Wikipedia:Recent additions 51

Did you know...

 * ...that the neo-classical Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev features a hundred-tonne glass dome over the chamber where the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine convenes to enact legislation?
 * ...that parts of California were declared a disaster area when Hurricane Kathleen killed several people and caused millions of dollars in damage due to widespread flooding?
 * ...that Operation Safed Sagar which was launched by the Indian Air Force to aid the Indian Army during the 2 month long Kargil War, was the first time air power was used on such a large scale in Kashmir since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971?
 * ...that Arthur Ransome used his own memories of a frozen Windermere during the Great Freeze of 1895 when he wrote Winter Holiday, his fourth Swallows and Amazons book?
 * ...that Robin Miller was a female Australian pilot and nurse who borrowed money to buy a Cessna 182 and then began flying to remote outback areas in Western Australia to vaccinate Indigenous Australian children against polio and thus became known as the "Sugarbird Lady"? [[Image:Jandokot Memorial to The Sugar Bird Lady.jpg|left|100px]]
 * ...that Jan Stanisław Jankowski, the World War II political leader of the Polish Secret State, was kidnapped by the NKVD and killed in a Soviet prison?
 * ... that commotio cordis is a sudden and unexpected cardiac arrest observed mostly in young people during participation in sports, and that is the most frequent cause of accidental deaths in Little League baseball games?
 * ...that Romanian violinist Ion Petre Stoican got his recording contract in Communist-era Romania because he caught an American spy?
 * ...that Vladimir Shukhov, often compared to Edison and Eiffel for his innovative work on metallic structures, decided to abandon engineering at the age of 24 and enrolled at a medical school instead? [[Image:Shukhorodchenko.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that Gongche notation was once popular in transcribing the music of China before the modern jianpu and standard notation?
 * ...that during the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829 more Russian soldiers died in hospitals from contagious diseases than fighting on the battlefield?
 * ...that the title of the movie I Married a Communist was so unappealing to audiences that their response led the film to be rereleased under the title The Woman on Pier 13?
 * ...that the physician Marie Equi became an anarchist after being attacked by police, while she was picketing during a strike supported by the Industrial Workers of the World? [[Image:Marie Equi.jpg|left|100px]]
 * ...that Mazhar Hussain has scored more runs in one-day international cricket then any other United Arab Emirates batsman?
 * ...that the Podhale rifles are the only soldiers within the Polish Army to wear uniforms based on folk attire?
 * ...that in the United Kingdom and Australia a tuck shop is a small food retailer found in schools?
 * ...that the Polish Navy cruiser ORP Conrad was to be named ORP Wilno, but the name was changed for political reasons? [[Image:ORP Conrad.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that the Russian victory at Molodi in 1572 put a stop to the northward expansion of the Ottoman Empire into present-day Russia?
 * ...that more than 100 gamelan ensembles (a musical performance group of Indonesian origin) have been formed in the U.S. since the first was established at UCLA in 1958?
 * ...that secret passages have helped people to hide in or flee from a building, or even to enter it without being spotted?
 * ...that the Column of Phocas, erected in 608 to flatter the Eastern Roman Emperor Phocas, was the very last addition made to the Roman Forum? [[Image:RomaForoRomanoColonnaFoca2.JPG|left|100px]]
 * ...that Chuvash dragons of Turkic myth are said to assume human form and to visit men and women at night in order to have sexual intercourse with them?
 * ...that Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan was the "Yankee Doodle" in the George M. Cohan Broadway musical "Little Johnny Jones" and the basis for Ernest Hemingway's short story "My Old Man"?
 * ...that the Hoba meteorite is the largest known meteorite ever found on earth?
 * ...that in the Vatican's Cortile del Belvedere Bramante created the first monumental formal garden design of the Renaissance? [[Image:Cortile.del.belvedere.1.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that Leif J. Sverdrup was an immigrant from Norway to the United States who became a civil engineer and led the project to build the 17 mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World after completion in 1964?
 * ...that Mikhail Gerasimov used exhumed skulls to reconstruct faces of more than 200 people, including Friedrich Schiller, Ivan the Terrible, and Tamerlane?
 * ...that the rise of ticket prices in the new Covent Garden Theatre led to the so-called Old Price Riots, which lasted for more than two months in 1809?
 * ...that Lanzón, the main religious figure of the Chavín culture of the ancient Andes, was kept in a dark chamber underneath the main temple of Chavín de Huantar? [[Image:Lanzon.JPG|left|100px]]
 * ...that Thomas Metcalfe served in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly, in both houses of the U.S. Congress, and as Governor of Kentucky?
 * ...that Jacobus de Teramo wrote a dialogue, in which Lucifer takes Jesus Christ to court, for trespassing in the Harrowing of Hell, with Belial as his lawyer?
 * ...that amateur wrestling Olympic gold medalist Robin Reed could pin every member of the 1924 United States Olympic wrestling team, despite being in the second lowest weight class?
 * ...that the Alexander Aircraft Company, which produced Eaglerock biplanes in Colorado, was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world for a brief period between 1928 and 1929? [[Image:5014-eaglerock-side.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that the Tagish Lake meteorite originally came from a part of the asteroid belt which existed when the Solar System was being formed?
 * ...that the Russian Field Marshal Ivan Gudovich lost his left eye fighting the Turks in Armenia in 1807?
 * ...that the Coraopolis Bridge, designed by Theodore Cooper, started life as the third Pittsburgh Sixth Street Bridge and the 400 foot truss sections were floated 12 miles downstream to be reused rather than scrapped?
 * ...that Alexander Buturlin, who was in charge of the Russian army when it took Berlin in 1760, was better known for his tall stature and good looks than for military talents? Alexandr Borisovich Buturlin.gif
 * ...that a bristlecone pine tree named Prometheus, the oldest tree and oldest non-clonal organism ever known to exist, was cut down in 1964 by Forest Service personnel for research purposes?
 * ...that Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film director was kidnapped in 1978 under orders from future North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and forced to direct a giant-monster film, Pulgasari?
 * ...that CHIJMES, a historic building complex in Singapore, began life as a Catholic convent in the 1850s and has been gazetted as a national monument?
 * ...that the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace accommodates 332 portraits of Russian generals who took part in the Napoleonic Wars? [[Image:Galereja 1812.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that placenta accreta can see the placenta attach itself not only to the muscle of the uterus but also to the bladder or other organs?
 * ...that Alfred Hayes, author of the poem "Joe Hill", was also a novelist and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter whose credits ranged from Italian neorealism to the American TV series Mannix?
 * ...that the former Automobilwerk Eisenach in Thuringia, once part of BMW, was taken over by the Soviet Union in 1945, and resumed production under the BMW logo until 1951 when BMW regained control over its trademark and logo?
 * ...that the Bateleur is a medium-sized eagle in the bird family Accipitridae found in Africa? [[Image:Bateleur Eagle.jpg|left|100px]]
 * ...that Fort Pocahontas in Virginia was constructed by African-American soldiers of the United States Colored Troops in 1864 and was used for on-location filming of the 2005 motion picture The New World?
 * ...that the Zograf Monastery on the Holy Mountain was burnt down by a Catalan pirate raid in 1275?
 * ...that the Visiting Forces Agreement allows U.S. soldiers accused in Filipino crimes to stay under U.S. custody until the trial is over?
 * ...that the Svinesund Bridge crosses the border between Sweden and Norway?
 * ...that the name of the Indo-European thunder god has been reconstructed by etymologists as *?
 * ...that the United States Department of Justice attorney James A. Baker, who has defended Bush administration intelligence policy in Congressional testimony and court cases, is not related to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III?
 * ...that Bridei III's victory in the Battle of Dunnichen led to the expulsion of Northumbrians from southern Pictland?
 * ...that Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris accomplished the world's first powered flight in 1856, with a glider that was pulled behind a running horse? [[Image:LeBris1868.jpg|left|100px]]
 * ...that the original site of the Heide Museum of Modern Art was an "idyllic refuge of inspiration" for many Australian artists during the 1930s through 1950s?
 * ...that the Battles of Corbridge were important in deciding the fate of the Viking kingdom of York and the Anglo-Saxon earldom of Northumbria?