Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/February

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Did you know...

28 February 2009

22:30, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Pollicipes pollicipes (pictured), a goose barnacle found on rocky shores in the north-east Atlantic Ocean, is a delicacy in Spain where it may fetch up to €90 per kilogram?
... that Royal Parker, who played a children's television show character on Baltimore's WBAL-TV, also broadcast the news bulletin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963?
... that today Rare Disease Day, coordinated by the National Organization for Rare Disorders, is being observed in the United States for the first time ever?
... that Walter A. McDougall received the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age?
... that though it never made it on the air, Faze TV was planned as the first television channel in the United Kingdom specifically targeted towards gay men?
... that while a professor at the University of Wisconsin, future I.C.C. commissioner Balthasar H. Meyer taught what was said to be the first course in insurance in the U.S.?
... that Kandurata province cricket team entered the finals of 2007/08 Sri Lankan Inter-Provincial limited over tournament unbeaten, but the game was rained out and they had to share the trophy?
... that the Yellow-throated Honeyeater is known for collecting hair from live animals such as horses, dogs and humans for lining its nest?

15:48, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the ruined Elizabethan mansion of Rocksavage (pictured) in Runcorn was once the second-largest house in Cheshire?
... that the Arpechim Refinery owned by Petrom produces around sixty percent of all the bitumen used in Romania?
... that the Massacre of the Latins occurred in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 1182?
... that sexual activism group Sex Panic! criticized the efficacy of 1990s US anti-HIV campaigns that, they argued, demonized public sexual culture?
... that the Thika River supplies eighty percent of the water for Nairobi, Kenya?
... that more American astronauts have graduated from the United States Naval Academy than any other institution of higher learning?
... that the winner of the 2005 Djiboutian presidential election, Ismail Omar Guelleh, said that he regretted having no opponent in the election?
... that George Washington gave Martha Parke Custis a miniature of himself as a wedding gift, and later left her 1/32 of his estate in his will?

09:03, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Orbitron (pictured in restored state), an Ed Roth-built custom car, was feared lost until its 2007 rediscovery in dilapidated condition in front of a Ciudad Juárez adult bookstore?
... that Polish caricaturist Eryk Lipiński worked for the Polish resistance during World War II, forging documents, and was imprisoned in Auschwitz?
... that the 1886 Michigan football team had a "goalkeeper" and played games measured in "innings"?
... that Svein Døvle Larssen, a newspaper editor by occupation, also served in three different municipal councils for the Conservative Party of Norway?
... that Boxhill, a mansion near Louisville, Kentucky, sat vacant for years after it was the site of a double homicide, and was restored by the wife of a former Kentucky governor?
... that Peter Schutz saved the Porsche 911 from extinction when he took over the CEO position at Porsche in 1981?
... that the Middle Colonies were the most ethnically diverse British colonies in North America?
... that the plot of the "4-D" episode of The X-Files was inspired by French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who could only communicate by blinking his left eyelid?

02:28, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Texas State Representative Tommy Merritt (pictured) co-authored the bill which added "Under God" to the Texas Pledge of Allegiance in 2007?
... that NATO pilots flew more than 100,000 sorties over Bosnia during Operation Deny Flight?
... that Knut Korsæth, former mayor of Lillehammer and County Governor of Oppland, is also an honorary member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports?
... that MBM, a Barcelona based architecture firm, showed 32 designs that were never built in a 2003 show titled Lost Architectures?
... that Norwegian speed skater Randi Thorvaldsen won nine national allround championships in a row from 1946 to 1954, and finished first in 34 distances out of 36 possible?
... that the Alaska Conservation Society was the first grassroots environmental conservation organization created in the U.S. state of Alaska?
... that the Petrobrazi Refinery owned by Petrom is the most efficient refinery in Romania having a Nelson complexity index of 11.4?
... that in February 2008, David Mendell received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Obama: From Promise to Power?

27 February 2009

19:59, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Horace Prettyman (pictured) played eight years of "college" football for the University of Michigan from 1882 to 1890, some when he was in his 30s and no longer a student?
... that the heads of some East Indian harvesting ant workers are ten times larger than other worker ants of the same species?
... that an 1847 New York state law led to bodies buried in Manhattan graveyards being dug up for reburial in Brooklyn and Queens?
... that Tang Dynasty warlord Li Shidao, hoping to save his ally Wu Yuanji, assassinated the chancellor Wu Yuanheng, who was in charge of the campaign against Wu Yuanji?
... that the open access, peer reviewed journal Trials encourages publication of protocols, which the journal's editor Doug Altman has suggested may reduce data dredging and publication bias?
... that Edmund Chojecki co-founded Le Temps, predecessor to France's most popular modern newspaper, Le Monde?
... that Hebron, now a ghost town in Utah, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1902?

14:05, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Bluespotted trevally (Caranx bucculentus, pictured) is a major predator of prawns on the coasts of Northern Australia?
... that child actor Robbie Kay made his acting debut in the 2006 film The Illusionist, but was eventually cut from the film?
... that when Typhoon Olive struck Wake Island in 1952, World War II bunkers provided shelters for 700 people, resulting in zero fatalities despite the destruction of 85% of the island's structures?
... that Czech–Bulgarian architect Josef Schnitter, chief architect of Plovdiv from 1878 to 1914, is credited with shaping that city's modern appearance?
... that the Indiana County Courthouse was featured with Indiana, Pennsylvania-native Jimmy Stewart on the cover of LIFE in 1945?
... that a cow once got stuck in Boot's Folly at Strines Reservoir, South Yorkshire, England, after climbing its staircase?
... that Reedville Creek Park had the first skatepark in a Hillsboro, Oregon, park when it opened in 2003?
... that at the Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy, Nazi eugenicist Wilhelm Frick claimed that up to 20% of the German population had genetic disorders?

07:59, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

... that handball player Joachim Boldsen (pictured) has participated in the Danish version of Dancing with the Stars?
... that Confederate forces won the last battle at the end of the American Civil War?
... that Brigadier General Mark Perrin Lowrey, the founder of Blue Mountain College, died at age 56 while buying a train ticket?
... that archaeologists have discovered in Sagardighi, West Bengal, small Stone Age weapons not normally found in the Gangetic alluvial plains?
... that Olympic Rower Steven Coppola was the first athlete from Western New York's West Side Rowing Club to medal at the Olympic Games?
... that Harald Strøm's speed skating World Record in 5,000 metres set at Oslo's Frogner Stadion in 1922 lasted seven years?
... that it took 66 years for an arrowhead found near the Boaz mastodon to be positively identified?
... that in spite of years of development no one was able to get a Chromatron color television set to work properly, prompting Sony to develop the famed Trinitron?
... that publicist Joe Goldstein generated media buzz for the first International Trot harness racing event at Roosevelt Raceway by placing ads that read "French Trotter Needs Artichokes. Can You Help?"

02:22, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

... that adult land snails in the tropical genera Anostoma and Ringicella carry their oddly-shaped shells (pictured) upside down (i.e. spire down)?
... that Battle of Britain pilot Paul Egger was later awarded the Knight's Cross as a Tiger tank commander in the Waffen-SS?
... that Cambodia's Mongkol Borei District was part of Thailand until the French demanded it back in 1907?
... that Paul Kodish, best known as the current drummer for drum and bass band Pendulum, performed in 1986 with Brooklyn hip hop act Whodini?
... that nearly half the area of Estonia's 342 km² (132 sq mi) Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve was once a Soviet Air Force bombing range and its surrounding buffer zone?
... that the John Cassavetes film Husbands, praised by Time magazine as Cassavetes' finest work, was condemned by Pauline Kael and other prominent critics?
... that Joseph Stalin personally rewrote Falsifiers of History to respond to U.S.-released information about the German–Soviet Axis talks?
... that the Heian period Japanese story Torikaebaya Monogatari is the tale of a man who lives as a woman and his sister who lives as a man, who eventually swap places in order to lead happy lives?

26 February 2009

20:13, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

A sprite

... that sprites (pictured), large but very brief reddish forms of lightning that occur high over thunderstorms, were not photographed until 1989?
... that Gordon McMillan from Saskatchewan, Wally Grant from Minnesota's Iron Range, and Wally Gacek from Manitoba led the Michigan Wolverines to the first ever Frozen Four NCAA hockey championship in 1948?
... that there were almost 50,000 women serving in the Australian military in 1944?
... that the Tang Dynasty warlord Wu Shaoyang often pillaged the tea-growing hills of neighboring Shou Prefecture?
... that Stanford Financial Group, whose assets were frozen in 2009 due to charges of investment fraud, was the lead financier of the 2007 film The Ultimate Gift?
... that Althea Byfield played collegiate basketball in the United States, is signed to play semi-professional netball in New Zealand, and has represented Jamaica internationally in both sports?
... that paleolithic implements and a variety of speleothems have been found in the Borra Caves located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh?
... that Leif Tronstad, who helped establish the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant at Vemork, organized a sabotage mission against it later?

14:01, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

... that depending on the author, the odor of the stinkhorn mushroom Phallus hadriani (pictured) has been described as sweet, or fetid?
... that two members of the $100,000 infield have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
... that the tanker ship CHANT 26 ended up discharging her cargo in a French field during the Second World War?
... that Sir Roger Hetherington was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1944 after the death of the president-elect, the second successive year this had happened?
... that in the 2001 Somaliland constitutional referendum, 97.1% of those who voted approved the constitution of Somaliland?
... that William Prowse joined the Royal Navy as an able seaman, saw action at the Glorious First of June, Cape St Vincent, Cape Finisterre and Trafalgar, and died a Rear-Admiral?
... that AAA's first Triplemanía event in 1993 attracted 48,000 people, setting the all-time attendance record for a Mexican professional wrestling event?
... that Kjell Magne Yri, a linguist at the University of Oslo, began his career as a Bible translator and priest in Ethiopia?
... that despite support from Margaret Thatcher, the 1988 National Health Service Lottery was cancelled for contravening gaming regulations?

07:51, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the diet of the Gold-whiskered Barbet (video shown) includes papaya and lizards?
... that Mel Wakabayashi, born in a wartime Japanese-Canadian internment camp, was called "perhaps the most unlikely star in the long history of Michigan sports, and surely one of the most inspirational"?
... that the skating club Christiania Skøiteklub had more than 5,000 members in 1870, when the city Christiania had fewer than 70,000 inhabitants?
... that Avadhanum Paupiah, Indian dubash of the British East India Company was convicted in 1792 of forging evidence against David Haliburton on behalf of the Holland brothers?
... that the syndicated TV series Sheriff of Cochise was created by co-star Stan Jones, best known for the Western song "Ghost Riders in the Sky"?
... that Mayotte situated in the Indian Ocean, Kosovo and Montenegro in the Balkans, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, have adopted the euro as their national currency?
... that welterweight mixed martial arts fighter Satoru Kitaoka cut down to lightweight in 2008 and captured the Sengoku Lightweight Championship?
... that the Walter Hand House, in Cornwall, New York, was built in 1870 to serve as both a farmhouse and a tourist boarding house?

01:38, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Wannsee Conference was held in a house (pictured) that was sold to the Nazi security services by Friedrich Minoux while he was imprisoned for fraud?
... that the largest shale oil plant in the world uses the Fushun process technology?
... that pop entertainer Cathy Wayne was the first Australian woman killed in the Vietnam War, when a US Marine shot her on stage while she was performing?
... that Romania's Daewoo Mangalia shipyard has built over 127 new ships and repaired another 300 since its founding in 1997?
... that John Bell, New Hampshire's 18th governor, was both the brother of 14th governor Samuel Bell and the father of 46th governor Charles Henry Bell?
... that the Crusader was the largest ship commissioned into service with the Australian Army during World War II?
... that the Bay Area Puma Project is the first major study of mountain lions living in the San Francisco Bay Area?
... that though trained as a nuclear physicist, Peer Portner created the ventricular assist device, a pump that assists a patient's heart until a heart transplant can be performed?

25 February 2009

16:58, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

... that a wonsam (pictured) was a female ceremonial robe for the queen, royalty, and nobility during the Korean Joseon Dynasty, though commoners could wear it for their weddings?
... that Wales Triple Crown winner Norman Biggs was killed after being struck by a poison arrow while on military duty in Northern Nigeria?
... that prior to the 1962 Bou'in-Zahra earthquake, earthquake lights were sighted?
... that Flying Officer (later Air Commodore) Frank Lukis was one of the original twenty-one officers in the RAAF when it was formed in 1921?
... that though fruiting as a typical "little brown mushroom", Inocybe lacera is easily identifiable microscopically due to its extremely long, distinctive spores?
... that Hungarian István Major held the high jump record at the European Indoor Championships from 1972 to 1977?
... that five UH-1 Iroquois helicopters of the Experimental Military Unit were shot down by a single Viet Cong soldier armed with an AK-47 rifle?
... that Humphrey Stafford was only Earl of Devon for three months before being killed by a mob?
... that the pre-Columbian Zapotec storm god Cocijo was said to have created the world from his breath?

11:02, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

... that a lithograph (pictured) of Captain Stephen Ponsonby Peacocke's painting of the new bungalow at Sispara in India was published nine years after the Sispara ghat mountain trail was completed in 1838?
... that, although it is traditionally classified as a transition metal, in forming compounds the element zinc has similarities to the alkaline earth metals?
... that John Biehl, a Chilean government minister in the 1990s, led the successful campaign for Costa Rican president Óscar Arias to win the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize?
... that the Grenville Canal on the Ottawa River in Grenville, Quebec, Canada, was built as an alternative military supply route after the War of 1812?
... that Jens-Anton Poulsson was awarded the War Cross with Sword for his actions in the Norwegian heavy water sabotage?
... that following a number of recent banking controversies, Irish ruling party Fianna Fáil was overtaken in opinion polls by the country's Labour Party for the first time in history?
... that when Gordon Wilkie and his Michigan Wolverines teammates scored 21 points in a single ice hockey game against Ohio State University, their coach threatened to bench anyone else who scored?
... that some living people claim to have traced their genealogy back to Adam and Eve?

01:49, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Church of the Transfiguration, Pyecombe, England, has a rare Tapsel gate (pictured), which has a central pivot and was designed to keep cattle out and allow coffins through easily?
... that United States Senator Jim Bunning threw the only perfect game out of the nine no-hitters in Philadelphia Phillies history?
... that Corcovado National Park is the only national park in which all of Costa Rica's four native monkey species can be found?
... that Kenelm Hubert Digby was the proposer of the notorious 1933 "King and Country" debate in the Oxford Union?
... that the pilot of Showtime's Dexter was filmed through three hurricanes in 2005?
... that writer Paul Georgescu helped enforce Socialist Realism in Communist Romania while concealing his sympathy for Trotskyism?
... that an oleum leak at Chevron Richmond Refinery sent 25,000 people to the hospital in 1993?
... that Kenyan long distance athlete Evans Cheruiyot and his teammates were stranded in France by their manager without food, money, or shelter?
... that Gospel music station WNUZ in Talladega, Alabama, has been off-the-air since its transmitter was destroyed by lightning?

24 February 2009

18:46, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

... that as a blindfolded child, opera singer Pauline Joran (pictured) could identify absolute pitch and the notes of chords?
... that the Heard Shag is a bird with a black crest, pink feet, orange caruncles and blue eye-rings?
... that Hugh Foliot took custody of Hereford Castle in 1223 as part of Hubert de Burgh's takeover of power from Peter des Roches?
... that in his 1999 book The Trouble With Normal, gay author Michael Warner argued that same-sex marriage is an undesirable goal for the gay rights movement?
... that Yehoshua Cohen, the assassin of diplomat Folke Bernadotte, later became a close friend of David Ben-Gurion?
... that John Sutton Hall at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was set for demolition until its listing on the National Register of Historic Places?
... that five members of the Philadelphia Phillies' 2008 world championship team, including Pat Burrell, were also first-round draft picks of the franchise?
... that Margo Sappington received a Lifetime Achievement Award for choreography from the Joffrey Ballet?
... that the Equus Survival Trust is the only conservation organization in the world that specializes in equines?

12:51, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the 1988–89 Swift Current Broncos was the first Western Hockey League team to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup (pictured) without losing a playoff game?
... that the Trondheim newspaper Ny Tid switched allegiance from Labour to Communist when Knut Olai Thornæs was its editor?
... that the Northern Woods and Water Route is a 2,400 km (1,490 mi) highway route through northern Canada, from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Winnipeg, Manitoba?
... that Ralph Carpenter's restoration of Hunter House, a historic building in Newport, Rhode Island that had been scheduled for demolition, was called "a brilliant restoration that gets better with age"?
... that Norman Marjoribanks, later acting Governor of Madras, headed a commission to investigate the plight of indentured Tamil labourers on plantations in Ceylon?
... that the title of the 1960–61 TV series COronado 9 refers to the telephone exchange for the home town of fictional detective Dan Adams?
... that the first discovery of the remains of Dorset culture, Paleo-Eskimo people circa 1000 BC to 1100 CE, was made on Dorset Island in Nunavut, Canada?
... that Moorhuhn, a series of German computer games that has spawned much merchandise, a comic book series, and a TV series, began in 1999 as a whisky advertisement?

03:26, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

... that 42 Australians became crewmembers of Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah (pictured) when the vessel was docked outside Melbourne?
... that a song about Bulgarian rebel leader Delyo was sent into space in 1977 as part of the Voyager Golden Record?
... that in 1971, half the houses in Noel Park, London, were still lacking basic facilities such as baths, internal toilets and hot water?
... that Italian architect Ercole Manfredi took up Thai citizenship to overcome nationalist policies pursued by the Thai government?
... that The French Democracy is an ironically titled political film about the 2005 civil unrest in France?
... that during the Korean Joseon period, royal physicians squeezed milk from cows to make tarakjuk, a milk porridge, which was served only for the king and royalty?
... that 18th-century bookseller Thomas Cadell refused to publish Charlotte Turner Smith's novel Desmond because it was too radical?
... that the 1862 opening of the second Causeway in Perth, Western Australia, was disrupted by a young man on horseback who raced across after announcing that he would be first to do so?
... that suffragette Norah Elam campaigned in 1918 for the internment of enemy aliens but in 1940 was interned herself as an 18B detainee due to her membership in the British Union of Fascists?

23 February 2009

21:05, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the manor at Austrått (pictured) harbored a pretender to the Swedish throne during the Reformation in Norway as the Protestant Lady Inger of Austrått battled the last Norwegian Catholic Archbishop?
... that Jennifer Granholm became the first female governor of Michigan after winning the 2002 Michigan gubernatorial election?
... that, with an oil-processing capacity of 4.8 million tonnes per year, the Petromidia Constanţa Refinery is the largest Romanian refinery?
... that it took William Edwards four attempts to build the Old Bridge at Pontypridd in Wales?
... that Quake III Arena's fast inverse square root code uses a "magic number" to generate a quick first approximation to Newton's method of computing roots?
... that the 1955–56 NBC series Frontier was only the second western anthology program on television, preceded by Death Valley Days?
... that tree-ring dating has linked the building of the Bishop's Palace at Hereford to 1179, during the episcopate of Robert Foliot?
... that the Hare Indian dog, now extinct, was not known to bark, but puppies learned to imitate the barking of other dogs when the breed was introduced to Europe?

14:24, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

... that an important identifying feature of the Imposter trevally (Carangoides talamparoides, pictured) is its white or pale grey tongue?
... that LaVelle Smith Jnr has won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography five times, including one for Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream"?
... that Rod Cameron's syndicated crime drama City Detective was sold in 1955 for distribution to a then record 171 television stations?
... that former Rwandan Interior Minister and political dissident Seth Sendashonga recognized one of his assailants in a failed assassination attempt as his old government bodyguard?
... that the hexagonal-pored polypore mushroom produces the antifungal polypeptide alveolarin?
... that dental student Robert Kavanaugh was awarded the Albert Medal following his rescue of a fourteen-year-old boy during a shark attack?
... that as part of the Canterbury-York dispute in medieval England, Gerard, an Archbishop of York, once kicked over chairs and refused to sit until his chair was as high as the Archbishop of Canterbury's?
... that the career of association football player Mark Maley was ended after he was accidentally shot in the eye by teammate John Oster with an air gun?

07:07, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

... that several species in the mushroom order Pezizales, such as Geopyxis carbonaria (pictured), Peziza violacea, Peziza praetervisa, and Rhizina undulata, grow on burned-over ground?
... that 18th-century English historian William Rider's 50-volume A New History of England was later described by William Thomas Lowndes as one of the vilest Grub Street compilations ever published?
... that the death of Libby Zion resulted in an eponymous law that regulates working hours during medical residency in New York State?
... that at an expected cost of US$1 billion, a 3.15-kilometre (1.96 mi) long suspension bridge linking Vladivostok with Russky Island is due to be built in time for APEC Russia 2012?
... that from 14th to 17th century, the Tęczyński family from Lesser Poland had a major influence in the Kingdom of Poland?
... that Tang Dynasty warlord Wang Chengzong, fearing reprisals after the defeat of his ally Wu Yuanji, offered his sons as hostages and two of his six prefectures to Emperor Xianzong?
... that the Florida State Fair, which includes the Cracker Country living history museum, offers food oddities like chocolate covered bacon?

01:23, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

... that dangui (pictured) was an upper garment worn by the royal women and court ladies for ceremonial occasions during the Korean Joseon Dynasty?
... that the Tilted Kilt is a bar and restaurant chain in the United States described as "Hooters with a Scottish twist"?
... that Erna Hanfstaengl was claimed both to be romantically involved with Hitler and involved in a plot to overthrow him?
... that Willow Prairie Cabin in Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, built by a Forest Service crew in 1924, is a popular horse camp?
... that the Imperial Japanese Navy's Haruna was one of the first vessels in the world to be equipped with 14-inch naval guns?
... that the Leges Henrici Primi (written c. 1115) sets out a list of royal pleas or pleas of the crown, crimes that could only be tried in front of the king or his officials?
... that besides delivering electric shocks, the characteristic defensive behaviour of a giant electric ray when threatened by a predator includes performing a "somersault" in the water?
... that Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall is a live album recorded from Rufus Wainwright's June 2006 tribute concerts to legendary singer Judy Garland?

22 February 2009

18:58, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Beverly Eckert (pictured) died in the crash of Flight 3407 while on her way to award a scholarship in honor of her husband, who was killed in the events of 9/11?
... that India's government launched a programme in 2001 to provide employment for poor people living in rural areas?
... that John Windet published composer Tobias Hume's First Part of Ayres, which contains what may be the earliest examples of pizzicato and col legno?
... that the Emu Brewery in Perth, Western Australia, traced its history to the town's first standalone brewery, which was founded less than a decade after settlement?
... that, although she was born in South Africa, Kate Dennison now holds the indoor British record for the pole vault?
... that thousands of illegal Filipino immigrants are deported from Malaysia every year?
... that Babe Ruth reportedly signed one of his most lucrative New York Yankees' contracts at Jacob Ruppert's Eagles' Rest estate in Garrison, New York, now Saint Basil Academy?
... that taxidermist Walter Potter's diorama, "The Death and Burial of Cock Robin", created when he was 19, features 98 stuffed British birds?

12:10, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Tekkiye Mosque (pictured), built by the architect Sinan, has been described as "the finest example in Damascus of Ottoman architecture"?
... that when the Tang Dynasty general Tian Hongzheng was young, his brother Tian Rong battered him after he won an archery contest, believing that he was drawing unnecessary attention to himself?
... that the Versailles Cuban restaurant is part of actress Helen Mirren's ideal weekend in Los Angeles?
... that despite claims that Pakistan made the Anza locally, it is believed the MANPAD was created with Chinese assistance via technology transfers?
... that University of Michigan Hall of Honor inductee Dave Debol, known in the 1970s as "the Guy LaFleur of college hockey", set an NCAA record by scoring three goals in less than one minute?
... that the fine rolls record offers of money to the Kings of England for concessions and favours?
... that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is the second video game based on the Olympics to star Nintendo's and Sega's once-rival mascots, Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog?

06:08, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

... that with the Minas Gerais (pictured), Brazil became the third country to have a dreadnought under construction, ahead of traditional powers like France and Russia?
... that although Robert of Melun disagreed with some of Peter Abelard's teachings, he still defended Abelard against heresy charges?
... that the woodlouse Trichoniscus pusillus has some populations that reproduce sexually and others that reproduce clonally?
... that internet hunting is the practice of hunting via remotely controlled firearms that can be aimed and shot using online webcams?
... that Cambodia's "Romeo and Juliet" story, Tum Teav, is set in Tbong Khmom District?
... that Martin Kolberg will retire as party secretary for the Norwegian Labour Party to run in the 2009 parliamentary elections?
... that Josh Gibson Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is named for Negro League star Josh Gibson, who has been called the "black Babe Ruth?"
... that Clothes-Line, aired in 1937, was the first television programme on fashion history and also probably the first to feature a heavily pregnant female presenter?

21 February 2009

23:46, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

... that chocolate covered bacon (pictured) is sold as "Pig Lickers" at the Minnesota State Fair, "Pig Candy" in New York City and "Mo's Bacon Bar" in Chicago?
... that the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway linking Plymouth and Princetown was almost twice as long as the distance between the two cities?
... that the Democratic Movement for National Liberation was the sole communist faction in Egypt that supported the 1952 Revolution?
... that the pill bug Armadillidium vulgare can reach population densities of 10,000 per square metre?
... that Ed Schock earned an annual salary of just $7,000 as mayor of Elgin, Illinois?
... that the Church of the Assumption in Uzundzhovo, Bulgaria, was initially built as a mosque and was probably commissioned to famous architect Sinan?
... that Anders Buen was removed as editor of the Norwegian Labour Party organ Social-Demokraten in 1903, but continued as a prominent party member until 1921?
... that the Family Guy episode "Ocean's Three and a Half" includes the actual audio of Christian Bale's outburst on the set of Terminator Salvation, making it appear to be directed at Peter Griffin?

17:18, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the European Commission declared the creation of the Folkestone White Horse (pictured) unlawful?
... that tornadoes have passed through Washington, D.C., on at least seven occasions, and have damaged such landmarks as the United States Botanic Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Arboretum?
... that the Luxembourg Palace, the meeting place of the French Senate, used to be the residence of Princess Élisabeth Marguerite of Orléans, who gave it to the King of France in 1694?
... that after ceasing operations in New Jersey, the West Jersey Railroad operated in Michigan for several months before being renamed West Michigan Railroad?
... that Tang Dynasty general Liu Pi, who rebelled against the authority of Emperor Xianzong, was described by the chancellor Du Huangshang as an "insane civilian" as Du urged military action?
... that some of the 12"/45 caliber Mark 5 naval guns, which were first deployed on the 1906 pre-dreadnought USS Connecticut, may still be in service in Brazil today?
... that Hugh de Mapenor was elected Bishop of Hereford in 1216 even though he was not on King John of England's list of candidates?
... that the Holiday Bowl in Los Angeles was a popular gathering place for the Nikkei community and African Americans, with the coffee shop serving grits, udon, chow mein, and hamburgers?

11:02, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

... that sculptor Cyprian Godebski lost the commission for the Adam Mickiewicz Monument in Kraków (pictured) to a newcomer, Teodor Rygier, but erected his statue ten years later in Warsaw for 50,000 rubles?
... that after long-standing racketeering allegations, the FBI raided Chicago's Pui Tak Center, then known as the On Leong Merchants Association Building, in 1988?
... that Sir Charles Knowles successfully sued Tobias Smollett for libelling him in Smollett's magazine The Critical Review?
... that the Carnegie Library of Homestead in Munhall, Pennsylvania, trained four Olympic swimmers and sponsored both one of the 1890s' best football clubs and a baseball team with Hall of Famer Rube Waddell?
... that French Roman Catholic archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's father René Lefebvre died in a Nazi concentration camp?
... that Armet & Davis was an architectural firm in California that designed buildings in the so-called Googie architecture style popular during the 1950s?
... that Tang Dynasty eunuch Tutu Chengcui was killed after Emperor Xianzong's death over his refusal to support the crown prince Li Heng as the emperor's successor?
... that Prairie Bluff, Alabama, is a ghost town whose only remaining physical feature is a cemetery with marked graves dating from the 1830s to the 1860s?

04:56, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the mushroom Lactarius quietus (pictured) is found exclusively under oak trees in Europe?
... that when Henry McCardie was a barrister, he often worked so late that his chambers were nicknamed "the lighthouse", as there was light coming from the windows?
... that the Elm City Resident Card was the first municipal identification card in the United States?
... that the population of Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates declined by 20% in 2008?
... that the largest Hindu temple in South East England is being built in Crawley, where 3.4% of residents are Hindu compared to 1.1% in England as a whole?
... that the 1881 Michigan Wolverines football team is credited with playing the first intersectional football games against Harvard, Yale and Princeton?
... that Salvia pentstemonoides ("Big red sage") was thought to be extinct until a botanist rediscovered it while taking photos for a book on Texas wildflowers?
... that Jaime Fonalledas is the President and CEO of Empresas Fonalledas, which owns the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean?
... that heavy metal band Lamb of God was banned from performing in Los Angeles, for The Subliminal Verses World Tour because their former name was Burn the Priest?

20 February 2009

23:34, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Morse U.S. Courthouse (pictured) in Eugene, Oregon, was the first new federal courthouse to earn a LEED Gold certification and the first U.S. courthouse featured at the Venice Biennale of Architecture?
... that the Orange Mycena mushroom is bioluminescent?
... that the World Netball Series is a new international netball competition, with modified rules inspired from Twenty20 cricket designed to make matches faster and more television-friendly?
... that Humphrey Toy financed the publication of the first Welsh translation of the Book of Common Prayer?
... that in 1863, the U.S. gave Russia plans to build ten Passaic class monitors, partly because of the fear that the American Civil War would escalate into war between Britain and Russia?
... that Australian Stanley Frederick Gibbs was awarded the Albert Medal in 1927 for his rescue of a boy during a shark attack, during which he punched and kicked the shark until it released the youth?
... that Kansas City Barbeque is a restaurant and bar in San Diego, California, made famous after scenes in Top Gun were filmed there?
... that Wendy Henry, one of the first female newspaper editors on Fleet Street, later became a full-time dog re-socialiser for the Battersea Dogs' Home?

17:29, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

... that a study of lichen growth in the Canadian Rockies showed that Xanthoria elegans (pictured) expands at a rate of 0.5 mm per year for the first century before slowing down?
... that Henry Weinhard, a brewer in Portland, Oregon, offered to pump free beer into the Skidmore Fountain when it was dedicated?
... that six World War I German Type UB II U-boats—UB-42, UB-43, UB-44, UB-45, UB-46, and UB-47—were built in Bremen but cut apart and shipped by rail for reassembly at the Austro-Hungarian port of Pola?
... that the dedication of St Cosmas and St Damian Church, Keymer, England—commemorating twin Christian martyrs from Syria—occurs on only two other extant churches in England?
... that Sam the koala rose to fame when a video of her rescue from the 2009 Victorian bushfires was distributed across the internet?
... that members of metal band Slipknot found the masks that they wear on stage to be particularly uncomfortable during their Tattoo the Earth concert tour?
... that Kenneth Gandar-Dower introduced cheetah racing to England?
... that the Super Mario Bros. theme has been listed as one of the top ten most downloaded ringtones in the United States for 226 consecutive weeks?

11:36, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Anderson Ruffin Abbott (pictured), the first licenced Black Canadian physician, attended Abraham Lincoln's death bed?
... that the Sideling Hill Tunnel is one of the two tunnels that make up the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike?
... that Norwegian long jumper Nils Uhlin Hansen was killed as a saboteur in World War II?
... that the Morison equation, an equation in fluid dynamics introduced in 1950, is used in the design of oil platforms and other offshore structures?
... that Marshall Loeb, managing editor of Fortune, called his colleague Daniel Seligman, author of 400 of the magazine's Keeping Up columns, "an acerbic slayer of (mostly liberal) prig-headedness"?
... that children's novel Nordy Bank by Sheena Porter, set in Nordy Bank on Brown Clee Hill, Shropshire, was awarded the 1964 Carnegie Medal in Literature?
... that in 1114, a combined fleet spearheaded by the Republic of Pisa launched a crusade against the Muslim Balearic Islands?
... that Mark Shepherd, who served as CEO of Texas Instruments where he spearheaded development of the firms' integrated circuits, constructed a vacuum tube at the age of six and a radio a year later?

05:41, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

... that prior to the mid 19th century, the tannic Italian wine Barolo (pictured) was made as a sweet wine?
... that when Elton Wieman moved east to play football for the University of Michigan in 1915, the Los Angeles Times called it "a calamity of almost national importance"?
... that Lactarius pallidus is typically found half-buried in leaf litter at the base of beech or birch trees?
... that the National Review called David Mendell's biography Obama: From Promise to Power "the single best source of background information on our new president"?
... that the original mission of the Cini Foundation included the rehabilitation of its homebase, the island of San Giorgio Maggiore of Venice?
... that José Francisco de Peralta was elected to represent Costa Rica to the Constituent Congress of the Mexican Empire, but it was dissolved before he was able to participate?
... that the architecture firm of Sauerbruch Hutton designed the Museum Brandhorst in Munich?
... that matador Diego Mazquiarán once used his overcoat as a cape to fight a bull that was running wild on the Gran Via of Madrid?

19 February 2009

23:50, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

... that according to National Geographic, La Maratona (2008 race pictured), an annual competition held in the Dolomites of the Italian Alps, is "one of the biggest, most passionate, and most chaotic bike races on Earth"?
... that the Tang Dynasty general Tian Huaijian was, at age 10, briefly the ruler of Weibo Circuit before he was overthrown?
... that the uncommon benign lesion verruciform xanthoma is usually found on the oral mucosa of middle-aged people, but has also been reported on the external genitalia in some recent cases?
... that Albert Bassermann, bearer of the Iffland-Ring, considered the ring cursed after all three of the successors he named died shortly after he named them?
... that the comedy film Skills Like This, created by a first-time director, won the award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 South by Southwest film festival?
... that Fennemore Craig, founded in 1885, is the oldest law firm in Arizona?
... that the Rylands Papyri held by Manchester University in the UK contain P52, believed by many scholars to be the oldest extant fragment from the Gospel of John?
... that Christian Holtermann Knudsen was a founder of the Norwegian Labour Party and the newspaper Dagsavisen?
... that William Sudell coined the name "Football League"?

14:46, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the mushroom Cortinarius triumphans (pictured) has a cap which is slimy in wet weather and sticky in dry?
... that while serving as Governor of New Hampshire from 1842 to 1844, Henry Hubbard argued for reduced taxes for female property owners?
... that thousands of grooves have been found carved into rock in Northern Europe, but no one knows how or why they were made?
... that attorney Bill MacFarland had a dislocated knee and six broken teeth after playing 11 seasons of professional ice hockey?
... that the never-completed Design 1047 battlecruisers were intended to be the first line of defense for the Dutch East Indies?
... that economist Charles Hall claimed that the poor retained less than one-eighth of what they produced due to capitalist exploitation?
... that Pinkie Road, a part of the Global Transportation Hub intermodal port authority facility, will link the Trans Canada Highway 1 and Highway 11 as a part of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative?
... that Air Vice Marshal Joe Hewitt began his military career as a thirteen-year-old cadet in the Royal Australian Navy?

07:31, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

... that "Cappy" Cappon (pictured), known for his "five-man weave" basketball offense, was mentor to Princeton athletes from the 1930s to the 1960s, including Bill Bradley and Frank Deford?
... that so far there have been more than 20 arsons in the Coatesville, Pennsylvania, area since January 1, 2009, and 15 reported arsons there in 2008?
... that Histria Perla was the 500th ship to receive Emergency Response Service classification from the German company Germanischer Lloyd?
... that Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee, a Sussex Spaniel also known as "Stump", is the oldest dog to win Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show?
... that the Red Bull RB5 is among the first generation of Formula One cars to feature a Kinetic Energy Recovery System, which traps energy expelled while braking for later use?
... that French botanist Jacques Labillardière's Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen, published in 1804–1806, was the first major scientific study of Australia flora?
... that under Pigford v. Glickman, the United States government paid nearly US$1 billion to African American farmers to compensate for 1980s and 1990s racial discrimination?
... that 2009 Michigan Hall of Honor inductee Mindy Gehrs was called "the best swimmer to ever part the waters of the Atomic City"?
... that the Fire Nation, from the Universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender, was inspired by photos of volcanic islands of Iceland and the Pacific Ocean?

01:14, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

... that a London Clubs International casino hosted the World Series of Poker Europe event in which Annette Obrestad became the youngest person to win a WSOP bracelet (pictured)?
... that Welcome to Macintosh, a documentary focusing on Apple Inc. and its Macintosh line of computers, was praised by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak for being the most accurate film about the company?
... that in 1993, an officer in New Zealand's Diplomatic Protection Squad accidentally discharged a pistol on a VIP aircraft while in flight?
... that the first discovery of oil off the Texas coast came in 1941?
... that William McAloney was awarded the Albert Medal for his attempted rescue of a pilot trapped in a burning aircraft?
... that Craig Stevens's CBS series, Mr. Broadway, featured Liza Minnelli in her first television dramatic role in the episode "Nightingale for Sale"?
... that Sir Alan Muir Wood worked on the 80 km (50 mi) Orange–Fish River Tunnel, the second-longest water supply tunnel in the world?
... that half the pioneers who settled in northwestern Indiana used the Michigan Road?
... that in 1945, footballer Doug McGibbon scored six goals in one match, one of which was timed at under five seconds from the second half kick-off?

18 February 2009

15:03, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

... that His Majesty's Theatre (pictured) in Perth, Western Australia, is thought to be Australia's only remaining working Edwardian theatre?
... that actor and broadcaster Dean Miller, who played the son-in-law on CBS's December Bride, later bought what became WMVR-FM radio in his native Ohio?
... that communities of the Dagaaba people of Ghana in the 1990s still used cowrie shells as an alternate currency, long after they had been replaced elsewhere by the Ghanaian cedi?
... that on January 22 Barack Obama issued an executive order requiring interrogations by any U.S. agency to comply with the Army's Human Intelligence Collector Operations field manual?
... that Alexandru Callimachi was Dragoman of the Sublime Porte before becoming Prince of Moldavia in 1795?
... that Rascal Flatts' 2009 single "Here Comes Goodbye" was co-written by American Idol season 6 finalist Chris Sligh?
... that unlike the queens of other eusocial species, a queen of the paper wasp Ropalidia marginata is docile and maintains her reproductive monopoly in her colony without physical aggression?
... that former fashion model Gail O'Neill refused to appear in advertisements for cigarettes or for sponsors with substantial investments in South Africa?

09:16, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Levantine architect of French descent Raymond Charles Père, who designed the landmark Izmir Clock Tower (pictured) in Turkey, was a native of Izmir?
... that the Dayton Triangles, a traveling team, folded after their 1929 season, losing their final seventeen games as a National Football League franchise by a combined score of 301–22?
... that Australian Frederick Hamilton March was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal for his conduct during the assassination of the Governor-General of Sudan, Sir Lee Stack?
... that detection of fungal infection by the wood-decay fungus Fuscoporia torulosa can be performed in six hours using the polymerase chain reaction?
... that Joe Dini, the owner of Dini's Lucky Club, a casino in Yerington, Nevada, was the longest serving member of the Nevada State Assembly?
... that Apartment Building 63 located in Bucharest is the largest single residential building in Romania with a total of 950 apartments and over 1,600 residents?
... that Luke Smith left video game journalism to work for game developer Bungie, after he had called their game Halo 2 "broken"?
... that, unusually for an eighteenth-century novel, the heroine of Charlotte Turner Smith's Emmeline does not meet the man she marries until half-way through the story?

01:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the recipe for chicken fried bacon (pictured) was developed in the small town of Snook, Texas, at Sodolak's Original Country Inn?
... that English barrister Joseph Keble went to the Court of King's Bench every day from 1661 to 1710, but was never known to have a brief for a client?
... that Jack Kramer was the St. Louis Browns' Opening Day starting pitcher in 1944, the only season the Browns played in the World Series?
... that the new Prime Minister of Somalia, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, has Canadian citizenship and his family is based in Virginia, USA?
... that the top of the Chapel of Saint-Michel at Parc naturel régional d'Armorique is the highest point in Brittany, France?
... that musician and Presbyterian minister Isaiah Jones, Jr. was named "best songwriter of the year" in 1973 by the Gospel Music Academy?
... that the Permanent University Fund's US$8.8 billion and 2.1 million-acre (840,000 ha) land assets help fund public higher education in Texas?
... that rolling meth labs used for the illegal production of methamphetamine have been known to explode, endangering motorists and police officers?

17 February 2009

19:36, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

... that at Fort Glanville Conservation Park in Semaphore South, South Australia, there are regular firings of 19th-century RML 64 pounder 64 cwt guns (pictured)?
... that refugee mathematician Emil Grosswald's first three scientific papers were published under a pseudonym?
... that the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro, Oregon, is the biggest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest?
... that Tang Dynasty general Li Qi paid his best archers and soldiers of Xiongnu and Xi ancestry ten times as much as other soldiers, to garner their loyalty?
... that William Close, the physician father of actress Glenn Close, played a pivotal role in stemming the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976?
... that Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen was born in a small village on the banks of the Mekong in Stueng Trang District?
... that after scoring six touchdowns for Michigan against Ohio State in 1902, Albert Herrnstein became the winningest coach in Ohio State football history up to the time he retired?
... that acqua pazza, an Italian herbed broth used to cook seafood, is literally translated as "crazy water"?

13:49, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Alan Scott (blacksmith)

... that Alan Scott (pictured) was a blacksmith who designed and built brick ovens and promoted artisanal bread-making techniques and stone flour milling at the Callington Mill?
... that upon entering the Stadio Olympica at the opening ceremonies of the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the torch bearer tripped over a cable and fell, nearly extinguishing the Olympic flame?
... that Phoebe Omlie, the first licensed female transport pilot, was considered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to be one of "eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say the world is progressing"?
... that while most beers are vegetarian, some—like British cask ales which use fish parts to clear the finished product—are not?
... that Monroe Sweetland was the first Democrat elected to represent Clackamas County, Oregon, in the Oregon House of Representatives in 20 years?
... that in 114 years of existence the Constanţa Shipyard in Romania constructed 432 ships with a total of over four million metric tons deadweight (DWT)?
... that in January 2009, Mark Pollock became the first blind person to reach the South Pole?
... that applying potassium hydroxide to the blue and yellow Australian mushroom Cortinarius rotundisporus will turn it pinkish-purple?

07:39, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Sir Charles Knowles claimed that the theories on naval tactics expressed in his 1777 book were reflected in Lord Howe's victory in 1794 (pictured)?
... that most buildings damaged in the 1848 Marlborough earthquake in Wellington, New Zealand were rebuilt with wood, reducing the damage and loss of life in the more powerful Wairarapa earthquake of 1855?
... that in 1920, Henrik Ameln became the first Conservative Party politician to serve as mayor of Bergen since Christian Michelsen in 1893?
... that despite the fact that self-described alligator farms have existed since the 1890s, true commercial farming of crocodilians did not begin until the mid-20th century?
... that the Tang Dynasty's Princess Taihe, who became the Kedun (empress) of its ally Huigu, suffered through Huigu's collapse before she was able to return to the Tang?
... that the German newspaper Illinois Staats-Zeitung, published in Chicago, played an important role in building the Republican Party in Illinois in the 1850s?
... that Bobby Atherton was the last Hibernian captain to win the Scottish Cup, in 1902?
... that Timetoget bought diesel trains to operate on the Bratsberg Line, despite it being electrified?

01:33, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Comet (pictured), which sank in 1875, was described by the Evening News in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in 1980 as the "only known treasure ship on the bottom of" Lake Superior?
... that Polish historian, army officer, and independence activist Wacław Lipiński joined the anti-communist resistance, was arrested by communist secret police in 1947 and died in prison two years later?
... that an outburst by Christian Bale on the set of Terminator Salvation inspired the band The Mae Shi to write the song "R U Professional"?
... that 800 metres runner Andrew Hart was the fastest non-African in his event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games?
... that Sanggung was an official title of the senior fifth rank, the highest attainable for gungnyeo, a lady-in-waiting during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea?
... that following his rescue of a swimmer during a shark attack in 1922, Jack Chalmers was awarded the Albert Medal and gifted £3000?
... that the discography of Lisa Hannigan includes collaborations with Mic Christopher, Mick Flannery, Cathy Davey and members of Snow Patrol and Bell X1, plus her well-known work with Damien Rice?
... that Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel became the first Indians to sign Major League Baseball contracts after throwing a baseball for the first time a year earlier?

16 February 2009

16:49, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the seafaring adventures of Anne Jane Thornton (pictured) inspired the ballad The Female Sailor Bold?
... that the extreme points of Norway include Rossøya, at 80° North, and arguably the South Pole?
... that Allama Prabhu, the mystic-saint of 12th century Karnataka, India, was also an accomplished Vachana poet?
... that in 2008 a Vincent Black Lightning sold for £221,500 becoming the most expensive motorcycle sold at auction in the UK?
... that former newspaper editor John W. Grace became the first Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 1983?
... that Grassroots, an organization formed by block club leaders, has had members elected to the Buffalo Common Council, New York State Senate and New York State Assembly?
... that while long jumper László Szalma won six medals in total at the European Indoor Championships, his best result at both the Summer Olympics and the World Championships was fourth place?
... that Mule Bone, a play by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, had its world premiere in 1991, more than 60 years after it was written?

11:00, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

... that on Stac an Armin, the highest stack in Scotland, the last great auk (example pictured) in the British Isles was clubbed to death in 1840 because it was thought to be a witch?
... that Eslanda Goode Robeson, wife of Paul Robeson, was the first black to head the Surgical Pathology Department at New York-Presbyterian Hospital?
... that Surtshellir, named for the fire giant Surtr, is the longest lava cave in Iceland?
... that Isaac D. Barnard fought at the Battle of Plattsburg in the War of 1812, and later became Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
... that Prey Chhor District, Cambodia, is home to an ancient temple built more than a thousand years ago?
... that Wictor Esbensen, a manager of the Compañía Argentina de Pesca, is the namesake of Esbensen Bay off South Georgia island?
... that the Philippine Overseas Labor Office estimates that 80% of Filipinos in Palau are undocumented immigrants?
... that Mira Rostova, Montgomery Clift's acting coach, was sent off the set of the 1960 film Wild River by director Elia Kazan after a single day of filming?

04:48, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Khan As'ad Pasha (pictured), built by Damascus governor As'ad Pasha al-Azem, is the largest khan in the city?
... that American football star Albie Booth became famous after he scored all of Yale’s points in a 1929 upset win over Army?
... that catastrophic flooding in 2000 destroyed 95% of the annual rice crop in Srey Santhor District, Cambodia?
... that film art director Jeannine Oppewall was so heavily influenced by designers and filmmakers Charles and Ray Eames, she had her house built based completely around her Eames-designed furniture?
... that early favorites in the 2009 Kentucky Derby include the filly Stardom Bound?
... that Hans Kristian Seip, the father of Jens Arup Seip, also had a career of his own in engineering and politics, until removed by the Nazi occupants in Norway in 1941?
... that a radio station in Evergreen, Alabama, made national headlines in 1992 when the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that state law allowed a disc jockey to be fired just because she is a woman?
... that Dr Charles White, co-founder of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, kept the mummified body of one of his patients in a room of his house for 55 years?

15 February 2009

22:24, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

... that novelist Charlotte Turner Smith (pictured) condemned her father for forcing her to marry and turning her into a "legal prostitute"?
... that the Great Mosque of Al-Zaytuna, the oldest mosque in Tunis, Tunisia, was partly built using materials from the ruins of the ancient city of Carthage?
... that Ralph Regenvanu has been described as Vanuatu's first anthropologist?
... that the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party was the sole Zionist party in Mandate Palestine to advocate national rights for Palestinian Arabs?
... that NASCAR described its 2008 Crew Chief of the Year Steve Addington as the "complementary ice to driver Kyle Busch's fire"?
... that the Special Boarding Unit was created by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces in response to the alleged presence of North Korean spy ships in Japanese waters in 1999?
... that Tom Brumley's performance on "Together Again" for Buck Owens was called "one of the finest steel guitar solos in the history of country music"?
... that the Maasai common name for the plant Salvia merjamie is Naingungundeu, which means "smells of rats"?

14:18, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

... that near the altar of the Church of St Mary Magdalene (pictured) in Chewton Mendip, Somerset, England, there is a stone seat for criminals taking sanctuary in the church?
... that although Hungarian hammer thrower Balázs Kiss won the 1996 Olympic gold medal, his best result at the World Championships was two fourth places?
... that the limestone quarries near Ein Yabrud in the Judean Mountains have produced the only fossils for the extinct snakes Pachyrhachis and Haasiophis?
... that actor and environmentalist Ron Hayes worked to establish the first Earth Day in 1970 and to preserve the Grand Canyon National Park?
... that Ponhea Kraek District was the home of Sek Yi, who died aged 120 years, claiming the title of Cambodia’s oldest man?
... that Joan Baez had a #8 hit single with "There but for Fortune" the same week her album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2 reached #8?
... that ice hockey coach Janne Karlsson has won two Swedish Championships, one World Championship, and one Olympic gold medal?
... that the Peterson-Dumesnil House in Louisville, Kentucky, was once the only club in the United States open exclusively to teachers?

08:16, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Flemish artist Peter Tillemans was one of the founders of the sporting school of painting (pictured) in England?
... that merchants from ancient India brought Roman goods of styrax and frankincense to Han Dynasty China?
... that during World War II, Kasper Idland was one of the four saboteurs who entered the Vemork heavy water facility to conduct heavy water sabotage?
... that as Governor of Madras, John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland, had Annie Besant arrested in 1917 for advocating home rule for India?
... that John McFarland was taken first overall in the 2008 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection?
... that Kerry Kohansky Roberts attended New York University's film school at the same time as Peter Sollett, but did not meet him until they collaborated on Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist?
... that the RTÉ television series The Great Escape follows families as they relocate to countries such as South Africa, Australia, Austria, Italy, France and Spain?
... that Bo Molenda played professional football, baseball and basketball and was the "workhorse" for the Green Bay Packers teams that won three consecutive NFL championships from 1929 to 1931?

01:58, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Japanese icebreaker Sōya (pictured) survived a torpedoing by the USS Greenling in 1943 and rescued the Sakhalin Huskies Taro and Jiro from Antarctica in 1958?
... that the first reported sighting of the bird's nest fungus Cyathus helenae was on mountain scree in the Canadian Rockies?
... that Bonnie Newman, a former chief of staff to Judd Gregg, had been named to replace him in the United States Senate until Gregg withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Commerce?
... that Jangipara, a block in the Indian state of West Bengal, includes a mosque built in 1375?
... that American composer Danny Elfman was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1990 for creating "The Simpsons Theme" and in 2005 for the Desperate Housewives theme?
... that Walter of Albano, a papal legate to England in 1095, helped secure the recognition of Pope Urban II by King William II of England?
... that the Irish student group Free Education for Everyone has blockaded prominent politicians in protests over tuition?
... that after their 1951 marital breakup, popular Old Mother Riley actor Kitty McShane filmed her last scenes with husband Arthur Lucan on separate days?

14 February 2009

18:33, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

... that for the 1957 launch of Sputnik (pictured), Ben Blank filmed a golf ball attached to a clothes hanger rotating around a globe for use by CBS News in what has been described as the first newscast graphic?
... that Ou Reang Ov District, Cambodia, was one of the 2008 sites for Operation Pacific Angel, a humanitarian mission of the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marines?
... that model Jessica Hart, who was selected to appear in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, is known for her gap tooth smile?
... that the British band Echo & the Bunnymen's eighth studio album, What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?, was the first not to make it into the top 20 of the UK Albums Chart?
... that Yohannan Sulaqa, to oppose the hereditary patriarchal succession, took a step unprecedented in the Church of the East: traveled to Rome and was there consecrated patriarch in 1553?
... that the Zen rock garden in the grounds of Zuisen-ji temple, near Kamakura, Japan, is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty?
... that Sir Donald Luddington was the last person in history to be appointed High Commissioner for the Western Pacific?
... that an anomalocaridid, a bizarre Cambrian organism, has been found 100 million years later, in the Devonian era?

11:19, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

... that in addition to designing postage stamps (pictured), Armenian painter Arshak Fetvadjian also painted the monuments of the medieval Armenian city of Ani?
... that Christ Bongo was one of only three Congolese footballers to score in final qualifying for the 2002 FIFA World Cup?
... that Akanthosuchus, an extinct crocodilian from the Paleocene, is the only known crocodilian with both spiked and bladed armor?
... that after King Edward the Confessor ordered the death of Rhys ap Rhydderch, Rhys was killed and his head brought to Edward in January 1053?
... that Ernie Vick was an All-American football center while enrolled at the University of Michigan medical school even though his schoolwork did not allow him to practice with the team?
... that Irish musicians Lisa Hannigan and Damien Rice dueted on "Unplayed Piano", a Burmese protest song that charted in the UK and was praised by The Independent as "a twinkly and beautiful thing"?
... that Li Ning was made a crown prince of theTang Dynasty, but his mother, a consort, had to settle for a much lesser honour?
... that Nancy Cartwright wrote an autobiography, later adapted into a one-woman play, called My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy?

04:11, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Kentucky Railway Museum (pictured), next door to an historic hotel, features the official state locomotive of Kentucky, a "Jim Crow" car, a four-star hotel on rails, and the only gas-powered motor rail car in the southeastern United States?
... that Charles Darwin suspected some saxifrages to be protocarnivorous plants?
... that when called by the opposition to quit after the Kauhajoki school shooting, Finnish politician Anne Holmlund refused and compared resigning her post as Interior Minister to "desertion"?
... that the World War Memorial, built in 1928 in Kimball, West Virginia, was the first memorial to African-American veterans of World War I in the United States?
... that Ionel Fernic made the first parachute jump in Romania on May 31, 1936, at an aviation meeting held on the Băneasa Airport in Bucharest?
... that Elizabeth Hamilton originally published Memoirs of Modern Philosophers in 1800 under a pseudonym because "even the sex of a writer may unwittingly bias the reader’s mind"?
... that the architect Maxwell Ayrton co-designed the old Wembley Stadium of 1923 with his partner John William Simpson?
... that, in the Faroe Islands, one way of preparing puffins as food is to stuff them with sweet cake dough, raisins, and spices?

13 February 2009

21:03, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

... that besides feeding on soybeans and transmitting viruses to them, a soybean aphid (pictured) can also injure the plant by interfering with its photosynthetic pathways?
... that although Abbot Æthelwig of Evesham Abbey was known for his loyalty to William the Conqueror, he had an uncle who died fighting for King Harold, the man William deposed?
... that the short-lived Republic of Biak-na-Bato ended after a pact was signed by Emilio Aguinaldo and Fernando Primo de Rivera?
... that Charles Darwin's final scientific book discussed the formation of mould through the action of earthworms?
... that Orlando Antigua survived a bullet wound to the head before becoming the first Hispanic and first non-black to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in 52 years?
... that in 2005 UNESCO proclaimed the Moravian male recruit dance verbuňk as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind?
... that, according to architectural historian Neil Levine, Frank Lloyd Wright agreed to hold the 1930 Kahn Lectures for the "prestige of the venue and the bully pulpit it would afford him"?
... that fishing for giant clams in the Maldives was banned by the island's government in 1991, just one year after the fishery was established?

14:56, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Sir Thomas Allin's (pictured) service during the Second Anglo-Dutch War included covering the retreat at the Four Days Battle, and then leading the attack at the St. James's Day Battle?
... that the idea that molecular evolution is dominated by genetic drift originally took its name from the 1969 paper "Non-Darwinian Evolution"?
... that Tim Cole was the first person in Texas history to have his conviction posthumously overturned based on DNA evidence?
... that Herbert Spencer, secretary of the Derby Philosophical Society, first suggested the term "survival of the fittest" after reading Charles Darwin's idea of evolution?
... that the Hechal Yehuda Synagogue in Tel Aviv is often referred to as the Seashell Synagogue due to its unusal shape, inspired by the seashells on the shores of Thessaloniki?
... that Consort Zheng, concubine of Emperor Xianzong of Tang, was originally a servant girl for his wife Consort Guo?
... that two species of bird's nest fungi, Cyathus olla and Cyathus stercoreus, have been researched for use in agriculture?
... that Paul Galloway and Bob Greene co-wrote Bagtime, a serial published in the Chicago Sun-Times about a fictional supermarket bagger, which was made into a stage musical and a pilot for a TV series?

09:08, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Abraham Lincoln's "earliest recollection" was of his boyhood home Knob Creek Farm (pictured)?
... that Charles Darwin conducted a psychological study of his son William Erasmus Darwin where he compared the child to orangutan babies?
... that the T4 rII experimental system enabled biologist Seymour Benzer to map a gene down to the level of one or two base pairs before the invention of DNA sequencing?
... that Emperor Xuānzong of Tang, the son of Emperor Xianzong by a concubine, suspected Xianzong's wife Consort Guo of being complicit in Xianzong's murder?
... that the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham covers the history of Evesham Abbey from 714 to 1539?
... that Joe M. Rodgers, who spent six hours a day for four months learning French after being named U.S. Ambassador to France, later became CEO of language school operator Berlitz International?
... that to help promote their single "Showdown", drum and bass band Pendulum released a Space Invaders themed video game?
... that during the Frankfort and Cincinnati Railroad's last week of passenger service, the superintendent transported the train's passengers in his own private vehicle?

03:08, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

... that The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, Charles Darwin's first published theory, explains how coral atolls (example pictured) form?
... that India's imports fell by 47% and exports by 49% between 1929 and 1932 due to the Great Depression?
... that on its first day of open beta testing, 20,000 players created 100,000 player characters in the free online video game Runes of Magic?
... that because of the strict sex segregation of the era based on Confucianism, Korea's Joseon Dynasty created a class of specialist female physicians known as Uinyeo?
... that Tsarong Dzasa was regarded by officials in British India as "the most powerful friend of His Majesty's Government in Tibet"?
... that the concept of "molecular disease" from the 1949 paper "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" became the basis for Linus Pauling's later views on molecular evolution and eugenics?
... that coaches of the Great Western Railway were built up to 13 feet (4 m) longer than most other British railway carriages of the time?
... that Lucian Piane created a satirical techno remix, "Bale Out", utilizing a verbal rant actor Christian Bale made on the set of Terminator Salvation?

12 February 2009

21:27, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (pictured) marks where Abraham Lincoln lived in Indiana, and where his sister and birth mother died?
... that Charles Darwin joined the Plinian Society student naturalists' club at Edinburgh University?
... that the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis is often considered the first significant result in what came to be called molecular biology?
... that in 1915, T. V. Seshagiri Iyer founded the Indian Boat Club at Kodaikanal in response to discrimination against Indians at the English Boat Club?
... that Annunciation Melkite Catholic Cathedral in Boston is the principal church of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Newton which encompasses the entire United States?
... that some historians argue that Urse d'Abetot (d. 1108) was one of the first barons of the Exchequer?
... that the Soviet Union provided a site in northern Russia for the secret Nazi German naval base Basis Nord as a part of a broader bilateral relation which included strategic and commercial agreements?
... that The Great Snow of 1717 lasted nine days and caused snowdrifts more than 20 feet (6 m) high in New England, USA?

15:24, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

... that in Fertilisation of Orchids, Charles Darwin showed how beautiful orchids (example pictured) evolved through natural selection for insect pollination?
... that Lincoln Homestead State Park contains the house in which Abraham Lincoln's father Thomas proposed to his mother Nancy?
... that William A. F. Browne, a radical student who proposed Charles Darwin for the Plinian Society, became a psychiatrist and pioneered art therapy?
... that hikers can take a commuter train from Grand Central Terminal in New York City to two request stops near trailheads in Hudson Highlands State Park?
... that Indian film actors M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and N. S. Krishnan spent 30 months in jail in connection with the Lakshmikanthan Murder Case before being acquitted?
... that Takalik Abaj, an archaeological site in lowland Guatemala, has one of the greatest concentrations of Olmec-style sculpture outside of the Gulf of Mexico coast?
... that Shane Hurlbut became the youngest cinematographer ever to have been nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers award for a debut film, for his work on The Rat Pack?
... that Irish singer Lisa Hannigan did the needlework for the cover of her debut album, Sea Sew?

09:32, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Hodgenville, Kentucky's Abraham Lincoln Statue (pictured) was built to celebrate the centennial of Lincoln's birth a few miles away?
... that the Orb Aqueduct in Béziers, France, was opened in 1858 and carries the Canal du Midi over the Orb River at a height of 12 metres (39 ft)?
... that during the Darwin Centennial Celebration of 1959, religious humanist Julian Huxley delivered a controversial "secular sermon" arguing that traditional religion was no longer needed?
... that Mordecai Lincoln House in Washington County is the only home of a member of Abraham Lincoln's family that still stands in Kentucky?
... that illustrator Blair Lent and author Arlene Mosel collaborated on Tikki Tikki Tembo, called one of the 50 best children's books of the preceding 50 years by The New York Times in 1997?
... that three years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, George Armstrong Custer faced the forces of Sitting Bull in battle at Honsinger Bluff?
... that Nagavarma II, a Kannada language grammarian of the 11th century, authored important writings in prosody, rhetoric, poetics and vocabulary?
... that the Belletable House, now located at the Fort Rock Valley Historical Homestead Museum, is thought to be the largest home built in the Fort Rock Valley during the area's homestead era?

03:32, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the numerous photographs of Charles Darwin—at least 53 (example pictured)—may have helped secure the singular connection between Darwin and the theory of evolution in popular thought?
... that in his 1970 book Vitamin C and the Common Cold, Linus Pauling explains primates' inability to synthesize vitamin C as a result of evolution?
... that the Petersen House, where Abraham Lincoln died after being shot, contains the bloodstained pillow that Lincoln laid on?
... that the title of Rao Bahadur was bestowed upon Indian historian S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar?
... that because it is difficult to approach, the nymphalid butterfly Euptoieta claudia was given a genus name which means "easily scared" in Greek?
... that Mykhailo Krychevsky, a respected military commander, switched sides during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, joining the Cossacks, and died soon afterwards in the Battle of Loyew?
... that sources indicate that Cedric "Pat" Smith, who later worked at Ford's Rouge plant, was either the second or third leading scorer in the NFL during its first season in 1920?
... that the Nancy Lincoln Inn was once deemed an "unacceptable adjacent commercialization" to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace N.H.S.?

11 February 2009

21:32, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

... that travellers in southern Cambodia must stop to pay their respects to the spirit of Yeay Mao?
... that the 1988–1992 Irish television comedy Nighthawks was documented in the first episode of the 2008 Irish television show Boom! Boom! The Explosion of Irish Comedy?
... that Butch Hartman, the first rookie to lead a Daytona 500, later won five championships in a rival stock car racing series?
... that A Cat in the Brain is based on the reactions of its writer and director, Lucio Fulci, to real-life murders in Rome?
... that when Romanian diplomat Mihail Fărcăşanu published in the newspaper a translation of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, the communist press called Fărcăşanu a fascist?
... that Palaemon serratus is the British Isles' largest native shrimp?
... that All-American football player Art Walker played in 479 of 540 minutes in the Michigan Wolverines' 1954 season and later played seven years for the Edmonton Eskimos?
... that the Portuguese destroyed Korlai Fort only 73 years after building it because they did not have enough men to guard the fort?

21:24, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Franz Anton Bustelli, who worked at Nymphenburg near Munich, is widely regarded as the finest modeller of porcelain in the Rococo style (example pictured)?
... that between 1903 and 1924 Rover produced more than 10,000 motorcycles?
... that prominent Beninese merchant and politician Paul Darboux went missing from 1963 to 1970?
... that the Visna virus, a retrovirus that causes encephalitis and chronic pneumonitis in sheep, is used as a model system for HIV infection?
... that King Yeongjo of the Korean Joseon Dynasty was said to have been born of a concubine from the musuri slave class?
... that Michael Homer created Netscape's business plan and developed marketing campaigns for its web browser at a time when few had heard of the Internet?
... that as of 2007, Romania has an installed wind power capacity of only seven megawatts?
... that comedian Freddie Roman eulogized Milton Parker, who bought the famed New York City deli with Leo Steiner, saying that "Carnegie Deli caused more heartburn to the Jewish world than anything I've ever heard of"?

15:32, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

... that as CEO of The Hertz Corporation, Robert L. Stone chose O. J. Simpson (pictured) for a series of car rental ads that featured O.J. running through airports?
... that the cobalt crust fungus was selected as the German Mycological Society's fungus of the year in 2009?
... that Hungarian long jumper and triple jumper Gyula Pálóczi has been called "the most successful jumper Hungary has ever produced" by the European Athletic Association?
... that Boss Weeks was quarterback of Fielding H. Yost's "Point-a-Minute" University of Michigan football teams in 1901–1902 that outscored opponents 1,211 to 12?
... that Tamil devotional song "Kurai Onrum Illai" was composed by Indian statesman and Governor-General, C. Rajagopalachari?
... that Hall of Famer Steve Carlton started 14 Opening Day games for the Philadelphia Phillies?
... that British singer Adele was nominated for four 2009 Grammy Awards for "Chasing Pavements", winning in the Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance categories?
... that inmates at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Oregon, manufacture Prison Blues brand jeans and other denim garments that are sold throughout the United States?

09:40, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the married couple Jerzy and Irena Krępeć (pictured), Polish Righteous among the Nations, saved over 30 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust?
... that Knightsville, Utah, a company town owned and operated by Mormon entrepreneur Jesse Knight, was known as "the only mining camp in the United States without a saloon"?
... that in his later years, Indian journalist C. Karunakara Menon was detested by the extremists of the Indian independence movement as well as the Government of British India?
... that Michael Jackson narrated E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg's 1982 film?
... that after an alpine skiing career with modest results, Tomáš Kraus switched to competing in skicross, and became a double world champion?
... that singer Ray LaMontagne was nominated for five 2005 Boston Music Awards, including Best Act, Best Male Vocalist, Best Male Singer/Songwriter, Best Song for "Trouble", and Best Album for his debut CD?
... that Hamam al-Sammara is the only remaining Turkish bathhouse in Gaza of the original five that continues to function?
... that college mathematics professor David Bressoud chose to major in mathematics because that was the quickest way to complete his degree and get away from college and academia?

03:48, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

... that in the Battle of Loyew (pictured) in 1649, dismounted Polish hussars took a Cossack wagon fort?
... that headache is a symptom commonly described by patients suffering from lupus, but the existence of lupus headache as a specific disorder is contested?
... that a sermon by St Asterius, a 4th-century Bishop of Amasia, was cited twice at the Second Council of Nicaea, an ecumenical council in 787, as evidence supporting the veneration of religious icons?
... that Buck Creek State Park in Ohio contains a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam and reservoir, an early 19th-century homestead, and patches of original prairie?
... that Vicente González Lizondo, then President of the Valencian regional parliament, died a few days after collapsing from a fatal heart attack during a parliamentary session in 1996?
... that besides causing anemia and reducing weight gains in sheep, the blood-feeding fly Melophagus ovinus can also stain the wool and devalue it?
... that the fifth album by Missouri-based reggae band Jah Roots featured former Bob Marley & The Wailers lead guitarist Junior Marvin?
... that students hoping to increase their brainpower before exams made offerings of incense to the body of a two-headed calf in Koh Sotin District, Cambodia?

10 February 2009

21:48, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

... that American football player "Aqua" Allmendinger (pictured), once described as "a young giant in perfect physical condition," acquired his nickname after working as a waterboy for railroad building crews?
... that Memot District in eastern Cambodia is home to several huge prehistoric villages that date to the first millennium BCE?
... that Beninese politician Sourou-Migan Apithy was said to have ended slavery in Benin, although in fact he was not involved with the abolition bill?
... that one episode of Ireland's Project Ha Ha was criticised for featuring mainly Australian and American accents?
... that opera singers Johann Nepomuk Beck, Marie Wilt, and Hans von Rokitansky all performed in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba on 10 March 1875?
... that the Church of St Porphyrius, a Greek Orthodox church at the site where St Porphyrius of Gaza was buried, is the oldest active church in Gaza City?
... that John Adams served as a member of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia for 20 years, making him one of the council's longest-serving members?
... that gungnyeo is a generic Korean term referring to court ladies who waited on the king and royalty during the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties of Korea?

15:56, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Oslo District Court accounted in 2007 for 50% of the usage of interpreters in courts in Norway, being used in 23% of cases?
... that a park in Seattle is named after Terry Pettus, a onetime Communist whose conviction for conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government was overturned by the Supreme Court?
... that male field crickets of the species Gryllus veletis attract sexually receptive mates by acoustic signals, and one changes his "courtship song" when a female enters his territory?
... that Emperor Shunzong of Tang's close associate Wang Pi was described by historians as ugly, lacking ambition, and speaking in Wu Chinese?
... that Los Angeles-based hip hop group Black Eyed Peas have released two number one albums in both Australia and Switzerland, but have yet to achieve the same on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100?
... that in the Wii video game Neighborhood Games, when playing with more than one person, player characters can taunt opposing players to break their concentration?
... that "The Peanut Vendor", composed by Cuban orchestra leader Moisés Simons, has been recorded by over 160 bands?
... that in the 15th century, cutting down a Nebbiolo grapevine in the Piedmont region of La Morra was punishable by a heavy fine, hanging, or having your right hand cut off?

10:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Golar Spirit

... that Golar Spirit (pictured) is the world's first floating storage and regasification vessel converted from a LNG carrier?
... that cycling world champion Wilhelm Henie was his daughter Sonja Henie's guide and manager in her figure skating career?
... that the price war started by Color Air in 1998 led to its bankruptcy after 14 months?
... that the restoration of Ifield Water Mill in West Sussex, England, was carried out almost entirely by volunteers?
... that Naomi Klein's second book, Fences and Windows, is a collection of newspaper articles about the anti-globalization movement which she wrote while promoting her first book, No Logo?
... that San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Billy Wilson has been described as "probably one of the most underrated players in NFL history"?
... that Cambodia’s current First Lady, Bun Rany, was once in charge of a Khmer Rouge hospital in Krouch Chhmar District?
... that when Prince Philip first saw the stumpery at Highgrove House he asked his son, Charles, "when are you going to set fire to this lot?"?

04:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Neil Snow (pictured), ranked by Grantland Rice as one of the three greatest all-around athletes ever turned out in college sports, died of heart failure at age 34 after a game of squash?
... that the schooner and research vessel Vema was initially a luxury yacht built for E.F. Hutton?
... that Wang Yongmin, developer of the Wubi method, brought the first case for protection of intellectual property rights in the People's Republic of China?
... that chocolataires, popular around the late 19th century, were thrown as a novel alternative to tea parties—once even for a kindergarten fundraiser in Indiana, USA?
... that to ensure his 1948 reelection, Republican Congressman Richard Nixon cross-filed in the Democratic primary, beating Stephen Zetterberg who ran after Nixon's 1946 foe, Jerry Voorhis declined to run?
... that 467 mass graves containing 32,690 victims were found in the grounds of a pagoda in Kang Meas District in Cambodia?
... that Bert Shelley made 448 appearances for Southampton Football Club between 17 January 1920 and 16 April 1932, a club record that was broken by Tommy Traynor in 1966?
... that after John Rich of Big & Rich released his single "Shuttin' Detroit Down", Detroit radio station WDTW began playing the song hourly?

9 February 2009

22:48, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Valhalla structure (pictured) on Jupiter's moon Callisto is the largest multi-ring basin in the Solar System?
... that the American band Scissor Sisters won all three international categories at the 2005 BRIT Awards for their debut album?
... that in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed three economic agreements: in 1939, in 1940 and in 1941?
... that the white Piedmont wine grape Arneis is known as "white Barolo" because it was traditionally blended with Nebbiolo to soften that grape's harsh tannins?
... that 22 Australians have been decorated with the George Cross, the highest civil decoration for heroism in the British Empire?
... that the grandfather of Barack Obama's new Cabinet Secretary, Chris Lu, was attorney general for the Republic of China?
... that Teddy Air was the first airline to win a public service obligation in Norway?
... that one critic described the Arliss Howard film Big Bad Love about an alcoholic Vietnam veteran as "a self-indulgent celebration of self-indulgence"?

16:56, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Georgette Leblanc (pictured) portrayed the role of Ariane in the original 1899 play Ariane et Barbe-bleue by Maurice Maeterlinck and in the 1907 opera adaptation by Paul Dukas?
... that before his inauguration, President Barack Obama read The Defining Moment, planning to apply some of Franklin D. Roosevelt's strategies outlined in the book into his own administration?
... that Fredrik Kayser volunteered for the Winter War, served in the Norwegian Campaign, and helped sabotage the Nazi nuclear programme?
... that St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Walden, New York, was not consecrated for nine years as it took that long to pay off the construction debt?
... that the slipper lobster Scyllarus arctus is less common around Great Britain than the giant squid Architeuthis dux?
... that before he flew the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh's first choice of aircraft was the Ryan M-2?
... that the United Kingdom political party the Liberal Democrats received £456,000 in state political funding in 2006?
... that stand-up comedian Tommy Johnagin achieved two personal career goals within one year: to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman and to host his own Comedy Central Presents special?

10:56, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Britain's Dacres family produced an Admiral and First Naval Lord, Sydney, three vice-admirals, James Richard (pictured), Richard and James Richard, a naval Captain, Barrington, and a field marshal, Richard James?
... that the first dinosaur to be discovered in Antarctica was unearthed in 1986 from the Santa Marta Formation?
... that the Rudge Ulster racing motorcycle was named after Graham Walker's 1928 race win in the Ulster Grand Prix, the first time a road race had been won at over 80 mph?
... that the zamindar of the estate of Ramnad held the title "Sethupathi" or "protector of the bridge"?
... that the operation of the Adria oil pipeline was stopped in 1991 because of the conflict in Croatia?
pitcher Dave Wainhouse became the first Canadian-born player to be selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft?
... that Bridgemere Garden World in Bridgemere, Cheshire, now one of the largest garden centres in Europe, started as "a little garden shed in a small field" in 1961?
... that Johnny Kitagawa has held a virtual monopoly on the creation of boy bands in Japan for more than 40 years?

05:08, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Natural Arch, Tirumala hills, located in Andhra Pradesh, is a naturally formed geological wonder in quartzites with estimated geological age of 1600 to 570 Ma?
... that the Hudson's Bay Company's Joseph Adams oversaw the creation of a trading post from which Ontario's first English settlement originated?
... that British marque AJW built high-end 1000cc motorcycles in the 1920s but were producing 50cc "Fox Cubs" by the 1960s?
... that former Romanian boxer Gogea Mitu is listed by the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's tallest professional boxer?
... that the Nintendo DS video game, Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero, requires that players catch "elebits", which are small beings that pulse with electricity?
... that in the middle of building Fagernes Airport, Leirin, the authorities changed their minds and gave the airport more than twice the runway length?
... that in c. 990, Nagavarma I authored the earliest available work on the science of prosody in the Kannada language?
... that Academy Award winner Glen Hansard was a regular visitor to Dublin's Road Records store before its closure in January 2009?
... that former West Indian cricketer John Maynard gained his nickname The Dentist after knocking out an opponent's teeth with one of his fast deliveries?

8 February 2009

23:16, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

... that when the pre-dreadnought battleship Connecticut (pictured) ran aground in 1907, the U.S. Navy tried to cover it up, prompting Congress to consider an official inquiry?
... that Joan Bright Astley is believed to be one of the women on whom novelist Ian Fleming based the James Bond series character Miss Moneypenny?
... that although it is now endemic to Fiji, fossils attributed to the Fiji Goshawk have been found in ʻEua, Tonga?
... that Rabbi Leon Klenicki called the We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah significant in establishing that "the deniers of the Holocaust in Europe now have to deal with the Vatican"?
... that the 2007 French science fiction film Eden Log, created by first-time director Franck Vestiel, was shot using only hand-held cameras?
... that about 600 ships have been wrecked on the Doom Bar at the estuary of the River Camel on Cornwall's north coast in the past 200 years?
... that Grady Nutt, known as "The Prime Minister of Humor" for his humorous sketches of Protestant culture in the Southern United States, was a licensed Baptist minister at age thirteen?
... that Beer Day in Iceland celebrates the end of prohibition of beer on 1 March 1989, though wine and other spirits had been legal since 1935?

13:40, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

... that effects of the financial crisis of 2007–2009 on museums have included the National Academy of Design's controversial sale of Frederic Edwin Church's Scene on the Magdalene (pictured)?
... that Rideau was the first Canadian company to be granted its own coat of arms by The Heraldic Authority?
... that according to indigenous chronicles, the Chajomá kingdom was one of the three principal kingdoms in highland Guatemala before the Spanish Conquest?
... that Arthur Bagot was awarded the Albert Medal in 1918 for removing depth charges from a motor launch whilst the launch was ablaze?
... that on 28 May 1931, a Bellanca CH-300, fitted with a Packard DR-980 diesel engine, set a 55-year record for staying aloft for 84 hours and 32 minutes without being refueled?
... that Steve Carson, the producer/director husband of RTÉ host Miriam O'Callaghan, has been named as the channel's Director of Television?
... that in medieval England the regalian right was an important, if irregular, source of income for the kings?
... that Roger Neilson was made the head coach of the Ottawa Senators for the last two games of the 2001–02 season to become the ninth head coach in National Hockey League history to coach 1,000 games?

07:48, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Jaffa Clock Tower (pictured) in Israel was built to celebrate the silver jubilee of the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abd al-Hamid II?
... that Sydney Dickens, the son of novelist Charles Dickens, accumulated so much debt that his father refused to see him?
... that informed consent for Icos's experimental drug rovelizumab (LeukArrest) was waived during clinical trials if the patient was unconscious and had a high chance of dying?
... that Conrad Wilhelm Eger was an associate of Norwegian industrialist Sam Eyde, serving as CEO of Elkem from 1912 to 1950?
... that the Mechanics Bank based in Richmond, California, declined a 60 million dollar government bailout?
... that two court orders sought to force the Philippine Basketball Association to allow Filipino basketball player Asi Taulava to play in the 2004–05 PBA Philippine Cup despite him being suspended?
... the first bridge over the Mekong in Cambodia was built in Kampong Cham District?
... that actor Peter Falk, the affable detective in the long-running TV series Columbo, was propelled to stardom by portraying a vicious killer in the 1960 film Murder, Inc.?

01:48, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Cambridge CAP (pictured) was the first successful experimental computer that demonstrated the use of capabilities, both in hardware and software?
... that in 1938, Time magazine stated that Carleton Beals is "now the best informed and the most awkward living writer on Latin America"?
... that Albania expects to accede to NATO this April after individual NATO member states ratify its accession protocol?
... that Ray Edwin Powell was the president of Alcan, a Canadian aluminum company, before becoming the 10th Chancellor of McGill University in 1957?
... that dessert bars are considered one of two essentials for potlucks in Minnesota, the other being hotdish?
... that Dag Berggrav, whose father and grandfather both were bishops, served as the vice president of the International Ski Federation from 1979 to 1983?
... that during clinical trials of the experimental drug erlizumab (rhuMAb), four patients suddenly started coughing up blood and later died?
... that American wine writer Matt Kramer coined the definition of terroir as a wine's "somewhereness"?

7 February 2009

21:09, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the well-preserved Khan al-Umdan (pictured), located in Acre, is the largest caravanserai in Israel?
... that Major League Baseball catcher Nelson Santovenia caught Vince Coleman stealing on July 28, 1989, ending Coleman's streak of 50 consecutive stolen bases?
... that the Gulag ship Indigirka was shipwrecked trying to enter the La Perouse Strait with a loss of 741 lives?
... that William Agar Adamson, who was the personal chaplain to Lord Sydenham, the first Governor of the Province of Canada, also wrote a book on salmon fishing?
... that Coast Aero Center and Norving were the first airlines with scheduled services at Geilo Airport, Dagali located in Hol, Norway?
... that University of Michigan gymnast Beth Wymer won three consecutive NCAA championships in the uneven bars and was a first-team All-American in the all-around and balance beam?
... that the 500-year-old title Yeonguijeong was created in 1400 CE during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, and given to the Chief State Councilor as the highest government position of "Uijeongbu"?
... that the Giannini sextuplets, the second set of sextuplets in the world to live past infancy, were born in Italy six years to the date after the first set of surviving sextuplets?

14:08, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Hrelja, a 14th-century semi-independent feudal lord under Serbian suzerainty, built the defensive tower (pictured) in Bulgaria's largest monastery, the Rila Monastery?
... that in the second season of Burn Notice, the main character offers asides on topics such as how to burglar-proof a house or break out of prison?
... that the King's Police Medal was created to reward the gallantry of three police officers involved in the Tottenham Outrage in 1909?
... that the Perek Shirah, an ancient Jewish text, contains 84 songs of various elements of creation, ranging from the heavens to dogs, based upon Biblical and Talmudic verses?
... that according to Second World War general "Jumbo" Wilson, Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly "outmanoeuvred every general in the Middle East" in her efforts to remain in the theatre of war?
... that the Tony Jannus Award for distinguished achievement in commercial aviation is named for the pilot of the first scheduled commercial airline flight?
... that Tuva or Bust!, a book about Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's efforts to visit Tannu Tuva, was inspired by Feynman's childhood memories of seeing postage stamps from Tannu Tuva?
... that Cinderella, as broadcast on CBS in March 1957, is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for television?

08:16, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Xochipala-style figurines (pictured) are considered some of the earliest and most naturalistic in Mesoamerica?
... that Ignatz Urban's type collections of Caribbean plants were largely destroyed in the 1943 bombing of the Berlin Herbarium?
... that more than 900 different Great Western Railway telegraphic codes were in use to make the GWR's telegraph messages more efficient?
... that Lu Chen's magic show was the second-most popular performance in China's 2009 CCTV Spring Festival special?
... that The Go-Getter's theatrical run in the U.S. lasted only three days in June 2008?
... that Gáspár Békés organized two unsuccessful rebellions against Stephen Báthory of Poland but later became Báthory's close advisor despite differences in their religions?
... that in Gretchen, a play by W. S. Gilbert based on Goethe's Faust, Faustus hopes to be purified by loving Gretchen, but instead his influence corrupts and eventually kills her?
... that while Auguste Achintre was traveling to New York City as Haiti's ambassador to the United States, the Haitian government was overthrown, revoking his role as ambassador?

02:24, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

... that passenger pigeons, eskimo curlews, buffaloes (pictured), and gophers were Saskatchewan wildlife of great population which diminished due to massive over-hunting and natural habitat change?
... that American author Malcolm MacPherson was inspired to become a journalist after interviewing Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru while attending a high school summer program in New Delhi?
... that only 33 Portuguese soldiers survived the 1638 Battle of Gannoruwa, fought between the occupying Portuguese forces and the Sinhalese army?
... that Louisiana journalist Robert Angers in 1977 established the International Relations Association of Acadiana to foster goodwill and commerce with French and Spanish-speaking nations?
... that the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas is the largest seaport in Mexico, handling 20,860,647 tonnes of cargo in 2008?
... that the Western Australian Drosera stolonifera species complex was split into six related species in 2005?
... that John Duncan Watson was responsible for the construction of the first large-scale percolating filter sewage treatment plant?
... that after the cult comedy show Mystery Science Theater 3000 was cancelled, the writing staff created an animated comedy/fantasy miniseries for the Sci Fi Channel website called Edward the Less?

6 February 2009

20:32, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the 5,000-calorie Bacon Explosion (pictured) was created in response to a Twitter challenge to develop "the ultimate bacon recipe"?
... that the didactic Jain literature, Vaddaradhane, written by Shivakotiacharya in c. 900, is the earliest available prose work in the Kannada language?
... that during the inauguration of Barack Obama, Macon Phillips, the White House Director of New Media, posted the first official Obama Administration blog entry from Whitehouse.gov?
... that Sgurr nan Spainteach, a mountain in Glen Shiel, was named after the Spanish soldiers who retreated up it during the Battle of Glen Shiel?
... that the plant genus Tricarpelema contains seven Asian species from moist tropical forests and one African species found on dry inselbergs?
... that the Dubois-Sarles Octagon in Marlboro, New York, has a recessed entrance and sidehall interior plan, both unusual in mid-19th century octagon houses?
... that Ugandan 800 metres runner Abraham Chepkirwok missed out on the 2007 World Championships bronze medal by only 0.02 seconds?
... that when Hayden Edwards asked fellow empresario Stephen F. Austin to support the Fredonian Rebellion, Austin replied "You are deluding yourselves and this delusion will ruin you"?

14:32, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

... that because he misidentified the stalked lattice stinkhorn fungus (pictured) as a new species, George Atkinson was ridiculed in print by fellow mycologist Curtis Gates Lloyd?
... that the recently announced Marianna Fault in Arkansas was discovered due to the stretches of fine sand in otherwise fertile soil?
... that efforts taken by Roman Catholic missionary Henrique Henriques to publish religious books in local languages led him to be called The Father of Tamil press?
... that the English village of Gresham, Norfolk, once had a 14th-century castle with four round towers and a moat, now ruined and overgrown by trees?
... that gymnastics coach Bev Plocki led Michigan to 15 Big Ten championships and 18 NCAA championship tournaments after taking over a last-place program in 1990?
... that Egypt's Fahd Armored Personnel Carrier has specialized variants ranging from an infantry fighting vehicle to a command post vehicle to deal with different threats?
... that advertising executive turned vintner Robert Palmer was one of the first to export overseas wines produced in the North Fork of New York's Long Island?
... that the decking for the pier at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in Cambodia was so heavy that a railway had to be constructed to move it?

08:40, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the stag's horn fungus (pictured) contains a sugar binding protein with potent anti-tumor properties?
... that worldwide there are four million commercial fishing vessels, including 1.8 million undecked traditional craft still powered by oars or sail?
... that Michael Jackson's autobiography, Moon Walk, was given the code name "Neil Armstrong", that of the first "moonwalker"?
... that in a festival at the Norse Temple at Uppsala, men and male animals were sacrificed by hanging?
... that the Milton-Madison Bridge, which carries U.S. Route 421 across the Ohio River, is considered structurally poor and unable to handle modern truck traffic?
... that the Kh-31 was the first supersonic anti-ship missile that could be launched by tactical aircraft?
... that former Los Angeles Clippers coach Larry Brown is the only one of the 22 head coaches in franchise history with a winning NBA regular season record?
... that K-Space's third album, Infinity, was a new type of CD that is different every time it is played?

02:48, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the idea for the Red Scapular of the Passion (pictured) approved by Pope Pius IX is said to have been given to a French nun by visions of Jesus and Mary in 1846?
... that Alexis Belonio, for his innovations on the rice husk stove, becomes the first Filipino to receive a Rolex Award for Enterprise?
... that the old stone jail in Bardstown, Kentucky, an active prison from 1819 to 1987, is the last stone jail in operation in Kentucky, USA?
... that the English architectural historian Edward Hubbard wrote the definitive biography of the Cheshire architect John Douglas, but died before it could be published?
... that various species in the fungal genus Antrodia, used in Taiwan as traditional medicines, have been shown to have antioxidant and anticancer properties?
... that the first ever mission of the U.S. Peace Corps to Cambodia began in the Kampong Siem District?
... that developmental biologist Aron Moscona's research on growth of embryos into complex tissues and organs led to the discovery of cadherins, which help cells recognize each other and cluster together?
... that in some countries, digital DJ licensing is required before DJs can legally perform with a laptop?

5 February 2009

20:56, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the airline Vildanden started its first route with wet leased aircraft (example pictured) from Coast Air?
... that New York City's Stock Exchange Luncheon Club closed in 2006 after more than a century on Wall Street?
... that former Six band member Sinéad Shepherd returned to Irish television on The All Ireland Talent Show in February 2009?
... that Haung Falls in the Cambodian district of Dambae have carved out a 1,425 square metre stone crater under the cascade?
... that mountaineer Otto Meiling kept in such good physical shape, he made a one-day ascent of Argentina's Mount Tronador in his mid 80s?
... that a subspecies of the carnivorous plant Drosera stolonifera has only been collected from the summits of two mountains, Bluff Knoll and Toolbrunup in Western Australia?
... that firefighters had to shut off a fire hydrant in Hawaii after it was struck by a rockslide as a result of heavy rainfall from Hurricane Darby in 2004?
... that Francois-Gabriel D'Angeac, the first French governor of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, began his military career at age eight?

15:08, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

... that after being completed in October 2008, Tokyo's Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower (pictured) is the second-tallest educational building in the world, at 204 metres (669 ft)?
... that Adolphe Colrat, the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia, previously worked as the chief of staff for the police commissioner of Réunion?
... that Sammy Davis Jr.'s 1933 role in Rufus Jones for President is considered to be the first portrayal of an African American president of the United States in popular culture?
... that in 1953, Jessurun Cardozo became the first rabbi to conduct Jewish High Holidays services in Madrid since the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled Jews from Spain?
... that in 1995–96, fans of the NHL's Florida Panthers celebrated goals by throwing plastic rats on the ice as their team reached its first Stanley Cup final?
... that in late 2008, Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad won the Brage Prize and was hired as the first in-house playwright at the National Theatre of Norway?
... that after the New York Central Railroad ended service to it, the Milton Railroad Station in Milton, New York, was used by a local winery for tastings?
... that a relative of the culinary herb sage, Salvia involucrata, has been found to contain compounds that can help prevent memory loss?

09:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

... that in 1716, Richard Phelps cast the hour bell popularly known as "Great Tom" (illustration pictured) still in use at St Paul's Cathedral, London?
... that of all head coaches of what are now the New Orleans Hornets, Basketball Hall of Famer Dave Cowens has had the best record, winning more than 60% of games in his three seasons coaching the team?
... that British novelist Mary Shelley was blackmailed by the Italian exile for whom she wrote the travel narrative Rambles in Germany and Italy?
... that before a shogunate tribunal in 1787, the temples Myōhō–ji, Ankokuron-ji and Chōshō-ji in Kamakura all claimed to be the site where Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism in Japan, had his hermitage in a hut in the 13th century?
... that 19th-century English portrait painter Henry William Pickersgill was a member of the Royal Academy for almost 50 years, and showed a total of 384 works there?
... that Keith Smith was a leading Australian rules footballer of the 1930s and '40s?
... that 19th-century French newspaper Le Constitutionnel established the reputation of critics such as Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve?
... that despite what its scientific name implies, the perennial garden plant Salvia indica is not naturally found in India?

03:24, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the indigenous flora of Saskatchewan (example pictured) is used for jellies, jams, pies, herbal teas, medicinal decoctions and technological products?
... that film producers Keith Calder, Felipe Marino and Joe Neurauter acquired their first script within a week of forming their production company, Occupant Films?
... that art and architecture collective Fashion Architecture Taste designed a bicycle shelter in the shape of a castle in Scheveningen that appeared on the 69c Dutch postage stamp?
... that Jack Brennan's accidental interruption of the Frost/Nixon interviews allowed Richard Nixon's staff to convince Nixon to offer a mea culpa?
... that the medieval Old Punch Bowl in Crawley, England, has been a house, a dairy farm, a tearoom, an officers' mess, a YMCA and a bank, and is now a pub?
... that Carol Hutchins, coach of the first eastern team to win the Women's College World Series, is the winningest coach in the history of the University of Michigan in any sport?
... that taranakite, a mineral formed from the reaction of clays or aluminous rocks with materials derived from bat or bird guano, was first found in New Zealand's Sugar Loaf Islands in 1865?
... that, according to the Book of Tang, the Tang Dynasty official Wang Shuwen first became a staff member of then-Crown Prince Li Song because of his Go abilities?

4 February 2009

21:32, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

... that some Dartmoor crosses (example pictured) were probably used not for religious purposes, but rather to mark the tracks between Buckfast Abbey, Tavistock Abbey and Buckland Abbey?
... that Ira Eaker and Allen Zwerdling established Back Stage in 1960, considered the "casting bible" for theater performers?
... that despite being a widely-used garden plant on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Salvia interrupta can only be found in nature in the Atlas Mountains in the African country of Morocco?
... that Shirley Chisholm was the first African American candidate for president of the United States for a major political party when she campaigned during the 1972 election?
... that in 1018, Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles entered the stronghold of Ibatzes of Bulgaria and blinded and captured him, thereby ending Bulgarian resistance to the Byzantine conquest?
... that although it was founded in 1924, Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, California, did not hire its first rabbi until 1963?
... that the monuments of the ancient Maya city of Seibal in Guatemala display an unusual mix of Maya and foreign elements?
... that unlike most other lemurs, the Collared Brown Lemurs do not demonstrate female dominance?

15:32, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

... that it has been claimed that Clan Schaw descends from cup bearers to the Scots kings Alexander II or Alexander III; and that the clan's heraldry (pictured) alludes to the office of cup bearer?
... that Peter Tsiamalili, the first chief administrator of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, also served as Papua New Guinea's ambassador to Belgium?
... that in 2008, Unionsexpressen started a luxury intercity train service between Oslo and Stockholm, in competition with the state-owned SJ?
... that operatic tenor Gustav Walter portrayed the role of Assad in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba?
... that after Noel Coward's play cycle Tonight at 8.30 premiered, he added four more plays, including Family Album and Still Life?
... that Bateay District in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia, was the site of an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus in 2006?
... that Flip Saunders is the only Minnesota Timberwolves head coach to have been to the playoffs with the Timberwolves?
... that during the reign of Emperor Shunzong of Tang, who was debilitated by a stroke, his concubine Consort Niu was one of the key decision-makers?

06:40, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

... that water puppetry (pictured) from North Vietnam dates back to the 11th century CE?
... that William Henry Ellis's tenure as Master Cutler of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire lasted for four years instead of just one because of the First World War?
... that to survive during Prohibition, some winemaking families in what is now California's Russian River Valley AVA converted to bootlegging operations that sold a water-based wine known as "jackass brandy"?
... that Karl Graul, former director of Leipzig Lutheran mission and a Tamil scholar, believed that Christian missionaries in India should not interfere with the local traditions including the caste system?
... that within the Source Seine commune in France is the source of the Seine?
... that American football player Buddy Burris was the first Oklahoma Sooner to be named an All-American three times?
... that Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule, Cairo's oldest German school, has been running since 1873?
... that Sammy Stephens, an internet sensation for his "It's just like a mini-mall" rap advertisements for Flea Market Montgomery, got his start in broadcasting at WMGY in Montgomery, Alabama, USA?

00:48, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the trees that gave Maple Lawn (pictured), a Frederick Clarke Withers-designed house in Balmville, New York, its name were later destroyed in a hurricane?
... that television chef Ingrid Espelid Hovig is considered the "culinary mother" of Norway?
... that Isidore de Lara's Messaline was the first opera by an English composer to be produced at La Scala?
... that the prolific author Maxwell Gray, whose real name was Mary Gleed Tuttiett, was a permanent invalid who seldom left her home in Newport, Isle of Wight?
... that, when the München RFC played the Bad Tölz US Army in June 1978, it was the first game of rugby union played in Munich in almost 50 years?
... that the film Dark Habits was rejected by the Cannes Film Festival because the organizing committee considered it sacrilegious, blasphemous and anti-Catholic?
... that S. Muthiah Mudaliar spent Rs. 4 lakhs on a propaganda campaign against consumption of liquor in the late 1920s?
... that although it has not been formally assessed by the IUCN, the plant Justicia flaviflora is considered critically endangered because it can only be naturally found on one mountain in Trinidad and Tobago?
... that Derek Forster became the youngest Sunderland footballer to have made a first team appearance when he was 15 years 185 days old?

3 February 2009

18:56, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Maryland Residence (pictured) in Bethesda, USA, one of the few houses designed by César Pelli, consists of five pavilions linked by a central gallery?
... that 11th-century "minister of war and peace" Durgasimha wrote the Kannada language version of the Panchatantra, the first Indian vernacular adaptation of these fables?
... that the Apalachia Dam in North Carolina has an underground conduit carrying water from the dam's reservoir to its hydroelectric powerhouse 12 miles (19 km) away in the neighboring state of Tennessee?
... that Empress Dowager Wang, the mother of Tang Chinese Emperor Xianzong, was to be a concubine of his great-grandfather Daizong, but as she was young, was instead given to Xianzong's father, Shunzong?
... that most of U.S. Route 2 in Vermont was originally part of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway, an early transcontinental North American auto trail?
... that in 1946, Welsh international footballer Bert Turner became the first player to score for both sides in an FA Cup Final?
... that Chamkar Leu District in eastern Cambodia is home to a 6,000-hectare (15,000-acre) rubber plantation?
... that David Yuile and his brother William attempted to control the Canadian glass manufacturing sector by founding the Diamond Glass Company, which did not make any glass?

13:08, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Skuon town in Cambodia's Cheung Prey District is famous for fried spiders (pictured) seasoned with garlic and salt?
... that Lucien Galtier, the first Roman Catholic priest in Minnesota, was responsible for renaming the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from its previous name of Pig's Eye?
... that NSB Gjøvikbanen won the first, and so far only, rail transport public service obligation tender in Norway in 2005?
... that Angus Goetz played for Buffalo in the National Football League on the weekends while attending medical school at the University of Michigan?
... that the commune of Gory in south-western Mali is the subject of a $950,000 UNESCO–Mali educational project, funded by the Norwegian government?
... that singer Phil Ochs wrote "The War Is Over" in 1967 to declare that the Vietnam War was over, eight years before the war actually ended?
... that the World Wide Fund for Nature rates the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests bordering India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (Burma) as "Globally Outstanding" in biological distinctiveness?
... that in 1785, men between 16 and 50, who were not ministers, were required to help build Bardstown, Kentucky's Cobblestone Path or be subject to a fine?

07:16, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels warned that their boycott of Jewish businesses (pictured) "will be resumed... until German Jewry has been annihilated", if the Anti-Nazi Boycott of 1933 was not ended?
... that Sinuessa, the last town of Latium on the Appian Way, was famous for its springs whose visitors included Horace, Virgil, and Julius Caesar?
... that John Calvin's works include some 1,300 letters, making him "the great letter-writer of the Reformation age" according to B. B. Warfield?
... that during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Palmach referred to the Palestinian Arab village of Burayr as "the village of the killers"?
... that Victor Vacquier escaped Russia by sleigh across the frozen Gulf of Finland and went on to pioneer the use of submarine detectors for investigating plate tectonics?
... that Norwegian railway company Ofotbanen went bankrupt due to the minority owner Autolink starting the competitor Cargolink?
... that Joan Snyder, a MacArthur Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow, has had her paintings exhibited at Jewish Museum in New York?
... that every household in the Dhaniakhali bloc of West Bengal, India, has at least one loom, where handloom saris are made?

01:16, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Three Crosses (pictured) were built on the same hill in Kalnai Park as the Crooked Castle, destroyed during the Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392)?
... that John Isaacs, signed out of high school by the all-Black New York Renaissance team, led the Rens over the Oshkosh All-Stars to win the first World Professional Basketball Tournament, held in 1939?
... that the critically endangered Philippine eagle is the namesake of the Agila 2 communications satellite?
... that a civil rights lawsuit brought by Andrew W. Cooper led to the election of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress?
... that sex workers across the world have organised since the mid-1970s to demand sex workers’ rights, including the decriminalisation of prostitution and equal protection under the law?
... that Senegalese long jumper and triple jumper Ndiss Kaba Badji was the only person from his country to reach a final at the 2008 Summer Olympics?
... that the Irish romantic comedy Little White Lie followed the attempts of an actor to attract the attention of a television presenter by pretending he was a psychiatrist?
... that prior to becoming a chocolatier, Louis Barnett trained birds of prey at a falconry centre to gain permission to keep a pet eagle owl?

2 February 2009

19:24, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

... that English embroidery (example pictured) includes styles called Opus Anglicanum, stumpwork, crewel work and art needlework?
... that an episode of the documentary series Hostage detailed Saddam Hussein's placing of two Irish civilians as "human shields" at sites of strategic importance during the Gulf War?
... that the Parc de Belleville is the highest park in Paris and also contains the city's longest cascading water fountain?
... that Michael Watson took six days to complete the London Marathon in 2003, an achievement that won him the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award that year?
... that Russian historian and scientist Vladimir N. Beneshevich was arrested on charges of spying for Germany and executed because one of his books was translated into German in 1937?
... that Chatuge Dam and Nottely Dam in the Tennessee Valley were originally constructed in 1942 solely for flood control to maximize hydroelectric production at Hiwassee Dam, but were only outfitted with power generators later in the 1950s?
... that operatic tenor Andreas Dippel portrayed the title role in Alberto Franchetti Asrael in its United States premiere at the Metropolitan Opera?
... that DSV 78/08 Ricklingen, the oldest rugby union club in Germany, was formed under the leadership of 15 year old Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke in 1878?

13:32, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

... that to open the swing door on the General Aircraft Hamilcar glider (pictured) and allow vehicles to emerge, pilots had to climb out of the glider's cockpit and slide down 15 feet (4.6 m) of fuselage?
... that Romanian professional armwrestler Ion Oncescu is the current world champion for both the left and the right arms?
... that the endemic flora of Trinidad and Tobago consists of 59 plant species, including one that was last collected between 1786 and 1791?
... that Laurie D. Cox performed the first comprehensive tree census in New York City in 1915, finding that most street trees in Manhattan were in bad condition?
... that the first Filipinos to settle in Saudi Arabia arrived in 1973?
... that Jim Crockett Promotions hosted an unusual series of pro wrestling tag team matches in the 1970s, as heel (villain) teams such as the Blond Bombers (Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson) faced fellow heels Brute Bernard and Skull Murphy?
... that a predominance diagram purports to show the conditions of concentration and pH where a chemical species has the highest concentration in solutions in which there are multiple acid-base equilibria?
... that the largest ship sunk by the Austro-Hungarian U-boat SM U-32 during World War I was carrying onions from Karachi, Pakistan?

07:40, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Wilkinson motorcycle (pictured) failed to impress the British military – despite having a Maxim machine gun mounted on the handlebars?
... that Bardstown, Kentucky's Wickland, namesake of Shelbyville, Kentucky's Wickland, was the home of three different U.S. state governors?
... that Thriller – Live is a new West End musical, directed by the creator of a Michael Jackson fansite?
... that the recently defunct Pacific Magazine, a current affairs publication focusing on the Pacific Islands of Oceania, was the region's longest continuously published magazine?
... that Adolph C. Miller served as United States Assistant Secretary of the Interior before being appointed as an original Governor of the Federal Reserve System?
... that the account of the death of 12,000 prisoners aboard the Gulag ship Dzhurma has been disproven?
... that the Japanese band Daisy × Daisy provided the song "Brave your truth" as the opening theme song of the episodes of the Chrome Shelled Regios anime?
... that Maurice Catarcio, at age 69, pulled an 80-foot (24 m) boat filled with 125 passengers while swimming 300 feet (91 m) in a lake, which earned him a place in The Guinness Book of World Records?

01:48, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

... that singer Amy Winehouse (pictured) gained entry to the Guinness World Records in 2009 for having the most Grammy Awards won by a British female act?
... that Premier of Alberta John Edward Brownlee was forced to resign in 1934 due to a sex scandal?
... that the Jamaican Gun Court Act of 1974 mandated a sentence of indefinite imprisonment with hard labor for all firearms offenses, including possession of unlicensed guns?
... that only after the end of World War II was it publicly revealed that the Norwegian ships SS Irma and SS Henry had been sunk by the Royal Norwegian Navy?
... that then-President Bill Clinton's selection to give the 2000 Jefferson Lecture, the U.S.'s highest humanities honor, was criticized as a politicization of the National Endowment for the Humanities?
... that Indonesia's largest container terminal, handling more than 3.5 million TEU's of freight in 2007, is in the Port of Jakarta?
... that Dutch architect Kees Christiaanse, a proponent of mixed communities, has described his buildings as "socializing machines"?
... that the television series Use It or Lose It documented the return of former association footballers Niall Quinn and Ronnie Whelan to their respective youth teams?

1 February 2009

19:57, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the largest kilns for Ancient Roman pottery (example pictured) fired up to 40,000 pieces at a time?
... that the first head coach of the NBA club now known as the Atlanta Hawks was Roger Potter, whose tenure only lasted seven games into the team's inaugural season in 1949?
... that six prehistoric meteorite impacts have created large astroblemes affecting the geology of Saskatchewan?
... that the New York Assembly passed a 1970 abortion rights law sponsored by Constance Cook and Franz Leichter after George Michaels broke a 74–74 deadlock by switching his vote?
... that of the ten Brough Superior Austin Four motorcycles built—eight in 1932 plus one each in 1933 and 1934—a total of eight have survived to this day?
... that according to US and Turkish officials, the MV Kısmetim-1 was deliberately sunk in December 1992 by its crew in order to prevent the capture of the illicit drug load?
... that James Brady, who wrote a celebrity profile for nearly 25 years in Parade magazine, won the Bronze Star Medal for his Korean War service and wrote a Pulitzer Prize-finalist book about his war experiences?
... that landscape architecture firm West 8 designed the so-called "Reptile Bridge" between Leidsche Rijn and Utrecht in the Netherlands?

14:08, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the burning sensation caused by red hot chili peppers or the warmth caused by camphor are due to the activation of different TRPV ion channels (TRPV1 pictured), which are also thermosensitive?
... that two members of the Boston Red Sox's Golden Outfield have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?
... that ruins from Bradenstoke Abbey in Wiltshire, England, were bought by William Randolph Hearst and used in alterations to St Donat's Castle in Wales?
... that the GDP of the Ming Dynasty was 31 percent of the world's GDP, a percentage which is relatively higher than the GDP of the United States in 1997?
... that the Old L & N Station in Bardstown, Kentucky, was the state's only dry stone railroad station?
... that British economist Gilbert Slater suggested in the Madras Legislative Council that a committee be appointed to investigate the introduction of a common script for the Madras Presidency?
... that in Cheney v. United States District Court, Supreme Court Justice Scalia was alleged to have had a conflict of interest because he had recently hunted ducks with Dick Cheney, a party to the case?
... that Stephen Neill, former bishop of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, suffered from insomnia which helped him to author his magnum opus, History of Christianity in India?

08:16, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

... that Salvia fruticosa or Greek sage (pictured) was depicted on a 1400-BCE Minoan fresco on the island of Crete, and is still grown and used widely today?
... that Eddie Tolan, the first African-American to be the "world's fastest human" after winning double gold at the 1932 Olympics, returned home jobless and appeared in vaudeville with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson?
... that General Motors's pioneering CAD system, DAC-1, could digitize hand-drawn diagrams, turn them into 3D models, and then build models of them on milling machines?
... that Hungarian ballerina Nora Kovach's 1953 defection to the West was the first highly publicized Cold War-era defection of individuals in the field of dance?
... that the controversial 1982 anti-racism film White Dog was director Samuel Fuller's last American film due to his disgust with Paramount Pictures' refusal to release the film?
... that the small Croatian town of Jastrebarsko was home to two cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, who were also both archbishops of the country's capital Zagreb?
... that the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame is the only professional wrestling hall of fame that lets fans select the inductees?
... that in addition to his academic work, Norwegian history professor Øystein Sørensen is considered an expert on the Donald Duck universe?

02:27, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

... that the Appomattox Park (pictured) has a Court-house, Tavern, Jail, Store and Prizery, the Bocock-Isbell, McLean, Peers and Wright houses, the Sweeney and Sweeney-Conner cabins, the Jones and Woodson law offices, ruins and cemeteries?
... that Callianassa subterranea is a burrowing shrimp that ingests sediment particles and digests their organic coating?
... that Maurice Maeterlinck threatened legal action and physical violence against Claude Debussy after he did not cast Maeterlinck's lover, Georgette Leblanc, in the title role of their opera Pelléas et Mélisande?
... that the Willow Creek Transit Center in Oregon has artwork with a reading theme for a planned library branch nearby that was never built?
... that celebrated Azerbaijani activist of the French Resistance Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov was persecuted by the NKVD upon his return to the USSR?
... that Bob Foster’s win on a New Imperial in the 1936 Isle of Man TT was the last time that Great Britain won a Lightweight TT?
... that despite its acrid taste, Lactarius vietus is edible after boiling?
... that during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson reportedly stopped discussing important matters at Cabinet meetings because of the indiscretions of Interior Secretary Franklin Knight Lane?