Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/January

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Did you know...

31 January 2009

20:32, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the worshippers of Xipe Totec (pictured), the Aztec god of renewal, wore the flayed skins of their sacrificial victims?
... that Lorene Rogers was described as the first woman to serve as head of a public university in the United States when she became president of the University of Texas at Austin in 1974?
... that Anacletus II is regarded as an antipope although he had received the majority of the votes in the Papal election of 1130?
... that economist John Kenneth Galbraith called The Go-Go Years, a book by John Brooks about Wall Street's speculative bubble in the 1960s, "a small classic in the history of financial insanity"?
... that during the Angolan Civil War, the surrounding area of Luanda's Palácio de Ferro, believed to be designed by Gustave Eiffel, was once used as a parking lot?
... that ice hockey referee Marcus Vinnerborg has officiated two Ice Hockey World Championship finals in row?
... that historian P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar believed that Kanchipuram was the southernmost outpost of Sanskrit culture during the pre-Pallava period?
... that female impersonator T. C. Jones played murderous transvestites in both a 1965 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a 1967 episode of The Wild Wild West?

14:16, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

... that one-time Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Charles B. Moores' (pictured) uncle, father, and grandfather all served in the Oregon Legislature, while his son served in the Washington Legislature?
... that the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Kamikaze was one of the few larger Japanese warships to survive the Pacific War without significant damage?
... that Robert Dallek researched JFK for five years by tapping National Security Archives, oral histories, White House tapes, and medical records to write An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963?
... that in December 1955, India became the first country outside the Eastern bloc to establish diplomatic relations with Mongolia?
... that results from the JUPITER trial indicated that rosuvastatin may lower the relative risk of heart attacks and stroke in patients with normal cholesterol levels?
... that New Zealand Transport Minister Steven Joyce started radio station Energy FM with a group of friends?
... that the remnants of 2005's Tropical Depression Ten partially contributed to the formation of Hurricane Katrina?
... that Fred Shaw Mayer was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for breeding Birds of Paradise?

08:24, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Streamline Moderne building (pictured) of the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library is a former Dodge automobile dealership?
... that Johann Phillip Fabricius, a German Christian missionary, completed the first translation of the Bible to Tamil?
... that Malay monarchs lost their legal immunity after a series of amendments was made to the Constitution of Malaysia in 1993?
... that American writer Howard Norman stated there was a shorter distance between his unconscious life and his conscious life in Nova Scotia than anywhere else?
... that the effects of Hurricane Ivan in Jamaica proved among the most severe in the island's history?
... that Halle Jørn Hanssen was Norway's first television correspondent stationed in an African country?
... that radio stations WMFC and WMFC-FM originally broadcast from a Quonset hut in the heart of Monroeville, Alabama?
... that Andrew Ritchie named his Brompton folding bicycle company after the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

02:32, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Harmon Northrop Morse was awarded the Avogadro Medal in 1916 for his extensive report on osmotic pressure and semipermeable membranes (concept pictured)?
... that Itek Corporation was formed to build image retrieval systems, but instead became a reconnaissance camera vendor after winning the contract for the CIA's CORONA satellite?
... that British poisoner Frederick Seddon made a secret Masonic signal to his trial judge, prominent Freemason Thomas Townsend Bucknill, in an attempt to overturn the jury's guilty verdict?
... that The Hunters of Kentucky, which commemorated the Battle of New Orleans, was used as Andrew Jackson's 1828 campaign song?
... that Russian ski jumper Arthur Khamidulin retired after his violent crash in ski flying in Vikersund in 2000?
... that the Bradley Airport Connector, a freeway in the U.S. state of Connecticut, was renamed the "82nd Airborne Memorial Highway" in 1999 to honor the 82nd Airborne Division?
... that Sri Ponna, the classical Kannada language poet of c. 950, is considered one of the "three gems of Kannada literature?
... that the specific name of mushroom Lactarius theiogalus comes from the Greek for "brimstone" and "milk"?

30 January 2009

20:40, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Niepołomice Forest in Poland incorporates the most protected nature reserve inhabited by European bison called wisent (pictured), the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe?
... that World Sculling Champion oarsman Joseph Sadler was a chimneysweep by profession?
... that Isaac Albéniz's opera Pepita Jiménez has been adapted several times by numerous people into different constructs and languages?
... that Pernessa C. Seele, the founder of the Harlem Week of Prayer for Healing of AIDS, is an immunologist and one of Time magazine's Top 100 Americans in 2006?
... that St. Mary's Islands, Karnataka, known for the distinctive geological formation of columnar basaltic lava, are a set of four small islands in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Malpe?
... that Ratchanya Yatreegam, magnum opus of Indian poet Henry Alfred Krishnapillai written in Tamil, was based on John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress?
... that no one knows the age of the Greaser Petroglyphs located in eastern Lake County, Oregon, USA, but they could be up to 12,000 years old?
... that Vilhelm Andreas Wexelsen, who had two tenures as Norwegian Minister of Education and Church Affairs, became a bishop after his political career?

14:48, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

... that 52 of Sholto Johnstone Douglas's paintings of First World War "dazzle ships" (dazzle camouflage pictured) are in the Imperial War Museum?
... that in Tanta, Egypt, some restaurants sell an "al-Tourbini sandwich", named after a serial child killer?
... that the Kay Moor coal mine near Fayetteville, West Virginia, was first worked with mule-drawn railcars?
... that Michael Christian Festing was Thomas Arne's mentor and it is through his influence that Arne was able to pursue a music career?
... that Guyana's sugar production was halved between 1978 and 1988 due to the economic decline of the nation during the 1980s?
... that Balanadarajah Iyer was the second Sri Lankan journalist to be assassinated in 2004?
... that although composed in late 1812, the popular Canadian War of 1812 song The Bold Canadian was not published until 1907, and not fully until 1927?
... that the noted medieval Telugu-language writer and poet Palkuriki Somanatha wrote important classics in Kannada and Sanskrit as well?
... that the Beverly Hilton Hotel has hosted the Golden Globe Awards since 1961?

08:48, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Lucques (pictured), Aglandau, Salonenque, Picholine, Olivière, Tanche, Bouteillan, Cailletier, Grossane, Germaine, Cayon and Sabine are some of about a hundred French olive cultivars?
... that Trailanga Swami, an Indian yogi, is reputed to have lived nearly 300 years and reportedly "read people’s minds like books"?
... that the Hawthorn Farm rail station in Hillsboro, Oregon, has a piece of art that indicates the wind's direction by using lights and sounds?
... that both Charles Langbridge Morgan, a civil engineer, and his son Charles Langbridge Morgan, a playwright and novelist, served in the British Armed Forces during the First World War?
... that although Katharine Hepburn wrote most of the filmed script for Travels with My Aunt, she was denied screen credit because she was not a member of the Screen Writers Guild?
... that the village of Worsley is centred around the coal mines that helped kickstart the industrial revolution in nearby Manchester?
... that New York Road Runners CEO Mary Wittenberg was the first female director of a major international marathon?
... that Sega changed a dainty, big-eyed female character into a Vallejo-like golden bikini-clad female barbarian, to market the video game Alisia Dragoon to the Western market?

02:56, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

... that wolf lichen, fungal species Letharia vulpina (pictured), was used historically as a wolf poison by combining it with powdered glass and meat?
... that the first container ship arrived in the Port of Tokyo's Shinagawa terminal in 1967?
... that Haskel Lookstein, who succeeded his father Joseph Lookstein as Rabbi of New York City's Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in 1979, was Newsweek magazine's second-ranked U.S. pulpit rabbi in 2008?
... that around 80 percent of El Salvador's forests are associated with shade coffee plantations?
... that after serving as a Union Army general during the American Civil War, Joseph Alexander Cooper was enlisted to suppress Ku Klux Klan disturbances in Tennessee?
... that The Beatles appeared ten times on the BBC Radio programme Saturday Club in the early 1960s?
... that University of Pennsylvania track coach Ken Doherty removed Bruce Dern from the track team in 1957 after his Elvis-like sideburns caused a commotion while running the two-mile relay?
... that a split in India's Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party in 1988 resulted in a split in the Congress party in Tamil Nadu, leading to the birth of the new party Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani?
... that the Diamond darter, discovered in 2008, lives only in the Elk River of West Virginia, USA?

29 January 2009

21:09, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Vladas Jurgutis (pictured) is considered to be the "father of the Lithuanian litas"?
... that the invitations to the inauguration of Barack Obama were produced in an environmentally friendly manner by companies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council?
... that George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen was the acting Viceroy of India from June 1929 to April 1931?
... that Chicago's Fountain of Time by Lorado Taft is considered the earliest outdoor concrete sculpture?
... that when Jean-Jacques Démafouth, in exile from the Central African Republic, agreed to lead the APRD rebel group in March 2008, he stipulated they must negotiate a peace deal?
... that controversy erupted when Virginia Tech was selected to play in the 2002 Gator Bowl college football game instead of Syracuse, which had more wins in the regular season?
... that Corethrellidae, a family of parasitic midges belonging to the same order as the common housefly, have been found to spread the disease-causing protozoan Trypanosoma among their host frog populations?
... that designer Shigeo Fukuda's poster "Victory 1945" of a projectile heading straight at the opening of a cannon barrel was described as a "bitingly satirical commentary on the senselessness of war"?

15:16, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the color scheme for Israel Railways' new Siemens Viaggio Light trains (pictured) was chosen by the general public in a poll?
... that President George W. Bush appointed three Cabinet members who had been born outside of the United States, the most of any U.S. president?
... that Château de Cayx is a royal residence of the Danish monarch in France?
... that Holly Coors, wife of beer magnate Joseph Coors, stated while planning to run for Governor of Colorado that the way to help women was "not the Equal Rights Amendment but through free enterprise"?
... that Typhoon Wayne, which roamed the South China Sea and Formosa Strait for over three weeks in 1986, remains the longest lived tropical cyclone on record in the western Pacific Ocean?
... that in May 1776, the future Chaldean Patriarch Yohannan Hormizd was consecrated metropolitan bishop with right of succession at the age of 16 by his uncle, Patriarch Mar Eliya XII Denkha?
... that Star Trek: Countdown, a comic book prequel to the 2009 film Star Trek, is also a sequel to the 2002 film Star Trek Nemesis?
... that Barashnûm is a Zoroastrian purification ritual in which a "defiled" person is confined to a corner of the house called Armêsht-gah for a period of nine nights?

09:24, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Light-mantled Albatross (pictured) does not start breeding, on average, until 12 years old?
... that Count Hans von Schack of South Jutland was given Schackenborg Castle as a token of Frederick III of Denmark's gratitude for his military achievements in the Northern Wars?
... that Providence Newberg Medical Center in Oregon was the first hospital in the United States to earn a Gold LEED certification?
... that child actor Asa Butterfield appeared on the cover of Patrick Skene Catling's autobiography Better Than Working?
... that after surviving 1945's Battle of Manila, the Avenue Theater along Rizal Avenue was demolished in 2006 in order to turn it into a parking lot?
... that rapper T.I. is starring in T.I.'s Road To Redemption, an upcoming reality television show?
... that the legend of Sumbha and Nisumbha, demons from Hindu mythology, is used as a warning against the dangers of seduction in Shashi Tharoor's novel The Great Indian Novel?
... that Major League Baseball manager Billy Martin served five separate terms as manager of the New York Yankees?

03:32, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

... that symbiotic moss animals live on the bristles of the crab known as the Mud-Runner (pictured)?
... that Captain John Maitland's decisive quashing of an attempted mutiny was termed 'Doctor Maitland's recipe' by Admiral John Jervis?
... that ever since the Griffin v. California case in the U.S. Supreme Court, judges and prosecutors are forbidden from mentioning that a defendant has refused to testify?
... that Al-Maquar, which contains the royal residence of Jordan, was built on the camp-site for the armies of the Arab Revolt, who captured Amman in 1918?
... that Marcia P. Sward, who created the children's environmental education program GreenKids, started her career as a mathematician?
... that because of differences in the demands for a separate nation called Dravida Nadu, India's DMK party split in 1962 and a short-lived Tamil National Party was formed?
... that Alexander Ross was Engineer-in-Chief of the Breydon Viaduct?
... that there was public outcry when the Sea Alarm—formerly one of Britain's WWII Empire ships—was scrapped after the closure of the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum?
... that in the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s, Frenchy Martin accompanied Dino Bravo to the ring with a sign that read "USA is not OK"?

28 January 2009

21:40, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Grand Duchess Sophie Caroline of East Friesland instructed Danish royal architect Lauritz de Thurah to demolish Sorgenfri Palace in 1756 to make way for a new palace (pictured)?
... that in Maya mythology, wayob were the powerful spirit forms of lords, priests and gods?
... that during the Battle of Tipton's Island, Colonel Tipton punished a talkative soldier under his command by tying him to a tree?
... that Nijaguna Shivayogi, a petty chieftain in 15th-century Karnataka, India, was a visionary writer and poet in the Kannada language?
... that tab shows—cut-down versions of Broadway and other musicals, with portable scenery—often shared the bill with early 20th-century vaudeville and burlesque shows in the USA?
... that Captain Charles Powell Hamilton was present at both the loss of HMS Alexander in the Action of 6 November 1794, and her recapture at the Battle of Groix?
... that Filipinos are expected to become the second-largest group of foreign workers in Qatar by the end of 2009?
... that New York City's Ramaz School, with 1,100 students in 2007, was named for Rabbi Moses Margolies and founded by his grandson Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, whose son was in the opening class of six in 1937?

15:40, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Polish resistance in World War II designed and produced hundreds of flamethrowers, most of them of the K pattern model (pictured)?
... that a Liveline phone-in debate on gay adoption staged by Evelyn O'Rourke led to more than half of the total complaints issued against the radio show in a six-month period?
... that in 1952, three BSA A7 motorcycles won the Maudes Trophy and the International Six Days Enduro, achieving 4,500 miles (7,200 km) without any problems?
... that Maraimalai Adigal, a Saivite and considered the father of the Pure Tamil movement, disagreed with the atheistic beliefs of Periyar's Self-Respect Movement?
... that in 2005, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a bill making Oregon the first U.S. state to require prescriptions for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine?
... that, being a descendant of Pliohippus, Astrohippus is not considered to be an ancestor to modern horses?
... that in 1975, Tivi Etok, a Quebec artist, was the first Inuk printmaker to have a collection of his own prints released?
... that a 2009 Pennsylvania court case ruled that poker is a game of skill, thus not subject to the state laws related to gambling?

09:48, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

... that this year's Tour of California will cross the Golden Gate Bridge (pictured) for the first time?
... that the Norwegian Minister of the Interior and President of the Storting, Johan Henrik Paasche Thorne, was a business partner of Theodor Peterson before entering politics?
... that Murder on a Sunday Morning, a French film about the 2000 Brenton Butler murder case in Jacksonville, Florida, won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 2001?
... that Étienne-Émile Baulieu, the "father of the abortion pill", first described the concept of neurosteroids?
... that NBC's 2009 reality television program Superstars of Dance is hosted by "Lord of the Dance" Michael Flatley?
... that East Wallabi Island has the highest number of plant species on any island of the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago in the Indian Ocean?
... that many modern legal commentators believe the decision in Stilk v Myrick was made at least partly due to public policy?
... that Steven Hoefflin grafted skin to Michael Jackson’s scalp after the singer was burnt during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984?

03:56, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Trondheim Tramway of Norway could not sell their used Class 8 trams (pictured) because they had the unique combination of 260 cm (100 in) width and meter gauge?
... that Sedgeley, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1799 and built in Philadelphia, was the first Gothic revival-style house in the U.S.?
... that Oslac, the first ealdorman of southern Northumbria, is said to have escorted the Scottish king Cináed mac Maíl Coluim to the court of the English king Edgar the Peaceful?
... that Ron Rothstein was the first head coach of the Miami Heat, an American professional basketball team based in Miami, Florida?
... that remnants of defensive walls and stone shelters on West Wallabi Island, constructed by survivors of the 1629 Batavia shipwreck, are the oldest known European-built structures in Australia?
... that Brett Queener, an American goalkeeper in professional field lacrosse, plays an offensive position in professional indoor lacrosse?
... that the Wolf Popper Synagogue in Kraków, Poland, was founded in 1620 by one of the richest European traders in saltpetre, used for the making of gunpowder?
... that Bob May got the role of the Robot in the 1960s TV series Lost in Space when he met the show's creator Irwin Allen in the studio lot who said "if you can fit in the suit, you've got the job"?

27 January 2009

22:08, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Thomas Paine Cottage (pictured) is where the Revolutionary War hero and author of Common Sense lived from 1802 to 1806, was buried in 1809, and was disinterred in 1819 by William Cobbett?
... that the Moss, Norway-based corporation Peterson started as a general store in 1801, later expanding into packaging and paper industry via timber trade and shipping?
... that the U.S. Olympic Committee awarded medals to Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman 62 years after the only two Jews on the U.S. track team were pulled from the 400-meter relay team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
... that Jagannatha Dasa is one of the widely known 18th-century saint-poets of the Kannada language?
... that the Weberian apparatus, a set of modified bones that link the swim bladder and inner ear of some fishes, is a distinguishing characteristic of the superorder Ostariophysi?
... that the collection of the Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely includes 275 aircraft, of which approximately 110 are on public display?
... that college football player Bob Ward is the only player to have been selected by the Associated Press as a first-team All-American in both an offensive and defensive position?
... that the 2005 World Series of Poker Ladies Champion had been nominated for an Academy Award in 1994?

16:16, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the biennial world chef championship Bocuse d'Or, named for Paul Bocuse (pictured), is one of the world's most prestigious cooking competitions?
... that the Citizen's Briefing Book is a compilation work of citizen recommendations to Barack Obama, to be presented to him after his inauguration as President of the United States?
... that the birth place of Tipu Sultan, also known as the Tiger of Mysore, is located 150 metres (490 ft) south-west of Devanahalli Fort in Karnataka, India?
... that Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the captain of US Airways Flight 1549, also runs an aviation safety consultant company and has worked as an accident investigator for the USAF, NTSB, and FAA?
... that Empire Athelstan was the first merchant ship built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow in Furness after the Second World War?
... that C. Natesa Mudaliar was responsible for bringing bitter rivals Theagaroya Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair together and is remembered as one of the founders of India's Justice Party?
... that development of the Namsos Line was halted both in 1908, when final plans for the Nordland Line used another route via Snåsa, and in 1927, when the Norwegian Minister of Labour stopped construction?
... that following Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829, a drunken mob inside the White House was only dispersed once bowls of punch and liquor were placed on the front lawn?

10:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the unusual layout of bays in the aisles of St Luke's Church, Brighton (pictured), was described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "curious" and "disturbing"?
... that Leonard Andrews created The New York Standard, the largest alternative paper printed during the 114-day 1962 New York City newspaper strike, with a peak circulation over 400,000 in its 67 issues?
... that the antimicrobial protein hydramacin-1 was extracted and isolated in 2008 by German scientists from Hydra, a freshwater relative of corals and jellyfish?
... that Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova regarded Osip Mandelstam's poem on Russian poetess Mariya Petrovykh as the "best love poem of the twentieth century"?
... that the Indiana Rangers inspired the creation of the more famous Texas Rangers?
... that the MV Domala was the first ship of the British-India Steam Navigation Company that was powered by diesel engines?
... that, in 2008, college football player Russell Wilson of North Carolina State became the first freshman quarterback to ever be named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference first team?
... that the Little Wattlebird lacks the wattles which characterise the wattlebirds?

04:32, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Mike Murphy (pictured) trained heavyweight boxing champion John L. Sullivan, was the first Michigan Wolverines football coach, and has been called the "the father of American track athletics"?
... that the Singsaker Line was the first part of the Trondheim Tramway, Norway, to be closed?
... that after escaping from German forces in World War II, Peter Lewis hid in a safe house in Modena for almost two months in late 1943?
... that the UNIO High School in Satu Mare, Romania, was established only to train and promote skilled workers for the UNIO Company?
... that entrepreneur Ralph D. Foster and his partner started Missouri radio station KGBX (now KSGF) in 1926 to advertise their Firestone Tires dealership?
... that Australian forces were deployed as a part of the North Russian Expeditionary Force and North Russia Relief Force during the Russian Civil War?
... that Stephen Etnier, an American realist painter, commanded the United States Navy ship USS Mizpah during World War II?
... that the title for Peter Benchley's best-selling 1974 novel Jaws was not agreed until 20 minutes before it went into production?

26 January 2009

22:40, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

... that species from Cookeina (pictured), a genus of cup fungi, are used in Peninsular Malaysia as fish bait?
... that IBM's Automatic Language Translator machines used by the US Air Force had optical disks that stored thousands of Russian-to-English translations?
... that during the captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, 30,000 of the captured 60,000 Christians were forcibly converted to Islam by Tipu Sultan?
... that microbiologist Hans Knöll defended the historic center of Jena, which was threatened by the construction of the Jen-Tower?
... that the four-part A&E documentary series The Greatest Pharaohs is being used in many college and university courses on anthropology and archaeology?
... that after being sent to the GULAG, Ukrainian writer Hryhorii Epik continued to write and sent one of his works to the NKVD in Moscow before his execution during the Great Purge in 1937?
... that George Webb Restaurants locations each have two clocks that employees claim are set one minute apart to evade a local law banning businesses from being open 24 hours per day?
... that Steve Farrell, called "the greatest professional foot-racer" in America, raced against horses for several years in the 1890s and reportedly only lost a half dozen times?

16:50, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the first egg laid in a clutch by Crested penguins (pictured) of the genus Eudyptes is as little as 60% of the size of the second egg?
... that undercover apartheid agent Fabio Barraclough used a cover identity as an anti-apartheid campaigner?
... that the 1983 song "Everyday I Write the Book" was Elvis Costello's first hit single in the United States?
... that Malaysian royalty's immunity from legal prosecution was removed after a 1992 assault incident, involving Tunku Majid of Johor, sparked a constitutional crisis?
... that the US Air Force's cold-weather testing facility was moved from Ladd Field in Fairbanks, Alaska, to a refrigerated hangar, the McKinley Climatic Laboratory, at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida?
... that an electronic opera Raab by the Czech composer Jaroslav Krček was banned by the communist regime in 1972?
... that the United States Department of Transportation incorrectly lists the former Interstate 87 bridge on Warren County Route 35 as an old state road?
... that professional wrestler George "Two Ton" Harris was promised continued employment with Jim Crockett Promotions when he assured the owner that he would learn to read and write?

11:00, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Eugène Delacroix's efforts to produce The Barque of Dante (pictured) in time for the Paris Salon of 1822 left him weak and in need of recuperation?
... that Cheshire landowner Rowland Egerton-Warburton arranged for his house, Arley Hall, to be designed in Tudor style while the chapel was designed in Gothic style?
... that after being saved from the scrapyard by a U.S. delegation, two Japanese warships of the Amagi and Tosa classes, Akagi and Kaga, were converted to aircraft carriers and took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor?
... that only 100 Mahatma Gandhi 10 Rs. stamps were overprinted with "Service", making it the world's least printed stamp?
... that disputes between Confederate Generals William Hardee and John Creed Moore caused Moore to resign his commission?
... that Cosmos 1818, which has an inactive nuclear reactor, was fractured by either a collision or thermal stresses, generating radioactive debris in a high earth orbit?
... that Elliott Woods, who was Architect of the Capitol from 1902 to 1923, oversaw the construction of the Cannon House Office Building and the Russell Senate Office Building?
... that protozoologist Leonard Goodwin claimed to have started the use of hamsters as pets in the United Kingdom?

05:10, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the United States Navy has trained Common Bottlenose Dolphins (pictured) to locate sea mines?
... that the Temple of Human Passions, first building of Art Nouveau's architect Victor Horta, was closed three days after its inauguration under the pressure of the puritanic Belgian public in 1899?
... that Joseph P. Williams led the team that created the BankAmericard in 1958, the first national bank credit card in the United States?
... that the Candy cap mushroom species Lactarius camphoratus has been used as part of a pipe tobacco mix?
... that the "London Cage," a World War II prisoner of war facility commanded by Lt. Col. Alexander Scotland, was beset by allegations of torture?
... that Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy, and Bryan Berard all won the Calder Memorial Trophy while playing for the New York Islanders?
... that sprint champion Charles Hoyt, who lost a chance for an Olympic medal when the 1916 games were cancelled due to World War I, later coached Eddie Tolan to two gold medals in the 1932 Olympics?
... that people have had to be taken to hospital due to drug overdoses at dance parties?

25 January 2009

23:20, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the orange webcap mushroom (pictured) can bioaccumulate the toxic element mercury?
... that instead of abducting people, Francesco Paolo Varsallona, who became an outlaw in 1893, introduced tribute payments for guaranteed safety and was credited with modernizing brigandage in Sicily?
... that in June 1991, a gasoline tanker attempting to exit from Interstate 68 at Cumberland, Maryland, overturned and set eight houses on fire, causing US$250,000 in damages?
... that Royal Air Force pilot Robert Leith-Macgregor was twice shot down during World War II and then strafed by German fighters, but survived uninjured both times?
... that Kentucky's Great Saltpetre Cave, which produced saltpetre for the War of 1812, was later used to film part of the 1997 Steven Seagal film Fire Down Below?
... that composer Egidio Duni was particularly influential in creating a new genre of opera which blended Italian opera elements with traditional French ones?
... that the Polhemus Memorial Clinic in Brooklyn, New York, is considered to be the first skyscraper hospital ever built?
... that despite its name, the Corsican Hare is not native to Corsica and is rarely found on this Mediterranean island today?

17:30, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Tricholoma ustaloides (pictured), generally considered an inedible species of mushroom, is consumed by inhabitants of some Mexican communities?
... that composer Jonathan Battishill once performed several airs from Samuel Arnold's oratorio The Prodigal Son without the sheet music, and after not hearing the work for more than 20 years?
... that the first Filipinos to settle in the Netherlands arrived in 1947?
... that in addition to her academic career, German-Norwegian political scientist Helga Hernes has been a State Secretary as well as an ambassador to several European countries?
... that though students spend their entire high school career at Tech Valley High School in New York's Capital District, their diploma comes from their home school district?
... that Robert Millar has been credited for establishing modern marketing in Norway?
... that the private railroad car Georgia 300 has been used by United States Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, as well as presidential candidate John Kerry?
... that Sam, an army dog who served with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, posthumously received the Dickin Medal in 2003 for holding off armed rioters in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

11:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Thomas Eakins' wife is credited with painting him into The Agnew Clinic (pictured)?
... that the Dalsenget fire in 1956 caused the Trondheim Tramway to lose its 26 newest trams?
... that Hedda and Ingrid Berntsen became the first siblings in Norway to compete in different events at the same Olympic Games?
... that the avant-garde magazine 291 is credited with first introducing visual poetry to the United States back in 1915?
... that according to De primo Saxonum adventu, Osulf of Bamburgh was the first English "earl" of Northumbria?
... that a BSA Lightning fitted with a working missile launching system featured in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball?
... that Robert Elliott-Cooper lived for 12 more years after the journal Nature described him as "among the oldest of English engineers"?
... that Catch My Soul, a rock musical adapation of Othello set in a late 1960s commune in New Mexico, USA, was the only film directed by the late Patrick McGoohan?
... that Australian photographer Olive Cotton captured her childhood friend, photographer Max Dupain, in Fashion shot, Cronulla Sandhills, and married him in 1937?

05:50, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Barnet Burns (pictured) toured England from 1835, exhibited his Māori tattoos and recounted his adventures in New Zealand?
... that Beaver Creek State Park in Ohio, USA, is home to both Little Beaver Creek, a National Scenic River, and a restored 1837 mill?
... that the Pysähdy ajoissa - Stanna i tid ("Stop in time") traffic campaign was the result of the public response to a road death of a nine-year-old girl in Finland?
... that Mark Donaldson became the first recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia, for his gallant actions under enemy fire in Afghanistan in September 2008?
... that the Madhu church shelling affected the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, the holiest Roman Catholic shrine in Sri Lanka?
... that poppy seed, harvested from the opium poppy seed head, has had its use dated back to the Sumerians?
... that before John Parker became Archbishop of Tuam and of Dublin, he had been imprisoned by Oliver Cromwell's forces as a suspected Royalist spy?
... that in its heyday, the historic Mountain Springs Hotel in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, hosted U.S. Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Buchanan?
... that both parents of the Cryptoheros septemfasciatus fish care for their fry intensively?

00:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the lush canyon Ein Avdat (pictured) and its surroundings have been experiencing continuous human activity for some 80,000–90,000 years?
... that Joseph Yuill and his wife Margaret operated Ontario's first travelling dairy?
... that the Sunday Magazine Editors Association gives out journalism awards recognizing work in writing, investigative journalism, and design in Sunday newspaper magazines?
... that Said al-Shawa was the first mayor of Gaza, appointed in 1906?
... that before the chancery records began around 1200, the Pipe rolls were the only continuous records kept by the English government?
... that Harlington Wood Jr. is credited with helping to negotiate a truce between federal officers and Native Americans during the Wounded Knee incident in 1973?
... that the extinct coral Coelosimilia is the first known example of a scleractinian coral to have a skeleton not composed of the mineral aragonite?
... that Wisconsin Highway 131 crosses nine bridges in 7.3 miles (11.7 km) between the communities of Rockton and Ontario?
... that at different times Phnom Voar (Vine Mountain) in southern Cambodia was a B-52 target, a rebel base, a killing field, a kidnapping site, and finally a peaceful mountain?

24 January 2009

18:10, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the white coral fungus Clavulina cristata (pictured) contains the conjugated fatty acid α-parinaric acid?
... that Rose Byrne said that filming the opening scene of Damages episode "Get Me a Lawyer" on a winter's morning in only underwear and a coat was "very traumatic"?
... that the earliest Roman glass found in China comes from a 1st-century-BC tomb in Guangzhou, dated to the Han Dynasty?
... that Thomas Robbins, the Connecticut Historical Society's first librarian, owned the 385 volume Journal des sçavans, the earliest published scholarly periodical?
... that world motorcycle champion Mike Hailwood won the 1965 Hutchinson 100 Production race at Silverstone on a BSA Lightning Clubman?
... that Francis Mallison was elected to the New York State Assembly after being held as a Union prisoner of war during the American Civil War?
... that the private company Gråkallbanen reopened the Trondheim Tramway in 1990, two years after it had been permanently closed by the city council?
... that wrestling manager Lou Albano's part in a Cyndi Lauper music video inspired storylines for World Wrestling Federation shows The Brawl to End it All and The War to Settle the Score?

12:20, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Keene Fitzpatrick (pictured) invented modern pole-vaulting technique, coached five Olympic gold medalists, and trained the University of Michigan's "Point-a-Minute" football teams from 1901 to 1905?
... that when NBC pulled "Steve Burdick", an AIDS-themed episode of the medical drama Lifestories, gay and AIDS activists accused the network of fearing advertiser backlash?
... that the Port of Piraeus is the largest passenger port in Europe and one of the largest in the world with total traffic of 21,522,917 people in 2007?
... that Harold Snyder said that the 1985 New York Stock Exchange listing of Biocraft Laboratories, which he founded, was the first such listing for a generic pharmaceutical company?
... that Kalvar is a type of photographic film that can be developed simply by heating it?
... that British actor Norman Lumsden, who played J. R. Hartley in the popular 1983 Yellow Pages Fly Fishing advert, was originally an opera singer who created roles for Benjamin Britten?
... that "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran served as the opening theme for the Japanese anime Speed Grapher though FUNimation was unable to obtain its license for US release?
... that in 1865, a party led by Captain Franklin B. Sprague of the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry descended an 800-foot (240 m) caldera wall to become the first explorers to reach the shore of Crater Lake?

06:30, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the equestrian statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko (pictured), Polish American hero of independence, which was erected around 1920 at the Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland, has a duplicate in Detroit, Michigan?
... that Magnolia Park was the first park in Hillsboro, Oregon, to include a recreational water fountain?
... that Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India and also first of any highest judiciary of a nation in Asia?
... that radio station WLIQ (now WMOB) broadcast from the historic Battle House Hotel in Mobile, Alabama, from 1964 to 1971?
... that amateur photographer George Caddy's 70-year-old lost negatives that surfaced in 2007 are the only documents of an historic Bondi beach acrobatic troupe?
... that, in his 2000 book The Ingenuity Gap, Thomas Homer-Dixon argues the nature of problems faced by our society are becoming more complex and that our ability to implement solutions is not keeping pace?
... that Trondhjems Omnibus Aktieselskab started the first scheduled coach route in Trondheim, Norway, in 1893?
... that consuming the elfin saddle mushroom would result in the harmful formation of monomethylhydrazine, a component of rocket fuel, in your body?

00:40, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

... that to defend Indiana during the War of 1812, Governor Harrison (pictured) had to recruit militia from Kentucky as those from Indiana would not join the army?
... that before entering politics, Guro Fjellanger studied to be a goldsmith?
... that the fungus Humaria hemisphaerica is commonly known as the "hairy fairy cup"?
... that, upon being hired by the WWF, professional wrestler Lanny Kean was told to base his persona on Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies?
... that the Port of Thessaloniki in Greece will double its container terminal capacity after an investment of US$600 million made by the Hutchison Port Holdings company based in Hong Kong?
... that the interactive fiction Lost Pig won four XYZZY awards and took first place in the 2007 Interactive Fiction Competition?
... that The New York Times credited the success of promoter Gary Kurfirst's 1968 New York Rock Festival featuring Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and The Doors as inspiring the 1969 Woodstock Festival?
... that Shire Brook in Sheffield, England, was part of the boundary between Yorkshire and Derbyshire for 900 years?
... that Frank Vandiver received his high school diploma while serving as Acting President of Rice University?

23 January 2009

18:50, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

... that American soldiers and sailors did not have access to dental service until Confederate Surgeon General Samuel P. Moore (pictured) brought in the first dentists at military hospitals during the Civil War?
... that the 13th-century French romance Palamedes describes the adventures of the fathers of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?
... that a 42–3 win by the North Carolina Tar Heels in the 1998 Gator Bowl was the worst loss for the Virginia Tech Hokies college football team since a 45–0 shutout in 1983?
... that the popular Calypso Carol was written by an Englishman, Michael Perry, while still a student, and only became famous by accident?
... that the proposed Rampart Dam on the Yukon River in Alaska would have created a man-made reservoir larger than Lake Erie?
... that the Bank of Issue in Poland, created by the Nazis to support the Nazi economy, was penetrated by the Polish resistance which used it as a source of falsified documents?
... that Edmund W. Wells, a delegate to Arizona's constitutional convention, refused to sign the final document due to its radical features?
... that the Meråker Line railway of Norway branches off from the Nordland Line at Hell?

13:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the controversial sculpture Entropa, unveiled in Brussels on January 13, 2009, depicts Bulgaria as a series of squat toilets (example pictured)?
... that Scuderia Ferrari factory driver Peter Sutcliffe was also a textile manufacturer?
... that in July 1905, during the Theriso revolt, three insurgent leaders met the consuls of the European Great Powers at a monastery surrounded by rebels, and that martial law was declared after the talks failed?
... that college football cornerback Kevin Barnes of Maryland delivered a tackle hard enough to cause Heisman Trophy prospect Jahvid Best to vomit on the field, footage of which became a viral video?
... that the Jastrzębie-Zdrój 1980 strikes forced the government of the People's Republic of Poland to sign the last of three agreements establishing the Solidarity trade union?
... that after Kent Williams was elected speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, his party expelled him from its caucus?
... that the extinct fish Santanichthys is the oldest known member of Order Characiformes, which includes the tetras and the piranha?
... that Oklahoma historian Angie Debo won numerous honors for her books on Native American history, but never found a permanent position in an academic history department?
... that the first World Series of Poker Champion did not win by defeating his opponents?

07:10, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

... that University of Michigan athletic director Philip Bartelme (pictured) hired Branch Rickey as a baseball coach in 1910, and the two later worked together for the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers?
... that a Soviet P-19 radar (Flat Face B) was captured in the 1987 Chadian–Libyan conflict and reviewed by French experts?
... that child actor Laura Ann Kesling, who made her film debut in Adam Sandler's 2008 film Bedtime Stories, is the daughter of LPGA golfer Danielle Ammaccapane?
... that according to legend, Anandibai led to the assassination of the 13-year-old king Narayanrao Peshwa by changing one letter dha to ma, thus changing the order "capture him" to "kill him"?
... that the NSB Class 66 was the first Norwegian train capable of 120 km/h (75 mph)?
... that Melissa Anelli and Emerson Spartz, webmasters for Harry Potter fansites, were the only Americans invited to Edinburgh to interview J.K. Rowling the day after the Half-Blood Prince was released?
... that Teedyuscung, known as the King of the Delawares, lost much of his territory to colonial Pennsylvania in the Walking Purchase and later sought retribution for the massive land loss?
... that The Visitors is the only opera Mexican composer Carlos Chávez ever scored?
... that ACLU director Aryeh Neier, a refugee from Nazi Germany, supported the Neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America in its efforts to march in Skokie, Illinois, an area with many Holocaust survivors?

01:20, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

... that when an upgraded part of the Østfold Line (pictured) opened in 1996, it was the first railway in Norway built for speeds of 200 km/h (120 mph)?
... that, according to theories by Dennis MacDonald, the earliest books of the New Testament are responses to the Homeric Epics, thus "nearly everything written on early Christian narrative is flawed"?
... that a pipeline exploded in Nigeria on October 18, 1998, killing a total of 1,082 people and injuring hundreds more?
... that college football tailback Mikell Simpson of Virginia ran for a 96-yard touchdown in the 2008 Gator Bowl, which is the longest rush by a running back in an NCAA bowl game?
... that the 1904 Advance 2 3/4hp motorcycle displayed at the National Motorcycle Museum (UK) is thought to be the only complete Advance motorcycle in existence?
... that Thomas D. Brock discovered Thermus aquaticus, an extremophile living at greater than 70 °C in hot springs at Yellowstone which became the source of the enzyme used in PCR?
... that the film All About Eve (1950) gained Barbara McLean a record seventh nomination for the Academy Award for Film Editing, and that this record remains unbroken?
... that the 450 aircraft that conducted the opening aerial bombardment during the Battle of Aachen failed to hit a single German pillbox?

22 January 2009

19:30, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Los Carneros AVA (pictured), located in both Napa and Sonoma counties, was the first wine region in California to be defined by its climate characteristics instead of political boundaries?
... that Group Officer Clare Stevenson was the first Director of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF)?
... that in the 1894 case Schillinger v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that a patent infringement suit can't be pursued against the U.S. because it held sovereign immunity for intentional torts?
... that Sir Abdur Rahim KCSI was President of the Central Legislative Assembly of India for ten years?
... that Air and Simple Gifts, performed at the inauguration of Barack Obama on 20 January 2009, was the first classical music quartet ever performed at a United States presidential inauguration?
... that Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, the Dominican priest and Bible scholar, is a cousin of Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster?
... that thanks to its fluorescence, α-parinaric acid has been used to analyze the stability of beer foam?
... that in light of the Nazi Germany attempt to destroy Polish culture, the Secret Teaching Organization created an underground education system with over a million students?

13:40, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the "scarlet elf cup", fungal species Sarcoscypha coccinea (pictured), has been used medicinally by the Oneida First Nations people?
... that Brian Hill is the only head coach for the Orlando Magic to serve during two non-consecutive periods?
... that while in the service of the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Polish Legionnaires decided to mutiny, fighting their former master at the Battle of Rarańcza?
... that post-black artist Rashid Johnson had multiple works in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago before the age of 25?
... that Kanthirava Narasaraja I was the first ruler in the Kingdom of Mysore to create symbols associated with Mysore royalty, such as the coins (Kanthiraya) that he named after himself?
... that Philip De Witt Ginder won the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in Germany during World War II and became the youngest American general to command a combat division in the Korean War?
... that there are 115,200 solutions to the ménage problem of permuting six couples at a twelve-person table so that men and women alternate and are seated away from their partners?
... that, shortly after breaking Donn Lewin's nose during a professional wrestling match, Danny McShain was introduced to Lewin's sister, who he later married?

07:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Classic Period Maya archaeological site of Quiriguá in Guatemala has what is possibly the largest free-standing worked monolith (pictured) in the New World?
... that because the Indo-Pacific sea urchin Diadema setosum has been found in Turkish waters, it is the first invasive echinoid in the Mediterranean?
... that Marcus Schrenker, after committing pseudocide, may face charges from the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as Indiana, Alabama, and Florida law enforcement?
... that German rugby club SC 1880 Frankfurt adopted a red and black strip after a set of friendlies in 1894 against the English club Blackheath F.C., who also played in those colours?
... that William K. Jones, awarded the Navy Cross and the Silver Star for valor at Tarawa and Saipan, was the youngest commander of a U.S. Marine Corps battalion during World War II?
... that a "lively controversy" occurred at the 1902 International Congress of Americanists over the word "Amerind"?
... that Charles Morgan, Jr. resigned from his ACLU position after the group's head criticized Morgan for calling a New Yorker a bigot for his refusal to consider voting for Jimmy Carter as President?
... that the Carnegie Library in Runcorn, Cheshire, England, was designed in 1906 by the local council's surveyor and water engineer and is now a listed building?
... that at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 165 pounds, Howard Stevens was one of the smallest players ever in the National Football League?

02:00, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

... that in 1901, the steamboat City of Erie (pictured) beat the steamboat Tashmoo in a 94-mile (151 km) long race, from Cleveland, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania, by 45 seconds?
... that between 20,000 and 80,000 Filipinos live illegally in Italy?
... that the Ames-Florida House is one of a few houses in Minnesota built with timber framing before balloon framing and dimensional lumber were well-known in that U.S. state?
... that following TV3's axing of Night Shift the presenter, model Michelle Doherty, was said to have been left feeling "completely bewildered, and absolutely gutted"?
... that the Lipari Landfill in New Jersey, where nearly 3 million gallons and 12 thousand tons of hazardous waste were dumped, was called the worst toxic dump in the United States?
... that Hans Jørgen and Worm Hirsch Darre-Jenssen, sons of industrialist Lauritz Jenssen, both served as Norwegian Minister of Labour?
... that Marra Farm is one of only two historic agricultural parcels inside Seattle, Washington, city limits that retains an agricultural use today?
... that, in 2008, college football quarterback Rodney Landers of James Madison became the first player from an FCS school to win the Dudley Award for most outstanding player in Virginia since 1998?
... that until recent XMM-Newton images, the supernova remnant G350.1-0.3 was mistakenly thought to be a distant galaxy?

21 January 2009

20:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

T-26 tank in Spain

... that out of 281 T-26 tanks supplied to the Popular Front (example pictured), the Nationalists were able to capture 178 during the war, putting at least 50 into service against their former users?
... that Nigel Hamilton's biography of the young John F. Kennedy, JFK: Reckless Youth, was turned into a television miniseries of the same name starring Patrick Dempsey as JFK?
... that the whorl snail Nesopupa turtoni, previously known only as a fossil, was discovered alive in 2003 in the Prosperous Bay Plain area of Saint Helena?
... that Bob Francis is the only Phoenix Coyotes head coach to have won the Jack Adams Award, having won it in the 2001–02 NHL season?
... that the T2000 stock of the Oslo T-bane, Norway, is equipped with both a pantograph and a third rail shoe so they can operate both east and west of the city center?
... that in 1923, Charles Scott Haley conducted California's first statewide comprehensive study of tertiary fluvial placers, dredge fields, and dry placers?
... that relations between Japan and The Netherlands date back 400 years when the first formal trade relations were established in 1609?
... that Noella Marcellino, a Benedictine nun and modern connoisseur of cheese, was named the official cheesemaker of Connecticut's Abbey of Regina Laudis?

14:20, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

... that one year after delivery, six of eleven NSB Class 93 trains (example pictured) were out of service due to technical problems?
... that "pig's ears", fungal species Gomphus clavatus, are the only Gomphus species in North America?
... that as a junior officer Rear Admiral Teddy Gueritz served as beachmaster on Sword Beach from D-Day until he was severely wounded 19 days later, and was awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Cross?
... that the Chennai Book Fair is an annual event in Chennai, India, which takes place between the last week of December and the third week of January?
... that composer Michael Arne's obsession for alchemy and the search for the philosopher's stone led him into serious financial problems resulting in his arrest and confinement in a Dublin sponging-house?
... that the War of 1812 battle Spur's Defeat was so named due to the survivors having to spur their horses in order to escape?
... that due to the Arab League boycott of Israel, McDonald's did not open in Israel until 1993 when they opened their first branch in Ramat Gan?
... that professional wrestler Susan Green legally changed her name to Susan Tex Green to differentiate herself from another woman named Susan Green who was writing bad checks?

08:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Poli's Stellate Barnacle (pictured) is hermaphroditic and has a penis significantly longer than its body?
... that Norwegian footballer Jostein Grindhaug scored the first league goal for the club FK Haugesund?
... that during the Battle of New Haven, the fort the Confederate howitzer aimed at was not damaged, but the town's only hotel and bar were?
... that intercepted by a larger French force on 6 November 1794, Captain Richard Bligh of HMS Alexander chose to stay and fight, allowing his companion ship, HMS Canada, to safely retreat?
... that glucuronidation of hyodeoxycholic acid by the UGT2B4 and UGT2B7 isoforms is an example of redundancy in the natural protection against harmful endogenous compounds?
... that college football coach Don Brown led the UMass Minutemen to their best five-year record in school history?
... that the mushroom Lactarius glyciosmus smells strongly of coconuts?
... that in a 1967 television interview, David Frost compared Welsh nationalist activist Dennis Coslett to Israeli general Moshe Dayan, because both wore eyepatches?
... that a 25-foot (7.6 m) tall, traditionally-dressed Ukrainian woman offers bread and salt to Saskatchewan Highway 5 travelers at Canora, a town in Saskatchewan, Canada?

02:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

... that when Muhammad Ali (pictured) won the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century Award he received more votes than the other candidates put together?
... that the first steamship in the Mediterranean Sea basin, Real Ferdiando I, was launched on September 27, 1818, from the Port of Naples?
... that the Barack Obama "HOPE" poster designed by artist Shepard Fairey was based on a photograph from before Obama officially launched his presidential campaign?
... that the olive cultivar Bosana makes up more than half the olive production of Sardinia?
... that Norwegian historian Tore Linné Eriksen has published several books about Namibia, including one on what was described as the first genocide in the twentieth century?
... that the day when Exxon canceled its Colony Shale Oil Project in Colorado is known by locals as "Black Sunday"?
... that Anthony, Charles, Cecilia, Isabella, Sr., Isabella, Jr., Esther, Elizabeth, and Polly Young were part of an English family of musicians that included several professional singers and organists in the 17th and 18th centuries?
... that Chōji Suitengu, a character from the anime Speed Grapher, rolls his cigarettes with 10,000 yen bills?

20 January 2009

19:51, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

... that with hundreds of birds found in the state (Western Meadowlark pictured), Oregon ranks fifth in the United States in terms of avian species diversity?
... that soon after understudy Eric Lewis left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in frustration that George Grossmith rarely took a day off, Grossmith fell gravely ill?
... that venture capitalists committed US$25,000 to the Next Big Sound after a group of Northwestern University students presented it as their entrepreneur class assignment?
... that George Miller Bligh was present at Nelson's death at Trafalgar, and was subsequently incorporated into Arthur William Devis's painting of the event?
... that Kentucky's Cherokee State Park, now part of Kenlake State Resort Park, was the first blacks-only state park in the Southern United States?
... that Jon Tvedt took up competitive mountain running in his late thirties, his career in orienteering having peaked several years earlier?
... that B.Day, Bakery Music's tenth-anniversary and parting concert, was performed at Rajamangala Stadium to an audience of 50,000 and was the largest concert ever held in Thailand at the time?
... that the poor grade sandstone used in the original U.S. Capitol Gatehouses and Gateposts required them to undergo a complete restoration in 1938?

13:40, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

... that all 17 etchings by Juste de Juste show only naked men, in five cases forming human pyramids (example pictured)?
... that rabbits that were introduced as food for arctic foxes still populate Anangula Island in the Aleutian Islands, although the foxes were removed in the 1940s?
... that Bhausaheb Kolte was the first to edit Leela Charitra, the first written biography in the Marathi language?
... that Harry Endo had been filmed in a commercial for the bank in Hawaii where he worked when he was asked to play the role of "Che Fong", an original cast member of the television series Hawaii Five-O?
... that Istanbul Hezarfen Airfield hosts around 30,000 music fans every September for the annual Rock'n Coke open air music festival?
... that anthropologist Donat Savoie was the first director of Canada's Inuit Relations Secretariat?
... that the book Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, claims that the key to success in any field is practicing a specific task for 10,000 hours?
... that college football coach Jim Tatum secured a national championship without a single losing season in his nine years at Maryland, but was called a "parasitic monster" by one student newspaper?
... that Appollo received the Dickin Medal on behalf of all search and rescue dogs who participated in rescue operations after the September 11 attacks?

07:30, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the largest surface action during World War I in the Mediterranean was the Battle of the Strait of Otranto (ships pictured)?
... that radio station WMSP in Montgomery, Alabama, broadcasts the college football games of both the Alabama Crimson Tide and arch-rival Auburn Tigers?
... that when Charles, Prince of Wales was attacked for calling his friend Kuldip Singh Dhillon "Sooty", Dhillon defended the Prince as a man of "zero prejudice"?
... that when a young Mozart toured Italy, Pope Clement XIV awarded the composer a knighthood, but Empress Maria Theresa dismissed Mozart and his father as "useless people"?
... that J. K. Gill started a bookstore in Portland, Oregon, in 1870 that grew to a chain of 63 stores before the company folded in 1999?
... that despite its fishy smell, Lactarius volemus is considered a choice mushroom for eating?
... that the 1895 deaths of Richard Corney Grain and Alfred German Reed ended the German Reed Entertainments, which had been presented since 1855?
... that according to Hindu mythology, the devotee Pundalik kept the god Krishna waiting because he was busy serving his parents?

01:20, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

... that during the 1927 Nagpur riots in India, in which 22 people were killed, the house of Hindu nationalist leader K. B. Hedgewar (pictured) was stoned?
... that Evelyn Lauder, who co-created and popularized the pink ribbon as a symbol for breast cancer awareness, helped create Estée Lauder's Pink Ribbon lipstick and blusher as a breast cancer fundraiser?
... that the BSA M20 was one of the longest serving British military motorcycles and the most numerous with 126,000 produced?
... that the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts is the first of three major theaters in New Orleans, USA, to reopen since Hurricane Katrina struck the city in August 2005?
... that Australian Second World War flying ace Adrian Goldsmith was credited with shooting down 12¼ Axis aircraft over Malta between the months of February and July 1942?
... that Michael Jackson was only 10 years old when he recorded "Big Boy", the first single by The Jackson 5?
... that Father Émile Petitot was the first European to reach the Tuktut Nogait National Park area in northern Canada?
... that professional wrestler Mighty Igor Vodic used to bring kielbasa to his matches and share it with the fans?

19 January 2009

19:10, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

... that from 1904 to 1927, passengers travelling by rail from Stavanger to Oslo, Norway, needed to change to steam ship at Flekkefjord Station (pictured)?
... that To My Surprise was the only album ever released by the alternative rock band To My Surprise before they disbanded in 2006?
... that while Captain Horatio Nelson was initially enthusiastic about his new command HMS Albemarle, his more experienced uncle, Maurice Suckling, expressed doubts?
... that the 4,400-acre (1,800 ha) McLean Game Refuge was privately created by George P. McLean, a Senator and Governor of Connecticut?
... that Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Eugene McGuinness once performed for Sir Paul McCartney?
... that the filming of Dexter was forced to move from Miami to Los Angeles, beginning with the episode "It's Alive!", because of the overlap between the show's production window and Miami's hurricane season?
... that the shooting of a sparrow, during the preparations for the Domino Day World record attempt, was investigated by the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals in 2005?
... that Frank Layden is the only Utah Jazz head coach to have a number retired by the Jazz?
... that Leon Keyserling was the head of the Council of Economic Advisers advising U.S. President Truman, yet never finished his own graduate dissertation in economics?

13:00, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

... that after Captain Hugh Pigot was killed in a mutiny, Captain Edward Hamilton led the force (pictured) that recaptured his ship HMS Hermione?
... that the post office in Coxs Creek, Kentucky, had to be moved because it created many accidents along U.S. 31E?
... that, due to racial segregation, African American wrestlers like Tiger Conway, Sr. competed on the "chitterling circuit", named after pig innards that were fed to slaves?
... that on the outbreak of the First World War Bat sold all their remaining stock of Bat No. 2 Light Roadster motorcycles to the Russian military but were never paid?
... that baseball pitcher Nick Carter was the Philadelphia Athletics' Opening Day starting pitcher in 1908, his only season on the Major Leagues?
... that a November 2008 appearance by a dance troupe called Satanic Sluts, featuring the granddaughter of actor Andrew Sachs, on The Late Late Show led to a significant number of complaints?
... that the U.S. Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 provided penalties ranging from a life sentence to a term of any number of years for violators?
... that Sir Norman Denning anticipated an attack on Singapore by the Japanese as early as the mid-1930s, but his report was dismissed as him "over-exercising his imagination"?

06:50, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the "monstrous" five-masted steel barque Potosi (pictured) was named after the highest city in the world?
... that Harry Kinnard was the inspiration for General Anthony McAuliffe's one-word reply "Nuts!" in response to a German demand for surrender at the Siege of Bastogne?
... that two perpetrators of the 1977 Moscow bombings were caught after attempting to bomb the city's Kursky Rail Terminal later that year?
... that in 1966, Donald Gleason developed the Gleason score, still used as the standard to measure the aggressiveness of prostate cancer despite millions spent in attempts to displace it?
... that though the Vigo Ordnance Plant never produced any biological agents it did produce 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of the anthrax simulant Bacillus globigii?
... that Swedish painter and pop artist Sven Inge changed his name twice?
... that a Chardonnay from the Robert Young Vineyard in the Alexander Valley AVA was one of the first premium vineyard designated wines in California history?
... that Leon Kruczkowski, a major figure in post-WWII Polish theater, was also involved in introducing the socrealism doctrine in Poland?
... that Hamilton Clarke, a prolific composer of the Victorian era, is remembered today chiefly for his compilation of the overture to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado?

00:40, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

... that because of difficulties customers had using square milk jugs (pictured), a Sam's Club offered lessons in how to pour them without spilling?
... that church music composer Geoffrey Shaw was the father of Sebastian Shaw, who played Anakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi?
... that the Bernard Daly Educational Fund, established in 1922, has provided over 2,000 college scholarships to students from communities in Lake County, Oregon?
... that Théodore Vienne, who founded the Paris-Roubaix cycle race, was described by the New York Times as "the leading fight promoter of France"?
... that the East African plant Commelina lukei has been informally recognised as a separate species since 1969, but was only formally described in 2008?
... that industrialist S. Anantharamakrishnan became the first Indian director of the British-owned Simpson's group of companies of Madras in 1938?
... that during her husband's presidential campaign, Michelle Obama met with Mormon officials in their Church Administration Building?
... that Harvey, Barnes, Brown, Johnson, Loxton and Hassett were members of Bradman's Invincibles who won the First, Second and Fourth Ashes series Test matches of 1948 and drew the Third?

18 January 2009

18:30, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Michigan's first athletic director Charles Baird (pictured) built the largest college athletic ground in the United States and negotiated the school's appearance in the first Rose Bowl game?
... that the Australian government hopes to use the Australia-Chile Free Trade Agreement as a model for future free trade agreements with other countries?
... that in 1636, Phineas Hodson, Chancellor of York Minster, lost his 38-year-old wife Jane during the birth of the couple's 24th child?
... that the character of Biff Tannen in the Back to the Future films was named after studio executive Ned Tanen, who had reacted aggressively towards writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis at a meeting?
... that TT racer Harold Daniell tested the new Norton motorcycle frame in 1950 and declared that it was like "riding on a featherbed" – and it has been called the "Featherbed frame" ever since?
... that William Thomas Pecora, who headed the United States Geological Survey from 1965 to 1971, was a member of the U.S. fencing team at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin?
... that on 22 October 2008, 15,000 members of the "grey army" descended on Ireland's government buildings to protest the proposed abolition of their previously guaranteed free health treatment?
... that the Great Divide Brewery won a prestigious Great American Beer Festival award less than three months after opening?
... that Sahu Mewalal scored the only goal in the final of the first Asian Games football competition held at Delhi, India, in 1951?

12:20, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

... that immature specimens of the lantern stinkhorn fungus (pictured), with an odor of dog feces, sewage, or rotting flesh when mature, are considered an edible and medicinal delicacy in China?
... that during the Puna de Atacama dispute the U.S. minister in Buenos Aires and two delegates from Chile and Argentina drew the northern portion of the border between Chile and Argentina?
... that Arthur Dodd, a British prisoner of war during World War II, was an eye-witness to the horrors of Auschwitz?
... that Philip Leget Edwards, the first teacher in what became the U.S. state of Oregon, later served in the legislatures of Missouri and California?
... that from 1936 to 1998, the Germany national football team had just five managers, each of whom won a major trophy, with Helmut Schön (1964–1978) winning two?
... that John Clarke Hawkshaw was a member of the Royal Commission set up by King Edward VII to decide the British representation at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair?
... that professional wrestler Rufus R. Jones used to tell opponents that his middle initial stood for "guts"?
... that a helicopter once crashed on Interstate 84 in New York, stopping traffic and causing a power outage?
... that the 1871 election of Father Eduard Müller to the new Reichstag was considered "an astonishing victory of a nobody" over an aristocratic landowner?

06:10, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

... that under the command of Georg Ritter von Trapp, the World War I Austro-Hungarian Navy U-boat SM U-14 sank the Italian steamship Milazzo (pictured), reported as the largest cargo ship in the world?
... that professional wrestler Gene Petit was hired by the World Wrestling Federation because of a picture he took as a joke?
... that prior to the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, all American military flights into Afghanistan had to be launched from Uzbekistan or aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea?
... that "I'll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name", from Claude Jeter's 1961 song "Mary Don't You Weep", was the inspiration for Paul Simon's 1970 song "Bridge over Troubled Water"?
... that the Alternanthera mosaic virus, a type of Potexvirus, has been misdiagnosed as the closely-related Papaya mosaic virus?
... that U.S. Route 20 in Massachusetts used to be part of the Boston Post Road, one of the earliest roads established in the United States?
... that Sin Chang-won, a South Korean fugitive criminal famous for his close escapes, was first arrested at the age of 15 after being turned in by his father for stealing a watermelon?
... that the historic McGehee-Stringfellow House in Greensboro, Alabama, collapsed in the 1980s when the MacMillan Bloedel company tried to move it?
... that while Kevin Thomas played for Edinburgh Athletic in the East of Scotland Football League he also worked for a hotel booking agency run by his mother?

00:00, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Søren Jaabæk

... that 19th-century politician Søren Jaabæk (pictured) is the longest-serving member of parliament in the history of Norway?
... that Prairieville, Alabama's Italianate Browder Place was inspired by an 1852 Samuel Sloan publication?
... that archivist Margaret Storrs Grierson was founder and first director of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College?
... that the proposed Suchindram Theroor Birds Sanctuary would be the southernmost protected area on the Central Asian Flyway, a bird migration route covering 30 countries and used by 279 migratory waterbird populations?
... that Lucien Heath, the first Oregon Secretary of State, later served in the California State Assembly?
... that in 1991, Manufacturers Hanover CEO John McGillicuddy was the chief architect of a merger with the Chemical Banking Corporation that was the largest US bank merger to that time?
... that winemakers in the Carmignano region of Tuscany have been blending Cabernet Sauvignon with Sangiovese since the 18th century, long before the emergence of "Super Tuscans"?
... that, despite competing for over 20 years, Alberto Madril now reportedly refuses to acknowledge that he was once a professional wrestler?

17 January 2009

17:50, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

... that unlike most historical homes, the Paul Dresser Birthplace (pictured) in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA, reflects the furnishings of a working class family, not the well-to-do?
... that goalkeeper Jack Wheeler and his five defenders set a Football League record in the 1952–53 season by all playing in every league game for Huddersfield Town?
... that Mount Hamiguitan in the Philippines has a protected area with a 2,000-hectare (4,900-acre) pygmy forest of century-old trees growing in ultramafic soil?
... that professional wrestlers Jos LeDuc and Paul LeDuc played the role of brothers so well that news that they were not related created a sensation on talk shows?
... that Kanhopatra is venerated as a saint in the Varkari sect of Hinduism, despite spending most of her life as a courtesan?
... that Cialis, the erectile dysfunction drug developed by Icos, was originally researched in the hopes of a treatment for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and angina?
... that when Norwegian alpine skier Ole Kristian Furuseth won a silver medal in slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics, he had not placed this high in a major race since March 1995?
... that pathologist Kenneth Walton conducted a 1973 study into the causes of heart disease in which he got participants to eat greasy fry-ups?

11:40, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the development of the linotype machine (matrix pictured) was initiated by James O. Clephane, a court reporter who sought a quick way to transcribe legal briefs?
... that shale oil was used to light the streets of Modena, Italy, at the turn of the 17th century?
... that in his later years, Union Army general Thomas Alfred Davies published a number of books supporting the divine inspiration of the Bible, and refuting the materialistic philosophy?
... that The Softwire is PJ Haarsma's young adult science fiction series about a thirteen-year-old Johnny T, and his struggles with "the Knudniks, the Nagools, and his indentured slavery"?
... that professional wrestler Ray Gunkel won his final match despite suffering a heart injury in that match that killed him later that day?
... that the Phnom Penh Commercial Bank was Cambodia's 23rd bank and the first Japanese-financed bank in the country?
... that in addition to his academic works, Norwegian mycologist Leif Ryvarden is known as a conveyer of popular science and a former board member of Greenpeace?
... that in 2006, a prisoner escaped from HM Prison Ranby, England, by hiding in a rubbish lorry?

05:30, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

... that 1966 European Rally Champion Günter Klass (pictured) was given no spare parts as Porsches "simply don't break"?
... that Khmer numerals were the first material evidence of the figure zero as a numerical figure?
... that before starring in This is Nightlive, John Ryan was co-creator with Derek O'Connor of blogorrah.com, and a former co-owner of the unsuccessful New York Dog and Stars on Sunday publications in partnership with Kiss and Stellar founder Michael O'Doherty?
... that Bishop Auckland F.C. was the only football club to win the FA Amateur Cup in three consecutive seasons?
... that historic Glencairn in Greensboro, Alabama, was built in 1835 by Alabama legislator John Erwin?
... that Lucy Kennedy has described The Lucy Kennedy Show as "Livin' with Lucy in a studio" and "a bit like The Charlotte Church Show gone wrong"?
... that professional wrestler Dan Kroffat created the ladder match during a feud with Tor Kamata in Stampede Wrestling?
... that the Spanish–American War-era Fort Terry on Plum Island was used as a U.S. biological weapons research facility from 1952 to 1969?
... that former Beninese army Chief of Staff Alphonse Alley was known as "the wine, women and song officer"?

16 January 2009

23:20, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have visited the St. Peter's Church (pictured) in Jaffa during his campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1799?
... that British plant physiologist Daphne Osborne showed that the gas ethylene is a natural plant hormone which regulates ageing and the shedding of leaves and fruits?
... that 1944 was proclaimed the "Year of naturalization and the Hebrew name" by the Zionist leadership?
... that Anatoly Koryagin was imprisoned for conducting psychiatric interviews with Soviet dissidents confined to mental institutions and smuggling a paper about his findings to the Lancet?
... that the Seashell Trust is the oldest charity for deaf children in North West England?
... that Okinawan folk singer Rinshō Kadekaru was gravely wounded during World War II, and reported dead, only to survive and enjoy a lengthy career, living until 1999?
... that We Were Dancing, The Astonished Heart, Red Peppers, Hands Across the Sea, Fumed Oak, Shadow Play, Ways and Means and Star Chamber were presented in rotation, in groups of threes, as part of Noël Coward's 1935 play cycle Tonight at 8:30?
... that, due to a government-imposed curfew, professional wrestler Mario Milano had to wrestle under a mask at the beginning of his career because he was underage and not allowed out after 9 o'clock?

17:10, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

... that VIP and TV Now magazines give their names to the VIP Style Awards (venue pictured) and TV Now Awards respectively, the latter of which regularly features Lorraine Keane?
... that the 30 June 1961 wrestling match between Pat O'Connor and Buddy Rogers had ticket sales of US$148,000, which was a North American professional wrestling record for almost 20 years?
... that the Empire Arnold was torpedoed and sunk less than five months after her launch?
... that in 1914, railway official Lucius Seymour Storrs became president of the Connecticut Company?
... that Relative Values, a satire of postwar snobbery, marked the return of Noël Coward to playwriting after World War II?
... that Tangton Gyelpo, a 15th-century Nyingma yogi, physician, treasure finder, and founder of Tibetan opera, is known for building numerous iron chain suspension bridges in Tibet?
... that Mohammad Usman was the first Indian to act as the Governor of Madras Presidency in British India?
... that one draft of the 1982 Spanish film Labyrinth of Passion had Salvador Dalí and the Pope meeting and falling passionately in love?

11:01, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the genus Platax, composed of five species of marine batfishes (orbicular batfish pictured), used to include the freshwater angelfish?
... that Karim el-Mejjati was implicated in the bombing of targets in Casablanca, the American barracks in Riyadh, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 London bombings?
... that Joseph Losey directed both the first U.S. theatrical version of Bertolt Brecht's Galileo in 1947 and the 1975 film version?
... that after three years as a back-up, college football quarterback David Johnson threw for 46 touchdowns in 2008 and led Tulsa to an 11–3 record?
... that ships built by the Grangemouth Dockyard Company during World War II included the SS Empire Arthur and the SS Empire Clansman?
... that despite her illiteracy, Catherine Ferguson founded the first Sunday school in New York City which later became known as Murray Street Sabbath School?
... that the RTÉ series Five Women Go Back to Work follows five women as they attempt to compile a glossy magazine aimed at working women?
... that pitchers Bill Wilkinson and Jim Bluejacket are the only great-grandfather and great-grandson pair to both play in Major League Baseball?
... that many soldiers in the Wehrmacht forces deployed for the Ardennes Offensive could not speak German?

05:28, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the cruise ship MS Rhapsody (pictured) was designed in part by Hugh Hefner, who envisioned the ship as a "floating Playboy Club"?
... that Teiji Honma became one of the first goaltenders in ice hockey to wear a mask when he used one that resembled a baseball catcher's mask at the 1936 Winter Olympics?
... that the Revolutionary Communist candidate at the 1945 Neath by-election was the first Trotskyist to stand in a British parliamentary election?
... that the NAACP forced the cancellation of some wrestling events in Mississippi to protest a tar-and-feather match featuring Melvin Nelson wrestling as "Burrhead Jones"?
... that the Edmund Barton Building, named after the first Prime Minister of Australia, is the largest example of the late 20th-century International Style of Australian architecture in Canberra?
... that more than 3,000 containers of the chemical agent lewisite were dumped off the Florida coast during Operation Geranium?
... that after acquiring Movado in 1983, Gedalio Grinberg heavily promoted the modernistic "Museum Watch", based on a design by Nathan George Horwitt included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art?
... that during a blowout, fans often chant to request that players who only play in garbage time be put in the game?

15 January 2009

23:10, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Czesław Wycech (pictured), Polish peasant movement activist, was also involved with underground education in occupied Poland during WWII?
... that Maria Kinnaird, who was adopted by the politician Richard "Conversation" Sharp, married the surveyor who first used the Drummond Light?
... that Conolophus rosada, a newly described species of iguana, diverged some 5.7 million years ago, making it among the oldest incidents of evolutionary divergence recorded in the Galápagos archipelago?
... that in 1820, the missionary William Jowett bought the 9,539-page manuscript of Abu Rumi's first-ever translation of the Bible into Amharic "on terms which appeared... equitable to all parties"?
... that the 2005 Operation Iron Hammer, aimed to clear Al-Qaeda in Iraq from the Hai Al Becker region in western Iraq, resulted in no reported casualties and no use of deadly force?
... that twin brothers Robert and Ross Hume became known as the "Dead Heat Kids" after finishing nine straight mile races, including the Big Ten and NCAA championships, holding hands in dead heat victories?
... that the studio band of radio station WRAG (now WREN) in Carrollton, Alabama, is credited with popularizing bluegrass music in central Alabama and eastern Mississippi?
... that Scottish footballer Jim Baxter once taunted opponents in an international match by playing keepie uppie during the game, and that he described his style as "treating the ball like a woman"?

17:49, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Rafflesia keithii (pictured), a parasitic plant endemic to Sabah, is named in honour of forester and plant collector Harry Keith?
... that when Robert de Bethune was nominated Bishop of Hereford in 1130, King Henry I of England did so because he felt he needed one "godly bishop" around?
... that concerns were raised in 2001 that anthrax research done by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency as part of Project Jefferson violated the Biological Weapons Convention?
... that at great risk, Squadron Leader Phil Lamason of the RNZAF negotiated the transfer of 166 allied airmen from Buchenwald concentration camp, a week before their scheduled execution?
... that James Bennet was set to become Beijing correspondent for The New York Times when he instead was appointed the fourteenth editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly in March 2006?
... that in Blood of the Irish, presenter Diarmuid Gavin examined the claim that 20% of men in the north-west of Ireland are descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an ancient High King of Ireland?
... that Edward D. Hamilton was appointed as the Secretary of the Oregon Territory after later U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declined the position?
... that the Brazilian team at the 1958 World Cup had not assigned squad numbers in advance, and a 17-year old Pelé was randomly assigned the number 10, which he wore for the rest of his career?

11:45, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

... that in 1889, Frank Atwood Huntington patented a self-propelled gasoline engine vehicle (patent image pictured), four years before the Duryea Brothers built their first car?
... that after Pope Alexander III absolved Gilbert Foliot's excommunication, Thomas Becket exclaimed that "Satan is unloosed for the destruction of the Church"?
... that recommendations from the U.S. War Bureau of Consultants in 1942 led to the founding of the War Research Service and a bio-weapons program?
... that handballer Tonje Larsen was a part of the All-Star Team at the 2008 European Championship, sixteen years after debuting on the Norwegian national team?
... that the first 8-real banknotes were printed in Puerto Rico in 1766?
... that internal division caused when three sympathizers of the Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova competed in the 1996 presidential election was one factor that led to the party losing all parliamentary seats two years later?
... that the owner of Twin Oaks Plantation organized Company B of the 36th Regiment Alabama Infantry in the Confederate Army on the lawn in front of his house?
... that Benoît Sinzogan, described as "too timid to mount a coup" during the 1960s and 1970s, was "one of Dahomey's few senior officers not to attempt to"?

04:23, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Samuel Pepys and Ferdinand Columbus each owned works by the anonymous engraver Master I. A. M. of Zwolle (example engraving pictured)?
... that the lyrics "suicide, it's a suicide", first used by rapper KRS-One in 1987, have since been re-used by artists such as Ice-T, Redman and Jay-Z?
... that Leonid Plyushch, who sought to apply mathematical modeling to mental illness, was later diagnosed with sluggish schizophrenia for his dissident activities?
... that Operation Barga helped improve the social status of bargadars (sharecroppers) in West Bengal, India?
... that 1941 NCAA backstroke champion and University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor inductee Francis Heydt later owned a business that sold camouflage clothing to the U.S. military?
... that the hip hop magazine Rap-Up was founded by Devin Lazerine as a website when he was 15 years old?
... that having witnessed the effects of a market attack in the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict during a ban of international press, Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert started a global SMS campaign?
... that Robert Redford made one of his last guest-starring appearances in a television series in a 1963 episode of the ABC psychiatric drama Breaking Point?

14 January 2009

22:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

... that during the Battle for Height 776 in Chechnya, Mark Yevtyukhin ordered artillery fire on his company's position, an act which contributed to him being posthumously honoured as a Hero of the Russian Federation (medal pictured)?
... that Jackson Lake State Park in Ohio, USA, is now the location of a thriving second growth forest, but was once home to the iron, coal and salt industries?
... that Jim McColl, the son of a butcher, reportedly became Scotland's richest man in 2008?
... that an area of more than 60,000 square miles (160,000 km²) in the U.S. states of Georgia, North and South Carolina was exposed to airborne clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide during Operation Dew?
... that Satenik was the Alanian wife of Artaxias I, the king of Armenia and the founder of the Artaxiad Dynasty?
... that the 12"/50 caliber Mark 8 gun, an American naval gun mounted on the Alaska-class cruisers, "was by far the most powerful weapon of its caliber ever placed in service"?
... that while the British indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club were recording their debut EP, The Boy I Used to Be, they were in the same school year as Cajun Dance Party?
... that tropical botanist Paul H. Allen assembled one of the most important collections of banana germplasm?

16:09, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the South Indian Hindu deity Shasta (statue pictured) is considered the son of Shiva and Mohini, a female form of Vishnu?
... that the Christmas carol Personent hodie, first published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, is thought to be a parody of a 12th-century carol?
... that as a means to challenge the Microsoft/Intel PC architecture, IBM executive Jack Kuehler formed the AIM alliance that created the PowerPC microprocessor used in Apple's computers from 1994 to 2006?
... that despite being roughly only a square mile (2.6 km²) in area, the tiny atoll of Kaben in the Republic of the Marshall Islands actually has a functional airstrip?
... that pitcher Jesse Barnes made the Opening Day start for the Boston Braves against the New York Giants in the 1925 baseball season, after making the Opening Day start for the Giants against the Braves in 1920?
... that labourers paving Saskatchewan Highway 641 in 1942 earned 35 cents an hour and a labourer with a tractor-drawn drag earned 50 cents an hour?
... that the American Iron and Steel Institute formed the Steelmark in 1960 to promote American steel, with the logo put on the helmets of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1962 to further publicize the program?
... that during the Song Dynasty, the people of Sichuan worshipped Tang Dynasty general Wei Gao as a local deity?

10:10, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

... that to boost US sales the AMC marketing team rebranded the aging export AJS Model 16 (pictured) with the new name The Sceptre?
... that Jeffrey Lockwood provides historical examples of assassin bugs, buckets of scorpions, and catapulted "bee bombs" as entomological warfare in his book, Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War?
... that the German rock group Tokio Hotel has released six singles and an album in English?
... that Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna was the chairman of the U.S. National Longshoremen's Board during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike?
... that the peridium of the bird's-nest fungus forms its "nest"?
... that Tang Dynasty official Pei Yanling was "so careless in his frivolousness and falsehood, as well as his jealousy of the talented and harmfulness to the good" that two centuries later it made historian Liu Xu weep?
... that the opening of State Fair Community College was delayed for more than two years because of a legal dispute over college districts in Missouri?
... that German football manager Horst Buhtz led both Dortmund and Nuremberg to the Bundesliga promotion playoffs, but was dismissed each time before the matches took place?

03:59, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the putrid stench of the "latticed stinkhorn" fungus Clathrus ruber (pictured) attracts insects to help disperse its spores?
... that as early as 1968, criminologist Lloyd Ohlin noted that the routine incarceration of youthful offenders does "more to develop than to stop career criminals"?
... that thousands of people at Deekshabhoomi, a pilgrimage center in Nagpur, India, embraced Buddhism on October 14, 1956?
... that music critic Herman Klein wrote in New York City from 1901 to 1909 and advised Columbia Records, but he acquired an unfavorable view of American musical life and returned to Britain?
... that Prince Charles, who in 2004 opened the village shop at Hewelsfield in Gloucestershire, England, described it as "a triumph of community spirit"?
... that American football tackle J.D. Maarleveld survived Hodgkin's lymphoma but was cut from the Notre Dame team anyway, transferred to Maryland, and became a consensus first-team All-American?
... that the Lublin 1980 strikes marked the beginning of important socio-political changes in Poland, such as the creation of Solidarity and democratization of the country?
... that the name of Shelldrake, a ghost town in the U.S. state of Michigan, was translated from the Ojibwa word for a kind of duck?

13 January 2009

22:46, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Lloyd Baron Rhododendron Garden in Rood Bridge Park includes some 550 varieties of rhododendron (pictured), the official flower of the city of Hillsboro, Oregon, USA?
... that former guerrilla James Tanis undertook a trip through some twenty fast-flowing rivers and creeks before being inaugurated as the second President of Bougainville?
... that, despite being suspended for half the game, college football running back Da'Rel Scott set a school bowl record for rushing for the Maryland Terrapins in their 2008 Humanitarian Bowl victory?
... that author Beryl Bainbridge wrote a novel based on clergyman and translator John Selby Watson's 1871 murder of his wife?
... that after being closed in 1978, Sandefjord Airport Station reopened in 2008 with a new name to serve Sandefjord Airport, Torp, Norway?
... that Gigantic, a film about a single man deciding to adopt a baby, was inspired by writer–director Matt Aselton's childhood wish for his parents to adopt a baby from China?
... that Nick Scandone was named 2005 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, the first Paralympian to earn the honor, after winning the 2.4 meter world championship against 60 able-bodied and 27 disabled sailors?
... that sugar cream pie is being considered to become the official state pie of Indiana, USA?

15:49, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Dorothy Lavinia Brown (pictured) was the first African American female surgeon in the Southeastern United States and also first African American woman to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly?
... that the mass finishing manufacturing processes, tumble finishing and vibratory finishing, are often employed to deburr machined parts and clean up castings?
... that Captain Woodes Rogers rescued Alexander Selkirk, the model for Robinson Crusoe, and later defeated the pirates of the Caribbean?
... that Koradi Thermal Power Station, near Nagpur, India, was commissioned in 1974 and currently operates seven units with a total capacity of 1,080 MW?
... that Paschal Eze resigned as editor-in-chief of The Daily Observer, a newspaper in The Gambia, after being pressured by management not to publish stories about a certain politician?
... that the Bat Motor Manufacturing Co. Ltd was named after founder Samuel Robert Batson but was nicknamed "Best After Tests"?
... that William Murphy won two Big Ten doubles tennis championships with his twin brother, and later coached Michigan tennis teams to 11 Big Ten and one NCAA team championships?
... that Delaware State Park is not in the U.S. state of Delaware but rather in Ohio?

09:37, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the "floating palaces" Bristol and Providence, built in 1867 by William H. Webb (pictured), contained 500 canaries in cages, each one personally named by shipowner Jim Fisk?
... that one form of the general image filters invented by Otto Zobel is a particularly simple band-pass filter consisting of just resonators coupled by capacitors?
... that the body of Eadulf Rus, a man accused of killing Walcher, Bishop of Durham, was removed from the church of Jedburgh some years after it had been buried there on the orders of Turgot, Prior of Durham?
... that A. P. Patro inaugurated the Loyola College in Chennai, India, in 1925?
... that while the Brooklyn Theatre burned in 1876, the actors urged calm in the face of rising panic, and though nearest to the flames, they were among the last to leave the theater alive?
... that the Cape Verde Shearwater is threatened by the harvesting of its chicks by local fishermen?
... that in 1912, a Singer motorcycle became the first 350cc motorcycle to cover more than 60 miles (97 km) in one hour?
... that college football quarterback Brian Johnson led the Utah Utes to become the only undefeated team in the 2008 season, including an upset of fourth-ranked Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl?

03:32, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Alexandra Penney, author of the best-selling book How to Make Love to a Man, has been credited as one of the creators and popularizers of the pink ribbon (pictured) as a symbol for breast cancer awareness?
... that the "orange tooth" fungus, Hydnellum aurantiacum, is considered critically endangered in the United Kingdom?
... that American boxer Muhammad Ali and Swiss tennis player Roger Federer have each won the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award three times?
... that the translation of Sangiovese as the "blood of Jove" led to early theories that the grape's origins dated back to Roman times?
... that Joseph Leavitt, nicknamed "Quaker Joe", was a conscientious objector during the American Revolutionary War, having laid down his weapon after three months of fighting for the Continental Army?
... that the practice of agriculture in India had started by 9000 BCE?
... that Link TV partnered with several world artists to write "The Price of Silence" to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
... that in Harold Nichols' 32 years as Iowa State wrestling coach, his wrestlers placed among the top three teams in the United States 25 times and won 38 individual and six team NCAA championships?

12 January 2009

20:02, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

... that George R. Christmas (pictured), then known as Captain Christmas, received the Navy Cross for "extraordinary heroism" in the Vietnam War?
... that Perth is the first city to operate a reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant to provide drinking water in Australia?
... that Dave Porter won the NCAA heavyweight collegiate wrestling championship twice and was subsequently drafted by the Cleveland Browns to play in the NFL?
... that the 17th-century antiquarian Johan Hadorph performed Sweden's first archaeological excavation?
... that at least 20 children were abducted during the 2008 Christmas massacres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
... that Anssi Koivuranta is leading the 2008-09 Nordic Combined World Cup right now?
... that William Glendon argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court that the Nixon Administration could not use prior restraint to prevent printing of the Pentagon Papers?
... that Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has 185 footnotes, which contain a meticulous false history of English magic and an entire fictional corpus of magical scholarship?
... that college football wide receiver Torrey Smith of the Maryland Terrapins set the Atlantic Coast Conference record for single-season kick return yards, including a 99-yard return in a bowl game?

14:32, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Daniel Forfang

... that Norwegian ski jumper Daniel Forfang (pictured) retired due to body weight pressure in the sport, whose rules were earlier considered to fit Forfang "perfectly"?
... that the Norfolk, Connecticut-based performing arts venue Infinity Hall was built in 1883 as a combination opera house, barber shop and saloon?
... that Matt Smith, who will portray the Eleventh Doctor in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is the youngest person to be cast in the title role?
... that Edward Schalon, inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor as a golfer, later became the president of a Fortune 500 company, SPX Corporation?
... that the King Mojo Club in Sheffield, run by Peter Stringfellow, hosted the Small Faces' first gig outside London?
... that after becoming the first basketball player to lead the Big Ten in both scoring and rebounds, Michigan's M.C. Burton turned down a contract to play in the NBA to attend medical school?
... that Morrissey was billed as the headliner of Saturday Night Fiber 2008, even though he was not the final act to play?
... that Eliza Flower was a 19th-century English musician and composer with whom a young Robert Browning fell in love?
... that George "Crybaby" Cannon got his nickname from being able to wipe sweat from his face to make it appear as though he was crying?

09:13, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the Seattle's Pike Place Market (pictured) was created partly in response to price gouging?
... that the East German company Jenapharm synthesized steroids from hog bile because they lacked access to a source of the precursor diosgenin?
... that Alice May starred as a soprano in comic opera in the 1870s but toured as a contralto in the 1880s?
... that the house at Borden Oaks in Greensboro, Alabama, features sidelights and transoms derived from an 1833 Asher Benjamin design?
... that Tang Dynasty chancellor Du Huangshang was credited with setting in motion Emperor Xianzong's reassertion of imperial authority over warlords?
... that George Goldman put Book Soup, a "cultural fixture" of the Sunset Strip, up for sale on January 2, 2009, and died a day later?
... that Indian historian V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar believed that ancient South Indians may have known of Australia and Polynesia before their discovery by Europeans?
... that Tommy James' 1971 single "Draggin' the Line" has appeared on 41 albums and in many media works, from Austin Powers 2 to a documentary on the pornographic film Deep Throat?

02:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Judge Ronald Cicoria of Livingston County Court in Geneseo, New York (courthouse pictured), retired in 2005 as the longest sitting judge in New York State?
... that Tang Dynasty official Yuan Zi wrote a five-volume work about his diplomatic mission to Nanzhao?
... that Wallace Beery won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Frances Marion the Oscar for Original Screenplay for The Champ?
... that species in the fungal genus Cyathus produce bioactive compounds with antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidative properties?
... that in June 2008, Pat Fleming and Allen Hopkins became the 51st and 52nd pocket billiards players to be inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame?
... that widespread economic crisis and food shortages resulted in several hunger demonstrations in Poland during the summer of 1981, with the biggest one taking place in Łódź?
... that Nino Martini appeared in numerous Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s while simultaneously starring regularly in leading tenor roles at the Metropolitan Opera?
... that a tropical greenhouse and sturgeon farm in the Swiss Alps, powered by geothermal energy from the world's longest land tunnel, is intended to produce two tonnes of caviar annually?

11 January 2009

20:39, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

... that a bounty jumper, Adam Worth (pictured), became the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional villain Professor Moriarty?
... that African American civil rights activist Mel Boozer was the first openly gay person nominated for the office of Vice President of the United States?
... that the Sion Causeway connected the island of Bombay with Salsette?
... that The Pittsburgh Courier crusaded against the blue discharge, calling it "a vicious instrument that should not be perpetrated against the American Soldier"?
... that for the recent Philippine film Iskul Bukol 20 Years After, stars Tito, Vic and Joey paid a sum of PHP 120,000 to bail actor Ritchie D'Horsie out of jail so that he could appear in the film?
... that in 2008, college football running back Vai Taua and quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the first pair of Nevada players to both rush for more than 1,000 yards (910 m) in the same season?
... that in the 1950s, the Iraqi Communist Party accused the dissident communist group Rayat ash-Shaghilah of being "royalists", "deviationists", and police agents?
... that Randal Kleiser saved money shooting his student film Peege by using the studio offices of a Steven Spielberg television movie which had wrapped ahead of schedule?

15:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

... that turkey bowling, protested by animal rights activists, was invented as a pastime in the aisles of a grocery store (pictured)?
... that 85 percent of the tobacco grown in Cuba is produced by members of the National Association of Small Farmers?
... that 180-pound (82 kg) guard Dominic Tomasi was selected as both captain and Most Valuable Player of the undefeated National Champion 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team?
... that Interim Self Governing Authority was a power-sharing proposal made by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the government of Sri Lanka to resolve the Sri Lankan civil war?
... that disc jockeys at WLWI-FM in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, have been nominated for Country Music Association Awards six times since 1981?
... that the presence of the metal ion in metalloprotein enzymes allows them to perform functions, such as catalyzing redox reactions, that other polypeptide enzymes cannot achieve?
... that Charles Hawksley was elected President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901, nearly 30 years after his father, Thomas Hawksley, was elected to the position?
... that Tropical Storm Kay of the 2004 Pacific hurricane season reached its peak intensity just six hours after being named?

10:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Schulze Baking Company Plant (pictured) once housed the largest wholesale business in Chicago?
... that while the anime adaptation of the Japanese visual novel White Album began its broadcast in 2009, it was actually first considered in 1998?
... that Diane Geppi-Aikens, despite being paralyzed by a terminal brain tumor and confined to a wheelchair, coached the women's lacrosse team of Loyola College to the 2003 NCAA Final Four?
... that the French government database Joconde has over 220,000 online images of objects from nearly 300 French museums?
... that Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia, USA, was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957?
... that bush ballads are a folk music and poetry tradition in the Australian Outback?
... that after the 1862 trial of poisoner Catherine Wilson, the judge, John Barnard Byles, described her as "the greatest criminal that ever lived"?
... that the Skyscraper Index has shown that the world's tallest buildings have risen on the eve of economic downturns?

04:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

A bridge collapse

... that bridge scour is the most common cause of highway bridge failure (example pictured) in the United States?
... that Cape Wolstenholme of Ungava Peninsula is the northern-most tip of the Canadian province of Quebec?
... that professional wrestler John Hill was forced to change his ring name from Guy Hill to Guy Mitchell due to a news reporter's error?
... that Royal Australian Navy commissioned the bulk carrier Jeparit in 1969 to overcome union protests against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War?
... that the Boulder Beer Company, the first microbrewery in the U.S. state of Colorado, was founded by two college professors who enjoyed homebrewing?
... that a 1927 Wolseley motor car used in the 2008 BBC television adaptation The 39 Steps was previously used in the 1960s BBC television series Dr. Finlay's Casebook?
... that University of Michigan track team captain Bob Osgood set a world record in the 120-yard (110 m) high hurdles in a "driving rain" that turned the track at Ferry Field into "a miniature lake"?
... that chee kufta is an Armenian raw meat dish similar to steak tartare?

10 January 2009

21:59, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

... that The Coffee Pot historic roadhouse (pictured) in Roanoke, Virginia, USA, features a 15-foot (4.6 m) stucco coffee pot atop its roof?
... that the 1981 warning strike in Poland was the biggest strike in the history of the Soviet Bloc, with 12 to 14 million participants?
... that Charles Leigh played six seasons as a running back in the National Football League despite never playing college football?
... that the fluorotelomer alcohol 8:2 FTOH can biodegrade into the environmental contaminants PFOA and PFNA?
... that the Nintendo DS video game Texas Hold 'Em Poker allows players to mimic certain nuances such as a card player's tell?
... that Namibian politician Jesaya Nyamu, who was expelled from SWAPO for writing a private note on how to undermine President Sam Nujoma, formed the Rally for Democracy and Progress in 2007?
... that Washington Park Court District is named after the Chicago Park District's Washington Park although it is neither in the park nor in the Washington Park community area?
... that no rhinoceros is ever seen on camera in the 1974 film Rhinoceros?

15:51, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

... that architect Nikolay Zherikhov decorated one of his buildings with erotic sculptures (pictured) resembling Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Pushkin?
... that the word palengke, a type of public market in the Philippines, was actually derived from a Spanish word for palisades?
... that Major League Baseball player Barry Foote batted in eight runs, including a game-winning grand slam, in a single game against the St. Louis Cardinals?
... that the riots which led to the 1963 Dahomeyan coup d'état began with the murder of an official by his deputy?
... that Rev. Frederick B. Williams at the Church of the Intercession in New York City created the first program of any religious community in the United States to respond to the AIDS epidemic?
... that the gokenin, Japanese feudal lords at the top of the power pyramid, were named after a semi-slave caste?
... that operatic soprano Maria Zamboni was the first person to record the title role of Puccini's Manon Lescaut in its entirety?
... that Vanderbilt University's win in the 2008 Music City Bowl came 53 years to the day after the Commodores' last bowl game victory and gave them their first winning football season since 1982?

08:54, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

... that when it was first described in the late 1600s, the earthstar fungus Geastrum fornicatum (pictured) was named Fungus anthropomorphus for its resemblance to the human form?
... that the Hershey Creamery Company, founded in 1894 by five brothers from the Hershey family, has actually been owned and operated by the Holder family since the 1920s?
... that Norwegian ski jumper Johan Remen Evensen finished among the top three already in his fourth proper World Cup start?
... that educational games from Playnormous were designed with assistance from medical researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine?
... that the Tang Dynasty chancellor Zheng Xunyu quit his responsibilities over an incident in which his colleague Wei Zhiyi left a chancellors' lunch to dine with Emperor Shunzong's close associate Wang Shuwen?
... that Heinrich Greinacher invented his voltage doubler circuit in 1913 because the 110 volt power supply in Zürich was insufficient for his newly invented ionometer which required 200 volts?
... that Jeff Moronko is one of two Major League Baseball players to have attended Texas Wesleyan University, the other being Hall of Famer Tris Speaker?
... that the Italian sparkling wine Franciacorta was first produced in 1961?

02:40, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the turnpike trusts in Greater Manchester (milestone pictured) had a huge impact upon the way business was conducted around Manchester, England?
... that Paul Hofmann, who served as an interpreter for the Germans in WWII, passed information to the anti-fascist resistance in Rome?
... that, when writing about a homicide case in the Dexter episode "The Dark Defender", Timothy Schlattmann was inspired by a snow globe on his desk which he believed "could easily be a murder weapon"?
... that David Logan, onetime mayor of Portland, Oregon, studied law under later U.S. President Abraham Lincoln?
... that Operation Uranus led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army and portions of the Fourth Panzer Army, as well as surviving remnants of two Romanian armies, totaling over 200,000 soldiers?
... that the village of Kodinji in Kerala, India, where multiple birth is a regular phenomenon, is home to over 204 pairs of twins?
... that George Brough used a Brough Superior SS80 motorcycle nicknamed "Spit and Polish" to become the first sidevalver to lap Brooklands at over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h)?
... that actor, writer and poet Stephen Haggard was the model for the character of Aidan Sheridan in Olivia Manning's novel sequence, the Fortunes of War?

9 January 2009

17:28, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

... that secessionists in St. Augustine, Florida, captured the town's fort (pictured) three days before Florida actually seceded from the United States?
... that in 1998, the Khmer Rouge attacked a casino in the city of Koh Kong with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars?
... that Indianapolis claims Charles H. Black as the inventor of the first internal combustion engine automobile, although his vehicle's ignition called for a kerosene torch?
... that the imposition of an all-women shortlist caused the Labour Party to lose one of its safest UK Parliamentary seats in 2005?
... that Rob MacCachren's victory at the 2007 Baja 1000 marked the first time that a Trophy Truck won the event's overall title?
... that Washington Park Subdivision land owners signed 20-year restrictive covenants excluding renting to African Americans, leading to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee?
... that sprint canoer Thomas Zereske's life was commemorated by the dedication of his former teammate Christian Gille's gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the C-2 1000 m event?
... that the 1933 Treasure Coast hurricane blew 16 percent of the total fruit crop from Florida trees?

11:20, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Jamaican singer Bob Marley (pictured) gave Vincent Ford writing credit for the song "No Woman, No Cry", but Marley's wife and manager were granted the rights after claiming that Marley had written it himself?
... that the Kappe Residence, described as "a virtual tree house poised over a steep hillside", was named one of the top ten houses in Los Angeles by an expert panel selected by the Los Angeles Times?
... that Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas commander, sent his own son on a suicide attack mission?
... that according to Iroquois tradition, Onondaga Lake was the site of a meeting of peace between Native American leaders Tadodaho, Hiawatha and Deganawidah?
... that during his Victoria Cross-winning action, Percy Statton rushed four machine gun posts before returning to his battalion lines where he was cheered by his fellow Australians?
... that Carl Fredriksens Transport, an operation that saved 1,000 Norwegians during the Nazi occupation of Norway, was code-named after King Haakon VII's original name?
... that radio station WLWI in Montgomery, Alabama, founded in 1930 as WSFA, gave country music legend Hank Williams his start as a professional musician?
... that the world's first mono-motorcycle, the Uno, was invented by Canadian teenager Ben Gulak?

05:06, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Pane ticinese (pictured), a white bread from the Swiss canton of Ticino, is made of small individual loaves intended to be broken off by hand?
... that after the murder of Robert Eric Wone, his widow was represented pro bono by prospective United States Attorney General Eric Holder?
... that the Jola, the majority ethnic group in Carabane, are distinct from other major ethnic groups in Senegal by their lack of social hierarchy and their languages?
... that the Sierra Highway was described in a promotional book to recruit teachers to California as "a highway with a hundred by-ways, each by-way with a hundred wonders"?
... that the popular Israeli singer Aya Korem works part-time as a bartender in Tel Aviv in between recording and performing?
... that Pocahontas Island, where evidence of prehistoric Native American artifacts were found, would later become the first free black settlement in the U.S. state of Virginia?
... that Roystonea regia, also known as the Cuban royal palm, was the first monocotyledon found to have root nodules capable of nitrogen fixation?
... that professional wrestler Stan Frazier was also known for selling fake Rolex watches?

8 January 2009

22:43, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Nubian queen Amanitore (relief pictured) ruled over so much building work that her reign is considered the most prosperous time in Meroitic history?
... that the MC-1 bomb was the first non-clustered U.S. chemical weapon?
... that first-class cricketer Bryan Lobb was such a poor judge of a run that he was once run out by a fielder who overtook him as he strolled down the wicket?
... that after the Mexican War of Independence, the influence of positivists led to a renaissance of scientific activity in Mexico?
... that Gillfield Baptist Church, Virginia, the second oldest black congregation in Petersburg, USA, resisted a consolidation with the white congregation at Market Street Church in 1829?
... that the Slavic Silesian Duke and monastic patron Bolko I encouraged German settlement in his region and patronised German poetry?
... that the 1916 Early Modern Dodge House in West Hollywood, California, called one of the fifteen most significant houses in the United States, was demolished in 1970 to make way for apartments?
... that Fritz Otto Bernert, World War I flying ace, scored five victories in a twenty-minute timespan, earning the one-armed pilot the Pour le Merite in 1917?

15:37, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

... that toxic gadolinium is often injected for contrast enhancement in MRI scans (scanner pictured), but is prevented from harming patients by being administered as a DTPA complex that has a high stability constant?
... that Darleen Ortega became the first Latina judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals in 2003?
... that the 1819 odes of English poet John Keats, including On Melancholy, To a Nightingale, To Psyche, and To Autumn, created "a new tone for the English lyric" according to critic W. Jackson Bate?
... that Petelo Vikena, one of the three reigning traditional monarchs within Wallis and Futuna, previously served in the French Army?
... that First Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia, the first African-American Baptist congregation in the United States, had only black pastors until 1832?
... that the Russian fishing industry operates on the second longest coastline in the world, which gives it access to twelve seas in three oceans?
... that Kelly Paris' three career home runs were all hit in 1988 in 44 at bats with the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball?
... that the Grade I listed Franks Hall, in Horton Kirby, Kent, England, was used as a barn in the 1850s?

08:27, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

The bottle label of Harlan Estate

... that the bottle label of California "cult wine" producer Harlan Estate (pictured) was ten years in the making?
... that theologian and preacher Carl Fredrik Wisløff's 1946 book I Know in Whom I Believe was recognized in 2008 as one of Norway's most influential books of prose?
... that after the American E86 cluster bomb was canceled, its E14 sub-munition was altered to deliver yellow fever mosquitoes and rat fleas?
... that Richard Martin, Lord Mayor of London in 1589 and 1594, is not the Richard Martin who was "thrashed" by the poet John Davies in the Hall of the Middle Temple in 1598?
... that the 1992 Atlantic hurricane season produced the first recorded subtropical storm in April since tracking began in 1968?
... that Tang Dynasty official Gao Ying, in his youth, offered to die in his father's stead when his father was captured by rebel Yan forces, causing Yan officers to release them both?
... that Lesser Whistling Ducks are the most prominent species among the migratory birds that visit the lake in the Santragachhi area of Howrah, India, during winter?
... that World Wrestling Federation referee Danny Davis also competed as "Mr. X" while wearing a mask?

02:22, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the airship Patrie (pictured) broke free from its moorings at Souhesmes, France, blew across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and was eventually lost in the Atlantic Ocean?
... that African American actor Lorenzo Tucker, the star of the 1932 race film Veiled Aristocrats, was dubbed the "black Valentino" because of his striking good looks?
... that Bugle Rock in Bangalore, India, is a peninsular gneiss formation from which warning bugle calls were made to alert citizens of intruders?
... that WLVV, the oldest radio station in Mobile, Alabama, was once known as WMML (for "M-M-Mel") as a play on then-owner Mel Tillis' famous stutter?
... that Ismo Alanko Säätiö's accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen has been dubbed the "Jimi Hendrix of the accordion" by the Finnish music press?
... that Operation Winter Storm was an attempt by German Army Group Don to relieve the trapped Sixth Army in Stalingrad, during World War II?
... that M. C. Rajah was the first member of the Dalit community to be elected to the Madras Legislative Council in India?
... that Dick's Last Resort, an American bar and restaurant chain, encourages the staff to act obnoxiously towards their customers?

7 January 2009

20:18, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

... that CP1600 microprocessors saw little use in their intended role, but millions were produced for use in the Intellivision video game console (pictured)?
... that the Silesian Duke Henry V the Fat spent some of his youth at the court of Ottokar II of Bohemia in Prague?
... that students from Tualatin Valley Junior Academy's Ring of Fire handbell choir performed at both inaugurations of U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2005?
... that Polish resistance member Zofia Baniecka and her mother hid over fifty Jews in their Warsaw apartment during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1944?
... that the Thimpu principles were put forward by Sri Lankan Tamil delegates at Thimpu, Bhutan?
... that architect Bennie Gonzales designed most of the major municipal buildings in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, including Scottsdale City Hall, which features a kiva for meetings?
... that as well as the Nativity of Jesus, Olivier Messiaen's organ composition La Nativité du Seigneur was inspired by birdsong, the French Alps, and medieval stained glass?
... that the American E23 munition failed in 1954 field trials causing the crew of an aircraft to be bitten by rat fleas?

13:15, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Nobel Laureates James D. Watson and Eric Kandel lectured at Cullen Performance Hall (pictured) in 2008?
... that the FN-6, a third generation Chinese MANPAD, was specifically designed to be used against targets flying at low and very low altitudes?
... that Paul Robeson's contract for the 1925 race film Body and Soul included a US$100 per week salary plus three percent of the gross after the first US$40,000 in receipts?
... that Willie McCartney was listed by the Sunday Herald newspaper as the 22nd greatest Scottish football manager of all time, even though he never won a major trophy?
... that some members of the fungal family Orbiliaceae can lasso nematodes using outgrowths of their hyphae?
... that the crime television series Heist detailed the 1974 Irish Republican Army's seizure of nineteen well-known paintings estimated to be worth £8 million at Russborough House?
... that, during the Anshi Rebellion, the future Tang Dynasty chancellor Qi Kang took his mother and fled to Shaoxing?
... that in the middle of the 1995–96 National Hockey League season, the head coach of the Dallas Stars, Bob Gainey, fired himself?

07:03, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

... that according to legend, a tunnel leads from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle (pictured) to the Khotyn Fortress which is 20 kilometres (12 mi) away?
... that World War I flying ace Friedrich Ritter von Röth was posthumously granted a lifetime pension by the Kingdom of Bavaria?
... that IR-40, an Iranian heavy water reactor, could produce 10 kilograms (22 lb) to 12 kilograms (26 lb) of plutonium, enough to build two nuclear weapons, each year?
... that Jean-Baptiste Hachème supervised the government of Maurice Kouandete, being the de facto head of state of Benin?
... that according to Just Detention International, 67 percent of all LGBT people in prison report being assaulted?
... that actress Yanna McIntosh has been nominated for six Dora Awards, winning twice?
... that the last Silk motorcycle ever built was a 500cc model based on a prototype that was never produced and was used as a competition prize?
... that Juan Davis Bradburn, commander of the Mexican fort at Anahuac, was described as "incompetent to such a command and ... half crazy part of his time"?

6 January 2009

23:50, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

... that in 1846, the Austrian Empire encouraged a peasant revolt (pictured) to weaken local nobility in Galicia who were planning a rebellion of their own?
... that the U.S. E61 anthrax bomblet was perceived as superior to another, earlier anthrax weapon, the M114 bomb?
... that one of the few criticisms against Tang Dynasty chancellor Du You was that, after the death of his wife, he married a concubine?
... that despite producing 123 mph (198 km/h) winds, rainfall from the 1941 Florida hurricane reached only 0.35 in (8.9 mm) in Miami, Florida, USA?
... that music critic Claude Rostand described Olivier Messiaen's Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine as a "work of tinsel, false magnificence and pseudo-mysticism"?
... that the Tampa Bay Rays, a Major League Baseball team located in St. Petersburg, Florida, has had a losing record under each of its four managers?
... that no member of the Indian National Congress political party has been elected as Chief Minister of Madras state since M. Bhaktavatsalam served from 1963 to 1967?
... that Hal Fryar received a number of complaints from English teachers because he appeared in a film with the grammatically incorrect title The Outlaws Is Coming?

15:15, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

... that as part of a team led by Oliver Lincoln Lundquist, Donal McLaughlin designed a logo (pictured) for the 1945 UN Conference on International Organization that became the model for the Flag of the United Nations?
... that the Marble Mountain Wilderness has one of only two stands of subalpine fir tree in California, and both are more than 50 miles (80 km) from the next closest stand in southern Oregon?
... that English primary school Watercliffe Meadow's decision to call itself "a place of learning" rather than a "school" was attacked as being too politically correct?
... that the 20-storey Gillender Building, built in 1897, was demolished only thirteen years later to make way for 14 Wall Street?
... that in a May 1983 attack on communist partisans, forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan killed 150 communist cadres in northern Iraq?
... that abolitionist Charles Bennett Ray was the first black student enrolled at Wesleyan University in 1832, only to have his enrollment subsequently revoked after complaints from white students?
... that the Swedish culture magazine Artes often featured future Nobel Prize in Literature laureates when edited by Östen Sjöstrand, a member of the Swedish Academy?
... that the talent of Norwegian ski jumper Jon Aaraas was first discovered in kindergarten?

09:06, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

... that bird's nest fungi from the genus Crucibulum (Crucibulum laeve pictured) rely on falling rain to help disperse their spores?
... that John II, Bishop of Jerusalem, consecrated the Church of the Holy Zion on the day of Yom Kippur 394 CE?
... that the American M47 bomb had a steel cover just 1/32 of an inch thick, causing it to leak when it carried sulfur mustard?
... that 12-year-old actress Caitlin Sanchez, selected to perform the voice of the title character in Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer, grew up as a fan of the show with a Dora-themed bedroom and backpack?
... that the Canadian Parliamentary deadlock due to the "In and Out" political scandal was one of reasons for the snap election of 2008?
... that the characteristics of iminoglycinuria include the presence of glycine and imino acids in the urine, and aside from that it is considered to be a relatively benign disorder?
... that Dorothy Sarnoff taught presentation skills to U.S. President Jimmy Carter that included having him tone down his smile?
... that the power station that powered the Terminal Arcade's interurbans from 1907 to 1940 had a 999-year lease?

01:42, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the White-faced Heron's (pictured) techniques to find food include standing still and waiting for prey, walking slowly in water, wing flicking, foot raking or chasing prey with open wings?
... that Edward Stirling Dickson, who would eventually rise to the rank of Vice-Admiral, joined the Royal Navy in 1772, at the age of seven?
... that the original screenplay for A Life of Her Own was deemed "shocking and highly offensive" for its portrayal of "adultery and commercialized prostitution" and rejected by the Breen Office?
... that in the Battle of Sio, Papuan Corporal Bengari and his five companions ambushed 29 Japanese soldiers and killed them all before they could fire a shot?
... that ABC's Howard K. Smith: News and Comment was cancelled after Smith aired a controversial and, as it proved, premature program in 1962 titled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon"?
... that François Charles Archile Jeanneret was a student, chairman, and principal at the University of Toronto before becoming its 22nd Chancellor in 1959?
... that Operations Parthenon, Boris, Finery, Shed and Plan Giralda were all British plans for military intervention in Zanzibar following the 1964 revolution?
... that the educational Nintendo DS video game futureU helps students prepare for the SATs?

5 January 2009

19:11, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

... that only one original building, St Michael and All Angels Church (pictured), survives in the former village of Lowfield Heath—destroyed by the expansion of London Gatwick Airport?
... that Paul Verner fled Germany's nationalists and fought as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War?
... that a trading post was set up in Kangirsuk, Quebec, in 1921 but the Inuit did not settle there permanently until the 1960s?
... that the Battle of Suez was the last major battle of the Yom Kippur War?
... that Averill Park Central School District encompasses an area of approximately 120 square miles (310 km²)?
... that Tang Dynasty official Zhao Zongru served under six emperors—Emperors Dezong, Shunzong, Xianzong, Muzong, Jingzong, and Wenzong?
... that polyamino carboxylic acid compounds have extensive applications in chemical, biomedical and environmental sciences?
... that in 1978, American football fullback Roland Harper rushed for 992 yards for the Chicago Bears, falling just 8 yards short of 1,000 in the same season teammate Walter Payton rushed for 1,395 yards?

13:08, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the tiger in the Coat of arms of Singapore (pictured) represents Malaysia?
... that one of Russia's most famous writers, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, was a proponent of the Russian autocracy?
... that the Cape Grim massacre, in which four shepherds killed up to thirty Tasmanian aborigines, was an escalation of a previous fight over women?
... that the Southworth House has been a retirement home, a fraternity house, and an office building in Cleveland, Ohio?
... that players in the video game I Love Katamari control a highly adhesive ball which is used to run over and collect objects of increasing size to make the ball bigger?
... that the Irish Independent noted the "scattergun screech" of Dirty Epics vocalist Sarah Jane Wai O'Flynn?
... that baseball player Esix Snead stole 507 bases in the minor-leagues but had just four stolen bases in the major leagues?
... that Simon Cowell signed the Teletubbies to his record label for their hit single "Teletubbies say Eh-oh!"?

06:40, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Alexander John Scott (pictured), Nelson's chaplain at Trafalgar, was once struck by lightning while asleep in his cabin?
... that the East Ghor Main Canal diverts nearly all the annual flow of the Yarmouk River for irrigation in Jordan?
... that Joseph Dennie was one of the foremost men of letters in the United States during the Federalist Era?
... that the prelude to Operation Pleshet saw Israel use its first ever fighter plane, the Avia S-199?
... that Alvah Chapman, Jr. helped orchestrate the 1974 merger of Knight Newspapers and Ridder Publications to form Knight Ridder, the largest such transaction as of that time?
... that a member of the Montana National Guard ended a riot at the Montana State Prison by firing a WWII bazooka at the southwest tower of Cellblock 1?
... that the Scottish Six Days Trial has been running since 1909 making it the oldest motorcycle trials event in the world?
... that the Virginia Board of Censors found the 1927 race film The House Behind the Cedars "so objectionable, in fact, as to necessitate its total rejection"?

00:35, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

... that by winning the 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, 30-metre maxi yacht Wild Oats XI (pictured) set a new record of four wins in a row?
... that Paul Boucherot and his partner Georges Claude built an ocean thermal energy conversion plant in Cuba as long ago as 1926?
... that Kelly Point, where the Willamette River meets the Columbia River in Oregon, was part of the former Pearcy Island?
... that Jerzy Putrament, a Polish communist writer and politician, in his youth flirted with the right-wing endecja movement?
... that HarperCollins published the Green Bible with passages mentioning the environment printed in green ink?
... that "The Flying Parson" Gil Dodds, record holder in the mile run in the 1940s, suffered a hernia in high school and ran with a truss to protect himself?
... that quantitative precipitation forecasts are issued up to five days into the future within the United States by the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center?
... that a messenger pigeon named Commando received the Dickin Medal in 1945 for carrying crucial intelligence from agents in occupied France to Britain during World War II?

4 January 2009

18:44, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

... that, while serving as chancellor, Tang Dynasty official Cui Sun was responsible for rebuilding or repairing the funereal palaces at eight imperial tombs, one of which was Qianling (pictured)?
... that Rabbi Joshua L. Liebman’s self-help book Peace of Mind spent more than a year at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list?
... that the Djibouti Francolin, a critically endangered species of bird, is only known from two isolated locations in Djibouti?
... that Zaprešić is the most densely populated city in Zagreb County, Croatia?
... that June Buchanan, co-founder of Alice Lloyd College, was mayor of Pippa Passes, Kentucky?
... that the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 634 on 8 January 2003 was the worst crash involving a BAe 146?
... that longtime Albert Speer associate Rudolf Wolters briefly worked with future West German president Heinrich Lübke in 1945 in an architectural office in Höxter?
... that the 2008 New York Giants became the fifth National Football League team to have two players rush for at least 1,000 yards, Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward?

11:16, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

... that at age 17 years and 331 days, Polish hammer thrower Kamila Skolimowska (pictured) was the youngest Olympic champion in the 2000 Summer Olympics?
... that the Nintendo DS video game, Cradle of Rome, requires that players match jewels of the same type to build the Roman Empire?
... that the former Youngstown and Southern Railway, Ohio's last interurban, was out of service for five years after being illegally sold to a scrap dealer?
... that Choa Chu Kang Community Library was the first library in Singapore to install self-check machines for borrowing and returning of books?
... that Terrence Oglesby, a United States citizen, was the leading scorer for Norway's basketball team in the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship?
... that the final screen role of BAFTA Award winning actor Sir Norman Wisdom was that of a vicar in the 2007 British short film Expresso?
... that Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf supported Barack Obama's 1996 Illinois Senate bid, telling him "someday you will be Vice President of the United States", to which Obama replied "Why vice president?"
... that Leaving Springfield is a non-fiction anthology of essays analyzing the impact of the television program The Simpsons on society?

05:22, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

... that according to tradition, al-Khadra Mosque (pictured) in present-day Nablus is situated at the site where Jacob, a biblical patriarch, was presented with a blood-soaked tunic belonging to his lost son Joseph?
... that "Barack the Magic Negro" is a controversial satirical song by Paul Shanklin which refers to Barack Obama as a magical Negro?
... that East German Olympic bronze medalist Wilfried Hartung was once married to two-time Olympic silver medalist Gabriele Wetzko?
... that the fishing industry in the United States operates the largest exclusive economic zone in the world?
... that authentic Picón Bejes-Tresviso cheese must be matured in traditional limestone caves until covered in Brevibacterium linens, the bacterium responsible for human foot odour?
... that Cisero Murphy was the first African American professional pocket billiards player to ever win a World or U.S. National billiard title?
... that the City of Clarence, Tasmania, was established in the traditional hunting grounds of the Moomairemener, eventually leading to the Black War?
... that Arthur Ransome's fictional pirate Nancy Blackett, captain of the Amazon, does not use her real name Ruth because "Amazons are ruthless"?

3 January 2009

23:09, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Hwanbyeokdang (pictured), a pavilion in South Korea, is associated with a tale regarding a dragon and 16th century poet Jeong Cheol?
... that Invincibles members Colin McCool, Doug Ring and Ron Hamence referred to themselves as "ground staff" because they were rarely given an opportunity to play cricket?
... that Independence Dam State Park in Defiance County, Ohio, is named for a dam built for the Miami and Erie Canal and features some of the canal's ruins?
... that Alec Bennett, riding the CS1 on its first race, won the Isle of Man Senior TT in 1927?
... that news of Rufus T. Bush's victory in a transatlantic yacht race took up the whole front page of the New York Times on March 28, 1887?
... that although done in spurts, it took until the mid-20th century to finish paving Pennsylvania Route 664?
... that the piriform shape of the uterus is given as the reason for the predominance of cephalic presentations at term?
... that the chorus melody of "Be Alright", a track from DecembeRadio's 2008 album Satisfied, was written by bassist/vocalist Josh Reedy while showering?

13:16, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

... that John L. Stevens (pictured), a former Universalist pastor, helped stage a coup in the Kingdom of Hawai'i to overthrow Queen Lili'uokalani in 1893?
... that in Scotland, anybody who tries to prevent a mother from breastfeeding in a legally permitted public place can be fined up to £2,500?
... that in 1965, East German politician Albert Norden accused 1,900 politicians and other prominent personalities in West Germany of having worked for the Nazi regime?
... that the 1774 Schiehallion experiment to calculate the density of the Earth also made the first use of contour lines to represent height?
... that Time magazine predicted "Big Bill" Watson, the first African-American to win the U.S. decathlon championship, would be America's No. 1 hero at the 1940 Olympics, later cancelled due to World War II?
... that the specific epithet of the mushroom species Crepidotus versutus is derived from the Latin word meaning "clever"?
... that the song "The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino", one of the best-known Polish war songs, was written during the Battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944?
... that in 1926, Albert Einstein solved the tea leaf paradox, which states that if the tea in a teacup is stirred, the tea leaves will collect in the middle rather than at the edges?

06:58, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

... that all species of the New Zealand parrot family Nestoridae (Kākā pictured) are either endangered or have gone extinct due to human activity?
... that Lieutenant General Stanley A. McChrystal commanded the Joint Special Operations Command forces responsible for the death of Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?
... that the Cretaceous terrestrial crocodilian Araripesuchus is known from five distinct species, two from Africa and the other three from South America?
... that, in 1935, Jimmie Guthrie set five world speed records on a Norton International at the concrete bowl track in Montlhéry, France?
... that the early Chola naval ships from the 1st century had a rudimentary flame thrower and a catapult-type weapon?
... that Winlock W. Steiwer founded the first bank in Wheeler County, Oregon, after he had pled guilty during the Oregon land fraud scandal?
... that Emil Løvlien was the last member of the Norwegian Parliament to be elected from the Communist Party ticket?
... that Larry Dierker is the only Houston Astros manager to have had his uniform number retired by the Houston Astros franchise of Major League Baseball?
... that Super Mario Kart sold eight million copies, making it the third highest-selling Super Nintendo Entertainment System game of all time?

00:19, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

... that there are six monarchies in Oceania and five of them share Queen Elizabeth II (pictured) as their respective head of state?
... that William Phelps was foreman of the first grand jury in colonial America and played a key role in establishing the first written democratic town government at Windsor, Connecticut, in 1657?
... that Chris Robinson invited Buffalo Killers to open for The Black Crowes on a 2007 tour after hearing their 2006 album Buffalo Killers?
... that, after returning to his native England, New York composer Manuel Klein suffered a trauma during the Zeppelin attacks in London during WWI that reportedly contributed to his early death?
... that the al-Muallaq Mosque, also known as the Mosque of Dhaher al-Omar in Acre, Israel, is located on the site of the town's ancient synagogue?
... that the Tang Dynasty official Zheng Yuqing restored the use of drums in palace music, after drums had been abolished in light of rebellions to avoid alarming the populace?
... that the German-language socialist newspaper Volkswille in Katowice, Poland, went from daily to weekly publication after the 1933 Nazi takeover stopped the newspaper's financial subsidies from Germany?
... that footballer Abe Hartley used to place a rolled-up cigarette behind his ear prior to kick-off and then smoke it in the changing room at half-time?

2 January 2009

18:01, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the stems of Asclepias cordifolia (pictured), or Heart-leaf milkweed, were made into rope and string by the Miwok and used for skirts and capes?
... that Owain Gwynedd led Welsh forces to victory against King Henry II of England at the Battle of Crogen in 1165?
... that in 1872, Western University in Kansas, USA, selected Charles Henry Langston, abolitionist, politician and future grandfather of poet Langston Hughes, as principal of its new normal school?
... that genopolitics studies the genetic basis of political behavior and attitude?
... that Noel Dossou-Yovo is presently President of the Professors World Peace Academy in the Republic of Benin?
... that after Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, the parliamentarians of the German Christian Social People's Party in Czechoslovakia joined the Sudeten German Party?
... that the Liberty ship SS Timothy Bloodworth was the first ship to be hit by a V-2 rocket?
... that Robert McKechnie was the University of British Columbia's longest-serving chancellor?

11:54, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

... that the pillars of the cancelled Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System project (pictured) have been described as "a Bangkok version of Stonehenge"?
... that Turkish female aviator Nezihe Viranyalı was educated in civil aviation at the University of Tennessee following an invitation by the renowned American pilot Jacqueline Cochran?
... that the boga, an improvised plastic cannon used in New Year's celebrations in the Philippines, has been banned by the government since 2006?
... that Mario Menéndez, who was the governor of the Falkland Islands, surrendered Argentine forces to the United Kingdom during the 1982 Falklands War?
... that the history of Switzerland in the Roman era includes about 300 years of peace and prosperity?
... that Roderigue Hortalez and Company was a fictitious front organization set up by France to help American revolutionaries fight England?
... that kibbutz Re'im has started a project to become the first community in Israel with its domestic power consumption provided entirely by solar energy?
... that Dave Fanning described 2TV as "not rocket science, it's moron television"?

05:33, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

... that for most of its history, Champagne (pictured) was pinkish and non-sparkling?
... that DeShawn Sims is the first Michigan Wolverines men's basketball player to have at least 20 points and 20 rebounds in a single game since Phil Hubbard did so in the 1977 NCAA Tournament?
... that the engine block of the Scott Flying Squirrel motorcycle was painted either green or red for racing or road, respectively?
... that the owner of Fairhope Plantation near Uniontown, Alabama, organized his own artillery unit during the American Civil War?
... that Australian cricketer Ernie Toshack, tired of signing autographs, had a friend sign for him, who incorrectly signed Toshak?
... that the Cobb and Frost-designed Chicago Opera House, built 1884–85, was one of the first buildings constructed using general contracting?
... that the monastery of Champmol was founded in 1383 as the dynastic burial-place of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, but only ever contained two monumental tombs?
... that Peter Benchley wanted to write about pirates, but editor Thomas Congdon preferred his idea for a novel about sharks that became the bestseller Jaws?

1 January 2009

23:26, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Don Tallon (pictured) was preferred as Australia's first-choice wicket-keeper over Ron Saggers during the Invincibles tour, despite conceding a higher rate of byes in the warm-up matches?
... that Iolani Luahine, considered the high priestess of the ancient hula, was said to be able to "call up the wind and the rain" and to "make animals do her bidding"?
... that Grower Champagnes have been described as "artisanal winemaking" for their focus on terroir rather than on producing a consistent "house style" that is associated with larger Champagne houses?
... that Francis S. Hoyt, the first President of Willamette University in Oregon, USA, graduated from Wesleyan University, a school his father helped to found?
... that the Sri Lankan Army's LRRP, a covert special operations unit, has assassinated several top level Tamil Tigers commanders during the Sri Lankan civil war?
... that Walter Galbraith selected an Accrington Stanley team of eleven Scots for an English Football League match?
... that Israel has the highest solar energy use per capita in the world?
... that at the 41st International Eucharistic Congress, Lutheran Church in America President Robert J. Marshall received a lengthy standing ovation after opening with the two words "Fellow Christians"?

15:31, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

... that Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine increasingly popular internationally, is believed to have also been produced in Ancient Roman times?
... that the extent of rainbands around a tropical cyclone can be used to determine its intensity?
... that filmmaker Daniel St. Pierre led the team that developed the Deep Canvas system for the animated film Tarzan for enhancing the apparent depth of backgrounds?
... that when Brackley railway station was visited by the Royal Train in 1950, the King and Queen had to step on a box when leaving the train because its door was far above the platform?
... that the Situationist pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life accused French students of taking refuge from their ideological subservience in miserabilism and bohemianism?
... that Alfred Stieglitz's Equivalents series of cloud photographs are regarded as the earliest examples of abstract photographic art?
... that the Colombo Cricket Club Ground, a small multi-use stadium in Sri Lanka, has hosted three Test matches?
... that after Lavrentiy Beria was arrested in June 1953, Sergei Kruglov succeeded him as the Soviet Union's Minister of Internal Affairs?
... that The Beggar's Benison was a Scottish gentlemen's club devoted to "the convivial celebration of male sexuality"?

09:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

... that as Champagne ages on its lees (pictured), the breakdown of yeast cells imparts unique flavors of acacia, biscuits and nuttiness as well as a creamy mouth feel?
... that McIDAS software has been used to process meteorological data and images from space probes?
... that illustrated medieval chronicles are among the first works of Swiss historiography?
... that a schoolteacher from the U.S. state of Ohio donated the first 14 acres (5.7 ha) of Mary Jane Thurston State Park, named in her honor?
... that the Zarqa River, which is Jordan's third largest, is so polluted that it is considered an "environmental blackspot"?
... that the sarin-filled M125 bomblet was a sub-munition in the M34 cluster bomb and four American missile systems?
... that the Alberta Taciuk Process, an above-ground dry thermal retorting technology, is named after its inventor William Taciuk and the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority?
... that the isolation of antibodies and flu viruses from birds on Tryon Island, a coral cay off the coast of Queensland, Australia, led to the development of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu?
... that Brett Sutter became the eighth member of the Sutter family to play in the National Hockey League when he made his debut for the Calgary Flames on December 23, 2008?