Wikipedia:Recent additions 41

Did you know...

 * ...that David Laird negotiated the Qu'Appelle Lakes Treaty with resident natives of Saskatchewan in 1874 to procure land for the Canadian Pacific Railway?
 * ...that tradition credits King Gebra Maskal Lalibela with carving the monolithic churches of Lalibela from stone with his own hands, helped only by angels?
 * ...that a strap-on dildo may be used by heterosexual couples for pegging?
 * ...that the Liverpool Blitz was a sustained bombing campaign on the city of Liverpool, United Kingdom, by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War?
 * ...that Nobuo Fujita of the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted the only wartime bombing on the continental United States in 1942?
 * ...that the Mandara kingdom of West Africa was conquered by Modibo Adama of the Fulani Empire, Muhammad Ahmad of Sudan, and Germany within a single hundred year span?
 * ...that in Scots law the civil action known as lawburrows&mdash;in use since 1429 and intended to prevent violence&mdash;is a simple, bond-based alternative to interdicts or court orders?
 * ...that Robert Meeropol, son of Communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, was adopted by "Strange Fruit" lyricist Abel Meeropol following the Rosenbergs' execution for espionage?
 * ...that the Victorian era parlour game of Snap-dragon involved children plucking raisins out of burning brandy and eating them?
 * ...that the Paragould Meteorite is the third-largest meteorite ever discovered in North America?
 * ...that Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, an 1899 book by Charles Godfrey Leland, was one of the foundational texts of Wicca, but has been suspected of being a fraud?
 * ...that more than 700 of the caricatures on display at Sardi's restaurant in New York City were drawn by a Russian refugee in exchange for meals at the restaurant?
 * ...that identical Norwegian Lady Statues commemorating a shipwreck are located in the sister cities of Moss, Norway and Virginia Beach, Virginia facing each other across the Atlantic Ocean?
 * ...that British archaeologist J. Desmond Clark discovered a site at Zambia's Kalambo Falls containing artifacts from over 250,000 years of human culture?
 * ...that Operation Gibraltar was the name given to the failed plan by Pakistan to infiltrate Jammu and Kashmir, India and start a rebellion and that it eventually sparked the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965?
 * ...that Francisco Pradilla Ortiz was a prolific Spanish painter who not only produced over 1,000 paintings but also was briefly the director of the Prado Museum?
 * ...that Vermilion Lighthouse is a replica of the 1877 iron lighthouse that was forged from recycled smooth-bored cannons that had been obsoleted after the American Civil War?
 * ...that Naseeruddin Shah could not bag the title role in Gandhi, but later had opportunities to portray the Mahatma in a play and in a film?
 * ...that the Tremont Street Subway in Boston, Massachusetts is the oldest subway tunnel in North America?
 * ... that religious identity in Israel for Jews differs strikingly from that recognized in the Jewish diaspora?
 * ... that Dolores Erickson, the woman on the album cover for Whipped Cream & Other Delights by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, was actually covered in shaving cream?
 * ...that Taprogge GmbH supplies cleaning systems to clean condenser tubes from debris with sponged rubber balls?
 * ...that Abelisaurus had a lighter skull than other dinosaurs due to large fenestrations behind its eyes?
 * ...that Papillon is a famous memoir written by Henri Charrière about his numerous escape attempts from a French penal colony in French Guiana?
 * ...that Varina Farms, the plantation of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, was site of the first successful cultivation of export tobacco in the Virginia Colony in 1612?
 * ...that the anabolic steroid Methandrostenolone was prescribed to women in the 1960s as a tonic, until its masculinising effects were discovered?
 * ...that Iannis Xenakis wrote Metastaseis to represent the sounds of warfare and Einsteinian views of time?
 * ...that parts of the first law passed by the U.S. Congress are still on the books?
 * ...that Nagesh Kukunoor made Hyderabad Blues, the most successful independent film from India in just 17 days?
 * ...that Hurricane Gordon was a Category 1 hurricane that killed 1,122 people in Haiti in 1994 and that the hurricane name was not retired by the World Meteorological Organization?
 * ...that Major League Cricket plans to launch a professional cricket league in the United States, with the goal of qualifying the U.S. for the Cricket World Cup by 2011?
 * ...that the Valley Pike was a toll road managed by Harry F. Byrd which followed a Native American migratory trail in the Shenandoah Valley?
 * ...that to prepare for future examinations, Singapore students use the ten year series to practice on past years' examination papers, some of which date back to before they were born?
 * ...that "Toro Mata" ("The Bull Kills" in Spanish) is one of the most famous folk songs in Peru?
 * ...that Common Short Codes are five-digit numbers that can receive Short Messaging Service messages, just like normal 10-digit numbers?
 * ...that according to an old Polish legend, the sorcerer Pan Twardowski was the first man on the Moon?
 * ...that a single verb in the Nez Percé language, which is currently spoken by fewer than 100 people, can contain as much information as a complete sentence in English?
 * ...that there are only 75 nonprismatic uniform polyhedra?
 * ...that Norge, an unincorporated town in James City County, Virginia was established by Norwegian-Americans in the late 19th century?
 * ...that the well-publicized defection of German agent Erich Vermehren in early 1944 led directly to the demise of the Abwehr?
 * ...that the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway opened in 1904 as a leg of George J. Gould's planned transcontinental railroad, but went bankrupt in four years and later became part of the Alphabet Route?
 * ...that amorphous ice is a solid form of water that, like glass, has no crystal structure?
 * ...that American novelist Harold MacGrath had 18 of his 40 novels and 3 of his fictional short stories made into motion pictures?
 * ...that the single "F.E.A.R." is based on Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise", which was in turn adapted from Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise"?
 * ...that the Third Battle of the Aisne was the final battle of the Aisne river during WWI?
 * ...that when the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse was automated with solar cells by the United States Coast Guard in 1965, it was staffed by a uniformed mannequin officer in order to prevent vandalism?
 * ...that Farkhor Air Base in Tajikistan is India's only extraterritorial military base?
 * ...that Bertrand Russell is the longest-lived of any Nobel Prize in Literature winner?
 * ...that in 1969, a world record number of 15 million people attended the funeral of C.N.Annadurai, the first non Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India?
 * ...that Glasgow's Wellington Church was founded in 1792 as an Anti-Burgher congregation?
 * ...that the contradictory term foot cavalry was first used to describe the rapid movement of infantry troops of General Stonewall Jackson during the American Civil War?
 * ...that Elbert Frank Cox was the first black person in the world to get a PhD in mathematics?
 * ...that Manga Sewa of Falaba surrendered his city to Mandinka conqueror Samori Ture by detonating himself and his family in the city's powder magazine?