User:DanCherek/DYK

Did you know ...

... that "The House of Asterion" by Jorge Luis Borges was one of the first works by a major author to examine a well-known tale from the monster's perspective?
... that the wind phone in Japan was set up to allow people to talk to the dead?
... that Dav Pilkey wrote the children's book The Paperboy, which received a Caldecott Honor, in fifteen minutes?
... that for the 2015 film A Heavy Heart, German actor Peter Kurth gained and then lost 35 pounds (16 kg) to portray his character's physical decline due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?
... that in 2021, Christina Soontornvat became the first author to win two Newbery Honors in the same year for both fiction (A Wish in the Dark) and nonfiction (All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team)?
↑ [multi-nomination hook]
↑ [multi-nomination hook]
... that Chris Redd won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2018 for co-writing a song about Barack Obama?
... that A Ruined Life was the first film by director Victor Sjöström to be shown in Sweden because his earlier film, The Gardener, had been censored for 68 years?
... that Carl Craig became the state auditor of Mississippi in 1936 after defeating a former state auditor also named Carl?
↑ [multi-nomination hook]
↑ [multi-nomination hook]
... that after Mary Lou Godbold announced her candidacy for the Mississippi Senate, all of the other candidates withdrew from the race?
... that Betty Jane Long was Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives for less than a day?
... that Barbara Yancy, who succeeded her husband in the Mississippi Senate after his death, later became an advocate for other widowed homemakers?
... that Lovie Gore made multiple unsuccessful attempts to delay the desegregation of schools in Mississippi?
... that after Maria Camilleri co-founded a school for Muslim children in Malta, she became the only Christian headmistress of a Muslim school in the world?
... that Mississippi legislator Thelma Farr Baxter introduced a bill to keep livestock off the roads after her husband was fatally injured in a highway collision with a cow?
... that Mary L. Smith became the first female president of Kentucky State University in 1991 despite having been passed over for the same job a year earlier?
... that Shirley Congdon, the vice chancellor of the University of Bradford, was the first in her family to attend university?
... that Rannveig Þorsteinsdóttir, a newspaper clerk and part-time teacher in the 1920s, became the first woman to practice law in the Supreme Court of Iceland thirty years later?
... that the Catholic Church barred Deborah Schembri from practicing law in ecclesiastical court because she led a campaign to legalize divorce in Malta?
... that Nellah Massey Bailey became the first woman to be elected statewide in Mississippi in 1947, less than a year after the death of her husband Governor Thomas L. Bailey?
... that Debra Humphris, the vice chancellor of the University of Brighton, advocated converting 18th-century army barracks into student residences?
... that Julie Mennell was a police officer and a forensics specialist before she became vice chancellor of the University of Cumbria?
... that British nurse Ethel Becher was described as a "modern Florence Nightingale" in 1919 for her services during World War I?
... that Truus Smulders-Beliën, the first female mayor in the Netherlands, succeeded her husband after he was executed by Nazi soldiers?
... that Inkeri Anttila, Finland's first female minister of justice, was also the first woman in Finland to complete a doctorate in law?
... that Helen D'Amato was appointed to a three-year term as Malta's commissioner of children, but held the role for nearly twice as long after her term expired without a successor being designated?
... that Anna-Liisa Tiekso dropped out of university in 1951 to become the youngest member of the Finnish parliament?
... that Finnish minister Kyllikki Pohjala learned English while working in New York hospitals to pay for her education at Columbia University?
... that Vieno Simonen was first elected to the Finnish parliament in 1948, ten years after she was widowed with seven children?
... that Pirjo Ala-Kapee-Hakulinen was the first and only governor of the Eastern Finland Province from its creation in 1997 to its abolition in 2010?
... that Finnish politician Margit Eskman did not attend secondary school because she had to work in a shoe factory?
... that Irma Toivanen, who was part of a group of Finnish volunteer medics during World War II, helped make a film about the group six decades later?
... that Orvokki Kangas authored six books, including a novel, memoirs, and religious devotionals, after she left the Finnish parliament at the age of 61?
... that Alli Lahtinen, the first woman to lead a central government agency in Finland, helped establish the country's national child care system?
... that after her death Katri-Helena Eskelinen was voted "the greatest Siilinjärvi resident of all time" by her hometown?
... that the University of Oulu renamed an institute after Finnish politician Kerttu Saalasti in 2017, six decades after she introduced the bill that established the university?
... that Sinikka Luja-Penttilä published a novel in the same year that she retired from the Finnish parliament?
... that Finnish politician Maija Perho encouraged future president Sauli Niinistö to join the National Coalition Party in the 1960s?
... that Meeri Kalavainen, Finland's first minister of culture, helped end a schism in the women's branch of the Social Democratic Party?
... that Finnish politician Maija Rask earned a PhD at the age of 61 after a career as a nurse, teacher, member of Parliament, and minister of education?
... that Finnish politician Kaarina Suonio answered the world's first GSM phone call?
... that Sharon Choi, the Korean–English interpreter for film director Bong Joon-ho, is herself a director?
... that Thomas Rhett's "What's Your Country Song" contains lyrical references to 16 other country songs?
(with Wugapodes) ... that Homobiles has been called "Uber for drag queens"?
... that some music scholars have suggested that the Chaconne in G minor, widely attributed to Tomaso Antonio Vitali, is a musical hoax?
... that according to Christopher Bollen, much of his 2020 novel A Beautiful Crime was written in a 17th-century monastery?
... that Norma Kuhling's character in Fourteen was described by a film critic as "a Greta Gerwig spin on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl"?
... that Michaela Goade received the 2021 Caldecott Medal for her watercolor illustrations for We Are Water Protectors, becoming the first Indigenous artist to win the award?
↑ [multi-nomination hook]
... that Noa Denmon's illustration for the Google Doodle on Martin Luther King Jr. Day included people painting a mural while socially distanced due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
... that during W. Sterling Cary's presidency of the National Council of Churches in the 1970s, the council voted to support gay rights for the first time in its history?
... that the children's book A Place Inside of Me is dedicated to the nephew of Atatiana Jefferson, a Black woman who was shot to death in her home by a policeman in 2019?
... that violinist Nikolai Sachenko performs rarely-played piano trios by Russian composers as a member of the Brahms Trio?
... that Dan Finnerty was cast in Single All the Way so that he could cross the Canada–U.S. border and join his wife, Kathy Najimy, on the set of the film?
... that a woman in Texas attempted to have Tiger Flowers removed from the library collection at her daughter's school?
... that Rogelio de Egusquiza's paintings of Tristan and Isolde arose from his decades-long fascination with the works of Richard Wagner?
(with Possibly) ... that the photographer Václav Jírů was sentenced to death for resisting the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and spent years in Nazi prisons?
... that when Helena Braun visited New York "just for the trip", she sang the role of Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera with four hours' notice?
... that Fire and Sword, a film about Tristan and Isolde, reused the stuntmen and horses from another Arthurian film, Excalibur?
... that there have been several attempts to make Colby cheese the official state cheese of Wisconsin?
... that Ludwig Zottmayr, who created the role of King Marke in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, was not the composer's first choice?
... that Paul Gutama Soegijo travelled from Germany to Indonesia to study the gamelan instruments of Java for eight years?
... that Baillieu Myer and his siblings were born in California because their father's prior divorce was not recognised under Australian law?
... that the 2013 novel Body Offering was described by a critic as "more erratic than erotic"?
... that the 1980 bibliography The Old French Tristan Poems was praised for indexing the fragments of Tristan, a 12th-century poem?
... that the gonads of the banded bullfrog remain ripe during dry periods so that it can mate soon after rainfall?
(with Gerda Arendt and Микола Василечко) ... that the 1885 spiritual anthem Prayer for Ukraine was performed by a choir from New York on Saturday Night Live?
... that Vladyslav Buialskyi, a 24-year-old bass-baritone from Berdiansk, sang the State Anthem of Ukraine on the night of his debut with the Metropolitan Opera?
... that Henri Coutard, an early pioneer in radiation therapy, spent the last decade of his life conducting fanciful experiments that were rejected by his peers?
... that the egg-size Logan Sapphire glows reddish orange under ultraviolet radiation?
... that Melody, originally composed by Myroslav Skoryk for a 1982 Soviet film, was used in Volodymyr Zelenskyy's broadcast to the U.S. Congress in March 2022?
... that the Caldecott Honor–winning illustrations for Going Down Home with Daddy contain Adinkra symbols that represent various concepts in Ghanaian culture?
... that Creekfinding was inspired by epidemiologist Michael Osterholm's efforts to restore a creek that had been diverted decades earlier?