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This is a record of material that was featured on the Main Page as part of Did you know (DYK). Recently created new articles, greatly expanded former stub articles and recently promoted good articles are eligible; you can submit them for consideration.

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 the article's talk page and follow the archive link in the DYK talk page message box or the Article Milestones box.

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Did you know...

18 July 2026

00:00, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Unofficial flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

... that the emoji of the unofficial flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (pictured) is often used online by Basques because it features the flag of the Basque Country, which does not have its own emoji?
... that the Ming prince Zhu Su authored a botanical monograph describing 414 edible wild plants to help people survive crop failures and famines?
... that in his translation of Gerald of Wales's De principis instructione, Robert Bartlett described Gerald as "one of the great auto-plagiarists of the Middle Ages"?
... that BokHee An's character Nurse BokHee, the longest-running recurring character on Grey's Anatomy, only spoke once during the TV show's first 14 seasons?
... that during the Battle of Taginae, the Gothic king Totila broke off his battle formation and led his men to lunch in an attempt to trick the Byzantines into lowering their guard?
... that the Kensington Treaty was the first bilateral Germany–United Kingdom treaty since World War II?
... that an art colony in New York City was developed because a set of nearby houses couldn't be torn down for 25 years?
... that a New Zealand gallery crowdfunded the purchase of an Elizabeth Stevens painting for the sake of a message on its back?
... that a Pennsylvania TV station canceled Harambe?

17 July 2026

00:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Kiara St. James

... that transgender activist Kiara St. James (pictured) helped to end New York's Walking While Trans law?
... that a formerly best-selling title in the Fate franchise remained exclusive to Japan until an English fan translation was released a decade later?
... that German-born Katrin Bennhold has been a senior writer for The New York Times in three European capitals?
... that the school board of Charlotte, North Carolina, bought a defunct TV station in Florida and moved its equipment to start their own TV station?
... that the Torreón del Monje was the headquarters of a pigeon-shooting club?
... that Marvin Lowenthal went from being a silk-mill bobbin boy to writing a sixteen-century history of Jews in Germany?
... that Kreni-Promeni activists put up a billboard in Belgrade with attached cotton lungs that gradually darkened as they absorbed polluted air?
... that Shark Tank was adapted from a Japanese show that aimed to encourage entrepreneurship during a lengthy period of economic stagnation in the Japanese economy?
... that John Gauntlett was defeated in an election by his next-door neighbour, Charles Mompesson?

16 July 2026

00:00, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

Gore trout statue

... that "Trouty McTroutface" was submitted in a naming contest for a trout statue (pictured)?
... that two inches of excess beam doomed the Confederate gunboat Appomattox?
... that Stamford Raffles collected over thirty tons of Javanese objects to help him write The History of Java?
... that football player Jamie Duncan was described as a "one-man horror show"?
... that VRMMORPG fiction such as Sword Art Online influenced public discourse surrounding modern virtual-reality technologies?
... that the cover of GreenGreen, an extended play by Cortis, features a bridge that the band's members frequently walked past when they were idol trainees?
... that British opera singer Suzannah Clarke performed annually in North Korea?
... that there are three genders in Plato's Symposium: man, woman, and the union of the two?
... that a darts player nicknamed "The Reaper" works at a funeral home?

15 July 2026

00:00, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

Audu at the march on Versailles

... that the fruit seller Reine Audu (pictured) was jailed after the march on Versailles in 1789 for announcing her intention to "[bring] back the Queen's head on her sword", among other charges?
... that an abandoned château in an advanced state of ruin was saved with €500,000 from a lottery?
... that in 1976, thieves tied up an art collector, stole a painting, and were never caught?
... that mothers believed that taking young children to the grave of the Petite-Émigrée would help them to walk early?
... that a French company revived a favorite perfume of the ancient Roman nobility in 2023?
... that a two-metre-high (6 ft 5 in) wall of dry stone was built in 1721 to stop the advance of the Great Plague of Marseille?
... that Pierre Noël Lecauchois's client was almost burned at the stake because the order to stay her execution was delayed?
... that Good King Henry allegedly said that he wanted every farmer to have a chicken in a pot?
... that the corpse of Pierre-Amable de Soubrany was guillotined?

14 July 2026

00:00, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

Corn tortillas

... that the tortilla (examples pictured) has been eaten for thousands of years, but it has only been considered a national symbol of Mexico since the 20th century?
... that magician Sterling Dietz used $1,200 in prize earnings from a chess tournament to pay for tuition at a Las Vegas magic school?
... that permanent human settlements emerged independently in multiple regions approximately 5,000 to 10,000 years ago?
... that a transgender-owned bookshop in Leeds ran a fundraiser in which people paid to deface pages of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?
... that the fossil redwood Metasequoia milleri was described from its pollen cones?
... that four people and three hundred sheep died after sixteen carriages broke off a mixed-use train and collided with a goods train in Bathurst?
... that the Princedom of Zhou, unlike most other Ming princedoms, developed a strong tradition of cultural and literary learning?
... that practical normativity covers what people should do, while theoretical normativity is about what to believe?
... that the first volume of a yuri manga was criticized for not having enough yuri?

13 July 2026

00:00, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

Douglas Adams

... that Douglas Adams (pictured) described the sudden success of The Hitchhiker's Guide as like "having an orgasm without the foreplay"?
... that a Serbian village is named after Vladimir Putin?
... that local residents hurled stones and bricks from rooftops during the Defense of Beijing in 1449, allowing Ming reinforcements to drive back the Oirats?
... that the director of Rhode Island PBS confronted the state's governor in a sandwich shop to ask for funding?
... that thumb wrestling is one of twelve sports featured in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort?
... that Devon Again was the second artist signed to her record label, after Chappell Roan?
... that the first Quakers in Costa Rica founded the city of Monteverde after fleeing from the United States?
... that Mark Rosenblatt still reads Roald Dahl's books to his children, despite Rosenblatt's play Giant depicting Dahl's antisemitism?
... that a Viking played in the National Hockey League?

12 July 2026

00:00, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

Statue of John Cartwright

... that the first British writer to openly support the Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolutionary War was later honoured with a statue in London (pictured)?
... that Cincinnati mayor Frederick S. Spiegel spent his final years as legal counsel for the city's subway project, during which an inspection accident ultimately led to his death?
... that the combination of Bulgarian choral music and Tuvan throat singing on Fly, Fly My Sadness was inspired by multiple albums being played at the same time?
... that River Moon was a mortician's assistant and managed a meme page before pursuing a DJ career?
... that Vietnamese writer Phạm Đoan Trang asked for permission to keep her guitar while in jail?
... that a Florida man in his 70s claims an internet following of Gen Zers?
... that Anna Van Patten learned pole dancing to prepare for her role in Euphoria?
... that Macrocarpaea dies-viridis was named after the band Green Day?
... that John W. Townsend Jr. used rockets to measure atmospheric gas over a subarctic town?

11 July 2026

00:00, 11 July 2026 (UTC)

Margaret (circled) photographed in 2003

... that Uranus's moon Margaret (pictured) is named after a Shakespearean character, an astronomer's daughter, and its discoverer's mother?
... that, when King Akengbuda's heir sent him grey hairs to urge his abdication, he replied with powdered chalk and salt to signify that the world was too pleasant for him to leave?
... that author Lutz Van Dijk drew inspiration from murdered Ugandan LGBTQ activist David Kato to write a novel about a gay Ugandan teenager fleeing persecution?
... that, when Pedro Morales Pino took his band on their first international tour, they lost members to typhus, marriage, schizophrenia, and suicide?
... that spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 is the only type of spinocerebellar ataxia that consistently results in vision degradation?
... that the shark god Kāneikokala, according to Hawaiian tradition, rescued shipwrecked sailors and returned them to their home islands?
... that Kanye West claims in his song "King" that he would not have married Bianca Censori without the work of Martin Luther King Jr.?
... that the reliquary believed to contain the remains of Maria Afonso may instead hold the body of her infant nephew?
... that Sheikh Chilli may not be Sheikh Chilli?

10 July 2026

00:13, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

Pizza Cat with a morale patch bearing her likeness

... that Pizza Cat (pictured), a cat living at Al Udeid Air Base, was awarded the rank of "Senior Meowster Sergeant" by the United States Air Force?
... that Ælfhun, Bishop of London, was accused of trying to remove the body of St Edmund, but the bier was said to have miraculously refused to move?
... that a local official of the Joseon dynasty secretly buried the body of King Danjong despite King Sejo's threats to kill the family of anyone who did so?
... that Ariana Grande claimed that she would need two brains and six arms to produce her eighth album before announcing Petal?
... that a type of ballad details the fictionalized last words of executed people?
... that a fixture of Madrid nightlife in the 1990s was a trans woman who was often seen at concerts wearing a large picture hat?
... that Gambit Digital acquired the rights to the 2023 video game Fae Farm five days after the original developer ended online support in September 2025?
... that a dog chasing its master and a crab sidestepping an intruder can both be modeled mathematically by motion along a Tschirnhausen cubic?
... that soon after the general Hushahu, fearing harsh punishment, assassinated his emperor, another general, also fearing harsh punishment, murdered him?

9 July 2026

00:00, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Post-Pyramide

... that Kim Petras's new album features a track about a brutalist building (pictured) that she passed on the way to gender-care appointments as a child?
... that Vietnamese gangster Eight-Finger Phước cut off two of his own fingers after his mother scolded him?
... that the creators of Field Guide to Memory coined the term keepsake game to describe the new genre that they hoped it would establish?
... that an infamous sex scene in the bonkbuster genre appears in a novel in which a goldfish is inserted into a vagina?
... that the female founder of a dervish group in Afghanistan was forced to flee the country in 2021?
... that a Florida TV station named after "Christ, the Alpha and the Omega" moved to shed its religious image within two years of its debut?
... that only two specimens of Vieira's spiny tree-rat are known to exist?
... that MLB player Harry Hoch was also a superintendent of schools at age 18?
... that the first trailer for State of Decay 3 was released before development had begun, when the game existed only as a Word document?

8 July 2026

00:00, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Iron Bridge, Lucknow

... that one of the earliest iron bridges in India (pictured) was assembled during the reign of Amjad Ali Shah?
... that people in Los Angeles used a podiatry clinic's sign for fortune-telling?
... that Josiah Blanton scored the Marshall Islands national soccer team's first-ever goal?
... that services were suspended on the Inner West Light Rail for four months after cracks were discovered in the entire tram fleet?
... that William Sirignano, while still a student, helped to solve an engine-instability problem on the Saturn V Moon rocket?
... that The Moon on a Rainy Night was praised for addressing disability as a social concern rather than an individual one?
... that Alice H. Lichtenstein's research contributed to a ban on trans fat in the United States?
... that pole vaulter Armand Duplantis wrote the song "Bop" to cope with stress in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympics?
... that artist Cate Giordano once played both Henry VIII and his wife Anne of Cleves for a solo exhibition?

7 July 2026

00:00, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Q Manivannan and Iris Duane

... that Q Manivannan and Iris Duane (both pictured) are the first two openly transgender people elected to the Scottish Parliament?
... that Bad Bunny was the first Spanish-language Latino solo artist to headline a Super Bowl halftime show?
... that, under Nathalie Drach-Temam's presidency, Sorbonne University opted out of the Times Higher Education rankings?
... that diglossia is a major feature of ancient and modern languages used in Palestine?
... that American actress Ruby Rose Turner debuted as a dancer on the TV show Sábado Gigante at the age of seven?
... that the captain of the Annie Jane threatened to shoot anyone who turned the ship around, before it was wrecked?
... that anti-racism campaigner Kamal Chunchie converted to Christianity from Islam during the First World War when serving in the British Army?
... that the co-creator of the Sam & Max comic series voices a character in its VR game adaptation?
... that Norman Balon revelled in his title as the "rudest landlord in London"?

6 July 2026

00:00, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Historic illustration of Arceuthobium mengeanum

... that the lost Arceuthobium mengeanum mistletoe fossils (illustrated) were possibly entombed in "sea amber"?
... that John Kinloch Anderson tested ancient Greek horse riding techniques?
... that the Wanli Emperor opposed naming his eldest son heir because his mother, though one of the Emperor's consorts, had once been a palace servant?
... that Michael Jackson once thanked Bill Bray "for being a father" to him?
... that the manga Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch was created to market the E-kara karaoke toy to young girls?
... that Kailey Utley took a break from her optometry career to become a professional soccer player?
... that Jacqueline Wilson wrote a fourth novel in her Hetty Feather series despite only planning to write a trilogy?
... that the title of Violet Grohl's debut album Be Sweet to Me began as an in-joke between her and her best friend?
... that Paulus Samador da Cunha lost a vote to become the regent of Sikka, but was appointed anyway?

5 July 2026

00:00, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

James Smith

... that James Smith (pictured) signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence even though he was not in Congress to vote on it on July 4, 1776?
... that the opening number from 1776 was quoted in the musical Hamilton?
... that Manuel García de Sena's 1811 translation of U.S. founding documents into Spanish influenced the first constitutions of Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela?
... that construction of Boston's Faneuil Hall, later to become the "Cradle of Liberty", was approved by a mere seven-vote majority?
... that the author of Liberia's declaration of independence, based on the United States's, was also the pastor of the church where it was signed?
... that a widely read Chinese revolutionary tract published in 1903 was influenced by the U.S. Declaration of Independence?
... that an All-American born on the Fourth of July said that he came back from the dead?
... that Thomas Jefferson's Monticello has inspired hundreds of replicas?
... that Rhoda Palmer was the only signer of the pro–universal suffrage Declaration of Sentiments known to have cast a vote?
... that, according to one historian, American patriot Paul Revere might not even recognize his own house?

4 July 2026

00:00, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

Flatiron Building

... that past tenants of New York City's Flatiron Building (pictured) have included a consulate, musicians, and a crime syndicate?
... that reggae musician Mo'Kalamity derives her stage name from American frontierswoman Calamity Jane?
... that the board game Endeavor: Deep Sea, in which players lead a group of marine-life specialists, won the industry Connoisseurs' Game of the Year award?
... that, for the 2026 China–US summit, China used a transliteration of the US Secretary of State's name beginning with a character meaning 'reckless', 'clumsy', or 'crass'?
... that Lamborghini-supported Colin Queen is a racing driver despite having a congenital heart defect?
... that Rochdale v York City in April 2026 was the first time that a single English football league match was a title-decider since Liverpool faced Arsenal in May 1989?
... that a Buenos Aires public square was renamed in honor of a teenager murdered in 2013?
... that, after doctors told him he had a year to live, Leon Milton Birkhead went into debt to visit Nazi Germany?

3 July 2026

00:00, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

Laura Sedgwick Collins

... that composer Laura Sedgwick Collins (pictured) was the first American woman to study with Antonín Dvořák?
... that the Capri Bird Observatory is housed on an island, among the ruins of a medieval castle?
... that the upcoming series of The Celebrity Traitors has been described as having "one of the most high-profile casts ever assembled for a reality TV show"?
... that Jorge Salvaire helped to build the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján on a promise to the patron saint after being spared execution?
... that an investigation into Motherless.com prompted both true and false claims about pro-rape content?
... that the closure of Typhoon Studios left its game on Google's platform with a game-breaking bug?
... that Barbara Viera's teams qualified for post-season play in each of her 27 years of coaching university volleyball?
... that a gameplay trailer featuring Mass Effect: Andromeda's Sara Ryder drew such criticism that its developer issued a public apology before the game even launched?
... that the co-creator of Tickle Me Elmo charged for rides on a toy rocket ship that he constructed from an old washing machine?

2 July 2026

00:00, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

Atlas

... that Atlas (pictured) was the last of her kind to be built in the United States, and later became a canning company's flagship?
... that Jacob Huesman joined the New York Giants as a fullback despite never having played the position before?
... that a candidate in the January 1926 Liechtenstein general election was reported to the police for allegedly supporting republican views?
... that a proposed dam on the North Fork Snoqualmie River may have been an attempt to gain political leverage over Seattle?
... that exiled Ceciwa Khonje's role in achieving Malawi's independence was "rubbed out of history"?
... that Lebanon uses 15 different legal frameworks and religious courts to represent the country's 18 officially recognized sects, as opposed to a common or unified civil personal status law?
... that Indonesian painter S. Sudjojono left the Communist Party of Indonesia after it deemed him to be too immoral?
... that the US government contracted for the incineration of more than 516,000 cans of soup?
... that an overshooting train in Rotterdam was saved by a whale's tail?

1 July 2026

00:00, 1 July 2026 (UTC)

Rakaia salmon statue

... that a student magazine hypothesised what would happen if a large salmon statue (pictured) fought a trout statue in New Zealand?
... that although the Indonesian Painters Association sought to develop a modern Indonesian art, its members had no shared style?
... that while writer Edgar J. March served as a war reserve constable during World War II, he tussled with a burglar and chased him on a borrowed bicycle?
... that a faulty premise can turn a whole argument into a fallacy?
... that the musical adaptation of Black Swan rewrote the character of Thomas LeRoy as a woman to avoid writing a #MeToo story?
... that Philadelphia's Salvation Army Memorial Temple was once an American burlesque theatre?
... that A Story About Fire was animated by hand on 50,000 sheets of rice paper?
... that the authors of Soonish had to remove a completed chapter from the book before publication?
... that a large yellow bear taught 500 children how to wash their hands in Haffen Park?

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