Wikipedia:Recent additions 39

Did you know...





 * ...that the 1994 Rwandan Genocide led to a Great Lakes refugee crisis, which ended when nearly two million refugees returned to Rwanda at the start of the First Congo War?
 * ...that the Shell Lake murders were committed by Victor E. Hoffman three weeks after his release from a psychiatric hospital and that he claimed to have had fought the Devil just before committing the murders?
 * ...that the Battle of Garibpur fought between India and Pakistan preceded the official start of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and was the first battle where dogfighting occurred over East Pakistan?
 * ...that Maurice Tillet was disfigured by acromegaly from a young age, but cashed in on his appearance by becoming an early wrestler?
 * ...that despite its federal mandate to provide only intercity rail service, Amtrak operated the Calumet commuter rail between Chicago and the Indiana suburb of Valparaiso from 1979 to 1991?
 * ...that the obscure T-44 Soviet medium tank, designed and first built in Kharkiv, Ukraine, was the missing link between the T-34 of World War II and the T-54/55 series of the Cold War?
 * ...that passengers aboard JetBlue Airways Flight 292 were able to watch their own malfunctioning aircraft circle Los Angeles International Airport on the satellite television screens at each seat until the flight crew disabled the system in preparation for the aircraft's successful emergency landing?
 * ...that more than one thousand people are caned in Singapore each year using a bamboo cane that has been soaked in water overnight to prevent splitting?
 * ...that Egyptian actor Farid Shawki starred in 361 films?
 * ...that Harry Thomas Thompson, a former yeoman of the United States Navy, was the first American to be convicted of espionage since World War I?
 * ...that Patience Cooper, an Anglo-Indian actress, was the first to play a double role in an Indian film?
 * ...that, as a tribute to Arthur Stace, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up with the word "Eternity" as the new millennium began?
 * ...that the first ever golden goal was scored in the Cromwell Cup final at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in 1868, giving Sheffield Wednesday a 1-0 victory?
 * ...that Charles B. McVay III, commander of the U.S. Navy ship USS Indianapolis, was blamed when it was lost at sea in 1945 and only finally exonerated by the Congress posthumously in 2000?
 * ...that the 1985 Nairobi Agreement called for a ceasefire between the Ugandan government and rebels, the demilitarization of the capital of Kampala, and the absorption of the rebel leadership into the government?
 * ...that the trans-Neptunian object Eris is native to a distant region of our solar system known as the scattered disc?
 * ...that in 2004, the world spent US$896,235 million on military expenditures, with the U.S. military budget comprising the largest portion, at 41 percent?
 * ...that Ithaa iin Maldives is the world's first and only underwater restaurant?
 * ...that Subramanian Swamy worked towards normalizing Sino-Indian relations and persuaded Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to open the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet to Hindu pilgrims from India?
 * ...that actor Mona Darkfeather, promoted as the first Native American movie star, was actually of English and Mestizo ancestry and a member of the prominent Southern California Workman family?
 * ...that Baqa'a is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan?
 * ...that Henry Perky invented a machine to produce shredded wheat breakfast cereal and made his fortune selling the cereal rather than the machine?
 * ...that in 1855 the Howard Association of Norfolk, Virginia received contributions during the yellow fever epidemic from the Gulf Coast, and 150 years later sent $50,000 of leftover funds to Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina relief?
 * ...that the Buckingham Branch Railroad in central Virginia was formed in 1989 and has expanded from a 16-mile railroad to operate over 200 miles of track?
 * ...that the flying dragon is a lizard that has skin membranes which it uses to glide distances over 7 m?
 * ...that American photographer George W. Ackerman took over 50,000 photographs during a nearly 40-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture?
 * ...that Serbia and Montenegro and Italy co-hosted the 2005 European Volleyball Championship?
 * ...that the Emancipation Oak on the campus of Hampton University is where the Virginia Peninsula's black community gathered in 1863 to hear the first Southern reading of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation?
 * ...that the modern Arms of the Principality of Wales are based on those borne by the 13th-century Prince of Wales Llywelyn the Great?
 * ...that Dravidar Kazhagam formed in 1944]] was the first fully Dravidian party in India?
 * ...that conifer Torreya taxifolia was one of the first plant species listed as endangered in the United States?
 * ...that Hendrick ter Brugghen was the artist primarily responsible for introducing the style of Caravaggio into Dutch painting?
 * ... that the Old Well at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a neoclassical rotunda modelled after the Temple of Love at the Palace of Versailles?
 * ...that the incisors of blesmols are visible even when their mouths are closed?
 * ...that Australian swimmer Fanny Durack was considered to be the world's greatest female swimmer from 1910 until 1918?
 * ...that the endangered American Burying Beetle is one of the only beetle species that exhibits parental care?
 * ...that the University of Dhaka is the oldest and largest public University in Bangladesh?
 * ...that at 23.8 hours, The Hazards of Helen is believed to be the longest motion picture serial ever made?
 * ...that Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, who helped found the Royal Academy of Music in 1822, was only in London because he had fled France five years earlier to avoid prosecution for multiple counts of forgery and fraud?
 * ...that Fort Story at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, Virginia was the site of the first landing of the Jamestown settlers in 1607, and the Cape Henry Lighthouse, first in the U.S., in 1792?
 * ...that the Stavelot Triptych is a 12th-century masterpiece of Mosan art created to display pieces of the True Cross?
 * ...that there have been six Indian Ocean Island Games, the latest being held on the isle of Mauritius in 2003?
 * ...that Duke University anthropologist Anne Allison worked as a hostess girl for four months while researching Nightwork, her study of white-collar entertainment clubs in Japan?
 * ...that Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan consumers' brains in order to determine which products they subconsciously like?
 * ...that change of venue is the legal term for moving a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or the defendant?
 * ...that Raj Ghat and other memorials are sometimes considered India's modern day equivalent of Westminster Abbey?
 * ...that the remains of Mungo Man are the oldest anatomically modern human remains found in Australia?
 * ...that the anti-smuggling activities of the British frigate HMS Rose in 1775, provoked the Rhode Island government to commission the first warship, the Sloop of War Providence in what became the United States Navy?
 * ...that "Blue Tail Fly" or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is a blackface minstrel song dating from the 1840s, and that on the surface, it is a black slave's lament over his master's death; the subtext is that he is glad his master is dead, and may have killed him by deliberate negligence?
 * ...that the Perth Mint is the oldest operating mint in Australia and that it has produced over 4,500 tonnes of refined gold which represents about 3.25 percent of the total tonnage of gold ever produced?
 * ...that in 1910 the Kalem Company became the first American film studio to ever make a motion picture outside the United States when a film crew went on location in Ireland?
 * ...that there were three more cancelled Apollo missions planned to land on the Moon after Apollo 17?
 * ...that Indra Lal Roy of the Royal Air Force became India's first flying ace after he achieved ten victories in 13 days during World War I?