Archives are generally grouped by month of Main Page appearance. (Currently, DYK hooks are archived according to the date and time that they were taken off the Main Page.) To find which archive contains the fact that appeared on Did you know, go to article's
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... that the
Taliban secured victory in the Battle of Lashkargah soon after suicide–car-bombing the police headquarters, a crucial chokepoint of the city's defense?
... that sensors suggest that Lorraine Lambert's new bra has improved her chances of winning a Paralympic medal for shooting?
... that in his 1683 work Qingzhen Zhinan, Chinese Islamic scholar
Ma Zhu recommended the "official persecution" of
Sufis?
... that in Bio's Bahnhof, a German live music talk show presented by
Alfred Biolek(pictured) in a former train depot,
Kate Bush made her first television appearance?
... that coins issued by Baalshillem II, the
Phoenician king of
Sidon, were the first Sidonian coins to bear minting dates corresponding to the king's year of reign?
... that
Raymond Hood designed the American Radiator Building with a black-and-gold facade because he thought that other buildings' windows looked like waffles?
... that the HSBC Tower was the largest structure to be constructed in its vicinity since the
Empire State Building fifty years earlier?
... that dyadic rationals, fractions based on powers of two, can be easier to work with than other kinds of fractions for both schoolchildren and computers?
... that three high-ranking officers of USRC Robert McClelland remained with the ship after it surrendered and entered
Confederate service?
... that Erich Witte was the first performer of the title role of Britten's Peter Grimes in Berlin?
... that the SS Alpena, currently the oldest active steamship on the
Great Lakes, was shortened by 120 feet (37 m) in 1991?
... that the over 349,000 signatures collected in favour of the Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co. initiative set a new record for the number of signatures collected for a
Berlin referendum?
... that Operation Hectic, an operation planned by the Rhodesian security forces to assassinate Robert Mugabe, was called off three hours before it was due to start?
... that during the 2013 Nutellagate controversy, students at
Columbia University were accused of costing the university $5,000 in dining hall
Nutella per week?
00:00, 27 August 2021 (UTC)
Mountain neinei
... that the New Zealand tree mountain neinei(example pictured) can live for up to 600 years?
... that New York City's James B. Duke House was modeled after a French chateau and designed by an architect who did not have a formal architectural education?
... that it took more than a decade for Michael M. Thomas to secure a publisher for his eighth novel, which was rejected by approximately 25 publishing houses?
... that the 2014-built ERV Nene Hatun is Turkey's first emergency response vessel?
... that
prosecutors who worked to convict Kevin Strickland in 1979 now say they believe him to be innocent?
... that the freshwater leech Haemopis sanguisuga sometimes emerges from the water to hunt for earthworms?
... that the six-year-old steel freighter Cayuga(pictured) was sunk by a wooden freighter twenty years older than her?
... that
limonene, a compound found in orange peels, can cause balloon popping based on the "like dissolves like" principle?
... that it took over a decade for Michael M. Thomas to secure a publisher for his eighth novel, which was rejected by approximately 25 publishing houses?
... that Robert McLean served as a
missionary in Chile for six years before moving to
Oregon, where he founded two churches and was elected to the state legislature?
... that the foraminiferan Marginopora vertebralis releases its
embryos by means of a surprisingly complex behaviour for a single-celled organism?
... that Thomas Earle had his slave-ship Annabella seized by the
British Crown, not for slave trading, but for slave trading with the enemy?
00:00, 25 August 2021 (UTC)
Taylor Swift
... that "I Knew You Were Trouble" made
Taylor Swift(pictured) the first artist to have two songs each sell over 400,000 digital copies within the first week of release in the U.S.?
... that Paralympian Gemma Collis-McCann, who sits on
wheelchair fencing's new Gender Equity Commission, has been chosen to join three men as the UK's wheelchair fencing team
in Tokyo?
... that Phyllis Le Cappelaine Burke helped found the
Sydney chapter of the St. Joan Social and Political Alliance, which advocated for equal rights for women?
... that films from the Long Bow Trilogy depict the same village and villagers mentioned in Fanshen?
... that a willow maze in Sussex, England, planted in the shape of
a quotation from the Bible in the 1990s, only came to wider notice when it was spotted on Google Earth in 2013?
... that the Dragos Gemelos are two entwined dragon trees said to represent twin brothers who dueled for the love of a woman?
... that Miao Poya successfully campaigned to change her high school's uniform policy before becoming one of the first
Taipei city councillors to be openly
lesbian?
22 August 2021
12:00, 22 August 2021 (UTC)
Leschenault Lady
... that the Leschenault Lady(pictured), which is believed to be the oldest operational Australian-built steam locomotive, is returning to steam today (22 August) after a lengthy overhaul?
... that police negotiator Max Vernon told the actor portraying him in 6 Days that "you've been wrongly cast. You're two inches shorter than me and I have more hair"?
... that the Unisphere(pictured) was designed based on a doodle on the back of an envelope?
... that plant biology professor Luca Comai independently developed
glyphosate-resistant plants while working at Calgene and published his research before
Monsanto researchers were able to?
... that Bridget Burgess's mother Sarah once changed all four tires during a
pit stop by herself?
... that
Zheng Kai first lost weight and then gained 20 kilograms (44 lb) for his role in Never Stop?
... that the composer Francis Burt, who came from London and settled in Vienna, was inspired by the drumming of the Nigerian
Ibo people?
... that in 1952 meteorologist
Harry Volkman delivered the first on-air
tornado warning on Oklahoma City's WKY-TV, in defiance of a federal ban on the practice?
... that reports of Julie Wera's(pictured) death were greatly exaggerated?
... that
Kanye West recorded a music video for "RoboCop" that casts his ex-girlfriend
Amber Rose as a robot?
... that American physician and marathon runner Joan Ullyot was one of the key figures in successfully lobbying for a women’s
marathon in the
Olympic Games?
... that in addition to running Bangkok's first power station, the Siam Electricity Company also operated half the city's tram lines and a fire brigade?
... that architect Robert Marquis believed that architecture should meet "the users' spiritual and psychological needs" in addition to being functional?
... that the
Qing-dynasty erotic novel Shenlou zhi has been called "the earliest novel by far" to describe the
opium trade in China?
... that Scott Lee Kimball killed three of his four known victims while he was working as an FBI informant?
... that the Australian rugby sevens player Dietrich Roache kept the Australian national sprint champion out of the Australian Olympic team with his speed?
... that although its publisher
Dark Horse Comics is American, a significant proportion of artists involved with the comic book series The Witcher have been Polish?
... that Tone Roads No. 1, a composition for chamber ensemble by
Charles Ives, was originally titled "Tone Roads, rough ones—good ones, bad ones, fast ones, slow ones!"?
... that FBOY Island sets three female contestants to identify twenty-four men as either womanizers or
nice guys?
... that an inquiry into the death of Orville Blackwood at
Broadmoor Hospital in 1991 found that admissions of black people to the hospital were more likely to have police involvement?
... that the
manga series Mashima Hero's was originally titled Hero's and had its name changed to rank higher in
search engine results?
... that William Earle referred to slave traders as "Bite Men"?
00:00, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
Flora Mae Hunter
... that the cooking of Flora Mae Hunter(pictured) was enjoyed so much by the
Duchess of Windsor that she gained weight on her visits to the plantation where Hunter worked?
... that in
Indonesian, a language featuring pronoun avoidance, a common polite way to address someone else is "father" or "mother", instead of "you"?
... that three verses from Psalm 86 became part of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, including the opening "Lord, bow thine ear to our pray'r"?
... that during the 1991 Zaire unrest, 30 to 40% of all companies in
Zaire were plundered, and around 70% of the country's retail businesses were destroyed?
... that the union of taxi drivers offered the residents of retirement homes free transport to the voting stations in the Slovenian Waters Act referendum?
... that Robert Goodsir, searching for his brother
Harry, lost with the
Franklin expedition in the Arctic, found the graves of three expedition members?
... that the Islamic website Askimam has been called more comprehensive, influential and wide-ranging than the web resources of
al-Azhar and its sympathisers put together?
... that professor Bronwyn Law-Viljoen became
editor-in-chief of a publishing company, co-founded her own independent publishing company, and founded her own bookstore in South Africa?
... that to preserve the surrounding natural environment, Tsunoshima Bridge(pictured) curves to avoid an island?
... that New Zealand author Patricia Grace did not include a glossary for
Māori terms in her book Potiki because she "didn't want the Māori language to be treated as a foreign language in its own country"?
... that part of Keith Foulger's job was to make sure the front and back ends of Britain's first nuclear submarine fitted together?
... that reproductive success in the lined sea hare can be reduced by noise pollution?
... that brewer Alexander Gordon paid to build the Polhollick Bridge in Aberdeenshire in 1892 after witnessing a drowning incident at the ferry crossing?
... that the sea slug Philinopsis speciosa wraps the mucus strand containing its eggs around its head?
... that ink wash painting was created by the Chinese in the 8th century and the technique then spread to the rest of
East Asia?
... that when starting his business, Vincent Figgins needed help from the mysterious "Black Man"?
00:00, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
Albert shako
... that during the
Crimean War, a colonel complained about his "abominable Albert [shako]" (example pictured), upon whose leather top "a man may fry his ration beef at mid-day in this climate"?
... that singer-songwriter Doug Sahm was also a multi-instrumentalist who was regarded as a child prodigy playing the steel guitar?
... that Dallas television station KDAF abandoned plans to launch a local newscast in 1994, after having already hired 20 staff, because it was to
lose its Fox affiliation and be sold?
... that Zygmunt Krasiński, one of Poland's
Three Bards, published most of his works anonymously and was known as the Anonymous Poet of Poland?
... that the Royal Dental Hospital opened the first dental school in Britain in 1859?
... that former football midfielder Marcelo Gallardo became the first
River Plate player to achieve an international title as a player and a coach after leading the team to win the
2014 Copa Sudamericana?
... that in August 2017, Potential Tropical Cyclone Ten caused some of the worst flooding seen in western Florida in 20 years, just two weeks before
Hurricane Irma struck the same region?
... that one night in 1857 Granny gave birth to 240 offspring?
... that residents at the
queer community known as the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch carry firearms and wear body armor while tending to their
alpacas due to threats from right-wing
militias?
... that the classicist L. D. Reynolds wrote his first publication on the birds of the
Caerphilly Basin?
... that the design of
King Sombra, the villain in "The Crystal Empire", was meant to illustrate him "as both a solid creature and a flowing mass of smoky darkness"?
... that when Chorus Systèmes SA was founded in 1986, French technology start-up companies were rare?
... that after the death of Steven Crawford, his body was found in 1963 but was not identified until 2021?
... that
Jerome Robbins planned to have his ballet Piano Pieces be about dancers rehearsing a fictitious ballet, but changed the theme to be about the joy of dancing?
... that New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral(pictured), praised upon completion as the "finest church edifice on the American continent", was funded mostly by poor Irish Catholic parishioners?
... that Mexican theatergoers complained that Olaf's Frozen Adventure, a short that played before the movie Coco, was too long?
... that the English-Australian cricketer Bailey Wightman made his County debut for
Kent whilst playing club cricket for
Tunbridge Wells after an outbreak of COVID-19?
... that German soldiers fighting with
Napoleon brought home a Spanish modification to the
Tarot game of Dreierles(pictured) that resulted in
Baden's national game of
Cego?
... that an inscription above the 16th-century doorway of the Dame Paulet's Almshouses reads "No Domi Ni" instead of "
Anno Domini" because the original was misread by a stonemason during a 1930s restoration?
... that early medieval house-shaped shrines(example pictured) were built as
reliquaries to hold the remains of Irish saints?
... that while Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios was exiled from Nicaragua and living in Costa Rica in the 1980s, his sister
Claudia was there as Nicaragua’s ambassador?
... that while 1271 Avenue of the Americas was being built at New York City's Rockefeller Center, Marilyn Monroe re-launched the Center's long-dormant "Sidewalk Superintendents' Club"?
... that Serbian landowner Marija Trandafil spent a single day hungry, but she remembered the experience and became a major philanthropist in
Novi Sad?
... that Hong Kong
wushu athlete Li Fai dropped out of the
1994 Asian Games after discovering she was pregnant?
... that an
FCC hearing examiner scolded the owner of California radio station KCTY for having a "cavalier attitude" and at times being too lazy to put the station on the air?
... that soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, who has given over 200 performances at the
Met, said that becoming a singer "takes work on your psyche, your innermost being"?
... that the last pack of Staghounds(example pictured) in England were those of the North Devon Hunt, which pursued stag in the
royal forests of
Exmoor until 1825?
... that part of the ceiling at the 181st Street station collapsed two days after funding was allocated to repair damage from a similar collapse two years prior?
... that a reviewer wrote that "few tenors on disc can rival the German Rainer Trost" about his 1992 performance as Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte in Paris, with conductor
John Eliot Gardiner?
... that mixed-use stadium districts around major sports venues often include
public squares, office space, hotels and residential units?
... that instead of fighting in battle, female
vassals in the
Kingdom of Jerusalem were obliged to render the service of marriage to their lord by marrying one of three candidates proposed to them?
... that Mary Dunn was reported to have had "many a free ride" in ice hockey, when men "would just lift her up and dump her elsewhere"?
00:00, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
Therese Forster
... that Therese Forster(pictured) edited the works of her father
Georg Forster, who died when she was seven years old?
... that the costs of the great astronomical clock at Norwich Cathedral that were recorded in its Sacrist's Rolls from 1322 to 1325 provide the earliest known detailed account of clockmaking in England?
... that the Swedish meteorologist Svante Odén was among the first scientists to address and publicize the problems of
acid precipitation in
Europe?
... that almost as soon as Cabaret opened, people mistakenly complained the song "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" was a genuine Nazi anthem?
10 August 2021
12:00, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
Instant ramen, the base ingredient of a typical "spread"
... that in countries like the United States, prisoners supplement inadequate
prison food by combining ingredients like
instant ramen(pictured),
mayonnaise and
Kool-Aid into improvised meals called "spreads"?
... that an English army devastated
Lothian in Scotland so thoroughly in 1356 that the episode became known as Burnt Candlemas?
... that Bernette Ford was one of the first members of the Black Creators for Children, an organization that helped promote black authors and increase diversity in children's books?
... that although the Germans boasted that they captured British radio traffic with ease, the Wireless Set Number 10 was so secure that they never even knew of its existence?
... that after starting Los Angeles Spanish-language television station KVEA, a group led by
Saul Steinberg bought other Spanish-language stations to form the
Telemundo network?
... that Murray Koster started for the Sharks rugby team against the British and Irish Lions, paired with Werner Kok?
... that film critic
Danny Peary described Darby Jones(pictured) as having been "even more
typecast than the typical black actor", limited to roles in jungle-themed films?
... that the construction of 666 Fifth Avenue involved cartoon decorations, a
papier-mâché Santa Claus, and a 78-by-155-foot (24 by 47 m) American flag that ripped as it was being unfurled?
... that the volcano Eifuku produces bubbles of liquid
carbon dioxide underwater?
... that the construction of WaHu Student Apartments was delayed for one year by
Minneapolis's initial rejection of a new location for the blood plasma donation center on the property?
... that the small Pacific island nation of Tonga, represented by its satellite company Tongasat, claimed nine percent of all viable
satellite orbits and became the sixth-largest holder of those orbits?
... that Lever House(pictured), slated for replacement with a larger building in the 1980s, was protected as a New York City landmark with a one-vote majority?
... that the Pomme d'Or Hotel was used as the Nazi naval headquarters during the occupation of Jersey, and the Union Jack is raised on the hotel balcony every year to celebrate Jersey's liberation?
... that Tatjana Gamerith and her husband, married for 60 years despite an age difference of 20 years, were awarded a prize for their work to combine art and nature?
... that the three dolphins on the coat of arms of Anguilla(pictured) represent "unity, strength and endurance", which is also the motto of the territory?
... that Colonel Dyck served in the Rhodesian and Zimbabwean armies before fighting as a mercenary in Mozambique in 2021 aged 77?
... that in the early 2000s, the only settlement in East Timor with 24-hour electricity was its capital city Dili?
... that the flag of Sark(pictured) represented the last feudal state in the Western world, and is flown over the British Ministry of Justice every 6 August to commemorate the granting of the
fief?
... that the
neofolk album The Lone Furrow features several guest vocalists from
heavy metal bands, and critics thought it might appeal to fans of that genre?
... that
Leeds industrialist William Gott was charged with
nuisance when his factory's
steam engine produced "noisome and unwholesome smokes and vapours"?
00:00, 6 August 2021 (UTC)
Mallard II
... that the wooden-hulled Mallard II (pictured), built in 1936, is "probably the oldest operating
dredge in California"?
... that the title of the album Red by
Taylor Swift refers to the tumultuous "red" emotions that were evoked from an unhealthy romance she was experiencing during the album's conception?
... that Fallout was considered a risky project by developer
Interplay Entertainment and was threatened with cancellation three times?
... that KICU-TV in Visalia, California, claimed to be the most powerful TV station west of the Mississippi River after a transmitter upgrade—and closed for good two years later?
... that the British South Africa Police's Black Boots support unit were dubbed "terr hungry" for apparently enjoying killing suspected terrorists in Rhodesia?
... that an inquiry from an engineering student led to the repair of a structural flaw at New York City's Citicorp Center?
3 August 2021
12:00, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
Reusable coffin with an open trapdoor
... that
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, caused outrage in 1784 when he ordered that people be buried naked in reusable coffins(example pictured) from which the body fell into the grave via a trapdoor?
... that at
George Floyd's funeral, a
montage mistakenly included a photograph of the still-living former American football player George Floyd?
... that Crewe Alexandra finished last in the
Football League eight times between 1894 and 1982, more than any other league club?
... that the intricate seal of Columbia University was the first instance in which both Greek and Latin appeared on a college or university seal?
... that John Matthews's pension was suspended because he was accused of leading a call for a theatre performance to play "
Yankee Doodle" and "
Hail, Columbia"?
... that
Spain's win in the UEFA Euro 2008 Final was the first of three successive major tournament victories?
2 August 2021
12:00, 2 August 2021 (UTC)
LGBT pride parade in Argentina
... that despite an attempted "extermination" of homosexuals in the 1960s and 1970s, the LGBT community in Argentina(parade pictured) is now the most accepted in Latin America?
... that during its planning stages, 53 West 53rd Street in New York City was shortened by 200 feet (61 m) to reduce the visibility of the mechanical rooms?
... that Indonesian comedian Yusran Effendi was personally awarded a place on an Islamic pilgrimage trip by president
Suharto?
... that William Powell, the author of The Anarchist Cookbook, founded the nonprofit Next Frontier: Inclusion in atonement for writing the book?
... that YouTuber Ghib Ojisan visited
Yishun, a
Singaporean town, expecting danger after reading of cats being slaughtered but instead found it "home to nice people and cute cats"?
... that Aequanimitas explains "what makes a good doctor"?
... that actor Joseph Holland was accidentally stabbed and seriously wounded by
Orson Welles, wielding a steel knife, during a 1937 Broadway production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?
00:00, 2 August 2021 (UTC)
Professional fisherman on Lake Zürich
... that
perch became a major product of the Swiss fishing industry(fishing boat pictured) in the mid–20th century after a fisherman found that an
industrial potato peeler made two perfect filets from each fish?
... that
Jerome Robbins choreographed the ballet Andantino to
music by Tchaikovsky, despite his lack of interest, because "you don't necessarily have to enjoy doing something for it to be good"?
... that infectious diseases specialist Jameela Al Salman has supported the development of
medical robots and called their use in Bahrain a "pioneering experiment"?
... that Royal Navy officer George M'Kinley was blinded during a gun drill?
... that students at Pomona College are traditionally thrown into a fountain on their birthday?
1 August 2021
12:00, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
Great blue turaco
... that according to
Mbuti tradition, eating a great blue turaco(living example pictured) while pregnant may result in a difficult delivery or birth deformity?
... that the animated film The Exigency took thirteen years to make?
... that Gerold of Lausanne prohibited Catholic church services in Jerusalem in 1229?
... that after drinking five glasses of "purging" mineral water from the Physic Well on Barnet Common,
Samuel Pepys had to break his journey back to London seven or eight times to relieve himself?
... that architect Van Dorn Hooker, who served in the
USAAF, was a cartoonist for Army news publications, and painted aircraft
nose art?
... that New York City's Hotel Knickerbocker closed after fourteen years of operation and did not reopen for nearly a century?
... that although "Chi Mat Ba Ram", the title of the song by
Brave Girls, translates to "the swish of a skirt" in Korean, a term that is often used negatively, the song is about the fierceness in women?
... that Nicaraguan cartoonist Pedro X. Molina has had to flee his home country twice in his lifetime?
... that the Police Anti-Terrorist Unit joined Rhodesian military operations in police uniform and were only issued camouflage after a soldier hesitated because a target wore the same colour trousers?
... that the lap steel guitar was the first "foreign" musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music?
... that during the
War of the Lombards, fighting was interrupted so that the corpse of the besieged Queen Alice could be handed over to
her husband, who had never seen her alive?