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1
...that as
Burton Abbott was being executed in
California 's
gas chamber in 1957, the governor was contacting the warden to
stay the execution ?
...that the conflict between
Communist Romanian leader
Nicolae Ceauşescu and his ideological rival
Petre Borilă worsened in the early 1970s, after Ceauşescu's son
Valentin decided to marry Borilă's daughter?
...that although the
Azad Hind Stamps (
pictured ) are
Cinderella stamps , the
Indian Postal department deems them
postage stamps ?
...that
Japanologist
Hugh Borton took up his field after being posted to
Japan by a
Quaker
service organization ?
...that
Madison Limestone , a layer of mostly
carbonate rocks formed in the
Mississippian
period , serves as an
aquifer and an
oil reservoir in the
Rocky Mountains and
Great Plains areas?
...that one of the first known instances of a composer specifically calling for the use of a
bass violin , the predecessor of the modern
cello , was in the opera
Orfeo by
Claudio Monteverdi ?
...that the
Carlsberg papyrus is the most complete of the ancient Egyptian
medical papyri , containing substantial amounts of artifacts of the original papyrus?
...that the forthcoming television adaptation of the
BBC Radio 2 sitcom
Teenage Kicks , originally for
BBC Two , has been taken over by
ITV ?
...that the
United Issarak Front leader
Son Ngoc Minh declared
Cambodian independence on
June 19
1950 ?
...that
Colorado Sen.
Nancy Spence's bill to create a statewide
school voucher program was the first to be enacted into law in the
U.S. — and then overturned by
state courts — after
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris ?
...that a
bronze bowl from the
Iron Age
Glastonbury Lake Village was made from the remnants of two separate vessels, before it was deposited in the
peat ?
...that
landscape and
portrait
painter
Herbert A. Collins (
pictured ) made several portraits of naturalist
John Muir as well as paintings of the evolution of
Yosemite Valley ?
...that a report by the
Judicial Commission of New South Wales almost led to a New South Wales judge being removed from office because of the time delays in giving decisions?
...that
Nguyen Truong To was called to serve Emperor
Tu Duc of
Vietnam despite having earlier assisted
France 's
colonization of southern Vietnam ?
...that
Miyazaki Ichisada was known for adding a fourth phase to periodisation of the
history of China and
Japan ?
...that at the time of his death,
A. Ronald Walton was estimated to have reviewed more
language programs than anyone else in the world?
...that the
Barasoain Church , where three major events in
Philippine history took place, became known as the Cradle of Democracy in the East ?
...that
Mary Perkins was the first female optician to be made a
Dame Commander of the British Empire ?
...that
fruit as a
slang term developed in London with the
costermongers and later in
Cockney rhyming slang and
Polari , with most variations becoming
pejorative against
gay men who have since
reclaimed usages?
...that the
Crowcombe church spire was damaged by
lightning in 1724 and the top has been planted in the churchyard ever since?
...that the owners of the
Spade Ranch (
pictured ) in the
Nebraska Sandhills hired
Civil War veterans and widows to circumvent
homesteading laws?
...that British
art forger
Shaun Greenhalgh was a self-taught artist, yet managed to fool the
British Museum , the
Tate Modern , and
Bonhams ,
Sotheby's and
Christie's ?
...that in the 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons of the
Super 12 the
Highlanders
rugby union team went undefeated at their home ground of
Carisbrook ?
...that
Colorado state senator
John Morse had careers as an
emergency medical technician ,
accountant , and
police chief before entering the
legislature ?
...that the
Korotoa River , a small stream in
Rajshahi Division of
Bangladesh , was once a large and sacred river?
...that the term "
doomsday cult " can refer to
apocalyptic groups that
prophesy
catastrophe , and those that attempt to bring it about?
...that the ancient
Kingdom of Nri in present-day
Nigeria was one of the few governments in history to use no military power, instead implementing a
taboo system, to govern Nri's subjects?
...that a complete
backstory was constructed by
Mike Leigh for
Vinette Robinson 's character in
Vera Drake , even though the role was minor?
...that the
frigate
HMS Alarm was the first ship of the
Royal Navy ever to have a fully
copper-sheathed hull?
...that
Robert F. Kennedy's speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King is believed to have prevented riots from breaking out in
Indianapolis ?
...that 18th century English
obstetrician
Thomas Denman (
pictured ) was an early advocate for
inducing
premature
labour in cases involving a narrow pelvis or other conditions which endanger the mother's life?
...that in
Puritan
Massachusetts Bay Colony , when
Dorothy Talbye
fell into despair with fits of
violence in 1638, she was
excommunicated from the church ,
bound and chained to a post , publicly
whipped and finally, after
murdering her daughter,
hanged ?
...that the
German national rail strike of 2007 is the largest
strike in history affecting
Deutsche Bahn ?
...that
Adenovirus serotype 14 is an
emerging
virus , related to the
common cold , that has recently caused 10 deaths in the
United States , including at least one healthy young adult?
...that
Spencer Campbell regretted producing the year-long
fly on the wall series
The Living Soap , about students living in a purpose-built house, when some participants started deliberately avoiding the cameras after only a few days?
...that
USS General S. D. Sturgis was the
transport ship assigned to deliver officials of the
United States ,
Australia ,
Canada ,
Dutch East Indies ,
China and the
Philippines to
Tokyo Bay for the
Japanese surrender ceremonies at the end of
World War II ?
...that three out of every seventy-seven
rainbow runners (
pictured ) have five
spines , as a result of not being born with the normal six?
...that
Valentyn Rechmedin , a
Ukrainian journalist and writer, received the
Order of the Red Star after
World War II ?
...that
nineteenth century
New Zealand
gum-diggers retrieved 5,000 tons of
kauri
resin a year for the
varnish trade, and that the gum was
Auckland 's main export?
...that
USNS General R. L. Howze held the record for ships assisting the 1954 mass exodus out of
North Vietnam with 38 births on board during
Operation Passage to Freedom ?
...that the
Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal , built along the
Susquehanna River in the 1830s, had a wooden bridge with a two-tier
towpath to allow
mules towing cargoboats in opposite directions to cross the river simultaneously without colliding?
...that
Robert Ropner , who
built the first
trunk deck ship in 1896, was sued for
patent infringment because his design was similar to that of
turret deck ships ?
...that the
Chemical Automatics Design Bureau produced the
Soviet Union 's only operational
nuclear rocket engine ?
...that although
Ernest Wild developed
scurvy during the
Ross Sea Party
Antarctic expedition, and lost part of a
toe and part of an
ear to
frostbite , he survived - but died of
typhoid the next year in
Malta ?
...that the
northern whiting (
pictured ) has been declared an
invasive species in the eastern
Mediterranean , having passed through the
Suez Canal as part of the
Lessepsian migration ?
...that an
offer sheet in the
National Hockey League requires compensation in the form of future
draft picks if a restricted
free agent is signed by a different team in the league?
...that the son of
French Admiral
Georges René Le Peley de Pléville was released as a
prisoner of war with three fellow officers of his choice because the
British Admiralty thanked his peg-legged father for saving a
British frigate 10 years earlier?
...that
American academic
Jackson Bailey was decorated with the
Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1988, the highest possible honor given by
Japan to a foreigner?
...that
Galicia started
exporting
plant cuttings to other European
vineyards as early as the 14th century?
...that playwright
Sam Thompson ' s Under the Bridge about
Northern Irish
sectarian violence became
Belfast 's most-seen play despite a prediction it would "offend and affront every section of the public"?
...that the town of
Booleroo Centre , located in the southern
Flinders Ranges region of
South Australia , is home to one of Australia's largest collections of tractors and steam engines?
...that
Felipe Agoncillo , who topped the highest possible score in a
bar exam , also gained the title as the outstanding first
Filipino diplomat ?
...that
historian
Holden Furber was appointed as a social science analyst to the
Office of Strategic Services after the
United States entered the
Second World War ?
...that
François Denhaut built the world's first
flying boat , or
seaplane with a
hull ?
...that the
Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership has won £1,000,000 of grants to improve and promote six rural railway lines (
Looe Valley Line
pictured ) in south-west
England ?
...that among the founding members of
Philomathes - a clandestine Polish student organization in
Imperial University of Vilnius in
partitioned
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - was
Adam Mickiewicz ,
one of the three
national poets of
Poland ?
...that the establishment of
Mahendra Pratap 's
Provisional Government of India was one of the reasons that the
Rowlatt Commission was set up to investigate
German and
Bolshevik links to
nationalist terrorism in
British India ?
...that the author of
Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography stated he had to go into hiding after receiving threats related to his yet unpublished book?
...that during
Operation Deep Freeze II in 1956,
US Navy
Rear Admiral
George J. Dufek commanded the first aircraft to land at the
South Pole , the
C-47 Skytrain “Que Sera Sera”?
...
Niek Loohuis is now a Dutch
First Division
football (soccer) player, despite having been declared unfit and removed from
FC Twente 's youth academy at age 18?
...that
Nicaragua
has the lowest electricity generation, the lowest percentage of population with access to electricity, and the highest dependence on oil for electricity generation in
Central America ?
...that the
collision between aircraft carrier
HMAS Melbourne and destroyer
HMAS Voyager is the only event in Australian history to be subject to two
Royal Commissions ?
...that the gardens of the
Petit Trianon were
once thought to be haunted ?
...that in 1846
Albert Wilson became the first American merchant to open a store in
Astoria, Oregon ?
...that 12,000 people paid
25 cents to view
Frederic E. Church's
The Heart of the Andes (
pictured ) , a ten-foot-wide
landscape painting exhibited in 1859?
...that according to
Jainism , the first
Purva of ancient knowledge would take a volume of ink equal to an elephant to write, whereas the last would require the ink volume of 213 elephants?
...that attempts to soften the harsh
tannic nature of the
Tannat
wine grape led to the development of the
winemaking technique of
micro-oxygenation ?
...that in
Rose Macaulay 's novel
The Towers of Trebizond (1956) the English traveller Aunt Dot aims to emancipate the women of
Turkey by converting them to
Anglicanism and popularizing the bathing hat?
...that
Myles Rudge wrote the lyrics to three
Top 10
novelty songs in the 1960s, "Hole in the Ground", "Right Said Fred", and "A Windmill in Old Amsterdam"?
...that
Chris Dodd's 2008 presidential campaign has been endorsed by three members of the famed
Kennedy family , Rep.
Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI),
Edward Kennedy, Jr. , and
Eunice Kennedy Shriver ?
...that
Colorado state representative
Amy Stephens wrote an
abstinence-based
sex education curriculum that was
translated into over a dozen languages?
...that
Romanian
communist poet
Alexandru Toma adapted several works of his
Classicist predecessor
Mihai Eminescu , removing their
pessimistic tone and adding
Socialist Realist rhetoric?
...that in 1656,
Judith Catchpole was
tried before
colonial
Maryland 's first all-female
jury because a woman's
expertise was needed to evaluate the
evidence ?
...that the
shrimp scad (
pictured ) was first
scientifically described by
Swedish naturalist
Peter Forsskål in 1775, who mistook it for
mackerel ?
...that the
Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf
cartoons
Sheep Ahoy ,
A Sheep in the Deep , and
Don't Give Up the Sheep were censored by
ABC to remove a
dynamite stick, a
smoke break scene, and a
spanking scene respectively?