Wikipedia:Recent additions 56

Did you know...

 * ...that Ramy Brooks, a competitor in the 1,049 mi 2006 Iditarod dog sled race across Alaska, is one of the few Native Alaskans competing in the event?
 * ...that a steam-powered locomotive built specifically by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1893 for its Empire State Express passenger train was the first manmade object on wheels to exceed 100 miles-per-hour? [[Image:NYC 999.jpg|right|100px|Empire State Express 1905]]
 * ...that at its first years Kiev Zoo had to move its animals into the food storage of the main Kiev railway station for the winter?
 * ...that an agent of the Malaysian Special Branch so successfully infiltrated the Malayan Communist Party that he was in turn ordered by them to infiltrate the Special Branch?
 * ...that Tom Cousineau was drafted first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, but never played a game with them?
 * ...that Bonnybridge, forming part of the "Falkirk Triangle" in Scotland, is considered by many UFO enthusiasts to be world's number one UFO hotspot, with around 300 sightings every year?
 * ...that in local gigantism, parts of a limb can take gigantic shapes, without affecting other parts of the body? Local gigantism toe.jpg
 * ...that Bhulabhai Desai negotiated a secret power-sharing deal with Liaquat Ali Khan in 1945 that would have prevented the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan?
 * ...that the Renaissance composer Cornelis Verdonck wrote the only known motet written to be performed on the back of an elephant?
 * ...that while the female and male sexual organs of Congdon silktassel are on separate plants, it is the pendant male catkins that are more showy?
 * ...that an Indo-Corinthian capital is a Buddhist adaption of the Greek Corinthian capital, often incorporating images of the Buddha?
 * ...that the Lübeck Cathedral collapsed during an Allied bomb raid in 1942 but was subsequently restored? [[Image:Lubeck-church.JPG|right|100px|Lübeck Cathedral]]
 * ...that the German hip-hop crew Fünf Sterne Deluxe made their 1999 comeback with the single "Ja Ja..., deine Mudder", a German take on the dozens?
 * ...that Stony Clove Notch, a pass in the Catskill Mountains, was once so narrow that it could only be traversed by people walking in single file?
 * ...the Siege of Compiègne was Joan of Arc's final military action?
 * ...that botanist Tomitaro Makino, despite dropping out of grammar school, named over 2500 plants and is known as the "Father of Japanese Botany"?
 * ...that the Cossack Hetman and the later Muscovite voyevoda Petro Doroshenko signed a treaty with Sultan Mehmed IV recognizing the Cossack Hetmanate as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire? [[Image:Doroshenko Petro.jpg|Petro Doroshenko|left|100px]]
 * ...that until 1988, a woman could apply for and receive an Australian Passport in her future married name, before she was actually married?
 * ...that the Italian scholar Girolamo Maggi wrote and illustrated two detailed treatises, from memory, while chained in a dungeon in Istanbul?
 * ...that a fall of red rain in Kerala in 2001 might have contained microbes of extraterrestrial origin?
 * ...that the Mexican actress Leticia Palma's dispute with Jorge Negrete led to the end of a career described as "one of the most interesting presences" of the cinema of Mexico?
 * ...that Klarälven, Sweden's longest river, was the last Swedish river where log driving was practiced, ending in 1991? [[Image:Delta klaralven.png|right|100px|Map of Klarälven delta]]
 * ...that Hieronymus Bosch paintings helped inspire the Surrealist movement?
 * ...that Blanton C. Winship, a veteran of Spanish-American War and World War I survived an assassination attempt while he was Governor of Puerto Rico in 1938?
 * ...that Tran Duc Thao, a Vietnamese philosopher, attempted to reconcile Marxist philosophy's dialectical materialism with Husserlian phenomenology?
 * ...that gastric lymphoma is the most common lymphoma affecting the gastrointestinal tract?
 * ...that Peter Joseph Lenné's gardening academy in Potsdam was the first school to formally teach garden architecture? [[Image:Lenne_portrait.jpg|right|Peter Joseph Lenné|100px]]
 * ...that Mustelus hacat is a species of smooth-hound shark discovered in 2003 in the Sea of Cortez, off the coast of Mexico?
 * ...that the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas was formed in December 20, 1895, when the Missionary District of Northern Texas was granted diocesan status and that it now includes more than seventy parishes and schools in the diocese?
 * ...that in Islam, Tahrif is the charge that Jewish and Christian holy books have been subject to change, alteration or forgery?
 * ...that Anna of Kashin, a Russian medieval princess, was twice canonized as a holy protectress of women who suffer the loss of relatives?
 * ...that Clarence L. "Biggie" Munn was Michigan State University's most successful football coach with a winning percentage of 85.7 over seven years, including a 28-game winning streak from October 14, 1950 through October 17, 1953?
 * ...that the English Canal was a partially completed canal project started in 1864 that would connect the iron ore fields in northern Sweden with the Gulf of Bothnia?
 * ...that The Exile, the first African American talking film, was a semi-autobiographical film about a Black rancher in South Dakota, with elements of interracial romance and some nightclub scenes set in Chicago?
 * ...that Catherine the Great wrote several comedies and an opera libretto for the productions of the Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg? [[Image:Ermitazhteatr.jpg|right|Hermitage Theatre|100px]]
 * ...that Jatin Das, an Indian freedom fighter, died after sixty three days of hunger strike demanding rights for prisoners and undertrials in Lahore jail in 1929?
 * ...that The Observatory, a Singaporean space rock band released their first album packaged as a diary, complete with torn pages and paperclipped photos?
 * ...that NKVD official Yakov Blumkin organised and personally took part in an expedition to find the Shambhala, a mystical kingdom hidden in the Himalayas?
 * ...that the Sanssouci Picture Gallery is the oldest extant museum built for a German ruler?
 * ...that the Iberian Ribbed Newt's ability to keep live sperm in its cloaca for up to 5 months was a reason it was chosen to be flown into space? [[Image:Pleurodeles waltl BUD.jpg|right|100px]]
 * ...that Public Square in Cleveland, Ohio became lit with electric street lights as early as 1879 ?
 * ...that Rough Castle Fort is the best preserved Roman fort along the Antonine Wall?
 * ...that the S500 was the first production car from Honda?
 * ...that the endangered species California Clapper Rail, a chicken-sized bird that rarely flies, has chicks that can swim when they are just two hours old?
 * ...that the 1934 jazz standard "Stars Fell on Alabama" was inspired by the Leonid meteor shower that was observed in Alabama a century earlier, in 1833?
 * ...that S. R. Rao led the excavations of Dwaraka — the mythical city of Krishna submerged in the Arabian Sea?
 * ...that Preparing for Emergencies was a British Home Office programme to increase public safety after several major disasters, including the Madrid bombings, SARS outbreak and UK foot and mouth crisis?
 * ...that Italo Santelli is widely considered to be the "father of modern sabre fencing"?
 * ...that in 1998, a study proposed to relocate Jordanhill railway station, a station currently located near the Jordanhill Campus of the University of Strathclyde and the Jordanhill School that opened in 1887?