Wikipedia:Recent additions/2007/March

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Did you know...

31 March 2007

16:24, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
...that the Royal Fort in Bristol was built with façades in Baroque, Palladian and Rococo styles because it was a compromise between the designs of three different architects?
...that the French Military Mission to Japan played a key role in the establishment of the nascent Imperial Japanese Army?
...that a power struggle between Thomas Benolt and Thomas Wriothesley in 1530 almost brought an end to the College of Arms?
...that in 2002, 72% of Swiss voters voted in favour of making abortion in Switzerland legal on demand in the first trimester of a pregnancy?
...that on April 29, 1899, trade unionists in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho killed two men by steering an explosives-laden train to the site of a mill, in order to protest the firing of fellow union members?
...that the British Member of Parliament Dr Donald Johnson was interested by the connotations of the Macmillan government's 69-vote win over the Profumo sex scandal?
...that Hersey Kyota has represented Palau at the United Nations Millennium Summit, even though he is not Palau's ambassador to the U.N.?

06:02, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Coenocorypha snipes (pictured alongside a Godwit) once ranged from New Caledonia and Fiji to New Zealand but are now restricted to New Zealand's outlying islands?
...that Aristotle's ideas of physics held that because an object could not move without an immediate source of energy, arrows created a vacuum behind them that pushed them through the air?
...that by tradition, military leaders participating in military simulations will often do so anonymously?
...that Sir John Ruggles-Brise, 2nd Baronet, Lord Lieutenant of Essex for 20 years, was the first Pro-Chancellor of Essex University?
...that the gang-rape and murder of Sarathambal in 1999 became an internationally known incident of the Sri Lankan civil war?
...that Room 307, Gilman Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where the element plutonium was discovered, is a United States National Historic Landmark?
...that the status of the Northern Group of Forces, the Soviet Army unit stationed in Poland from 1945 to 1993, was formally regulated by Soviet-Polish treaty only in 1956?

30 March 2007

23:45, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

...that competitions for the design of José Martí Memorial (pictured) in Havana, Cuba started in 1939, but the design that was finally constructed in 1953 was a variation on a design that had come in third in the fourth competition?
...that on March 21, 1943, Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff tried to kill Adolf Hitler in a suicide attack in Berlin, but failed because Hitler left earlier than expected?
...that Francis Barber was born a slave in Jamaica and was the manservant for over 30 years, and finally the heir, of Dr. Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame?
...that "O Meu Coração Não Tem Cor" was the most successful Portuguese Eurovision entry to date, but was ironically followed by the country's worst result since the Carnation Revolution?
...that there are significant breeding populations of 35 mammalian species in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India, out of which 15 are threatened mammals according to the IUCN Red List?
...that the Goulburn Valley region of Australia is home to the oldest and largest plantings of the little used Marsanne grape variety?
...that G. S. Shivarudrappa is only the third person to be named "poet of the nation" by the Government of Karnataka?

17:23, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Piner Creek watershed is home to a historic round barn (pictured), one of the early architectural features of Sonoma County, California?
...that the British colonial Administrator Sir Robert Codrington was influential in establishing British colonial government in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and making them different in character from white-settler-led Southern Rhodesia?
...that rhymed prose has been popular in various cultures, ranging from medieval Arabic maqamat to modern rap?
...that Polish general Józef Zając held military decorations from Poland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the short-lived state of Central Lithuania?
...that a 1968 court challenge to the right of Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet, born "Elizabeth", to inherit his family baronetcy rested on the question of his gender?
...that Kolkata West International City has one of the largest foreign direct investments in township projects in India?
...that Brigadier General Mihiel Gilormini, founder of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, the UK's Royal Air Force, and the United States Army Air Corps during World War II?

10:58, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the passing of the Great Comet of 1577 (pictured) caused almost century-long debate, during which Galileo argued that comets were merely optical illusions?
...that Cesar Picton, who was enslaved aged six in Senegal, died in England as a wealthy coal-merchant?
...that, according to human rights organizations, Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev has been beaten, received death threats and had his father kidnapped due to his criticism of the government?
...that three days after a fire gutted the passenger ferry Levina 1, killing at least 49, she sank with a party of journalists and investigators on board, killing at least one more?
...that during the Battle of Jarosław in 1939 the Polish Army defended the town for two days before retreating in good order?
...that in the 1850s Arnold Guyot measured the elevation of Old Black in the Great Smoky Mountains to within 3 feet (1 m) of the modern value?
...that Sir David Robertson initially agreed to mind the constituency of another British parliamentarian who was interned during the Second World War?

05:26, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Eremitage Palace (pictured) originally had a hoisting apparatus able to lift the dinner table from the basement to the dining room, allowing Christian VI of Denmark to dine without any waiters present?
...that Lil' Pimp was the first feature-length film to be created entirely with Macromedia Flash animation?
...that Javad Malik-Yeganov was exiled to Karelia following the collapse of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on suspicion of being a member of Musavat?
...that in 2005 the then 28-year-old Murat Yusuf became the youngest ever Mufti of Romania?
...that Mao Anqing, the last known surviving son of Mao Zedong, suffered from a mental illness often attributed to a severe beating received from a policeman while living on the streets in Shanghai in the 1930s?
...that shortly after Jonah of Manchuria died in 1925, he is said to have appeared in a dream before a crippled boy saying "Here, take my legs. I don't need them anymore," and the boy woke up completely healed?

29 March 2007

23:04, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the world's tallest statue of Hindu God Lord Shiva (pictured) is located in Murudeshwara, a coastal town in Karnataka, India?
...that Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli was once thought to have been composed to convince the Council of Trent not to ban polyphonic music from the Catholic Church?
...that New Black Panther activist Quanell X is featured in some of Scarface's early rap videos?
...that the Rev. Arthur Wagner, the first curate of the Church of St. Paul, Brighton, England, commissioned stained glass windows of his mother, father and aunt for the church?
...that the Romney Expedition, led by Stonewall Jackson, cleared Union forces from the lower Shenandoah Valley and surrounding Allegheny ranges during the early part of the American Civil War?
...that after the Japanese Supreme Court found Shibusawa Tatsuhiko guilty of obscenity for translating the works of the Marquis de Sade into Japanese, he was outraged by the triviality of his fine?

16:07, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the records of English herald Thomas Hawley (pictured) contain the first preserved account of a heraldic visitation?
...that, during the Great Depression, the Romanian politician Grigore Iunian proposed devaluing the leu as a means to curb peasant insolvency?
...that the 3rd Earl of Radnor, wanting the borough of Downton to be free from his own influence, successfully pushed for its complete disenfranchisement?
...that Crveni Krst, a neigborhood of Belgrade, Serbia, was built around the alleged burial site of Saint Sava?
...that it was recently discovered that about 10,000 Muslim graves in Cebeci Asri Cemetery, Ankara, Turkey were not oriented in the direction required by Islam?
...that Oscar Kiss Maerth asserted in his 1971 book The Beginning Was the End that humankind evolved from cannibalistic apes?

06:13, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Fiske (pictured) was torpedoed and sunk in 1944 by the German submarine she was hunting?
...that Australian physicist, Sir Kerr Grant studied with Nobel Prize winning chemist and physicist, Irving Langmuir at the University of Göttingen?
...that the Hilary Duff song "Haters" is rumored to be directed at actress Lindsay Lohan?
...that the term Rashtrapati, the native word in India to refer the nation's President, was first suggested by the Kannada poet, scholar T.N. Srikantaiah?
...that the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, was home to the short-lived U.S. Camel Corps?
...that Icelandic tenor Garðar Thór Cortes was voted sexiest man in Iceland twice in one year in separate polls?

28 March 2007

23:44, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House (detail pictured) on fire during the burning of Columbia in 1865?
...that Hakim Habibur Rahman, a Unani physician, collected all the Arabic, Persian and Urdu books written in Bengal for more than 40 years and published a catalog titled Sulasa Ghusala?
...that for more than a century, the oxygen we breathe was thought to evolve from carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, but later proven to be split from water molecules instead?
...that lobbying by the International Seamen's Union led to the abolition of the practice of imprisoning seamen who deserted their ship in the United States in 1915?
...that Elli Perkins, having refused psychiatric care for her schizophrenic son because of Scientology beliefs, was murdered by him?

15:59, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

...that an infinite geometric series with a common ratio of 1/4 (pictured) was used by Archimedes in 250-200 BC to find the area enclosed by a parabola?
...that because of liberal divorce laws in the U.S. state of Nevada, the Riverside Hotel in Reno catered specifically to wealthy divorce-seekers?
...that Albert Blaustein was a consultant on the national constitutions for over 14 countries and helped found the United States' Law Day?
...that Seaport Centre, a large biotechnology research complex, was developed over old salt evaporation ponds?

05:42, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

...that reopening of the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów (pictured) in 2005 marked a major improvement of Polish-Ukrainian relations?
...that Henri Le Secq was a founding member of the short-lived, first ever photographic organization Société héliographique?
...that author Dean Koontz reportedly was so unsatisfied with the film version of his novel Hideaway that he attempted to have his name removed from the credits?
...that the extinct species of Edaphodon, a type of rabbitfish related to the shark, grazed along the bottom of the ocean like land-dwelling herbivores do now?
...that the Russian Communist Varvara Yakovleva was a member of the board of the Secret Police and led food inspections that requisitioned food as a punitive measure?
...that the dispute settlement system in the World Trade Organization is characterized as the most adjudicative mechanism in the world?

27 March 2007

19:40, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

...that when the English actress Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (pictured) took over the Olympic Theatre in 1830, she became the first ever female actor-manager in the history of London theatre?
...that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally intervened to make sure the new post office in Ellenville, New York was built of stone instead of brick after residents complained to him via telegram?
...that the Russian painter Grigory Gagarin was also a military leader and a diplomat in Paris, Rome, and Istanbul?
...that Torrent was the first American film starring the Swedish actress Greta Garbo?
...that during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, a secret synod of Ukrainian bishops in Pochaiv Lavra created the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church, canonically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate?
...that a forehead lift is a procedure used in plastic surgery to remove the deep "worry" lines that run across the forehead?

12:04, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Macal River (pictured) drains classic Mayan settlements and controls the flood stage of Belize's largest river?
...that the newly-named Oryctodromeus, a genus of small herbivorous dinosaur from the mid Cretaceous of Montana, is the first dinosaur described as making burrows?
...that Cochiti Dam in New Mexico is one of the ten largest dams in the United States, the 23rd largest in the world, and the eleventh largest earthen dam worldwide?
...that the South African physician Abdullah Abdurahman became Cape Town's first coloured city councillor in 1904?
...that the publishers of the American music magazine Option once launched a spin-off fashion magazine, UHF?
...that the 1991 Spanish film Amantes shocked audiences due to the frankness of its sex scenes?

03:04, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Bennett Valley (pictured) is one of the newest additions to the list of American Viticulture Areas?
...that professor Malcolm Grant, the Provost and President of University College London, agreed to shave off his moustache if UCL students raised £1500 for Comic Relief, on Red Nose Day in 2005?
...that adjuvants are sometimes used to modify the effects that a vaccine has on disease resistance by stimulating the immune system to respond to the vaccine with much more vitality?
...that Jiri Dudacek, the first Czechoslovak ice hockey player to be selected in the first round of the National Hockey League draft, never left Czechoslovakia due to the protests of the country's sports minister?

26 March 2007

19:54, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the commands to fire the first Allied shots in World War One and the first Australian shots in World War Two came from Fort Queenscliff (pictured), Australia?
...that the foreign minister of Turkmenistan Batyr Berdiyev was dismissed for poor knowledge of the native language Turkmen, before being arrested and convicted for his involvement in an assassination attempt on President Saparmurat Niyazov?
...that Lophostropheus from Normandy is one of the only dinosaurs known from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary?
...that the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, the earliest extant Chinese Buddhist sutra, is similar in form to the Analects of Confucius?

11:51, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Menges (pictured) was hit by an acoustic torpedo in 1944, destroying the aft third of the ship, but remained afloat?
...that Varvara Yakovleva, a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church, was canonized as a martyr after she was killed with her former mistress, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna?
...that the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem, Oregon, is the third largest museum in the state - and Yahoo! Travel's tenth best thing to do in Salem?
...that Steve Fossett's Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft had a fuel fraction of nearly 85 percent, meaning it carried more than five times its weight in fuel?

25 March 2007

23:19, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Eilley Bowers (pictured) is one of the most researched, written and talked-about women in Nevada history?
...that during World War II the British military successfully airdropped homing pigeons into German-occupied France so that they might carry the locals' intelligence reports back to England?
...that England cricket captain Tony Greig said that England would make the West Indies "grovel" on their tour to England in 1976, but went on to lose 6 of the 8 matches?
...that Shaul Shimon Deutsch left the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish movement to set up his own Hasidic court in 1995 and curates a museum of Biblical archaeology in Brooklyn, New York?
...that following the 1886 Seattle anti-Chinese riot the United States Congress paid the Chinese government $276,619.15 in compensation, but the victims received nothing?

09:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Augustów Canal in north-eastern Poland (pictured) was built in order to circumvent high customs duties introduced by Prussia for the transit of goods to the Baltic Sea?
...that the streak of a mineral, the color of the mark it makes when rubbed on a plate, is usually a more consistent identifier than the color of the original mineral?
...that Japanese alpinist Ken Noguchi became the youngest person to scale the Seven Summits when he ascended Mt. Everest in 1999 at the age of 25?
...that Rush Limbaugh guest-hosted the short-lived The Pat Sajak Show in 1990 and caused such an uproar with his controversial comments that the audience had to be removed from the studio?
...that the prehistoric badger genus Chamitataxus lived during the Late Miocene and is considered the most primitive badger genus in North America?

01:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Tom Short

...that traveling evangelist Tom Short (pictured) once matched wits with the Cult Awareness Network?
...that Justus of Beauvais, a cephalophore saint, is reported to have picked up his head and continued preaching after his beheading?
...that The Dove, an American film released in 1974, is based on the real life experiences of Robin Lee Graham, a 16-year-old who spent five years sailing around the world alone?
...that when the English programmer Pete Shaw was still a teen, he had already written eleven technical computer books, published around the world in several languages?
...that Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka came to power in Ghana through a military coup d'état in 1966, only to be deposed and killed in a further coup fourteen months later?
...that the Académie de Poésie et de Musique, which was founded in 1570 under the auspices of Charles IX of France by the poet Jean-Antoine de Baïf and the musician Joachim Thibault de Courville, was the first academy in France?

24 March 2007

18:34, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

...that when Arno's Court Triumphal Arch (pictured) was built in 1760, it incorporated statues from the Bristol city gates which were being demolished at the time?
...that Canadian ice hockey referee and organizer Fred Waghorne was the first to use a whistle to stop game play rather than the customary cowbell, when disruptive fans started bringing their own cowbells?
...that the Mochovce Nuclear Power Plants complex in Slovakia became the first Soviet-era nuclear plant in Eastern Europe to have safety standards comparable to Western ones?
...that Kenneth Branagh had his earliest theatre appearances with Progress Theatre, including one minor role of "second policeman"?
...that The Kinship of the Three is the earliest book on theoretical alchemy in China and is the earliest source to have mentioned the compositions necessary to create gunpowder?
...that the International Society for Science and Religion was founded by two winners of the Templeton Prize?

11:56, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

...that medieval cannon (pictured) were first used by the English during the Hundred Years War at the Battle of Crécy?
...that English book collector Sir Thomas Phillipps acquired some 40,000 printed books and 60,000 manuscripts over the course of his lifetime?
...that the plant Erigenia bulbosa is known as "harbinger of spring" because it is one of the first plants to bloom in the hardwood forests of eastern North America each year?
...that Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, the first feature film in Hong Kong cinema, was the first ever Chinese film to be shown abroad?
...that The Irish Famine debunks myths about the Irish Potato Famine, including one claiming that the country remained a net exporter of food during the famine?
...that, at a congress in May 1921, all Socialist Party of Romania delegates who supported Bolshevik guidelines were arrested 24 hours after a vote on affiliation to the Comintern?
...that 1971's Out of the Darkness was the first Thai science fiction film?

05:54, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the American merchant William Conner (pictured) helped maintain the Delaware's loyalty during the War of 1812 and identified the body of Tecumseh following the Battle of the Thames?
...that 1939's Indramalati, directed by the Assam poet Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, was the second ever Assamese language film?
...that the efforts of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have restored Indiana's total forestland acreage to more than double its turn-of-the-20th-century level?
...that on July 1, 1940, Romanian military units attacked a Jewish funeral in the town of Dorohoi, killing 53 people according to official sources, but more than 165 people according to Jewish sources?
...that 18th-century operatic star Anna Maria Strada was known as "the Pig" on account of her ugliness?
...that a promotional video by the band The Bastard Fairies was described as "child abuse" on the talk show The O'Reilly Factor?

23 March 2007

20:10, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Palanga Amber Museum (pictured) in Lithuania holds a collection of about 28,000 items of amber, including about 15,000 pieces that contain insects, spiders, and plants?
...that over 53,000 Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II?
...that Singaporean citizenship was first granted in 1957, when Singapore was a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom?
...that the steel strike of 1959 led to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history?
...that in the 2001 Grand National, only two horses managed to complete the whole course without stopping?
...that Canadian scientist Bill Mathews was a pioneer in the study of subglacial eruptions and volcano-ice interactions in North America?
...the Huguenot Hubert Le Sueur cast the giant equestrian sculpture of Charles I in Charing Cross, London in 1633?

13:08, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Wheeling Creek (pictured) in West Virginia flows into the Ohio River a short distance downstream of a different Wheeling Creek in Ohio, on the opposite bank?
...that Yoshiaki Yamashita, a pioneer of judo in the United States, was the first person to have been awarded 10-dan grading in Kodokan judo?
...that the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus, founded in Australia in 1990, was the first organisation of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere?
...that Blackadder II, the second series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, contains many tongue-in-cheek references to the plays of William Shakespeare?
...that the opening sequence to the 1983 Thai film Gunman was shot by the director, Chatrichalerm Yukol, while riding on the back of a motorcycle?
...that because of its system of ravines, Toronto has been described as "San Francisco turned upside down"?

06:14, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Russian architect Afanasy Grigoriev is best known for his refined Empire style mansions in Moscow (Khrushyov House pictured)?
...that the Roman Catholic Church objected to the English translations in the Tyndale Bible, believing them to be purposeful mistranslations to promote anticlericalism and heretical views?
...that the Texas State University labor historian Gregg Andrews is also a folk musician who performs under the stage name "Doctor G"?
...that Irish poet John Keegan Casey was released from prison on the condition he leave for Australia, but instead he stayed in Dublin in disguise?
...that Norwegian-born merchant seaman Harry Lundeberg became a labor leader in the United States?

22 March 2007

23:47, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

...that, thanks to a secret radio nicknamed the 'Old Lady' (pictured), POWs at Batu Lintang camp in Borneo knew about the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II before most of their guards?
...that Dimitrie Gerota, who is considered to be Romania's first radiologist, was forced to abandon this field after his hand had to be amputated as a result of radiodermatitis?
...that the retired United States Air Force lieutenant general Nicholas Kehoe became the President and CEO of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in 2003 after 34 years of military service?
...that the Alexander Suvorov cruise ship stayed afloat despite its crash into a girder of an Ulyanovsk railway bridge that led to 177 deaths, and is still in working order today?
...that a Vihara is an Indian Buddhist cave monastery that takes its name from the Sanskrit word for "a secluded place in which to walk"?

17:00, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Grotto at Goldney House (pictured), Bristol, which dates from 1739, is encrusted with the shells of over 200 African and Caribbean species?
...that the Balık sisters from Turkey claim to be the only identical twins who are both professional opera singers?
...that the 1935 film Joymati, produced and directed by the noted Assam poet Jyotiprasad Agarwala, was the first-ever Assamese language film?
...that five states have declared independence during the territorial history of Mexico, and all but Texas returned to Mexico?
...that in Ovid's Metamorphoses, the love between Acis and Galatea ended when a jealous suitor, the Cyclops Polyphemus, killed Acis with a boulder?

08:15, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the U.S. Navy repair ship USS Mindanao (pictured) was severely damaged and almost a third of her crew killed or injured when the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood blew up nearby in Seeadler Harbor in 1944?
...that Jamaican actress and singer Amru Sani appeared on the same 1956 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show as Elvis Presley?
...that Carla Thorneycroft married Conservative Party politician Peter Thorneycroft in 1949, after their respective first marriages had both been dissolved and almost 20 years after the two were first engaged?
...that Indian copper plate inscriptions play an important role in the reconstruction of India's elusive history?

01:58, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

...that plants in the genus Gillenia (Gillenia trifoliata pictured) are often planted as ornamentals and used as an herbal remedy?
...that the first railway locomotive in China was in service for only 15 months between 1876 and 1877 before being purchased and deliberately destroyed by the ruling Qing Dynasty?
...that the Presidential Palace in Kaunas was used as a movie theater during the Soviet rule of Lithuania?
...that the eyespots of green algae and euglenids are the simplest and most common "eyes" found in nature?
...that Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia claimed to have a tumor to hide the fact she was pregnant with the illegitimate child of her lover?
...that Operation Queen was a joint British-American operation during World War II at the western front between Aachen and the Rur river in November 1944?

21 March 2007

16:45, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

...that USS Luzon (pictured) was an internal combustion engine repair ship, named after the Island of Luzon, the chief island in the northern Philippines?
...that according to the controversial Hockney-Falco thesis, the rise of realism in Renaissance art, such as Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, was largely due to the use of curved mirrors and other optical aids?
...that, in mythology, iron is often associated with blood, or used as a protective or lucky charm?
...that Yogesh K. Gandhi and his Gandhi Memorial International Foundation were investigated by the United States Senate and Department of Justice for contributions to the Democratic National Committee?
...that Japanese producer Genjiro Arato exhibited his 1980 film Zigeunerweisen across Japan in a specially-built inflatable mobile dome after exhibitors refused to screen it, and the film went on to win 4 Japanese Academy Awards?

09:57, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

...that United States Marine Sergeant Aubrey McDade (pictured) was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in Iraq in 2004?
...that the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum recorded over 1,200 violations of human rights in Zimbabwe by the law enforcement agencies from 2001 to September 2006?
...that Edward Alleyn had to form a partnership with twelve others to meet the £1,000 cost to rebuild the Fortune Playhouse in London after it burned down in 1621?
...that Sir Norman Hulbert claimed that That Was The Week That Was infringed Parliamentary privilege in 1963 when it named 13 MPs who had not spoken in the chamber of the House of Commons since they were elected in 1959?
...that the musical Foxy was a total flop in Dawson City in 1962, costing its producers their $400,000 investment, but was revived on Broadway in 1964?
...that Bandung in Indonesia was dubbed the "Paris of Java" (Parijs van Java) in the 1920s due to the European ambience of Braga Street?

00:17, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the pocket billiards game cribbage (balls pictured), named after the card game, allows 134,120,448,000 possible racking configurations?
...that more than six thousand Japanese people settled in North Korea voluntarily in the 1960s, accompanying ethnic Korean spouses returning under a repatriation campaign supported by the Japanese and North Korean governments?
...that Chester Wilmot, the Australian War correspondent and military historian of the Second World War, was killed in an air crash in 1954?
...that Ashoka's Major Rock Edict was the first and most impressive of Ashoka's edicts, and is the only one remaining unaltered in its original location?
...that the Percival Petrel, a twin-engine, low-wing monoplane with a tailwheel undercarriage, was used as a British communications aircraft in World War II?

20 March 2007

14:33, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

...that in 1977 United States President Jimmy Carter delivered a speech containing the local Geordie phrase "Ha'way-tha-lads!" at Newcastle Civic Centre (pictured), a civic centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England?
...that Bodawpaya, an 18th-19th century king of Burma, fathered 120 children?
...that TIME magazine's Gerald Loeb Award-winning article "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power" highlights the suicide of Noah Lottick?
...that, after a heavy bomb raid on the city of Heilbronn, raining fragments of the blast were lodged in cattle in the surrounding countryside, and that this meant days of slaughtering for veterinarians?
...that World Vision, an international charity organization, have developed various famine events that spread across the globe, notably the 30 Hour Famine?

01:45, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Altdeutsche Tracht (example pictured), a Renaissance-influenced fashion, was popular in Germany during the last years of the Napoleonic wars as a sign of resistance against "French fashion foolishness"?
...that Hilda Hewlett was the first British female aviator to earn a pilot's licence?
...that Peter Knowles, a popular English football player, voluntarily ended his football career at the age of 24, after becoming a Jehovah's Witness?
...that an inquiry into Sidhom Bishay's execution for his refusal to convert to Islam and renounce Christianity resulted in the dismissal of a judge and a governor?
...that ABC-TV's Broadcast Standards and Practices department placed a gagging order on the song "Jihad" by American thrash band Slayer during its live U.S. network broadcast?

19 March 2007

17:10, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Meigs Field in Chicago, Illinois, sits on the site of Burnham Park (pictured), which was a serious contender to host the United Nations Headquarters?
...that Katsuhiko Nakajima, a Japanese professional wrestler, represented as a freelancer by Kensuke Office, is the youngest junior heavyweight champion in history?
...that the citadel that once stood on the mountain of Tâmpa in Transylvania was never captured by an enemy force?
...that the paintings of the Giant's Causeway by Irish artist Susanna Drury were so detailed that the authors of the French Encyclopédie used an engraving of one as a reference, and included it in a supplementary volume?
...that Vodka Belt, an informal term for the territory where vodka is the most popular alcoholic beverage, wages a vodka war in support for vodka's traditional ingredients?
...that Hurricane Katrina in 1981 caused two deaths?

10:59, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the endangered Syncaris pacifica (pictured) uses variable translucency and color changing crypsis for underwater camouflage?
...that the charity song "The Magnificent" became a protest anthem of the Serbian anti-Milošević resistance?
...that the pen-name of the Kannada poet, Karnataka Ratna and Jnanpith Award winner Kuvempu, was derived from his full name "Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa", Kuppalli being his native place?
...that following its industrialization, Bridgeport, Connecticut became a manufacturing center producing such goods as the famous Bridgeport milling machine, brass fittings, carriages, sewing machines, saddles, and ammunition?
...that tradition indicates Nicasius of Rheims completed saying his prayer at his execution after he had been beheaded?
...that the 1989 secret files scandal in Switzerland resulted from the revelation that police had been engaged in illegal surveillance?

02:58, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Thunderbirds, the U.S. Air Force's Demonstration Squadron, selected Brigadier General Ricardo Aponte (pictured) as their Spanish language narrator for the Latin America Tour of 1992?
...that during the 72 day session of the First State Duma in 1906, a total of 391 requests about illegal actions of the Russian government were filed, but only two laws were passed?
...that the Phyllodon, a small herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic found in present-day Portugal, may have been closely related to North American dinosaurs?
...that in 1990, it was revealed that a stay-behind army backed by NATO had been active in Switzerland throughout the Cold War, preparing for a possible Soviet invasion?
...that Fort Senneville, built in 1671 near Montreal, included the most fortified windmill in New France, along with a machicolation and other castle-like features?
...that the 1957 film La Anam was selected as one of the best Egyptian films in history by the Egyptian Film Association in 1996?

18 March 2007

18:04, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Russian philanthropist and financier Alexander von Stieglitz (pictured) was the first governor of the State Bank of the Russian Empire?
...that the Kalka-Shimla Railway track, a narrow gauge rail track in Himachal Pradesh, has a length of 96 kilometres, passing through 102 tunnels and crossing 864 bridges?
...that copies of the 1982 biopic Will: G. Gordon Liddy, about a Watergate co-conspirator, are stored in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the U.S. National Archives?
...that bergamottin, a chemical found in grapefruit, is believed to be responsible for drug interactions known as the "grapefruit juice effect"?
...that aussieBum, an Australian swimwear manufacturer, was founded by Sean Ashby in 2001 when he couldn't find the "Aussie cozzie" style of swimwear he grew up with?
...that Piers Corbyn claims that he can predict the weather a year in advance by observing solar activity?
...that Otto Orseolo became Doge of Venice in 1006 at the age of 16, the youngest in history?

10:07, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Laigh Milton viaduct (pictured), built in 1812, is the oldest surviving railway viaduct in Scotland and one of the oldest in the world?
...that Shenxiu, one of the most influential Chan Buddhist masters of his day, is known as the “loser” in modern Zen circles?
...that the F-111 fighter, the B-1 bomber, the Space Shuttle, and the Boeing fleet of commercial airliners were all tested at the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel?
...that Danish painter Carl-Henning Pedersen was known as the "Scandinavian Chagall"?
...that the island sub-species of the Tomtit are much larger than their mainland relatives?
...that when builders told Lou Henry Hoover, who designed her own house, that some of her architectural ideas weren't done, she responded, "Well, it's time someone did"?
...that the gravestone of Abraham von Franckenberg, a 17th century mystic, is covered with as yet undeciphered mystical symbols?

02:57, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre memorial (pictured), dedicated to the missing British dead killed in the first few months of World War I, was built on land donated in memory of the 19th century French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau?
...that Billy Walkabout is thought to have been the most highly decorated Native American in the Vietnam War?
...that during the 1690 Battle of Québec, a group of French paddled a canoe up to the English flagship and under a hail of musket shots managed to return its ensign to the city unscathed?
...that forensic scientist Paul Kirk, who is known for his work on the Sam Sheppard case, worked to isolate fissionable plutonium on the Manhattan Project?
...that a 1934 survey of Japanese language education in the United States found only thirteen professors in the whole country fluent in Japanese?

17 March 2007

17:55, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Fenari Isa Mosque (pictured) in Istanbul represents one of the first examples of edifices with a quincuncial plan in Byzantine architecture?
...that silent film star Norma Talmadge started a famous Hollywood tradition when she accidentally stepped into wet cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater?
...that the Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur, Géraud Réveilhac ordered artillery to shell his own troops in order to force them to attack?
...that until 1947 in Spain, Eurosia was the patron saint of demonic possession?
...that Julius Fromm invented the latex condom in 1914 and marketed his invention under the name Fromms Act until he was forced to sell his business under Nazi rule?

06:24, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

...that legendary Łysa Góra is the site of an ancient pagan temple, a ruined monastery (pictured) that gave its name to the local mountain range and province and the tallest TV tower in Poland?
...that VolgaGES in Russia is the largest hydroelectric station in Europe as it produces 2541 MW?
...that the U.S. Navy's Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment, a combined whole-body dry suit and one-man life raft, allows submariners to escape from depths of up to 600 feet (180 meters)?
...that Ralph "Petey" Greene overcame a drug addiction and prison sentence to become an Emmy Award-winning radio and television talk show host and a guest at the White House?
...that the French torpedo boat La Combattante ferried General de Gaulle and other Free French leaders across the English Channel from Portsmouth to Courseulles in Normandy on 14 July 1944?

00:11, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

...that William the Conqueror's transport of over 2000 horses across the English Channel during the Norman invasion of England is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry (pictured)?
...that the Romanian mathematician Simion Stoilow was ambassador to France and a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946, just prior to serving as founding director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy?
...that Procter & Gamble discontinued its praised "demi-couture" Rochas fashion brand in 2006, 81 years after it was founded?
...that Fyodor Schechtel, the architect of Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal in Moscow, Russia, was expelled from his classes at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1878 for "bad attendance"?
...that German Luftwaffe fighter ace Walther Dahl shot down 128 enemy aircraft in the Second World War, including a USAAF B-17 that he rammed in 1944?
...that the Billboard top 10 live DVD War at the Warfield by American thrash metal band Slayer features one of the last shows drummer Paul Bostaph played with the group?

16 March 2007

16:05, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Karl Johanslussen (pictured) is one of the locks and sluices between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea that give rise to the name of the Slussen area of central Stockholm?
...that Karaköy, part of ancient Galata, and an important commercial and transport center at the Golden Horn, was the birthplace of André Chénier, a French poet beheaded during the French Revolution?
...that Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young, owner of the Yung See San Fong House in Los Gatos, California, didn't want it to be a bungalow, but a "bungahigh"?
...that Steve Crowley, a Marine Security Guard, was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant after he was killed in the 1979 U.S. Embassy Burning in Islamabad, Pakistan?
...that the forty-six Recreational Demonstration Areas, built as model parks near urban areas in the United States during the Great Depression, later became national and state parks, and in one case, Camp David?
...that Giorgio Francia of Italy became the first non-German to win the German Formula Three Championship, by winning the title in the year 1974?

07:53, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

...that English cannon batteries (pictured) required artillery crews of twelve per gun?
...that the ancient Greek city of Cyme in Asia Minor was the largest and most important of the twelve cities of the Aeolians?
...that unlike other Young Bengal members, Hara Chandra Ghosh refrained from involvement in religion and social reformation?
...that the 1983 rock and roll comedy film Get Crazy was a tribute to the famed Fillmore East theater, where director Allan Arkush once worked as an usher?
...that the Lupeni Strike of 1929 in Romania was originally blamed on Hungarian propagandists and Comintern activists?
...that at the time of his martyrdom in 202, Saint Charalampus was 113 years old?
...that despite having no prior experience as a professional actress, Teresa Cheung was nominated for Best Actress in the 2004 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for her performance in Colour Blossoms?

15 March 2007

22:34, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Regal Mountain (pictured), an eroded stratovolcano in the Wrangell Mountains, is the third highest thirteener (a peak between 13,000 and 13,999 feet in elevation) in Alaska?
...that German toymaker Richard Steiff's invention of a toy bear received highest honors at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair?
...that more is known about Neaira, a hetaera who lived during the 4th century BC in ancient Greece, than any other prostitute in classical antiquity?
...that taxi driver David Wilkie was killed during the UK miners' strike in 1984, when two striking coal miners dropped a 46 lb concrete block on his taxicab, which was carrying a working miner?
...that the Bienwald is a large forested area in the southern Pfalz region of Germany, near the towns of Kandel and Wörth am Rhein?
...that "urban Indian" activist Bernie Whitebear was the brother of groundbreaking health care administrator Luana Reyes and of sculptor, curator and memoirist Lawney Reyes?

12:52, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

...that parti-coloured clothes, divided into different colours on the left and right when viewed from the front (pictured), became popular in late 14th century fashion, especially in England?
...that the Romanian Proclamation of Timişoara unsuccessfully called for lustration to be applied to former Communist Party officials?
...that the award-winning Chinese film Cell Phone, with its box office profit of over ¥50 million, was the highest-grossing film made in China in 2003?
...that WildlifeDirect was established in 2006 to support wildlife protection in Africa via the use of weblogs?
...that the Halmidi inscription, an Indian inscription, found near the tiny village of Halmidi, in Karnataka, India, is the oldest known inscription in the Kannada language?

06:11, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the icons and faces incised into Las Limas Monument 1 (pictured) were used for a hypothetical reconstruction of the Olmec pantheon?
...that a small Allied rearguard at the strategic pass of Thermopylae held off German forces invading Greece in 1941 at the most recent Battle of Thermopylae?
...that the case of Angela Carder, a cancer patient who was forced to undergo a caesarean section in 1987, established the rights of pregnant women to determine their own health care in the United States?
...that George Ormerod, an English antiquary and historian, was responsible for organising the restoration of the Saxon crosses in Sandbach in Cheshire in 1816?
...the coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States outside of Alaska is -70 °F (-57 °C) at Rogers Pass, Montana?
...that Walter Arthur Berendsohn, who successfully nominated Nelly Sachs and Willy Brandt for their respective Nobel Prizes, wrote Die humanistische Front, the seminal book on German exile literature?

14 March 2007

21:56, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Chavundaraya, the builder of the Gomateshwara monolith (pictured) at Shravanabelagola, was an army commander, minister and a famous writer of Kannada and Sanskrit literature?
...that Nikita Balieff, a vaudeville performer, writer, impresario, and director, named his theater "Chauve-Souris" (bat) after a bat flew up out of the basement door and landed on his hat?
...that Mandritsa is known as the only Albanian village in Bulgaria?
...that Matild Manukyan, a wealthy Turkish businesswoman of Armenian origin, made her fortune as a brothel owner?
...that a 2005 compendium of The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate, held annually at the University of Chicago since 1946, included contributions by Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman and Leon M. Lederman?
...that the Barbarigo was a World War II Italian submarine that mysteriously disappeared in 1943?
...that the Downtown Historic District of San Jose, California, an area of just one square block, contains buildings of six different architectural styles?

09:34, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

A medical research scientist

...that the work of medical research scientists (pictured) often includes toxic or radioactive materials and dangerous organisms?
...that Anthony Baldinucci, a Jesuit priest, often carried a cross and wore heavy chains while walking barefoot into towns where he was conducting missions?
...that when the Dovre Railway was inaugurated in 1921, the train returning with the prominent guests crashed in the Nidareid train disaster, killing six people?
...that "E depois do adeus" was one of two songs played on Portuguese radio to signal the beginning of the Carnation Revolution in 1974?
...that during a 90-minute period on January 30, 1996, three commuters fell into the gap at the Long Island Rail Road station at Syosset due to icy platform conditions?

13 March 2007

19:56, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the historical medical campus Maiden's Field (clinic pictured) in Moscow started as a court garden for medicinal herbs?
...that Harry Kent worked both as a manufacturer of munitions and as a pub landlord whilst managing Watford F.C.?
...that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has several programs aimed at conserving the habitat of the mission blue butterfly?
...that during his Eastern journey Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovitch of Russia visited Egypt, India, China and Japan travelling a distance of more than 51,000 km (31,500 mi)?
...that Scieno Sitter, a content-control software package created by the Church of Scientology, was referred to in the 2006 fictional film The Bridge?
...that Larry Blakeney, the current head coach of the Troy Trojans football team, is one of only two men to take a college football team from Division II to Division I-AA and then Division I-A?

13:06, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Britain's first girls' reform school was set up in 1854 by Mary Carpenter, with the financial help of the poet Lord Byron's widow, at Bristol's Red Lodge (pictured)?
...that the main tennis court at the Stade de Roland Garros, the home of the French Open in Paris, was renamed in honour of Philippe Chatrier, a former Davis Cup player and president of the International Tennis Federation from 1977 to 1991?
...that Brigadier Sir Otho Prior-Palmer, a British Conservative Member of Parliament, accused a Labour MP of "never [having] done a damned day's work in his life", and claimed that Labour sent someone to stop Spitfire construction?
...that Australian cricketer Karen Rolton has scored the most runs for the Australian women's cricket team in women's Test cricket?
...that the Romanian Communist ideologue Iosif Chişinevschi distanced himself from his Jewish origins and publicly supported the persecution of Jews?

06:06, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Italian-Australian hermit Valerio Ricetti (pictured) shifted hundreds of tons of rock over 23 years to create his own utopia at Hermit's Cave near Griffith, New South Wales?
...that Madame Montour, of Native American and French Canadian heritage, was paid the same as a man when she worked as an interpreter for the colonial governments of New York and Pennsylvania in the first half of the 18th century?
...that Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna-Honeycomb House takes its inspiration from the hexagonal structure of a bee's honeycomb?
...that Arishima Ikuma, Japanese novelist, published his new-style poems and short stories as a vehicle to introduce the works of the French impressionist painter Paul Cézanne to the Japanese public?
...that eight of Australia's top fighter pilots attempted to resign their commissions in the final months of World War II, in the so-called Morotai Mutiny?

12 March 2007

19:44, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Gavroche (pictured), a character from the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, lives inside an unfinished statue of an elephant in Paris?
...that most of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory have not been divided into cadastral units?
...that Paul Secon was an unemployed writer and musician living in New York City when he co-founded Pottery Barn with his brother in 1950?
...that the Erdene Zuu monastery, one of the oldest monasteries in Mongolia, was built in 1585 using stones from the ruins of Genghis Khan's capital, Karakorum?
...that the 1966 Holman Moody Ford Fairlane was the basis for NASCAR racecars until NASCAR's newly redesigned Car of Tomorrow?
...that Sai Tso Wan Recreation Ground was the first permanent recreational facility in Hong Kong built from a landfill?

12:49, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Gate Church of the Trinity (pictured), originally constructed as an ascetic Kievan Rus' style church, is now lavishly decorated with Ukrainian Baroque style ornaments?
...that two Beagle B.206 aircraft were built for evaluation by the UK Ministry of Aviation, resulting in an order for twenty aircraft for the Royal Air Force?
...that in surgery theory, the Spivak normal bundle is named after Michael Spivak, a mathematician specializing in differential geometry?
...that Satyendranath Tagore, the first Indian to join the elite Indian Civil Service, played a pioneering role in freeing women from being imprisoned in their homes?
...that the recent flooding in Jakarta is considered to be the worst in the last three centuries?
...that Australian soprano Gladys Moncrieff performed her famous role as Teresa in the musical comedy The Maid of the Mountains about 2800 times?
...that the Flag of Springfield, Illinois was designed in a contest conceived by poet Vachel Lindsay in 1917?

03:21, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the enzyme neprilysin (pictured) degrades amyloid beta, a peptide whose abnormal aggregation is implicated as a cause of Alzheimer's disease?
...that British politician George Oliver once lost his seat at Ilkeston by two votes in the closest result in any British Parliamentary election, but later won by 30,398 in the fourth largest majority in 1951?
...that 18th century castrato Giuseppe Millico taught singing to Bourbon princesses and to Emma Hamilton?
...that the remains of the Azerbaijani poet Huseyn Javid, who became a victim of the Stalin purges, were moved from Magadan to his homeland of Nakhichevan in 1982 and reburied in a mausoleum built in his honor?
...that the London cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew were rivals of Thomas Chippendale in introducing Neoclassical furniture?
...that Richard Strauss helped the German composer Heinz Tiessen obtain a job at the Berlin State Opera in 1917?

11 March 2007

20:58, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Latvian composer Jāzeps Vītols was a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (pictured), where he taught Nikolai Myaskovsky and Sergei Prokofiev?
...that a series-parallel graph is a mathematical model of series and parallel electric circuits with two different nodes called source and sink, indicating the direction of the electrical current flow?
...that the English nurse Lucy Osburn was chosen by Florence Nightingale to train Australia's first nurses?
...that some American slaveholders forced their slaves to drink an infusion of black haw to prevent abortions?
...that the Russian architect Alexander Zelenko was one of the authors of the linear city urban concept?
...that at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, Yipsi Moreno became world champion in the hammer throw at the age of twenty, improving from an eighteenth place finish in 1999?

14:29, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Latvian composer Jāzeps Vītols was a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (pictured), where he taught Nikolai Myaskovsky and Sergei Prokofiev?
...that Cecil A. Bickley was one of the founders of Denver City, the largest community in Yoakum County on the Texas South Plains?
...that William Clowes Ltd.'s installation of noisy, steam-powered printing presses in 1823 irked the Duke of Northumberland so much that he brought its owner William Clowes to court?
...that the Japanese guitar duo Gontiti wrote the soundtrack for the 2004 Hirokazu Koreeda film Nobody Knows?
...that the Woodstock of physics refers to the marathon session of the American Physical Society’s March 1987 meeting that featured 51 presentations on superconductors and lasted until 3:15 AM?

05:46, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the interior and exterior of the Jose Maria Alviso Adobe (pictured) in Milpitas, California have not significantly changed in 150 years?
...that the South African record set in 2001 by All-African shot put champion Burger Lambrechts was subsequently annulled because of a positive doping test?
...that since 1978, countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States have compiled government reports on groups referred to as cults?
...that the Knob Creek Gun Range hosts a biannual event promoted as the "World's Largest Machine Gun Shoot and Military Gun Show"?
...that early Baroque lutenist Michelagnolo Galilei was the younger brother of the renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei?
...that Rabbi Avrohom Blumenkrantz's The Laws of Pesach—considered an authoritative text on the observance of Passover by many North American Jews—started as a privately distributed newsletter?

10 March 2007

22:29, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Hurricane Guillermo (pictured) in 1997 was the second strongest storm on record in the Eastern Pacific basin, with a minimal pressure of 919 millibars?
...that Giovanni Dominici was initially refused admittance to the Dominican Order because of a speech impediment that was later reportedly cured after intercession by Catherine of Siena?
...that one submarine volcano located in Banda Sea of Indonesia is called the Emperor of China?
...that bottle pool, a hybrid game combining elements of pocket and carom billiards, was played by world-renowned quantum chemist and biochemist Linus Pauling?
...that Wa-Wan Press was founded in 1901 by composer Arthur Farwell to publish works that incorporated traditional Native American music into new compositions?

15:06, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

...that after a 1731 fire, the Bastard brothers were responsible for the reconstruction of Blandford Forum (rebuilt town hall pictured) in a vernacular Baroque style?
...that Demi-Brigades were military formations created by France, to help better organize the French Revolutionary Army?
...that one of the earliest known references to Karnataka, the name of an Indian state, is found in the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata?
...that Whuppity Scoorie is a traditional celebration in Lanark, Scotland during which children run around a church three times swinging paper balls over their heads?
...that William P. Bryant presided over the first criminal trial in what is now the U.S. state of Washington?

09:18, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

...that chocolate box art (example pictured) started in the late 19th century as box decorations, though the term 'chocolate box' is now used pejoratively to describe sentimental pictures?
...that the Romanian writer Paul Goma, whose citizenship was revoked by Ceauşescu’s regime in 1978, now resides in France as a stateless person?
...that the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut has architectural influences ranging from Byzantine to Romanesque architecture?
...that Gnanendramohan Tagore was the first Asian to be called to the bar in England in 1862?
...that Great American Country television host Nan Kelley (then Nan Sumrall) became Miss Mississippi in 1985 after her fellow Mississippian Susan Akin was crowned Miss America?
...that the Chappell Ganguly controversy in Indian cricket resulted in fiery street protests in Ganguly's home town of Calcutta and then raised debate in the Parliament of India?

07:22, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
...that the Portland Brownstone Quarries, which once provided brownstone to many landmark buildings in the United States during the 1800s, are now a National Historic Landmark and a regional scuba diving destination?

01:05, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the California Maritime Academy has named three of its four training ships Golden Bear (third ship pictured) since 1946?
...that two members of the outlaw Banditti of the Prairie were lynched in Ogle County, Illinois on June 27, 1841?
...that Patrick Heenan, a Captain in the British Indian Army, was convicted of treason after spying for the Empire of Japan during the Malayan campaign of World War II?
...that a Secret Council of the Lithuanian Council of Lords dealt with all crucial state affairs in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania?
...that the McLaren F1 GTR, based on the production McLaren F1 supercar, won the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans in its first year against purpose-built Le Mans Prototypes?
...that the Siribhoovalaya, a unique work of multi-lingual literature composed by Jain monk Kumudendu Muni, is written entirely using Kannada numerals, without the use of any alphabets?

9 March 2007

17:39, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Fountaingrove Lake (pictured) in Santa Rosa, California, is a habitat for the threatened Western pond turtle, and is surrounded by a championship golf course?
...that Polish painter and critic Józef Czapski was twice sent to the Soviet Union to find missing Polish officers who had been executed by the Soviets?
...that Graeme Park is the only surviving residence of a colonial era Governor of Pennsylvania?
...that Luan Jujie is the only East Asian person to have won an Olympic gold medal in the sport of fencing?
...that Joseph Ingraham, an American sailor who discovered several of the Marquesas Islands, was lost at sea in 1800?
...that Caryl Churchill's play Mad Forest, developed partly in Bucharest in collaboration with Romanian and English drama students, was in production less than six months after the Romanian Revolution of 1989?

11:25, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

...that at the Battle of Baia (pictured), Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus was struck by three arrows and almost died?
...that after suppressing the Mytilenean revolt, the Athenian assembly considered executing the entire male population of Mytilene?
...that during the blood-vomiting game, a famous Go game between Honinbo Jowa and Intetsu Akaboshi that lasted four days, Jowa made three unorthodox moves that were reputed to have been suggested to him by ghosts?
...that a Spokane, Washington, television station devoted the first 11 minutes of its Saturday evening newscast to the February 2007 arrests of Gonzaga University basketball player Josh Heytvelt and his teammate?

02:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the locality of Boinka, Victoria, (pictured) which has an area population of 28 people, celebrates Melbourne Cup Day each year despite being located 496 kilometres from Melbourne?
...that Mayurasharma was the founder of the Kadamba Kingdom of Banavasi, the earliest native kingdom to rule over what is today Karnataka state, India?
...that the balloon framing method of wall framing became obsolete in the 1940s when it was replaced by the platform framing method?
...that the 1960 crash of Capital Airlines Flight 20 marked the third accident in three years involving a Capital Airlines Vickers Viscount?
...that American music critic and editor Smokey Fontaine is the son of English documentary filmmaker Dick Fontaine, the maker of the 1984 BBC documentary Beat This: A Hip-Hop History?
...that the Russian defense correspondent Ivan Safronov, who was writing about the third consecutive launch failure of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, died in a mysterious fall from his fifth floor apartment?

8 March 2007

18:52, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

...that former world chess champion Garry Kasparov helped to organise the Saint Petersburg March of the Discontented (pictured) on 3 March 2007?
...that Danny Kaye, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Abbott and Costello and Sammy Davis, Jr. are among the performers to have graced the stage of the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.?
...that Timothy Campbell was assigned the role of promoting an anti-wrinkle device from Amstrad's Health & Beauty division after winning the first series of the television show The Apprentice UK?
...that the Pingo National Landmark, in the Northwest Territories, is the only national landmark in Canada protecting pingos?
...that Steve Stanton, Largo, Florida's city manager since 1993, was fired for pursuing sex reassignment?
...that the Ottoman Bank, established as a private bank in 1856, became a central bank in 1863 and issued banknotes in the Ottoman Empire and then Turkey until 1931?

14:26, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Barnabé Brisson's 1559 De Verborum (frontispiece pictured) became the standard legal dictionary of the time and an authoritative source for lexicographers for centuries afterwards?
...that after the publication of the non-fiction book Cults of Unreason, other writers used the title to refer to strange groups, including UFO cults?
...that the Indian poet and philosopher Dwijendranath Tagore wrote the book Boxometry about the construction of boxes?
...that the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective was the first of six Frank Lloyd Wright designs to use spiraling ramps?
... that American film director Jim Fields recently wrote, produced and directed a documentary called Bugeaters?
...that Dermodactylus was the first pterosaur (flying reptile) named from North America?
...that the Sound Effects Choir can imitate the sounds of a car using only the mouth or other body parts?

05:13, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

... that "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" (campaign banner pictured) was called the "Marseillaise" of the 1840 United States presidential election?
...that Charles E. Peterson is widely considered to be the "godfather" of historic preservation in the United States?
...that Lance Armstrong's autobiography, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, headed the New York Times Best Seller list, and was the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2000?
...that the Area Boys are a gang of Nigerian street children and teenagers who roam the streets of Lagos extorting money from passers-by?
...that Lothar-Günther Buchheim, author of the 1973 novel Das Boot, refused to give his Expressionist paintings to a museum unless it would also display his collection of curiosities?
...that the United States National Weather Service's StormReady program was credited with saving the lives of more than 50 movie-goers in Van Wert County, Ohio in 2002?
...that the Simpsons short Good Night aired April 19 1987 on The Tracey Ullman Show and was the first ever appearance of the Simpson family on television?

7 March 2007

22:59, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Ladurée, which sells 15,000 macarons (pictured) per day, opened a tea house in its Parisian pastry shop in the 1930s, to cater for society ladies, who at that time were not admitted to cafés?
...that Kasongo Ilunga, incumbent Minister of Foreign Trade for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is widely believed to be a non-existent person?
...that the best-selling British author Edwy Searles Brooks is estimated to have published 800 adventure novels, including the Norman Conquest and Ironsides Cromwell serialized novels, under several pseudonyms?
...that Ahmad Hasan Dani, an expert of South Asian archaeology and Ancient history, was the first Muslim graduate of the Banaras Hindu University?
...that Francisco Serrão, one of the Portuguese vessel commanders sent by Afonso de Albuquerque to the 'Spice Islands', took a Javanese woman as his wife when his ship berthed at Gresik?

15:05, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

...that William Larrabee (pictured), the 13th Governor of Iowa, almost always posed in profile with the left side of his face showing, because the right side was disfigured in a childhood gun accident?
...that many regional cuisines of medieval Europe were heavily influenced by Arab cuisine through contact with Muslim Iberia and Sicily?
...that Lady Una Troubridge introduced the French writer Colette to English readers?
...that pockets of resistance created during the German invasions of France in 1940 and Yugoslavia in 1941 developed into resistance movements that tied down several German divisions?
...that Sol Spiegelman, a prominent American molecular biologist, is credited with creating the Spiegelman Monster?
...that the oldest known remains of anatomically modern humans in the world were excavated in the Klasies River Caves?
...that Buster Martin, aged 100, is believed to be the United Kingdom's oldest employee?

06:21, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (pictured), founded in 1751 by King George II of Great Britain, is the second oldest of seven academies of sciences in Germany?
...that Siba Singha established Shaktism, a Hindu sect, as the major religion in Assam in the early 18th century?
...that the main force of the Łódź Army was destroyed in the Battle of the Border during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, but an Operational Group held out for a month defending the Modlin fortress?
...that the nearly circular shape of Lukanga Swamp, a wetland covering 2,600 km² in Central Province, Zambia, has led to speculation that it may be a crater formed by the impact of a meteorite?
...that the Stag-moose (Cervalces scotti) went extinct about 11,500 years ago, part of a mass extinction of large North American mammals toward the end of the most recent ice age?
...that a Junkers Ju88 was shot down and crashed on the drive of historic Hestercombe House on 28 March 1944?

6 March 2007

23:09, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Pantheon, Moscow

...that the Moscow Pantheon (proposal pictured) was a Soviet project to construct a monumental memorial tomb for prominent Communist figures?
...that the Indian Institute in central Oxford, England was founded by Sir Monier-Williams in 1883 to provide training for the Indian Civil Service?
...that J.C. Newman Cigar Company, founded in 1895, is America's oldest family-owned premium cigar maker?
...that the Romanian fascist politician Ion Sân-Giorgiu at first considered Antisemitism to be "an act of poverty of a failed intellectual", but soon changed his position calling Jews a "national cancer"?
...that the names of broad gauge railway locomotives were drawn from areas such as Greek, Roman and other mythologies, famous people, literature, flora, fauna, towns, geographical features, speed and power?
...that the Embassy Gulf Service Station in Washington, D.C. was designed to be reminiscent of banks and libraries?

18:04, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
...that one of the victims of convicted Balcony Rapist Paul Callow was awarded damages of $220,000 against the Toronto police force because it failed to warn women in her neighbourhood after four earlier rapes?

13:49, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

...that kulintang music (kulintang pictured), a form of Filipino gong music, is said to have existed in North Maluku for centuries?
...that British banker, Conservative MP, and conservationist Sir John Lindsay Eric Smith founded the Landmark Trust in 1965?
...that a part of Rawa River in Silesia is currently so polluted it is officially classified as a sewage channel?
...that Frank Brickowski played basketball in Italy, France and Israel for three years in the early 1980s, until the New York Knicks thought he was ready for the NBA?
...that the "Mohawk Valley formula," a strikebreaking plan devised during the Remington Rand strike of 1936-1937, was declared by the National Labor Relations Board to be "a battle plan for industrial war"?
...that the Monument to the Heroes of the Military Engineers' Army is dedicated to the Romanian military engineers of World War I, of whom more than a thousand were killed?
...that British Labour Party politician Lena Jeger, Baroness Jeger was the oldest female former member of the British House of Commons at the time of her death?

02:38, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the exuberant "Smiling Faces" figurines (pictured) from the Remojadas archaeological site are likely related to the local cult of the dead?
...that the German submarine U-777 was sunk in October 1944, less than 7 months after being launched?
...that George Patterson's score of 271 is the highest total in a single innings for a cricketer from a non-Test nation?
...that Silesia Stadium in Poland has hosted crowds of over 100,000 people, but its capacity was reduced below 50,000 to comply with international safety standards?
...that Group Captain (later Air Chief Marshal Sir) Frederick Scherger was one of the few senior RAAF officers in Northern Australia to emerge from the inquiry into the bombing of Darwin in February 1942 with his career undamaged?
...that "Follow My Heart", performed in five different languages at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, was the fourth consecutive song by Poland in multiple languages?

5 March 2007

17:29, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Ronald Reagan announced his engagement to his first wife, Jane Wyman, at the Chicago Theatre (pictured)?
...that the American mathematician Yudell Luke wrote two books on the probabilities of winning at the card game of cribbage?
...that the Scottish island of Lunga is the location of the "well of the church of Saint Columba", which reputedly never runs dry?
...that in exchange for shutting down the Manhattan Opera Company and refraining from producing opera in the United States for ten years, Oscar Hammerstein I received over a million dollars from the Metropolitan Opera?
...that Czech decathlete Roman Šebrle, world record holder and 2004 Olympic winner, was injured in January 2007 when a javelin which had been thrown 55 metres pierced his shoulder?
...that Kiev's Museum of Western and Oriental Art houses the largest collection of foreign art in Ukraine?
...that private investigator Bradley Willman used a Trojan horse to gain open access to 2,000 to 3,000 computers that had been used to visit websites of interest to pedophiles?

04:40, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

...that in his recitals baritone David Bispham (pictured) often sang English versions of songs by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and others?
...that despite finishing its first season with a profit of $53,000, the Damrosch Opera Company was forced to close due to mounting deficits after only six years in business?
...that six striking coal miners, nine of their family members, and one bystander were killed during the Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910-1911?
...that the Romanian communist politician Valter Roman was active not only in the Romanian Communist Party, but also in the communist parties in Czechoslovakia, France, and Spain?
...that in the Old Javanese eulogy of Nagarakretagama, Kertanegara, the last king of the Singhasari kingdom, was deified into three deity forms?
...that Amaro spent three hundred years standing at the gate of the Earthly Paradise without being allowed in, according to the Life of Saint Amaro?

4 March 2007

20:39, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca (pictured), built to defend the Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba from pirate attacks, was captured and partially destroyed by pirates while it was being constructed?
...that Free French Forces liberated all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy France in November 1940 in the Battle of Gabon?
...that the Church of Scientology attempted to ban the non-fiction book Scientology: The Now Religion in Canadian libraries during 1974?
...that U-F2 was a French submarine that was taken as a prize by the Germans in 1940 from a dockyard, and was later converted for German usage?
...that prominent Russian sculptor Fyodor Kamensky worked as a farmer in Florida?
...that the Monastery of Jesus in Setúbal, Portugal, the first building associated with the Manueline style, was built by Diogo Boitac?

10:11, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

File:Kiev art museum.jpg

...that the National Art Museum of Ukraine's (pictured) collections were first exhibited outside the country after it reached independence in 1991?
...that "Antietam" is misspelled on the facade of the Civil War Memorial in DeKalb County, Illinois?
...that the majority of Assyrians in Finland live in Oulu, the sixth largest city in the country?
...that for participating in the American premiere of Richard Wagner's Parsifal against the wishes of the composer's family, Milka Ternina was never again invited to perform at Bayreuth?
...that the Grade I-listed St. Bartholomew's Church, Brighton, England, was described as a "monster excrescence", "a cheese warehouse" and a "brick parallelogram" by some of its detractors at a heated Council meeting in 1893?
...that Albinus of Angers, who as bishop reportedly used diocesan funds to ransom people captured by pirates, thereafter became the patron saint against pirate attack and of coastal communities as far away as Poland and New Jersey?

02:08, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

...that Saturn Devouring His Son (pictured), by Spanish artist Francisco Goya, was painted directly onto the wall of his house and never intended for public exhibition?
...that Portuguese architect Mateus Fernandes is best known for his Manueline-style work at the Monastery of Batalha?
...that the Winter Garden Atrium was the first major structure in New York City to be completely restored following the September 11, 2001 attacks?
...that James Bond author Ian Fleming suggested that Dame Violet Dickson should write her autobiography while he was researching a book on Kuwait, and that her autobiographical book was eventually published but his never was?
...that the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine was used as a House of Political Education and a Bolshevik Club after the Russian Revolution?

3 March 2007

19:37, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the last Hungarian inhabitants of Niedzica Castle, Poland, (pictured) remained there until 1943 when the coming of the Soviet front in World War II inspired the last countess to abandon it with her children?
...that the mummified fossil of an Edmontosaurus annectens was secured by the American Museum of Natural History for $2,000?
...that the pool game of baseball pocket billiards borrows both language and aspects of form from the game of baseball, featuring a pitcher, a home plate, runs and is played to nine innings?
...that Ousmane Sembène's 1966 Senegalese film Black Girl was one of the first Sub-Saharan African films to receive international acclaim?
...that of the 95 Auk class minesweepers used in World War II only one was sunk by an enemy submarine and only 11 were lost in total?
...that the Leo J. Ryan Federal Building, which opened in 1973, was named in honor of Congressman Leo J. Ryan, the first and only United States Congressman to die in the line of duty?

12:40, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

...that in 1918 the issue of Lietuvos Aidas (pictured) containing the text of the Act of Independence of Lithuania was confiscated by the German authorities?
...that "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" received three perfect scores at the start of voting in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 before ultimately coming in fourth, making Hungary the only debuting nation to lead the voting?
...that a shop drawing is not created by the architect or the engineer, but by the fabricator?
...that Dr. Colin Skinner, a British molecular biologist, is attempting to walk around the world?
...that wandering spleen is a rare medical disease caused by the loss or weakening of the ligaments that help to keep the spleen in the upper left part of the abdomen?
...that the Stowe Recreation Path received the majority of its funding from selling of pieces of it, as small as an inch?

04:25, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the medieval bylaw, which states any Welshman loitering within Chester city walls (pictured) after sunset may be shot with a longbow, has never been officially repealed?
...that the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie is the oldest continuously operating theater in New York State?
...that the heart of Frederic Chopin is kept in an urn in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw?
...that the Inuktun language, spoken by 1000 Inughuit people around Qaanaaq in northern Greenland, is related to Canadian Inuit languages?
...that retired American football player William Fuller is one of the few players in National Football League history to record 100 career quarterback sacks?
...that Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the second railway in the world that was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO?

2 March 2007

22:17, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

...that modern billiard chalk (pictured), which is not actually chalk but a compound of silica and corundum, was invented by player William A. Spinks and a chemist friend in 1897?
...that Edyta Górniak sang part of "To Nie Ja" in English at the dress rehearsal for the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, which almost caused the song to be disqualified?
...that Mount Omine is a sacred mountain in Nara, Japan, famous for its controversial ban on women and for its three tests of courage?
...how patients with gender identity disorder are classified over the course of their medical treatments?
...that Tolay Lake has yielded thousands of charmstones thrown into the lake by prehistoric peoples to invoke health and high crop yields?
...that the illumination method used in modern light microscope design was invented by 27-year-old German graduate student August Köhler in 1893?

13:31, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

...that 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · (graph pictured), being the Cauchy product of two copies of 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + · · ·, is an example of a series that is Abel summable but not Cesàro summable?
...that Goat Rock Beach in Sonoma County, California has a number of sea stacks and offers viewing of marine natural arches? ...
...that Lou Ye's film Summer Palace was the first Chinese film to feature both male and female full-frontal nudity?
...that Nicholas II of Russia, his wife and children have all been recognized as saints of the Russian Orthodox Church?
...that Vitamin C megadosage is an alternative medical practice which advocates huge doses of vitamin C to cure a wide range of diseases?
...that Jacob Dacian, a Franciscan missionary to the P'urhépecha Indians of Mexico, spoke 8 different languages and was probably a son of King John I of Denmark?
...that 16-year-old Cory Kennedy became an "Internet It girl" in 2006 without her parents even knowing?

07:07, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Eastgate Clock (pictured) in Chester is the second most photographed timepiece in the United Kingdom, after Big Ben?
...that the location of tropical cyclone formations are traditionally divided into seven basins?
...that Hernando Arias de Saavedra was the first native-born governor of a New World colony and issued the order leading to the modern-day partition of Argentina and Paraguay?
...that Kavirajamarga, the earliest extant literary work in the Kannada language, was written by King Amoghavarsha I who was a famous poet and a scholar?
...that many Australian wool, dairy, and wheat towns were created overnight when demobilized WWI and WWII soldiers accepted Crown land in otherwise uninhabited rural locations?
...that the Life Assurance Act 1774, still in force in Britain today, closed a legal loophole which had allowed life insurance policies to be used as a form of gambling?

1 March 2007

23:09, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Spartan cruiser

...that the Spartan Cruiser (pictured) was originally designed as a mailplane and even flew a test flight to Karachi as such, but was then transformed into a passenger airplane in 1932?
...that Stefan Báthory assisted Vlad Dracula to reclaim the throne of Wallachia in 1476?
...that when it was shown at the Metropolitan Opera, Diana von Solange by Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was so poorly received that three hundred people signed a petition demanding that it be removed from the repertory?
...that Beata Brookes, Conservative MEP for North Wales for ten years, has been nicknamed "the Celtic Iron Lady"?
...that the actions of Captain Alfred C. Haynes and the crew of United Airlines Flight 232 are often cited as an exemplar of good airmanship?
...that the 22 Bodmer Papyri from a fifth-century Egyptian monastic library near Nag Hammadi contain three plays by Menander and fragments of the Iliad, as well as early versions of the Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John?

15:41, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

...that the Red and Green Kangaroo Paw (pictured) is the floral emblem of the state of Western Australia?
...that The Christian by Hall Caine (published 1897) was the first novel in Britain to sell over a million copies?
...that British Conservative MP Norman Miscampbell turned down a knighthood because he thought it would prevent him enjoying his retirement from politics?
...that the former KGB agent Yuri Nosenko was incarcerated for five years by the CIA including 1,277 days of interrogation, because the American agents did not believe he had truly defected?
...that Leon Wasilewski, first Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, was one of the chief supporters of the Prometheism policy aimed at breaking up the Soviet Union?
...that Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden wrote three biographies about the Russian imperial family and about her own escape from Russia in 1917?

05:06, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Veniamin Kagan

...that in 1952 the Russian mathematician Veniamin Kagan (pictured) resigned from his post at Moscow State University partly as a result of anti-Semitic practices there?
...that, when first built, the Chicago Board of Trade Building became the second structure located at 141 West Jackson Boulevard to bear, for a time, the title of tallest building in Chicago?
...that just 51 days after Adam Air's loss of Flight 574, Adam Air Flight 172 snapped in half after a hard landing, but there were no casualties?
...that George Cecil Ives created the Order of Chaeronea, a secret society to promote gay rights, and left 122 volumes of diaries and 45 of scrapbooks?
...that approximately 300 pieces of mail a day are still being sent to 10048, the ZIP code assigned to the former World Trade Center complex?
...that the legend of the smuggler Cruel Coppinger was embellished by the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker when he published it in 1866?