1,838 meters above sea level?
 * ...that the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee is the largest non-casino hotel in the world?
 * ...that the late Shana Alexander was the first female columnist for Life magazine?


 * ...that the Right Hegelians took the philosophy of Hegel in a politically and religiously conservative direction?
 * ...that the Waterloo Vase is a massive marble urn, 15 feet (4.6 metres) high and weighing 15 tons (13.6 metric tons), which was commissioned by French leader Napoleon but ultimately became an ornament in the British monarch's Buckingham Palace Gardens?
 * ...that, in addition to hearing the landmark Napster and Bernstein cases, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel vacated the World War II-era conviction of Japanese American Fred Korematsu?
 * ...that French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as V-E day in Europe?
 * ...that the 1984 Murray Head hit "One Night In Bangkok", from the musical Chess, gained new-found popularity in 2005 due to a remix by the dance act Vinylshakerz?
 * ...that the Canadian postage stamp of Acadian Deportation 1755-2005 incorporates a stamp of Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, from 1930?


 * ...that mastoiditis is an infection that can result from untreated middle ear infections?
 * ...that the Turin Papyrus, prepared about 1160 BC for Ramesses IV's quarrying expedition to Wadi Hammamat near the Red Sea, is the earliest known geologic map?
 * ...that actor and amateur racing-car driver Skipp Sudduth performed almost all the high-speed driving done by his character in the movie Ronin?


 * ...that The Heart of Midlothian, the seventh of Sir Walter Scott's Waverly novels, was the first in the series to have a female protagonist?
 * ...that in 1911, Charles Rosher, working for David Horsley's production company, became Hollywood's first full-time cameraman?
 * ...that Nickajack was the name of a proposed neutral state made up of Unionist areas of North Alabama and East Tennessee in the period leading up to the U. S. Civil War?
 * ... that in the United States, a federal court can be classified as either an Article I or Article III tribunal?


 * ...that Japan and Poland are the world's largest Krill fishing nations since Russia abandoned its operations in 1993?
 * ...that jockey Kent Desormeaux and his horse Real Quiet missed thoroughbred horse racing immortality by a few inches?
 * ...that Norwegian football commentator Bjørge Lillelien famously taunted Margaret Thatcher after Norway's victory over England in 1981?
 * ...that Love Israel, a cult in northern Washington, filed for bankruptcy and then sold their commune to the Union for Reform Judaism to become their 13th summer camp?
 * ...that "I Love to Singa", an Al Jolson song written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, is also the title of a popular 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon?