Wikipedia:Recent additions 50

Did you know...

 * ...that metolazone is a medicine used to treat heart failure and hypertension?
 * ...that the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi was the most prolific practitioner of Palladian architecture in Saint Petersburg?
 * ...that the Caucasian Shepherd Dog may seeming lethargic when not working, but extremely agile and convincing when it feels that its family is threatened?
 * ...that the Viking Great Army pillaged and conquered much of England in the late 9th century?
 * ...that, according to tradition, the twisting Solomonic columns of baroque architecture are based on the design of columns taken from Solomon's Temple and brought to Rome by Constantine I?
 * ...that Nepenthes rajah, the most famous of all pitcher plants, produces traps up to 40 cm in height and has been known to catch prey as large as rats, frogs and lizards?
 * ...that the F-34 tank gun was put into service in the T-34 tank by a conspiracy of its makers, and it was only after enthusiastic tank crews had praised its merits in letters from the front that Stalin gave official permission to start its manufacture?
 * ...that benshi were the people who narrated Japanese silent films until the 1930s?
 * ...that the 14 nations designated major non-NATO allies are the only countries outside of NATO to whom the United States government will sell depleted uranium anti-tank rounds?
 * ...that the British Parliament first guaranteed diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors in 1709, after Count Andrey Matveyev, a Russian resident in London, had been subjected by British bailiffs to verbal and physical abuse?
 * ...that the Marienberg Abbey in Italy, at 1340 m (4400 feet), is the highest abbey in Europe, and allegedly suffered from vampire attacks during the Black Death?
 * ...that Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, enacted into law by all U.S. states, governs secured transactions?
 * ...that the Hutsonville Bridge was a self-anchored suspension bridge that was controversially torn down in 1988, at the insistence of the Indiana Department of Transportation, despite the demolition company offering to donate 100,000 USD to preserve it instead?
 * ...that the Ichkeul Lake in Tunisia is placed on UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites in danger, as the dam construction on the lake's feeder rivers has produced major changes to the ecological balance of the lake and wetlands?
 * ...that Jeff Hawke, a science fiction comic strip, almost perfectly predicted the date of the first human moon landing more than ten years before?
 * ...that El Gobernador, Central Pacific Railroad's 4-10-0 steam locomotive, had to be shipped from the shops in Sacramento, California in five large subassemblies due to its enormous size?
 * ...that the People's Republic of China attempted to promulgate a second round of orthographical reform in 1977, only to retract nine years later amidst mounting opposition and confusion?
 * ...that there were only three steel dams built in the United States, although at one time steel dams were thought to offer many competitive advantages over other types of dam?
 * ...that the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang was built in 1982 to commemorate the "victory" of Korea over Japan in World War II?
 * ...that the German films based on the works of Edgar Wallace are generally considered a distinct subgenre of crime film?
 * ...that Durga Khote was famous for her character roles and was the heroine of the first Marathi talkie?
 * ...that the tower of the Main Building of the University of Texas at Austin is lit in the school colors of orange and white to signify the academic and athletic triumphs of the university?
 * ...that the Russian academician Aleksey Shakhmatov attempted to reconstruct the earliest Slavic chronicle, supposedly compiled at the court of Yaroslav I the Wise in the mid-11th century?
 * ...that the 17 muscles of the hip work together in complex ways to produce a wide range of movement?
 * ...that Ibrahim Hussein Berro was recently identified as the suicide bomber in the 1994 AMIA Bombing in Buenos Aires?
 * ...that Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg, opened in 1785, was the largest shopping mall of the 18th-century Russia and remains one of the oldest continuously-existing department stores in the world?
 * ...that Shane Warne Cricket '99, a PlayStation cricket game is endorsed by the Australian bowler, Shane Warne?
 * ...that the phrase "up to eleven," inspired by a scene from the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap, was entered into the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in 2002 with the definition "up to maximum volume"?
 * ...that Nicolas des Escuteaux's novels are regarded as more adventurous than sentimental, and show the influence of the Renaissance Hispano-Portuguese adventure novel?
 * ...that although Peter the Great's eldest daughter Anna Petrovna died in childbirth at age 20 all the living Romanovs descend from her?
 * ...that the phrase The King is dead. Long live the King! was first used following the accession of Charles VII of France in 1422?
 * ...that the Select Vestries Bill is a pro forma bill that is read in the House of Lords at the start of each session of Parliament before a debate on the Speech from the Throne, to demonstrate that the House sets its own business independently of the Crown?
 * ...that Malcolm Perry was the first doctor to attend to President Kennedy and performed a tracheotomy which inadvertently destroyed ballistics evidence key to determining who assassinated the president?
 * ...that Norway applied three times to join the European Union, but failed to accede all three times?
 * ...that Chuck Muncie was a star running back for The University of California during the 1970s, where he broke six school rushing records that stand to this day?
 * ...that it is alleged that during the Battle of Ramree Island, crocodiles contributed to the near wiping out of a World War II Japanese garrison?
 * ...that in 1912 Arthur Rose Eldred became the first Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and his descendants are still involved in Scouting?
 * ...that prehistoric inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay Area fished the bat ray in large numbers, while more recently it is mostly taken by oyster growers who mistakenly believe it feeds on their oysters?
 * ...that psychological offender profiling was used by British police for the first time in capturing John Duffy, the so-called Railway Killer?
 * ...that while they were part of the hit television war sitcom Dad's Army, Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender were also acting in the radio series Parsley Sidings?
 * ...that Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński was a high-ranking commander of the Polish Army, a veteran of World War I, Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Soviet War, and was executed by the Soviets during the 1939 invasion of Poland?
 * ...that in his design for Karlskirche in Vienna the architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach aspired to synthesize the main ideas found in the most important sacred structures of past and present? [[Image:Erlach 4.jpg|right|100px|Design by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach]]
 * ...that the Virgo Stellar Stream is the proposed name for a stream of stars in the constellation of Virgo which are thought to be the remains of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy that is in the process of merging with the Milky Way?
 * ...that Michael Bates was an Olympic bronze medalist sprinter and a Pro Bowl American football player?
 * ...that the founders of the Communist League in Denmark, had departed from the Left Socialists in 1972 even though they had been in majority in that party?
 * ...that Francis Birtles was an Australian adventurer who set many long distance cycling and driving records including becoming the first man to drive a car from England to Australia in 1927?
 * ...that the Bulldozer Exhibition has got its name because the Soviet authorities actually used bulldozers to disperse the spectators and destroy the paintings of the participating Moscow nonconformist artists?
 * ...that Akira Machida, a former Chief Justice of Japan, voted to overturn a ruling from the Tokyo High Court that stated the Tokyo Metropolitan Government could not bar a civil servant from her managerial exam due to her South Korean nationality?
 * ...that Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club is the Venezuelan soccer club with the most appearances in the Copa Libertadores?
 * ...that the French Navy's Napoléon (1850) was the first steam battleship in history?
 * ...that Huseyn Khan Nakhchivanski was the only Muslim to be appointed General-Adjutant of the Emperor of Russia?