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...that Mohammed Atif Siddique was sentenced to imprisonment after being charged with collecting online files related to the
War on Terror and encouraging classmates to watch videos of
beheadings?
...that Tran Cao Van's plot to install
Duy Tan as the independent boy
Emperor of Vietnam happened only after he bribed the boy's chauffeur into allowing him access?
...that 13 years after his death in
1875, the future
Royal College of Art found a letter from the widow of Richard Burchett, headmaster for over 20 years, asking for a pension?
...that Basil W. Duke became the chief consul and lobbyist for the
L&N Railroad after the
American Civil War, even though he led many efforts in destroying their property during the war?
...that
opera singer Rosemary Kuhlmann was an assistant to the international vice-president of
PepsiCo for 16 years from the age of 56, despite intending to stay for only four months?
...that scholarly journal Anarchist Studies was attacked by
Stewart Home as a "sad and
reactionary 'academic' journal" incapable of engaging in critical debate?
...that when 74-year old
Irish politicianPól Ó Foighil was told he was too old to be an election candidate, he challenged the younger man to twenty
press ups?
...that Bhushan Steel, the largest manufacturer of auto-grade
steel in
India, is expanding its capacity to 12 million
tonnes annually?
...that in 1916,
footballerBob Benson volunteered to replace an absent
Arsenal team-mate just before a game, only to collapse and die during the match?
...that before his 40th birthday Gus Stager swam for an
NCAA championship team and coached three high school championship teams, four NCAA championship teams, and the 1960 U.S. Olympic team?
...that the first person in
England to become a
Bahá'í was Mary Thornburgh-Cropper in 1898, the year now regarded as the founding of the British Bahá'í community?
...that Wetsens station on the North Friesland Railway, which served a sparsely populated part of
Friesland,
Netherlands, closed in 1902, less than eight months after opening?
...that
prehistoricfrogBeelzebufo may have grown to over 40 cm or 16 in (size comparison pictured), larger than any living frogs, and is called "the Frog from Hell" by the media?
...that the
US military's adoption of Eagle Cash stands to save them millions of
dollars, and eliminate thousands of wasted man-hours, during the
War in Iraq?
...that Francie Kraker Goodridge, who set a world indoor record in the 600-yard run, did not receive a
varsity letter or sports scholarship and had to work as a waitress to put herself through college?
...that M-209 was the shortest state highway in
Michigan at a half-mile until 1996, serving as a connection to a former
Coast Guard station?
...that when
Galway CouncillorFintan Coogan was re-elected in 1999, the Irish Times reported his victory under the headline "City's Lazarus claims resurrection status as he defeats provider of fish"?
20 February 2008
20:03, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
...that in the 250-year-old
Durga Puja of Shobhabazar palace,
the goddess(statue pictured) was offered homemade sweets because non-
Brahmin patrons were not allowed to offer
rice?
...that
California's four-lane Bayshore Highway, now a
freeway, was built to high standards in the 1920s and '30s, but was called "Bloody Bayshore" because of the number of
crashes?
...that a significant number of Iraqis have emigrated to
Russia as early as the 1990s?
...that the people of
Uniontown, Alabama were surprised that Phillip Henry Pitts built such a large house in 1853, so it is now known as "Pitts' Folly"?
...that after the Chester Town Hall(pictured) was officially opened in 1869 in
Chester,
England to replace an earlier building burnt down in 1862, another fire destroyed the council chamber in 1897?
...that the
U.S. Supreme Court case Holloway v. United States sought to establish whether the Federal
carjacking law applies to crimes committed with the "conditional intent" of harming drivers who refuse a carjacker's demands?
...that four of the five ships operated by the Hamburg Atlantic Line and their successors were named Hanseatic at some point of their tenure in the company?
...that a
heather fire in 1996 revealed many more
quern-stones than had been previously known on the ancient quarry site of Wharncliffe Crags(pictured)?
...that twelve floors in Springleaf Tower(pictured), a skyscraper in
Singapore, were sold at
S$225 million in October 2007, while nine months earlier, they were sold at S$134 million?
...that the Port of Mainz was an important war harbour for the
Roman fleet from which Roman ships patrolled the
Rhine?
...that in the
Japanese theatrical art known as Taishū engeki(pictured), it is not uncommon for fans to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of
yen on gifts for the performers?
...that Lambda Sigma, a college
sophomorehonor society originally founded for women only, was required to disband due to
Title IX and was reestablished under its current name in 1975?
...that most of Petroleum Road, a privately owned
asphalt road in the
Golan Heights, is marked on maps as inaccessible to traffic because of poor road quality?
...that "are you other?" or "are you other being?" are
Inuktitut translations of the name of Ahimaa Cave, hollowed out of a massive cliff by Qamanirjuaq Lake?
...that the official cause of the Great Fire of 1811, which lasted for three days and burned down the whole
Podil neighborhood of
Kiev, was children playing with fire?
...that
halfbackChuck Ortmannpunted 24 times in the famed 1950
Snow Bowl, having decided the best strategy was to keep the slick ball on the other side of the field in the opponents' hands?
...that
NASCAR official Robin Pemberton's decision concerning the final outcome of the
2007 Daytona 500 resulted in his brother's team finishing second instead of first?
...that
Annie Fargé, who played a scatterbrained
French wife to an
Americanarchitect in the 1960
CBSsitcomAngel, was described by Time as "easily the brightest newcomer to situation comedy" though the
series folded after one season?
...that
Edgar Allan Poesatirized the concept of a self-made man in his story "The Business Man" using a character that makes his fortune cutting the tails off cats?
...that the small private rooms called cabinets gave rise to the political sense of
cabinet, after
English monarchs began to discuss matters of state in these settings?
...that paintings by Henry Howard(pictured) in the "Grand Revolving Temple of Concord" in
Green Park had to be saved by the
cavalry from "the multitudes of idle and dissolute spectators"?
...that
Seattle pioneer David Denny married his own stepsister, made and lost a fortune worth
US$3 million, and survived an axe-blow to his head at age 67?
...that the European
fungusRamaria formosa, found under
beech trees, resembles a yellow-tipped pink piece of many-branched
coral?
...that Michiko Maeda, the first
Japanese actress to appear nude in a mainstream film, was banned from
Japanese cinema for 42 years for disobeying a director?
...that rubrics were originally anything written in red letters in a
manuscript, but now most often mean instructions, especially for officiating
clergy, or
scoring tools for tests in education?
...that Wally Weber,
football player, coach and broadcaster at
Michigan for 45 years, was renowned for his "polysyllabic fluency" and sounding like an "an educated foghorn"?
...that Swiss watchmaker Parmigiani Fleurier made the Bugatti 370 – a $200,000 watch in honour of the
supercarBugatti Veyron – which won the 2006 "Watch of the Year" Award from the Japanese press?
...that John Percival, when
headmaster of
Rugby School, gained the
nickname "Percival of the knees" because he was concerned about "impurity" and insisted that boys secure their
football shorts below the knee with elastic?
...that Margaret Downey's first major public activism for
atheism was in response to the
Boy Scouts of America refusing to renew her son's membership due to his professed atheism?
...that when Indian Agent
Robert Neighbors was introduced to
Comanche Chief Old Owl, the Comanches were so pleased with the agent’s generosity that they proposed adopting him into their tribe?
11 February 2008
18:36, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
...that during the construction of Samsung Hub(pictured), a
high-rise commercial building in
Singapore, the building sank on one side from 3 mm to 39 mm in just four months?
...that award-winning
biographerJenny Uglow described her dictionary of women's biographies as "a mad undertaking, born of a time when
feminists wanted
heroines and didn't have
Google"?
05:55, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
...that American painter George Cooke's Interior of St. Peter's Rome (pictured), measuring 17 by 23.5 feet, was the largest
oil painting of its time, and still ranks among the world's largest?
...that the case of Styllou Christofi, the penultimate woman to be
hanged in Britain, failed to cause a public outcry because she, in the opinion of her executioner
Albert Pierrepoint, was not very glamorous?
...that the environment of Florida supports the
breeding of 34 species of non-native
fish, a higher number than any other place on earth?
...that the 1996
TV filmHidden in America reminded viewers that on any given night, up to five million children in
America go to bed hungry?
...that the Tumblagooda sandstone contains the earliest record of animals walking on the land?
17:30, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
...that the first postage stamps of Israel(pictured) were issued on
May 161948, within 48 hours of the independent republic being proclaimed?
...that while only three Avro Chinooks,
Canada's first
jet engine design, were ever built, they led to the very successful
Orenda design that followed?
...that Emery Molyneux's 16th-century terrestrial and celestial
globes(pictured) were the first to be made in
England and by an Englishman?
...that the
USA's first locally designed
jet engine, the Lockheed J37, spent ten years in development but was never used on a production aircraft?
...that Murray Klein, the co-owner of
Zabar's food market, sold
Beluga caviar at a loss rather than lose a high profile
publicity and
price war with archrival
Macy's, which was later dubbed the "Beluga caviar war" by the press?
...that ethnographer Eric Mjöberg, leader of the first Swedish scientific expedition to Western Australia's
Kimberley region, smuggled out indigenous human remains and that 90 years later,
Sweden returned all 18 boxes of them?
...that Charlie Fonville broke a 14-year-old
shot put world record by almost 12 inches (30 cm) at the 1948 Kansas Relays but was not allowed to stay with the other athletes because he was
African-American?
...that the
fungusBoletus luridus may cause nausea and vomiting if consumed with alcohol, or if not thoroughly cooked?
...that outspoken British judge Melford Stevenson once described a case before him as a "pretty
anaemic kind of rape" because the victim was the accused's ex-girlfriend?
...that Japanese submarine I-17 was the first
Axis ship to shell the United States mainland in
World War II triggering an "invasion" scare along the West Coast?
...that Skerryvore, off the west coast of
Scotland, considered by some to be the world's most graceful lighthouse, was built by an uncle of
Robert Louis Stevenson?
...that two-time Olympic
diving gold medalist Bob Webster won his first collegiate diving title for a junior college with no pool, training off a board in his coach's back-yard sand pit?
...that voice
announcerBob LeMond, who announced on the original, lost
pilot episode of I Love Lucy, had to re-record his original lines for the show once the episode was rediscovered in the early
2000s?
...that Noble Ellington, a veteran member of both houses of the
Louisiana State Legislature from
Winnsboro in the northeastern portion of his state, is involved in legal action so that his wife may continue to serve as his legislative
secretary?
...that award-winning
financial analystDana Telsey was first hired at a
mutual fund company after her mother met a former neighbor on the street and asked him "Can you give Dana a job?"
...that the tilted trees in Canada's Taiga Shield, caused by repeated freezing and thawing of the shallow soil's
permafrost, have been likened to a "
drunken forest"?
...that when Canterbury Presbyterian Church(pictured) closed in 2004, its
congregants were absorbed by a nearby church that had split from Canterbury twice in its 178-year history?
...that director
Li Yu's Fish and Elephant is often considered the first lesbian-themed film to come out of mainland China?
...that Czar
Peter I of Russia not only stayed as a blacksmith's personal houseguest at what is now called the Czar Peter House in
Zaandam, but also paid a widow boarding there to move out so there would be room for him?
...that Canadian biochemist Archibald Macallum used measurements of ionic concentrations in
blood sera to argue for the ancient marine origin of all
vertebrates?
...that model Anna Loginova founded a women bodyguard firm in Russia because male bodyguards are sometimes made to wait outside restaurants while the client is inside?
...that the Black jack, Caranx lugubris, was first described in
1860 by
CubanzoologistFelipe Poey in his two-volume work Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba, or "Natural History of the Island of Cuba"?
...that the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty was concluded between private citizens and the
Comanche, then recognized by the
United States, and opened 3,000,000 acres (12,140 km²) to settlers?
...that Votan, a legendary figure from
Mesoamerica, has been erroneously identified with the Norse god
Odin and the
Mayan ruler
Pacal the Great, among others, despite a lack of evidence?
...that Joseph Farington (pictured) kept a diary almost daily from
13 July1793 until
30 December1821 that has provided historians with insight into the
London art world as well as first-hand accounts of important political events of the day?
...that when
Jean-Paul Sartre's classic first novel Nausea appeared in 1938, it was reviewed by
Albert Camus, still a journalist in Algeria working on his own later-classic first novel,
The Stranger?
...that due to the change from the
Julian to the
Gregorian calendar in 1582, English letter writers often used two dates on their letters, a practice known as dual dating?
...that despite denouncing
Fidel Castro's 1953 attack on the
Moncada Barracks, politician Carlos Rafael Rodríguez became one of Castro's most trusted allies after the 1959 revolution and served as Vice President?
...that the name of Whangaroa Harbour, an inlet on the northern coast of the
Northland Region of
North Island,
New Zealand, comes from the
Māori lament "Whaingaroa" or "What a long wait" of a woman whose warrior husband had left for a foray to the south?
...that the Matsés language of
Peru has undergone some mixing with other indigenous languages because the
Matsés people previously had the custom of capturing women from neighboring tribes?
...that the Petit Pont in
Paris,
France has been destroyed at least 13 times since its construction in the
Roman era?
...that Dzhigit is a reference to a skillful and brave
equestrian in the
Caucasus, and the derived term "Dzhigitovka" means the special style of
trick riding, which originated in the Caucasus and
Central Asia, and is also popular with Russian
Cossacks?
...that the German four-mast sailing ship Herzogin Cecilie, under Finnish flag after 1920, won the "grain race" from Australia around
Cape Horn to Europe four times from 1926 to 1936?
...that after spending fifteen years building the largest telescope in the world, scientists in the
Soviet Union were dismayed to find that BTA-6 performed much worse than the
Hale telescope it was designed to beat?
...that a bridge has existed at the site of the Pont Notre-Dame(pictured) in
Paris,
France since antiquity?
...that presidential candidate
Barack Obama's chief of staff, Pete Rouse, came to be known as "the 101st Senator" due to his savvy on
Capitol Hill?
...that the
Tang DynastychancellorZhang Jianzhi, despite a long civil service career, did not become a chancellor until age 79, and a year later took part in overthrowing the only female emperor in Chinese history,
Wu Zetian?
...that Israeli scholar Charles Liebman pioneered contemporary scholarship on American
Orthodox Judaism and argued that "religious extremism is the norm" in Israel?