Wikipedia:Recent additions 55

Did you know...

 * ...that the Reesor Siding Strike of 1963, which left three people dead, was the deadliest confrontation in Canadian labour history?
 * ...that Jarilo was a major Proto-Slavic deity of vegetation, fertility and spring, also associated with war and harvest?
 * ...that the fleets of Gisulf II of Salerno sometimes turned to piracy against Amalfi and Pisa?
 * ...that the Black slug is the only species of slug that when disturbed contracts into a hemispherical shape and starts rocking from side to side to confuse predators? [[Image:black slug.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that Bob Dylan's infamous performance of "Maggie's Farm" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival was seen by his band's organist Al Kooper as "sort of a disaster"?
 * ...that the Brazilian city of Corumbaíba was founded after a local rancher saw a white wolf, which, according to a legend, would give him good luck, and then built a chapel thanking his luck?
 * ...that In re Debs was a 1895 Supreme Court case that resulted in a unanimous ruling affirming the right of the United States government to issue an injunction to halt strikes affecting interstate commerce and U.S. Mail?
 * ...that the typical singing cowboys of early Western films were white hat wearing clean-shaven heroes with the habit of showing their emotions in song?
 * ...that the Scintillant Hummingbird has bronze-green upperparts and a rufous and black-striped tail?
 * ...that the postminimalist artist, Gabriel Orozco, once sliced a Citroën DS into three pieces length-wise, removed the central piece and then re-attached the two sides leading to an arrow-like automobile?
 * ...that the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata - the seat of the Governor-General during the Raj - was built on the lines of Kedleston Hall,Derbyshire?
 * ...that the first Navy Minister of Imperial Russia, Nikolay Mordvinov, started his career serving on English ships in America?
 * ...that the Argo Merchant, a derelict oil tanker, ran aground only 25 miles off Nantucket Island in 1976, causing one of the largest oil spills in history? [[Image:Argo_Merchant_run_aground.jpg|right|100px|Argo Merchant]]
 * ...that through the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated Usenet newsgroup, Babylon 5 creator and writer J. Michael Straczynski is often credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with his fans on the internet, and have their comments impact the look and feel of his work?
 * ...that the Soviet general Valentin Varennikov, one of the members of the State Emergency Committee which organized the Soviet coup attempt of 1991, was eventually acquitted by the Russian court and took a seat in the State Duma?
 * ...that the National Resources Commission controlled 70% of Chinese industry in Republican China?
 * ...that the Russian administrator Pavel Kiselyov was responsible for the creation of an important transport artery in Bucharest - a boulevard which now bears his name? [[Image:Kiseleff.jpg|left|100px|Pavel Kiselyov]]
 * ...that the Rosenbaum House is the only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the U.S. state of Alabama?
 * ...that the Ottawa rules are a set of guidelines for doctors to aid them in deciding if a patient with foot or ankle pain should be offered X-rays to diagnose a possible bone fracture?
 * ...that on January 21, 2006 Ilan Halimi, a French Jew, was kidnapped by a gang of Muslim immigrant youths and subsequently tortured to death, with the motive being either money or anti-Semitism?
 * ...that each year in the U.S., several sites complete soil contamination clean-up by using microbes that eat up toxic chemicals in soil?
 * ...that Vasyl Avramenko is often referred as "The father of the Ukrainian dance"? [[Image:UkrainianDance.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service was a non-combat branch of the Royal Australian Navy that recruited women, in order to alleviate manpower shortages resulting from men being assigned to combat roles during World War II?
 * ...that Szymon Konarski was a 19th-century Polish radical politician who believed in a revolution of all peoples of the Russian Empire that was to bring freedom and democracy to all?
 * ...that the Athénée Palace hotel in Bucharest, Romania, now a Hilton, may have been Europe's most notorious den of spies in the years leading up to World War II, and only slightly less so during the Cold War?
 * ...that dimethyl dicarbonate or DMDC is a colourless liquid with a sharp odour, which is used as a beverage preservative or sterilant? [[Image:Dimethyl-dicarbonate-2D-skeletal.png|left|100px|DMDC]]
 * ...that Russia won the 1804-1813 Russo-Persian War, because of its superior technology, despite Persia upscaling its efforts at the end of the war, and declaring it a Holy War?
 * ...that the call of Mangrove Black Hawk is a distinctive piping spink-speenk-speenk-spink-spink-spink...?
 * ...that national legislative elections will be held in Thailand on April 2, 2006, following the decision by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to dissolve the lower house of the Thai legislature, the House of Representatives?
 * ...that Bill Ashdown is the only person to have played first-class cricket both before the First World War and after the Second World War?
 * ...that three Byzantine emperors ended their lives as monks of the Studion, the largest monastery of Constantinople? [[Image:Theodore Studite (Menologion of Basil II).jpg|right|100px|Studion]]
 * ...that the real name of the G.I. Joe character Dusty is Ronald W. Tadur?
 * ...that on January 8 1956, five Evangelical Christian missionaries from the United States were speared to death after attempting to reach the Huaorani people of Ecuador in "Operation Auca"?
 * ...that the Cormorant is a project for a submarine launched aircraft currently under development at Lockheed Martin's Skunk works research facility?
 * ...that a count room is a room that is designed and equipped for the purpose of counting large volumes of currency?
 * ...that the Church of St. Elisabeth in Marburg was one of the earliest purely Gothic structures in Central Europe and served as the model for the Cologne Cathedral? [[Image:Elisabethkirche2.jpg|left|100px]]
 * ...that the shooting of the government critic Archbishop Óscar Romero on March 24, 1980 was one of the causes of the El Salvador Civil War, in which 75,000 people died?
 * ...that the song "Deep in the Heart of Texas" was first recorded by Perry Como in 1941?
 * ...that Erich Kempka was a chauffeur of Adolf Hitler and was called to testify at the Nuremberg trials?
 * ...that hyperboloid structures in architecture are doubly-curved surfaces that may be formed entirely from a lattice of straight angle-iron and flat iron bars? [[Image:Sydney Opera House Sails.jpg|right|100px|The Sydney Opera House roofs - example of hyperboloid structures]]
 * ...that Islam in Poland traces its history to the 13th century, with the advent of Tartar settlers?
 * ...that the development of molecular biology was made possible due to the convergence between biochemistry and genetics?
 * ...that as a result of t'aarof, it is not uncommon for Iranian employees to work unpaid for a week before even discussing wages?
 * ...that The University of Texas Longhorn Band performed for inaugurations of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush? [[Image:University of Texas Longhorn Band on the field-2.JPG|left|100px|The University of Texas Longhorn Band]]
 * ...that John Rut sent the first known letter from North America and that it was from St. John's, Newfoundland on August 3, 1527?
 * ...that Castorocauda lutrasimilis, a recently described mammal relative that looked like an otter with a beaver's tail, evolved a semi-aquatic lifestyle 110 million years earlier than any other mammal-like animal?
 * ...that James Foster was a Scottish-born Canadian goalie who helped lead Great Britain to its first and only Olympic gold medal in ice hockey in 1936?
 * ...that Roger II's Palatine Chapel in Palermo combines the Byzantine dome and mosaics with Arabic arches and inscriptions? [[Image:Chapelle Palatine.jpg|right|100px|Image:Chapelle Palatine.jpg]]
 * ...that the Hood Event was an incident following the US invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish special forces operating in northern Iraq was captured and interrogated by the US military, later becoming the basis for the 2006 film Valley of the Wolves Iraq?
 * ...that some Australian Aboriginal languages use the aversive case to indicate that an object is feared?
 * ...that Vanessa Mendoza, Miss Colombia 2001, was the first Black woman to win that title?