Lost Cosmonauts

Some of these are insane, but all of them awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program_conspiracy_accusations

List of family relations in the NHL

This list is exhaustingly researched and prepared. Also it is super long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_family_relations_in_the_National_Hockey_League

Proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories

In celebration of our northern neighbors' efforts in hosting the games here is some information on their efforts to expand. Most interesting to me were the overwhelming support for the inclusion of Turks and Caicos and the desire for provincehood by those living in my ancestral lands, Cape Breton Island.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_Canadian_provinces_and_territories

Kayfabe

There are few things as exhaustively Wikipedia'd as professional wrestling. This article is a great example of that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe

Montana 1948

Every once and a while you will come across something that shouldn't be on a wikipedia page, but is pure brilliance. This is a great example (quoted for posterity).

"Montana 1948 is referenced in the song "Make Way" by Birdman featuring Fat Joe and Lil Wayne in the line "We gotta party everyday like Frank came home." This is referring to when Frank Hayden came home from the war and the town held a banquet for him. (That line probably refers to something else, such as a real person or possibly the movie "King of New York" when Frank White returns home. I doubt Lil Wayne's read this book.)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_1948

Purdue Wreck

Before plane crashes were a problem there were train crashes. This is a crazy turn of the century story about a train crash killing college football players.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdue_Wreck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Z%C3%BCndel#Nazi_UFOs-Antarctica

Interesting set of beliefs from Enrst Zundel's wikipedia page:

Nazi UFOs-Antarctica

When Zündel started Samisdat Publishers in the 1970s, he initially catered to the UFOlogy community, which was then at its peak of public acceptance. His main offerings were his own books claiming that flying saucers were Nazi secret weapons launched from an underground base in Antarctica, from which the Nazis hoped to conquer the world.^[17]

Under the pseudonyms 'Christof Friedrich' and 'Mattern Friedrich', he also wrote several publications promoting the idea that UFOs were really secret weapons of the Nazis who had fled toNeu-Schwabenland in Antarctica ('Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions' [1978] and 'Hitler at the South Pole' [1979]). He promoted the idea of Nazi secret bases in Antarctica, Nazi UFOs, secret polar bases and Hollow Earth theories.

Along with publishing Willibald Mattern, a German émigré living in Santiago de Chile, books on Nazi UFO in its original German and translated into English, with Willibald Mattern, wrote 'UFOs: Nazi Secret Weapon?'.

The UFOs supposedly monitor humanity, and are part of a secret plan to re-conquer the world at an unspecified time. Whether he actually believed these notions or it was just a publicity stunt cannot be ascertained.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]}

SS Chelyuskin

Sometimes Wikipedia leads to stories of insane heroism. Getting your ship destroyed by ice and then making and remaking a landing strip with rudimentary tools thirteen times, counts as that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheliuskin_(ship)

Planets in science fiction

This is a long article on various planets found in science fiction. Oddly enough, no Star Wars planets are included.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planets_in_science_fiction

Operation Downfall

Relevant pull quote:

Nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured in anticipation of the casualties resulting from the invasion of Japan. To the present date, all the American military casualties of the sixty years following the end of World War II—including the Korean and Vietnam Wars—have not exceeded that number. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock.^[46] There are so many in surplus that combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan are able to keep Purple Hearts on-hand for immediate award to wounded soldiers on the field.^[46]

Pretty intense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall

Manhattanization

A nifty term to describe the building of many, many skyscrapers in an area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattanization