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1
... that
Sark Windmill , built in 1571, is the second oldest surviving
windmill in the
British Isles ?
... that
Joseph M. Street a
19th century
American pioneer, was present at the signing of the
peace treaty ending the
Winnebago War ?
... that following the
Darwin Rebellion of December 1918,
HMAS Encounter was sent to
Darwin to protect
Administrator
John Gilruth and his family?
... that troops of
Tadayoshi Sano , a
lieutenant general for the
Imperial Japanese Army , were reported to have committed atrocities against civilians in
Hong Kong and
British
prisoners of war ?
... that, during a
Fersommling , the only language spoken is
Pennsylvania Dutch and that anyone who speaks
English has to pay a fine for each word?
... that the
French stormed the
Bagration flèches eight times during the
Battle of Borodino in 1812?
... that
Canadian radio broadcaster
Clyde Gilmour hosted a weekly national show for more than 40 years, presenting from his substantial personal music collection?
... that in 1789
Spain seized the
British sloop
Princess Royal , nearly
causing a war , then used the vessel to explore the
Strait of Juan de Fuca , finding the
San Juan Islands and the entrances to
Puget Sound and the
Strait of Georgia ?
... that the
obscure mealybug , a
pest of
vineyards in
New Zealand and
California , is believed to have been
introduced from
Australia or
South America ?
... that the present-day city of
Davenport, Iowa is named after
George Davenport , a 19th century American frontiersman, trader and US Army officer?
... that the Tamil film
Thyagabhoomi is the only Indian film banned by the
British Raj for propagating the cause of
India's freedom struggle ?
... that
Benjamin Motte published many famous works such as
Jonathan Swift 's
Gulliver's Travels and the first English edition of
Isaac Newton 's
Principia , an edition that became the standard translation for over 200 years?
... that
Daniel Carter Beard 's
boyhood home was a nurses' dormitory when it became a
National Historic Landmark ?
... that it was rumored that some
seals escaped
Minneapolis 's
Longfellow Zoological Gardens into nearby
Minnehaha Creek ?
... that the forthcoming
Tamil film ,
Guru En Aalu , starring
Madhavan and
Mamta Mohandas is a remake of the
1997 film,
Yes Boss ?
... that
McCarty Church (pictured) in
Los Angeles gained attention for its pastor's decision to racially integrate his white Protestant church in the mid-1950s?
... that
Bradford City
footballers
Geoff Smith and
George Mulholland each played more than 200 consecutive appearances for the club during the 1950s?
... that
Salt Lake City -based robotics firm
Sarcos is developing a military
powered exoskeleton allowing wearers to easily lift 200 pounds (91 kg)?
... that in 1847
French
Admiral
Jean-Baptiste Cécille sent a captain to attack
Vietnam to obtain the release of a
bishop , not knowing the bishop had already been freed?
... that a riot reportedly instigated by writer
André Breton broke out during the 1923 premiere of
Tristan Tzara 's
Le Cœur à gaz , a play written as a nonsensical dialog between human body parts?
... that in 1994
Martin Doherty became the first person to be killed in the
Republic of Ireland by
loyalist paramilitaries since 1975?
... that inscriptions found on a stone pillar in the village of
Talagunda in
India describe the rise of the
Kadamba dynasty?
... that in spite of its similar appearance to the
European Robin , the colourful
Rose Robin (pictured) of southeastern
Australia is more closely related to the
crow family ?
... that
Andayya 's
13th century
Kannada work Kabbigara Kava is considered important for its strict adherence to the indigenous
Kannada language?
... that the sacrifice of Jean Cadieux on behalf of his companions during an
Iroquois attack in 1707 is still commemorated by the inhabitants of
Calumet Island ?
... that
Lena Guerrero (
1957 -
2008 ), a
Texas state legislator at twenty-five, was the first non-
Anglo person to have served on the
Texas Railroad Commission ?
... that
Robert the Devil , an operatic parody by
W. S. Gilbert of
Meyerbeer's opera
Robert le diable , ends with the devil being punished by becoming part of the exhibit at
Madame Tussaud's ?
... that
VFL
footballer
Charlie Moore , the first
Australian to die of gunshot wounds in the
Boer War , played in the
1898 VFL Grand Final against
Stan Reid , who died in the same war six weeks later?
... that the
Stöðulög laws of 1871 declared
Iceland an inseparable part of
Denmark ?
... that the
18th century American soldier
Isaac Bowman , his father
George Bowman , and his grandfather Jost Hite were all prominent pioneers in the
Colony of Virginia ?
... that the
windmill at South Barrule ,
Isle of Man (pictured) worked an
incline on a railway at a
slate quarry?
... that
Shabdamanidarpana , a comprehensive and authoritative work on the
grammar of the
Kannada language , was written in the 13th century by the
Indian linguist and poet
Kesiraja ?
... that the
1927 disappearance of the French biplane
The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc ), in an attempt to make the first nonstop
transatlantic flight from
Paris to
New York , is one of the great unexplained mysteries of
aviation ?
... that
English
football full back
Alfred Bower was the last
amateur player to captain the
English national team in 1927?
... that
screenwriter
Daniel Knauf 's
polio -afflicted father was the inspiration for his
television series
Carnivàle ?
... that a majority of the 114 killed in the
1994 Gowari stampede at
Nagpur were women and children crushed to death under the crowd’s feet?
... that according to
Brunei
folklore
Nakhoda Manis disrespected his mother, which caused a storm to sink his ship in the
Brunei River , transforming the ship into the rock known as
Jong Batu ?
... that
Elizabethan
mathematician and
cartographer
Edward Wright is said to be "the only
Fellow of
Caius ever to be granted
sabbatical leave in order to engage in
piracy "?
... that
Aberdour Castle (pictured) , with parts dating from around 1200, is one of the two oldest datable standing
castles in
Scotland ?
... that
Kim Swoo Geun , a leading
South Korean architect was referred to as "
Lorenzo de Medici of
Seoul " by
Time for his contributions to
Korean culture ?
... that the
Bevier House Museum in
Marbletown, New York includes the earliest known
land grant map for
Ulster County ?
... that the lawsuit
Motte v. Faulkner in 1735 was a legal dispute over the right to publish
Jonathan Swift 's complete works and its outcome was viewed by Swift as another example of English oppression?
... that although there is no commercial
mining in Equatorial Guinea , 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of
gold were retrieved in 2006?
... that
Swedish soldier
Charles F. Henningsen participated in civil wars and independence movements in
Spain ,
Nicaragua ,
Hungary and the
United States , but died without ever winning any of the causes for which he fought?
... that the
distribution company
Bunzl once held a virtual
monopoly on the manufacture of
cigarette filters in the
U.K. ?
... that in April 2008,
Forbes listed
Omid Tahvili (pictured) as one of the world's ten most wanted
fugitives ?
... that
Dr. Seuss's book
The Seven Lady Godivas is one of his only books written for adults, and though it was initially a failure when first published in 1939, original editions have sold for upwards of
US$ 300?
... that
L'Insoumis , a
film noir alluding to the
Algerian war , was
Alain Delon 's first real failure despite his acclaimed performance?
... that the
Pinchot Sycamore , a centuries-old
American sycamore , is the largest tree in
Connecticut ?
... that
ablative brain surgery , which involves destroying
brain tissue by heat or freezing, was used until recently in the
People's Republic of China to treat people with
schizophrenia ?
... that Winkhurst Kitchen and Titchfield Market Hall, which are now at the
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum ,
Singleton ,
Sussex , have been dismantled and re-erected twice?
... that the
Congressional Bowl is one of two new
college football
bowl games that will be played in the United States this year?
... that
Jane Loftus, Marchioness of Ely (pictured) was one of
Queen Victoria 's closest
ladies-in-waiting for nearly forty years?
... that
Rosetta Genomics Ltd. is a molecular diagnostics company that uses
micro-ribonucleic acid
biomarkers to develop diagnostic tests designed to differentiate between various types of
cancer ?
... that the first
public library in
Covington, Kentucky was built by its
Trinity Episcopal Church ?
... that at only five-weeks-old,
Flocke the
polar bear cub from Nuremberg Zoo was touted by
Bild to be the future "Mrs.
Knut "?
... that when the first
indigenous people of the Everglades region arrived in southern
Florida 15,000 years ago, the region was an arid sandy landscape?
... that visiting
Cistercian monks could extend the hospitality of
Stratford Langthorne Abbey , near
London , by supplying wine and beer for themselves and oats and hay for their horses?
... that the
Mark Eden bust developer , a product claimed to
enlarge women's breasts , actually worked by increasing the
pectoral and
back muscles?
... that the
Moscow Kremlin 's
Church of the Deposition (pictured) is named after a
Byzantine tradition that the robe of the
Virgin Mary was taken to
Constantinople ?
... that the
Galena Historic District in
Illinois ,
USA , includes more than a thousand
historic properties and occupies as much as 85 percent of the city of
Galena ?
... that in
Claude Ashton 's only international appearance for the
English national football team , he
captained the squad?
... that the 12th century
Kannada poet
Harihara was initially an accountant in the
Hoysala court?
... that restoration of the
Old Savannah School House was the first project undertaken by the
National Trust for the Cayman Islands after its creation?
... that the
Knickerbocker Baseball Club of
New York used the first recorded
baseball uniform in
1849 ?
... that in
St Peter's Church, Heysham ,
Lancashire , is a
Viking
hogback stone , and in the churchyard is the base of an
Anglo-Saxon cross (pictured) ?
... that as
General Secretary of the
Mexican railroad workers union,
Demetrio Vallejo renounced his salary of 20,000
pesos a month, requesting it be turned over to the railway union treasury?
... that the 1852
Lombard Street Riot capped thirteen years of recurring racial violence in
Philadelphia ,
Pennsylvania ?
... that after
Roche MacGeoghegan ,
Bishop of Kildare , died in 1644, his library was divided between his
diocese and the
Dominican Order ?
... that excavations of the
Cherokee town
Tallassee , burnt down during the
Chickamauga Wars and submerged by an
artificial lake since 1957, uncovered evidence of habitation as early as the
Woodland period ?
... that
Kisan Kanya made by
Ardeshir Irani in
1937 is
India 's first indigenously made
color film ?
... that
Omaha's zoo was renamed in honor of longtime
Omaha World-Herald
publisher
Henry Doorly in 1963?
... that Oregon's
Warrior Rock Light (pictured) operated uneventfully for 80 years until it was struck by a barge in 1969?
... that forces of the
Dutch West India Company captured
Axim in present-day
Ghana and signed a
treaty with the local
West Africans in 1642 to become the major European power in the
Gold Coast region ? .
... that
Frank Ford , an
organic foods
farmer in
Deaf Smith County, Texas , was the chief
advertising spokesman for the health foods industry during its founding
decades of the
1960s and the
1970s ?
... that
Lithuanian
nobleman
Feodor Ostrogski was a
governor of
Volhynia , a region of
Ukraine ?
... that the
Ilmin Museum of Art is an art museum of
South Korea , located on
Sejongno ,
Jongno-gu , central district of
Seoul where royal palaces and gates of
Joseon dynasty are also situated?
... that some scholars believe that
John Wannuaucon Quinney was the originator of the term
Native American ?
... that the 122-year old
Baltimore Steam Packet Company ("Old Bay Line") (pictured) was the last overnight steamship service in the U.S. when it ceased operation in 1962?
... that
China and
Peru are expected to sign a
free trade agreement during the
2008 APEC summit ?
... that the tiny
Dinkey Train of only a passenger coach and dummy engine went to the
Mammoth Caves ?
... that in February 2008,
rugby league player
Dan Dempsey was named in the list of Australia's
100 Greatest Players ?
... that eight buildings in
Newport, Rhode Island 's
Bellevue Avenue Historic District are designated as
National Historic Landmarks , in addition to the district itself?
... that
HNoMS Honningsvåg (pictured) was a German fishing trawler captured in the
Norwegian Campaign and served the
Royal Norwegian Navy throughout
World War II ?
... that
Spanish American
cardiologist
Valentin Fuster is the only cardiologist to receive all four major research awards from the world's four major
cardiovascular organizations?
... that the
steam yacht Gondola on
Coniston Water is thought to be the inspiration for
Captain Flint's houseboat in
Arthur Ransome 's
Swallows and Amazons ?
... that the
May 30, 1998 Afghanistan earthquake was also felt at
Samarkand in
Uzbekistan ,
Islamabad in
Pakistan , and
Dushanbe in
Tajikistan ?
... that the late
actress and
theatrical producer ,
Madeline Lee Gilford , who was
blacklisted during the
McCarthy Era , is scheduled to appear in the forthcoming 2008 film,
Sex and the City: The Movie ?
... that
Sabr is the
Islamic virtue of
patience and
endurance ?
... that the
Roanoke Apartments , which opened as
Roanoke 's largest
apartment complex, are an example of
Streamline Moderne architecture?
... that
Mathilde Ludendorff , a leader in the German
Völkisch movement , claimed
astrology was part of a Jewish effort to enslave the Germans?
... that an uncle of
Christopher Columbus served as a
keeper of
Genoa 's
Torre della Lanterna ?
... that the spirits of a wealthy rancher and his Indian wife have been seen and heard since the 1920s at
Leonis Adobe , according to TV show
Most Haunted ?
... that
Turkey was so dissatisfied with
its first set of stamps that it had
France make the second set (example pictured) ?
... that
Lopez and
Pico Adobes , built near the
San Fernando Mission , are the oldest residences in
San Fernando Valley ,
California ?
... that in February 2008,
rugby league player
Brian Hambly was named in the list of
Australia 's
100 Greatest Players ?
... that
Samuel Johnson failed to get a job at
Brewood Grammar School because headmaster
William Budworth was concerned with Johnson's head movements?
... that a
shrew's fiddle was used to punish women who were caught fighting or arguing in
Germany and
Switzerland , and
slaves in the
United States ?
... that a 150 year-old weeping
beech tree , considered to be the source of weeping beeches in the
United States and declared a
landmark in 1966, was located in Weeping Beech Park at
Kingsland Homestead in
Queens ,
New York ?
... that the
Denver Broncos , who made the
National Football League playoffs
seventeen times between
1977 and
2005 , did not make the playoffs at all in their first seventeen
seasons ?
... that the photographs taken of
Peter Jones in 1845 (
pictured ) are the oldest surviving photographs of a
North American Indian ?
... that despite never making landfall, remnant moisture from
Hurricane Madeline in
1998 contributed to
severe flooding in central
Texas which killed 32 people?
... that despite nine hundred
Roman Catholic churches being built in
England in the fifty years after
1791 ,
St John the Baptist's Church in
Brighton was only the fourth to be
consecrated since the
Reformation ?
... that
U-boat commander
Heinrich Bleichrodt refused to wear his
Knight's Cross until his subordinate,
Reinhard Suhren received one as well?
... that
NASCAR took away the first win for its
all-time winningest driver at
Lakewood Speedway after
his father protested the scoring?
... that the
Old Stone House is the oldest standing building in
Washington, D.C. ?
... that the annual Chembuduppu festival at
St. George Orthodox Church, Chandanapally is held in commemoration of non-
Christians bringing
rice to feed hundreds of voluntary labourers during its construction?
... that the
herb
Forsskaolea tenacissima was so
named by
Carl Linnaeus because it was as stubborn and persistent as his student
Peter Forsskål (
pictured ) had been?
... that
Breed Street Shul , now vacant in a Hispanic part of
Los Angeles , was the largest
Orthodox
synagogue in the western
United States from 1915 to 1951?
... that "
Guten Tag " , the first single of German band
Wir sind Helden featured a video which was a self-ironic statement against commercial music?
... that
Raghavanka , a 12th century writer of
Kannada literature , penned five classics just to expiate a
sin his
guru felt he had committed?
... that
Omaha University was first located in the
Redick Mansion of
North
Omaha 's once-affluent
Kountze Place suburb?
... that
An Qingxu killed his father
An Lushan , the Emperor of
Yan , because he feared that his father would kill him and make his brother
crown prince ?
... that the first
East Lake Community Library in
Minneapolis was called a "reading factory" because it looked like a storefront?
... that the
English names for the towns of
Brecon (pictured) and
Cardigan derive from the names of
Welsh
mediaeval kingdoms, but the
Welsh names for those same places refer to local rivers?
... that
Tamil politician
E. V. K. Sampath , nephew of
Periyar , co-founded the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party?
... that the
pumpman is the person aboard an
oil tanker who maintains the liquid cargo system?
... that
screenwriter
Jamie Linden interpreted his winning of
US$ 5,000 on
game show
The Price Is Right as a sign to relocate to
Hollywood ,
California ?
... that the
G.A.R. Monument in
Covington, Kentucky is the only
American Civil War monument in the
Bluegrass state shaped like a
sarcophagus ?
... that
Russell B. Cummings , as a member of the
Texas House of Representatives in the 1960s, was credited with procuring passage of his state's open
beach and
kindergarten access laws?
... that
Rim Drive in
Oregon , a scenic
highway cited by the
American Automobile Association as one of the ten most beautiful roads in the
U.S. , is a 33-mile loop that follows the
caldera rim around
Crater Lake (pictured) ?
... that the
Japanese
virtual
3D
massively multiplayer online social game
Ai Sp@ce will launch in summer 2008 featuring interaction with
bishōjo game characters?
... that
Cormac mac Cuilennáin ,
bishop and
king of Munster , later considered a
saint , was killed in battle in
908 while leading an invasion of
Leinster ?
... that the
Zimbabwe Open University is the largest university in
Zimbabwe and the only
distance education university in the country?
... that the
Veteran's Monument in Covington in
Kentucky is the state's only
Civil War platform memorial and also the only one referring to that conflict as the "War Between the States"?
... that
Frederick II of Prussia was elated by the
First Partition of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ?
... that
silva rerum (pictured) was a type of a multi-generational
chronicle , kept by many
Polish noble families from the 16th through 18th centuries?
... that the 27th
U.S. President
William Howard Taft 's
boyhood home almost became a
funeral parlor ?
... that
male prostitutes in Pakistan generally range from fifteen to twenty-five years of age?
... that, in a bid to remain in power,
Philippine
President
Ferdinand Marcos asked his
Labor Minister
Blas Ople to reach out to the
Soviet Union ?
... that
Raymond Berry is a member of the
Pro Football Hall of Fame , having been inducted in 1973, eleven years before he became the
Patriots' head coach ?
... that
Shnaim Ohazin was an
Israeli Educational Television show that taught basic concepts from the
Talmud with fictionalized
time travel segments?
... that
Larry Gossett works in an office at the
King County Courthouse in
King County, Washington , located exactly where he was jailed for
unlawful assembly after a 1968
sit-in ?
... that the
Berthouville Treasure (pictured) of first and second-century
Roman silver was uncovered accidentally by a farmer's plough in 1830?
... that English
engineer
Roy Lunn was responsible for the development of the
Ford Mustang I and the first
American
4WD cars?
... that you can
travel to some parts of Botswana for less than
US$ 50 a night?
... that despite over 85% of
American Indian students giving it their support,
mascot controversy at
Humboldt High School in
Saint Paul, Minnesota resulted in the abandonment of its Indians
mascot ?
... that some
Bahá'í prayers have been translated into more than five hundred languages?
... that
Cheryl Dunye 's 1996 film
The Watermelon Woman was the first feature film to be directed by a black lesbian?
... that the
Failing Office Building in
Portland, Oregon is named after a mayor of Portland and built by a locally prominent
architecture firm?
... that the
art deco
Burbank City Hall (pictured) , with
murals by
Hugo Ballin , uses more than twenty types of
marble in its main lobby?
... that the
flora of Scotland includes
the world's tallest hedge ,
a yew which may be
Europe 's oldest tree, and Dughall Mor ("big dark stranger") –
Britain 's tallest tree?
... that the dialogues for the
Tamil film
Parasakthi were penned by
M. Karunanidhi who later became the
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu ?
... that a scrapped
demolition proposal for the
Baytown Tunnel in
Baytown, Texas would have utilized former pieces of its structure in the creation of an
artificial reef in the
Gulf of Mexico ?
... that the first organized
postal system in
India was established between the
British East India Company factories at
Madras and
Calcutta during the tenure of
Edward Harrison ?
... that
Maher Arar was deported to
Syria and tortured after being wrongly identified as an "Islamic Extremist" by
Project O Canada ?
... that
wildlife biologist
Olaus Murie was the first
American
Fulbright Scholar to study in
New Zealand ?
... that
Pogórzanie are an
ethnic group of
Poles from the
Subcarpathian Voivodeship ?
... that
Clarence Hailey Long , a
ranch foreman in the
Texas Panhandle , was the inspiration for the original
Marlboro Man
advertising campaign by
Philip Morris ?
... that
prison contemplative programs like
meditation were used in 19th century
Pennsylvania as an early
prison reform ?
... that after 12 years of legal tussling over delays and cost overruns on the
Taipei Metro Muzha Line , the
Taipei City Government was ordered to compensate its contractor
Matra for US$50 million?
... that
Minneapolis businessman
Robert "Fish" Jones drove
Ulysses Grant and
William T. Sherman down
Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis on their post-war tours?
... that the
Doctor Who episode "
The Sontaran Stratagem " is the first appearance of the
eponymous aliens since the 1985 serial
The Two Doctors ?
... that the
Lynchburg Ferry in
Lynchburg, Texas is the oldest operating
ferry service in
Texas ?
... that on every
May 1 , the
hamlet of
Ickwell celebrates
May Day with
dancing around a
Maypole (
pictured ) and with the crowning of a
May Queen ?
... that
Ben Gold was just 14 years old when he was elected assistant shop chairman by his local
union during the first
furriers'
strike in the United States?
... that the
Abyssinian
slave
Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a close adviser and speculated to be the
lover of
Razia Sultana , the first and only female
Sultan of Delhi ?
... that by using the
Bevatron and nuclear emulsion technique,
Sulamith Goldhaber was the first person to observe nuclear interactions of the
antiproton ?
... that
Durum wheat was used to make al-fidawsh , a dry
pasta popular in
Muslim Spain ?
... that the
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company was the second largest steel manufacturer in the USA before it merged with
U.S. Steel in 1907?
... that
Steven Spielberg filmed much of
Amistad in
Newport 's
downtown historic district because it has enough
colonial buildings (
pictured ) to resemble 1840s
New Haven ?
... that the ground living
warblers in the
genus
Tesia appear to almost lack a
tail and have very long legs?
... that the people of the
planet
Krikkit are the main
antagonists in the
Douglas Adams novel,
Life, the Universe and Everything ?
... that within the
Special Economic Zone
SEEPZ ,
Mumbai lies an abandoned
Portuguese
church built in 1579?
... that
Jane Addams ,
Mother Jones and
Abe Fortas have all made notable contributions to the
history of children's rights in the United States ?
... that the
Piliyandala bombing of
April 25 ,
2008 was the deadliest attack on a
commuter bus in
Sri Lanka since the January 16
Buttala attack ?
... that the
Tregenna Castle Hotel in
St Ives, Cornwall was the
Great Western Railway 's first holiday destination hotel?
... that the
bombardment of Brussels by
French troops (ruins pictured) in 1695 was later described by
Napoleon Bonaparte as being "as barbarous as it was useless?"
... that the
Transition Towns movement inspired
Totnes ,
England to introduce their own town-wide currency redeemable only in local shops?
... that
anarchist Internet archive
Spunk Library was once falsely accused of collaborating with the terrorist guerrilla outfit
Red Army Faction ?
... that in
Grosvenor Park , in the city of
Chester , is an archway which had been in the city's
St Michael's Church ?
... that
Anna Maria Garthwaite , the daughter of a
Lincolnshire
clergyman , became the leading
designer of
flowered
fabrics for the
Spitalfields
silk -
weaving trade in
18th century
England ?
... that
Wade Phillips holds the best
coaching record for the Atlanta Falcons , winning two out of the three games he coached?
... that
Ratnakaravarni , the noted 16th century
Kannada poet of the
Vijayanagara times, was an expert on erotic writings?
... that the
Purna-Kalasha (
pictured ) , worshipped by
Hindus as the
Divine Mother , symbolizes mother
Earth with her water, minerals and vegetation?
... that a fossil plesiosaur skull named
Kimmerosaurus may be actually be the missing head of a fossil plesiosaur
Colymbosaurus ?
... that
Richard Honaker ,
Bush nominee for
U.S. District Judge in
Wyoming , washed dishes in a
work-study program while studying at
Harvard University with future
comedian
Al Franken ?
... that in 2007 the
Royal Australasian College of Physicians revoked the teaching accreditation of
Shellharbour Hospital due to a lack of senior staff?
... that
Norwegian
sociologist
Ingrid Eide was also a
United Nations official and a politician for the
Norwegian Labour Party ?
... that the first refuge from
malaria that residents of
Memphis, Tennessee had in 1878 was
Kentucky's
Louisville and Nashville Railroad Station ?
... that the German author
Heinrich Böll 's humorous short story
Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral was written for a
May Day broadcast on the
Norddeutscher Rundfunk ?
... that
Runcorn Town Hall (
pictured ) was originally built as Halton Grange, a mansion for Thomas Johnson, a local soap and
alkali manufacturer?
... that
Palestinian nationalist poet
Ibrahim Touqan wrote the poem
Mawtini , which has been the national anthem of
Iraq since 2003?
... that the
Shell Quiz is the longest-running television programme in
Thailand , being broadcast since 1965?
... that a
Balzac
comedy was inspired by an
academic squabble over the claim that
Spaniard
Blasco de Garay built the first
steam powered ship in 1543?
... that
Kiev Governorate was one of the
first eight governorates of the
Russian Empire ?
... that a scandal arose when
African-American actor
Lorenzo Tucker , known as the "Black Valentino", playing a
pimp in a play, kissed
Mae West , playing a
prostitute ?
... that
Pierre the penguin is the first bird to don a custom-made wetsuit?
... that a building fire destroyed the first designs for the
South Australian National War Memorial ?
...that American theater critic and historian
T. Allston Brown earned the title "Colonel" by riding on the back of a
tightrope walker in a circus performance?
...that the
endowment by
Edmund Meyrick , a
Welsh cleric and philanthropist who died in 1713, is still awarding
scholarships to students at
Jesus College ,
Oxford in
England after nearly three centuries?
...that British author
Bernard Newman , an authority on
spies , gave more than 2,000 lectures throughout Europe during the
Interbellum ?
... that the
February 4, 1998 Afghanistan earthquake , in which nearly 4,000 people were killed and 15,000 homes destroyed, was also felt at
Tashkent and
Dushanbe ?
...that
Kenyan public health advocate
Miriam Were and
British
biomedical researcher
Brian Greenwood are the inaugural laureates of the
Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize ?
...that after his climbing partner was killed in a fall,
Jean-Christophe Lafaille survived a descent of the South Face of
Annapurna (pictured) alone and with a broken arm?
...that the
Thich Ca Phat Dai
Buddhist temple in
Vung Tau has a prominent lookout over the city?
...that
George W. Woodbey was the sole
African American delegate to the
Socialist Party of America conventions in 1904 and 1908?
...that during hot
greenhouse periods in Earth's history, the
tropics appeared to be cooler than they are today?
...that Lieutenant-General
Sir Maurice Johnston was made an
Honorary Freeman of the
Borough of
Swindon in 2004?
...that the
Capitol Center has been the tallest commercial building in
Salem, Oregon , since its completion in 1926?
...that instead of voting to determine the site of a proposed
hydroelectricity
dam , tens of thousands of
Tasmanians protested by writing "No Dams" on their ballot papers in the
1981 power referendum ?
...that after unsuccessfully standing for the
National Socialist German Workers Party in the
1925 German presidential election ,
Erich Ludendorff left the party to found the
Tannenbergbund ?
...that
Wilshire Boulevard Temple , with its landmark
Byzantine
dome (pictured ), is the oldest
Jewish
synagogue in
Los Angeles ?
...that the government of
Malaysia has been alleged to be behind
Project IC which involves the systematic granting of
citizenship to hundreds of thousands of
immigrants to alter the demographic and voting pattern in their favour?
...that priest
Benjamin Pâquet was such a controversial figure in 19th century
Quebec that his possible nomination to
bishopry was rejected for three different
dioceses ?
...that
Detroit Tigers
pitcher
Denny Bautista is the
second cousin of
New York Mets pitcher
Pedro Martínez ?
...that
Norwegian
politician
Helge Seip was succeeded by
Helge Rognlien both as
Minister of Local Government and Regional Development and later as leader of the
Liberal Party ?
...that veterinarian
Martha Kostuch (pictured) linked reproductive and immunological problems among cattle to
sulphur dioxide emitted in the oil and gas industry in
Alberta ?
...that the
Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize , for achievements in
medical research and services to combat diseases in
Africa , is named after a
Japanese scientist whose portrait can be found on
recent ¥1000 banknotes ?
...that
Ronald J. Rábago became the first
Hispanic American to be promoted to the rank of
Rear Admiral in the
United States Coast Guard ?
...that
St. James' Episcopal Church (pictured) held the first
U2charist in
Wisconsin ?
...that
Sailor's Creek Battlefield State Park 's Hillsman House still has bloodstains on its floor dating to its use as a hospital after the
Battle of Sayler's Creek in April 1865?
...that the seeds of
Trillium grandiflorum are dispersed by
ants , who interpret the seeds as corpses?
...that
Ringle Crouch Green ,
Sandhurst was the only five-sailed
corn mill in
Kent ?
...that the first wife of
Arizona Territorial Governor
A.P.K. Safford printed notices accusing him of having
venereal disease ?
...that the
Sembawang , discovered in 1909, is the only natural
hot spring on the main island of
Singapore ?
...that the
Camp Dump Strike in
Omaha was
Nebraska 's first
organized labor
strike and the first to receive national attention?
...that the former
Indian Deputy Prime Minister
LK Advani famously promoted a
Indo-Pakistani confederation , asserting that the
partition was mutually harmful?
...that
Johann Myburgh , a
South African
cricketer playing in
New Zealand , broke
Graeme Pollock 's mark for the fastest first-class
double century ?
...that children are more vulnerable to
pulmonary contusion because their chest walls are more flexible?
... that the
Rhode Island state legislature met regularly at the
Old Colony House (pictured) in
Newport until 1900?
... that the
National Courtesy Campaign was the first government campaign in
Singapore to adopt a
mascot ?
... that after attempting to
bribe a teammate to lose a game during the
1876 season ,
George Bechtel of the
Louisville Grays became one of the first players
banned for life from
Major League Baseball ?
... that
Academy Award -nominated screenwriter
Nancy Oliver considered leaving show business shortly before being offered her first full-time position writing for
Six Feet Under ?
... that
merkhets were
Ancient Egyptian timekeeping devices that tracked the movement of certain stars over the
meridian in order to ascertain the time during the night, when
sundials could not function?
... that after competing for many years on a world-class level in the
400 metres hurdles ,
German athlete
Heike Meißner tried competing in the
800 metres ?
... that
Hollywood 's
Blessed Sacrament Church was the site of
Bing Crosby 's wedding and funerals for
John Ford and
Mack Sennett ?
... that the
Royal Air Force designed the
rotabuggy as a combination
autogyro /
jeep ?
...that the bronze of Mary (pictured) atop
Mary Star of the Sea , known as the "Fishermen's Church," is lit at night so she can be seen from the
Port of Los Angeles harbor?
...that a recent report released by the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has shown an increase in
felony waivers by
U.S. military
recruiters ?
...that young shoots of the ornamental Australian tree
Alphitonia excelsa give off an odour of
sarsaparilla when broken?
...that
Canada 's largest
dry-bulk shipping company,
The Fednav Group , has a fleet of over eighty
ships ?
...that construction of the
stupa of
Giac Lam Pagoda was halted for 18 years after the
Fall of Saigon ?
...that
Kikuchi lines , formed in
diffraction patterns by diffusely scattered
electrons , are useful tools in
electron microscopy of
crystalline and
nanocrystalline materials?
...that unlike other
sampradayas in
Hinduism , which insist that the clergy lead an
ascetic's life , the clergy in most
Rudra sampradaya sects are expected to marry and live a worldly life with their family?
...that
Mary K. Shell , the first woman
mayor of
Bakersfield, California , chided
NBC 's
Johnny Carson for his jokes about "beautiful downtown Bakersfield" and invited Carson to visit the city to see its improvements?
...that
Florentine law required the commissioning of unflattering
frescoes ,
pittura infamante , on the exterior of the
Bargello of those found in
contempt of court for financial offenses?
...that
anti-German and
anti-Chinese sentiments have motivated two of the several
riots in the
history of Calgary ?
...that according to the
World Bank , investment commitments in
Chile's water and sanitation sector reached US$ 5.7 billion in 1993-2005?
...that gallery owner
Victoria Miro described
Jake Chapman —now famous for art which includes explicit and distorted mannequins—as an "adorable" baby sitter?
...that
hexachlorobutadiene , a colorless
solvent commonly used for
chlorine -containing compounds, is also a potent
herbicide , but this application has been discouraged because it is too
toxic ?
...that both
Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama refused to hand out
street money , a political tactic common in
Philadelphia , during the
2008 Pennsylvania primary ?
...that
Tuoba Gui , the prince of
Northern Wei , crushed
Later Yan forces at the
Battle of Canhe Slope , leading to Later Yan's decline and Northern Wei's rise?
...that
Julian Sturgis , the novelist, poet,
librettist and lyricist was the first
American to win an English
FA Cup Final in
1873 ?
...that
environmental stress cracking accounts for around 15-30% of all plastic component failures in service?
...that the
Philadelphia Lazaretto is the oldest surviving quarantine hospital in the United States?
...that
Ukrainian
poet
Yevhen Hrebinka helped purchase fellow poet
Taras Shevchenko 's freedom from
serfdom in 1838?
...that
John Caldwell was originally given the name at birth of George Washington Caldwell because he was born on the Fourth of July?
...that the 1938 western
Rawhide was baseball great
Lou Gehrig 's only feature film appearance?
...that the
European Union is an example of a
security community , in which
war has become unthinkable?
...that the cost of building the base of the
Great Mill ,
Sheerness was so great that the
mill was left unfinished for over two years before being completed?
...that Australian cabaret singer, stage actor, dancer and comedienne
Toni Lamond was nicknamed "Lolly-Legs Lamond" after being voted as having the second-best pair of legs in television while doing
In Melbourne Tonight ?
...that
Sid Gillman is the only
head coach in the San Diego Chargers to make it into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame ?
...that
McDonald's signs (
pictured ) once had only one
golden arch ?
...that the
Greek musical group
C:Real sang only in
English before the arrival of lead vocalist Irini Douka in 2002, which led to their focus on
Greek language songs?
...that
Papa II , an
Indian
detention centre once infamous for reports of
torture , is now the official residence of senior state politician
Mehbooba Mufti ?
...that the
Confederate Monument of
Glasgow, Kentucky honors
Confederate soldiers of Glasgow and
Barren County, Kentucky , who won more
Southern Cross of Honors than those from any other
Kentucky county?
...that
Hong Kong director
Ann Hui 's 1982 award-winning film
Boat People depicting life in
communist
Vietnam was banned in
Taiwan because it was filmed in
communist China ?
...that
Swiss dissident
Ami Perrin was the leader of the
Libertine faction which rebelled against
John Calvin 's
theocratic rule of
Geneva in 1551?
...that
Mark Twain's daughter,
Clara Clemens was saved from being dragged over a cliff by a horse by her future husband, the Russian born concert pianist,
Ossip Gabrilowitsch ?
...that it was at the urging of
Pei Mian and Du Hongjian that
Emperor Suzong of Tang claimed the throne, despite the fact that his father
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was still alive?
...that the
Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House (pictured) was renovated in different
styles to depict the evolution of the oldest house in
Newport, Rhode Island ?
...that
Kettle Falls , known to native peoples as Shonitkwu ("roaring or noisy waters "), lies silenced beneath the waters of
Lake Roosevelt trapped behind the
Grand Coulee Dam ?
...that when the
RAF 's
High Speed Flight won the
Schneider seaplane in perpetuity in 1931, there were no other teams competing against them?
...that
Josef Smrkovský boasted he had kept American units away from
Prague in
1945 , allowing the liberation of the city by the
Red Army , and then in
1968 he and
Dubček became the most popular politicians of the
Prague Spring ?
...that
Igor Stravinsky agreed to compose the musical score for the ballet
Circus Polka only under the condition that the elephants performing it be very young?
...that
Cardinal Mahony petitioned Rome to name
Padre Serra Church after
Junipero Serra despite controversy over his treatment of
California
Indians ?
...that
William Glanville calculated the size of explosives required for
Operation Chastise and was portrayed by
Colin Tapley in the 1955 film
The Dam Busters ?
...that the distinctive
pagodas created for
Wadham's Oil and Grease Company of Milwaukee (pictured) are among the earliest examples of
architecture used to forge a
brand identity?
...that
Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors) in
Lahore Fort was originally decorated with
frescoes that were later replaced with
pietra dura and
convex glass and mirror
mosaic ?
...that
Martial van Schelle fought as an
American
soldier in
World War I , but was
executed as a
Belgian citizen during
World War II ?
...that
Allumette Island (
Quebec ,
Canada ), the largest island in the
Ottawa River , was once called One-Eyed Island because Algonquin chief
Tessouat had only one eye?
...that
mutations in the
CNDP1 gene may cause
carnosinemia , a rare
metabolic disorder with diverse
neurological problems, such as
hypotonia ,
tremors and
seizures ,
neuronal degeneration and
mental retardation ?
...that the
John Coltrane Home is where the saxophonist composed many of his later works including the masterwork, A Love Supreme ?
...that the
first printing press in Sierra Leone was destroyed by the French before it could be used?
...that
Theodor von Holst was the first illustrator of
Mary Shelley 's novel
Frankenstein (pictured) ?
...that photographer
Burt Glinn was at a New Year's Party when
Fidel Castro took over Cuba, and he arrived at the scene before dawn?
...that
mental conditioning
coach
Paddy Upton helped
cricketers
Gary Kirsten and
Jacques Kallis overcome personal crises and helped
Virender Sehwag stay focused as he scored 319 in the
2008 Chennai Test ?
...that the
Healthcare system in France was ranked number one in the world by the
World Health Organization in 1997 and 2000?
...that the
San Ardo Oil Field is the 13th-largest oil field in
California , and of the top twenty California oil fields in size, it is the most recent to be discovered?
...that
David Goodstein 's book
Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil rejected the notion that after
peak oil alternative energy will be able to keep industry supplied?
...that
Lower Mill, Woodchurch , a
smock mill in Kent, is a
Scheduled Ancient Monument ?
...that
Kaash , was the last Hindi film in which
Kishore Kumar did
playback singing ?
...that the travel time of the
sternwheeler
Lytton (pictured) on the stretch of the
Columbia River known as Little Dalles was six hours upriver, but less than seven minutes downriver?
...that
Boston Red Sox
pitcher
Mike Nagy was selected as American League rookie pitcher of the year in
1969 , but never pitched another full season due to injury?
...that Monk Estill, who was captured by the
Wyandot prior to the
Battle of Little Mountain and escaped during the battle, was the first
slave to be freed in the
Kentucky ?
...that, at one point during the
chancellorship of
Yang Guozhong , he served in over 40 posts simultaneously?
...that guests on the American
PBS television series
Soul! (1967–1971) included
Stevie Wonder , African musician
Hugh Masekela , and
Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan ?
...that the
2008 film
Forever the Moment is based on the real life story of
South Korea 's women's
handball team which won
silver at the
2004 Summer Olympics , and is also the first film to revolve around the sport of handball?
...that the
Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral (pictured) , consecrated in 1936, is the largest
Catholic church building in
Baguio City ?
...that after losing to
Tiger Woods in the 1994
U.S. Amateur Championship ,
amateur
golfer
Trip Kuehne pursued a career in
finance in lieu of
professional golf ?
...that
San Sebastian Church , the only
all-steel church in
Asia , is threatened by
rust caused by the salty sea breeze from nearby
Manila Bay ?
...that Lt.
John Weston Brooke , a veteran of the
Second Boer War and an explorer with the East African Syndicate, was the first
Englishman to gain an audience with the
Dalai Lama , in 1906?
...that the
first U.S. patent , numbered
X 000001 (pictured) , was issued to
Samuel Hopkins on
July 31 ,
1790 for "the making of
pot ash and pearl ash "?
...that the inscription eulogising
Kappe Arabhatta , a 7th century
Chalukya warrior, records the earliest example of
Kannada
poetry metre
Tripadi ?
...that the
court appointment of
valet de chambre (pictured) , nominally as a personal servant, was given to a wide range of artists, musicians, poets and others, including
the first air crash fatality ?
...that
Oregon 's
Boone Bridge is named for
Daniel Boone 's grandson, who operated the first
river crossing at that location ?
...that
Enfield Old Park contained 207
fallow deer in April 1620, of which 73 were
antlered males?
...that
Major League Baseball
catcher
Ellie Rodríguez caught the fourth of
Nolan Ryan 's seven career
no-hitters ?
...that
William Godwin 's philosophical work
Political Justice (1793) argues that the existence of governments indicates that people are not yet ready to rely on their reason to regulate their conduct?
...that
Davison's Mill ,
Stelling Minnis , was the last
windmill in Kent working commercially by wind when it closed in the autumn of 1970?
...that the
Tang Dynasty
chancellor
Chen Xilie first endeared
Emperor Xuanzong by explaining the
Tao Te Ching and the
I Ching to Emperor Xuanzong?
...that the
Chigi vase is the earliest representation of the ancient Greek
hoplite
phalanx ?
...that "
4 Mots sur un piano ", which deals with the theme of a
romantic relationship between two men and one woman, was the fifth
best-selling
single of
2007 in
France ?
...that
Kevin O'Brien (
1955 –
2008 ), an
Independent Baptist minister in
Lubbock, Texas , was among the founders of the
fundamentalist
Heartland Baptist Bible College in
Oklahoma City ?
...that
Kloster Wienhausen , a medieval convent in Germany, has the world's oldest surviving example of
rivet eyeglasses?
...that
sprinter
Jaysuma Saidy Ndure holds both the
Gambian and
Norwegian records in both the
100 and
200 metres ?
...that the
Ellsworth Street Bridge in
Albany, Oregon , was designed by
Conde McCullough who was both a bridge engineer and an attorney?
...that
Sarre Windmill was the first
windmill in
Kent to have a
steam engine installed as auxiliary power?
...that at 15 years and 156 days,
Albert Geldard became the youngest player to appear in
The Football League in 1929?
...that
Annie Armstrong , for whom the
Southern Baptist
Easter collection for domestic
missions is named, resigned from the missionary organization she founded vowing never to serve the SBC again?
...that
Magat Dam was at one time
Southeast Asia 's largest multipurpose
dam ?
...that in May 1899, less than 18 months after he led the
Australian cricket team to an
Ashes victory over
England in 1897–98,
Australian Test cricket captain
Harry Trott was committed to a
psychiatric hospital ?
...that
Platt Fields Park in
Manchester ,
England , was used as a
country park for over 400 years before being converted for public use in 1908–1910?
...that
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow never lived in
Minneapolis 's
Longfellow House (pictured ), a two-thirds
scale model of his house built by an admirer of his work?
...that certain flies such as the Cayman crab fly
Drosophila endobranchia live solely in and on
land crabs ?
...that in the 2000 offseason
Matt Lytle , a former
American football
quarterback , played for the
Rhein Fire of NFL Europe who won
World Bowl VIII ?
...that the titular planet in the
Doctor Who episode "
Planet of the Ood " is in the same solar system as the Sense-Sphere, the location for the 1964 serial
The Sensorites ?
...that during the
Shuliavka workers' uprising of 1905 , groups of 150 armed men patrolled the streets of the
Shuliavka neighborhood in
Kiev to clean the area of any resistors to their movement?
...that
architect
John Desmond was able to design the acclaimed
Louisiana State University Student Union building in
Baton Rouge without disturbing a canopy of stately
oak trees ?
...that
Edgar Allan Poe's 1831 short story "
Bon-Bon " features an
amateur
philosopher who meets a
soul -eating
devil ?
...that
Halemaʻumaʻu crater (pictured) in
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park erupted explosively on
March 19
2008 for the first time since 1924?
...that
Siegfried Kasche , the
Third Reich 's ambassador to
Croatia from 1941 to 1945, was tried for "complicity in deportations and murders" by a Yugoslav court and executed in June 1947?
...that the first
organochromium compound was described by German scientist
Franz Hein in 1919?
...that
American pioneer
John Bowman , granduncle of
Kentucky University founder
John Bryan Bowman , presided over the first county court held in
Kentucky ?
...that
Cryptosporidium hominis , an
obligate parasite usually spread through
fecal -contaminated
drinking water , is responsible for a seasonal increase in cases of
cryptosporidiosis in the
Netherlands in
autumn ?
...that nineteenth-century Irish
portrait painter
Richard Rothwell is buried next to the
Romantic poet
John Keats in the
Protestant cemetery in
Rome ?
...that as Kid Galahad ,
The Furze recorded "
Stealin’ Beats " which featured on the
PlayStation 2 game
Dancing Stage MegaMix ?
...that
Annette E. Brown was the
first female commander of
Navy Region Southeast of the
United States Navy ?
...that
BY Draconis , a multi-star system in the
constellation
Draco , includes a
binary star system with an
orbital period of only 5.98 days?
...that the cultures of the
Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition not only considered dogs to be
soul guides for the dead, but a major source of protein as well?
...that despite
Al Gore 's efforts to appease
Congressman
Jesse Jackson, Jr. and
Jesse Jackson , at the
2000 Democratic National Convention they agreed that endorsing Gore was like taking
castor oil ?
...that modern historians still debate on whether or not the
Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) of
China
had sovereignty over
Tibet ?
...that the recent
Typhoon Neoguri was the earliest tropical cyclone on record to affect
China ?
...that
Lesotho is the
only country in the world that
lies entirely over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft)
above mean sea level ?
...that
St. Brendan's Church has been a location for two apocalypse movies: the
Martian attack in 1953's
War of the Worlds and the wedding at the end of
Armageddon ?
...that
Percy Hoskins , was the only journalist working for a national British newspaper to defend suspected
serial killer
Dr. John Adams when he was arrested for murdering patients in 1956?
...that the
Washington Irving
sidewheeler , the biggest passenger-carrying riverboat ever built, sank after colliding with an oil barge in 1926?
...that
legal experts consider the
YouTube
divorce
video posted by
British
playwright
Tricia Walsh-Smith be the first of its kind?
...that
Eliza Tibbets planted the first two
navel orange trees in California?
...that
Filipe Nhussi , the current
defence minister of
Mozambique , was president of the
top-division
football club
Clube Ferroviário de Nampula ?
...that
American
diplomat
Elbridge Durbrow was one of the 730
delegates who attended the
Bretton Woods conference in July 1944?
...that the
Palace of Culture and Science defining
socialist realism in Poland , was designed in the
Soviet Union and erected by 3500 Soviet workers brought into
Warsaw in 1952–1955?
...that the inscription on
King Ahiram 's
sarcophagus housed in the
National Museum of Beirut is the earliest known example of
alphabetical writing?
...that
Carlyle Clare Agar developed new techniques for flying
helicopters by flying high in the
Canadian Rockies ?
...that the
Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure employs 1,476 employees diversified amongst 105 communities, maintaining 198,239 kilometres (123,180 mi) of roads and highways?
...that American photojournalist
Daniel Smith was once kidnapped by members of the
Mehdi Army and taken to meet
Muqtada al-Sadr ?
...that
Po-on and the rest of the Rosales Saga novel series by
F. Sionil José resemble the story-telling tradition found in the
U.S.A. trilogy by
John Dos Passos ?
...that
Lincoln's Lost Speech may have been so provocative that it was intentionally suppressed?
...that
Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich , cousin of
Nicholas II of Russia , was called "the terror of jealous husbands as well as of watchful mothers"?
...that the
Winchester Bible , the largest surviving 12th century
English
Bible , incorporated the skins of 250 calves?
...that the four main influential figures to
Filipino women writers are
Gabriela Silang ,
Leonor Rivera ,
Imelda Marcos and
Corazon Aquino ?
...that
water privatization in Brazil began under
Brazil's
post-colonial Empire
Pedro II of Brazil ?
...that, although he wrote most of his work in
Romanian ,
Romanian poet
Panait Cerna is thought to have had a better grasp of his native
Bulgarian ?
...that founder
Maria Weston Chapman was able to persuade
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to submit anti-slavery poetry twice to the
abolitionist fundraising
gift book
The Liberty Bell ?
...that two US Presidents,
Thomas Jefferson and
William Henry Harrison , are responsible for the layout of the
Old Jeffersonville Historic District ?
...that when the
YMCA of Berwick was incorporated in
Pennsylvania in 1883, the majority of the organization's trustees were current executives of
Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company ?
...that Sir
John Betjeman wrote of
Joan Jackson (née Hunter Dunn) being "Furnish'd and burnish'd by
Aldershot sun"?
...that
Commodore Cruise Line was the first
Florida -based company to operate week-long cruises around the year?
...that the village of
Denshaw in
Greater Manchester achieved international notoriety when
spoof information added to its Wikipedia entry was reported in national and international media?
...that in his first
major league appearance,
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher
Jim Nelson struck out
Willie Mays and got
Willie McCovey to hit into a double play?
...that although spoken by less than 18,686 people, the
Kulung
language has eight
dialects and covers the "
Mahakulung "
ethno -
linguistic area?
...that
Juan Garcia Abrego , in 1995, was the first
drug trafficker to be listed on the
FBI 's
Top Ten Most Wanted List ?
...that in 2006 Austrian
alpine style mountain climber
Christian Stangl went up the northeast ridge route of
Everest from Camp III (elev. 6,500 m) to the summit (elev. 8,848 m), alone and without an oxygen tank, in the record time of 16h 42min?
...that
L. B. Henry of
Pineville , overcame a missing forearm at birth to become a
plumber -
businessman and then a statewide figure in
Louisiana parish
government ?
...that
Wilf Hurd , a former member of the
British Columbia Legislative Assembly ,
resigned less than a year after being re-elected?
...that
Jamshedji Framji Madan was a pioneer of
Indian cinema , whose film production company
Madan Theatres Limited once controlled half of
British India 's box office?
...that
cyber law author and professor
Jonathan Zittrain co-founded
StopBadware.org to distribute the task of collecting data about
malware to Internet users at large?
...that the
Main Building of
Peace College was first used as a
Confederate military hospital and regional headquarters for the
Freedmen's Bureau ?
...that
John Madden has most wins of any
Oakland Raiders head coach ?
...that despite winning the
1989 World Indoor Championships ,
West German
400 metres
sprinter
Helga Arendt failed to reach the final round at the
European Championships one year later?
...that
Stewart White has presented the regional
BBC News programme
Look East for 24 years?
...that
Tori Amos got the
melody for her song "
1000 Oceans " from a "dark angel" singing to her in a dream?
...that at the height of its popularity,
New York 's
Easter Parade drew crowds of over a million?
...that
John Dick , the high scorer in the
first-ever NCAA men's basketball championship , would later command the
U.S. Navy
supercarrier
USS Saratoga ?
...that
Academy Award winner
Going My Way was filmed at
St. Monica 's , and the irascible old Irish priest character was based on its pastor?
...that
Lionel Monckton , the most popular
musical theatre composer of the
Edwardian period , after dropping into obscurity by the end of the 20th century, recently has had two albums of his music released?
...that over 25% of
Brazil's electricity is generated by a
hydroelectric plant at
Itaipu on the
Paraná River ?
...that
state senator
Larry George sued Senate President
Peter Courtney in an attempt to prevent an experimental session of the
Oregon Legislature ?
...that a
Muslim fundamentalist beheaded a statue of the
Virgin Mary at
St. Augustine 's and carted a statue of
Father Serra to a nearby
mosque in October 2001?
...that
Vasyl Krychevsky , a
Ukrainian artist , designed the state emblem of the
National Republic at the request of
Mykhailo Hrushevskyi ?
...that
Sheenboro, Quebec , started as a
trading post on the
Ottawa River and has retained its character as a "Little Corner of
Ireland "?
...that
John Percy Farrar recommended
George Mallory for inclusion on the
1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition to
Mount Everest ?
...that the
Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science , founded in 1853, was edited for 68 years by the Lankester family?
...that
Stonewall Jackson , camped with his men at
Carter Hall , allowed his physician to perform a
cataract operation on the owner, on the
portico of the mansion?
...that the
Tang Dynasty
chancellor
Li Linfu , because of his treachery, was described in
Chinese idiom as having honey in his mouth and a sword in his belly?
...that
archdeacon
Kay Goldsworthy was recently appointed the first woman
bishop of any Australian church and will be consecrated as an
Anglican bishop on
22 May
2008 ?
...that, during 13th and 14th century
Europe , a town
clockkeeper would often be employed and paid high sums of money to monitor and regulate the town clock?
...that
Charles Inglis , past-president of the
Institution of Civil Engineers was expected to die during birth and was hurriedly baptised in his father's drawing room?
...that several songs from
Michelle Williams 's debut album,
Heart to Yours , are tribute to the
September 11, 2001 attacks in the
United States ?
...that villagers in the drought-prone
Ranibandh area in
West Bengal ’s
Bankura district migrate to neighbouring districts in the harvesting season?
...that many of the lines for the
Three Witches in
Shakespeare's
Macbeth are copied word for word from the 1577 work
Holinshed's Chronicles ?
...that the rare mushroom
Hygrocybe aurantipes (pictured) was first collected in suburban
Sydney 's
Lane Cove National Park and may be threatened by
water pollution and
weeds ?
...that
Omaha, Nebraska has a history of
riots and civil unrest which starts just twenty years after the city was founded?
...that
Johan Teterisa was recently sentenced to life in
prison for waving the banned
secessionist flag of the so-called
Republic of the South Moluccas in front of
Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a
nonviolent protest?
...that a proposed
strategic road link through
Bangladesh and its capital
Dhaka will reduce the travel distance between the
Indian cities of
Agartala and
Kolkata from 1,700
kms to 400 kms?
...that
Fritz Schilgen was the final torchbearer for the first
Olympic torch relay at the
1936 Summer Games ?
...that the
Japanese
manga series
Soul Eater by
Atsushi Okubo has been developed into an
animated
television series that plans to adopt the source material over fifty-one
episodes ?
...that the
Iraq Veterans for Congress group includes the former
American
Presidential
candidate ,
Congressman
Duncan Hunter ?
...that
Mulaut Abattoir provides
Islamic-sanctioned slaughtering facilities to local
Bruneian farmers and butchers?
...that Oregon’s first
Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries ,
O. P. Hoff , was in charge of the first
minimum wage law in the U.S. that was enforceable?
...that the
Condemnations of 1277 at the
University of Paris (
pictured ) are cited by historians as the
birth of science , as they forced
scholars to question
Aristotle and think about the physical world in new ways?
...that
Pullmantur Cruises is the largest
Spain -based
cruise line ?
...that a diary attributed to
Jose Enrique de la Peña claims that
Davy Crockett surrendered at the
Battle of the Alamo and was executed on the orders of General
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ?
...that
Hurricane Cosme in
2007 helped relieve a persistent drought in
Hawaii ?
...that
Cognos Reportnet is compatible with multiple databases including
Oracle ,
SAP ,
Teradata ,
Microsoft SQL server ,
DB2 and
Sybase ?
...that
Secretary of War
Robert Todd Lincoln sent the
Secret Service and
Pinkerton's detectives to find and capture convicted embezzler Capt.
Henry W. Howgate ?
...that
Moti Masjid (Lahore) , built by
Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan , was turned into a
gemstone repository by
Ranjit Singh during the
Sikh rule of
Punjab ?
...that archbishop
Joseph Signay cited the man's poor eyesight to delay
Michel-Édouard Méthot ' s
tonsuring ?
...that while
James Howard was
Mayor of
Bedford in 1864, he entertained
Giuseppe Garibaldi , who planted a
Giant Sequoia that was later struck by
lightning ?
...that the
Rab battalion was a
Yugoslav partisans unit of Jewish survivors of
Rab concentration camp ?
...that
George Steiner 's 1975 book on
language and
translation ,
After Babel , was the first comprehensive study of the subject?
...that
Emmy Noether (
pictured ) was called "the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began" by
Albert Einstein ?
...that the
Poughkeepsie Trust Company building has been described as the
Hudson Valley 's first modern
skyscraper despite being only six stories high?
...that the
Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway to
Waltham, Quebec was completed in 1888, but not opened until 1894, stopped in 1959, and finally was removed in 1984?
...that broken remains of three early medieval
high crosses were found in 1874 during the construction of
Barnes Hospital in
Cheadle, Greater Manchester , but the location of only one is known today?
...that the
Delhi-Lahore Bus , a symbol of
Indo -
Pakistani friendship, continued running during the 1999
Kargil War ?
...that
Chillenden Windmill (pictured) was the last
post mill built in
Kent , replacing a mill that had blown down in 1868, and that it was itself blown down in 2003?
...that actor
Jason Beghe became best friends with
John F. Kennedy, Jr. and
David Duchovny when they attended
Collegiate School in
New York City ?
...that
Children At Risk , a
Houston -based non-profit, publishes a biannual report, Growing Up In Houston , which tracks 130 Quality of Life Indicators?
...that despite being one of the strongest
tropical cyclones to make
landfall on
Western Australia ,
Cyclone Glenda caused minimal damage and no deaths?
...that the
mine countermeasures ship
USS Scout used her
sonar to locate hazardous sunken debris off the
Louisiana coast after
Hurricane Katrina ?
...that the gates (
pictured ) of
Warrington Town Hall ,
Cheshire , erected in 1895, had been shown at the
1862 International Exhibition in London?
...that
Reuben Gaylord , the recognized leader of
missionary pioneers in
Omaha City ,
Nebraska Territory , has been called the "father of
Congregationalism in
Nebraska ?
...that many
gift books , decorative anthologies published annually just before the holidays to be given as gifts, featured popular authors of the day such as
Dickens ,
Wordsworth ,
Hawthorne and
Poe ?
...that
Poughkeepsie 's
Market Street Row includes one of the oldest houses in the city?
...that the southern terminus of the
first suburb to suburb commuter rail in the United States is
Wilsonville Station in
Oregon ?
...that
Richard Devlin , the majority leader of the
Oregon State Senate , has faced
Republican
Bob Tiernan three times, in races for two offices?
...that despite being dominated by the military elite, the
Guatemalan
Institutional Democratic Party was ousted from power in 1978 by a military opposition?
...that
film director
Brett Simon taught
film history ,
film theory and
video production at the
University of California, Berkeley while completing two degrees there?
...that the
Nez Perce thought they themselves gave nice gifts, but that the
Lewis and Clark Expedition gave "cheap" gifts, upon meeting in the
Weippe Prairie in 1805?
...that
St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church (pictured) was the site of the baptism of
Clark Gable 's son, the wedding of
Annette Funicello , and the funeral of
Mercury Seven astronaut
"Gordo" Cooper ?
...that
John Lavarack was the first person born in
Australia to be an
Australian State Governor ?
...that the exposed
bedrock of the
Duluth Complex was formed from
magma emitted when the
North American plate began to split apart in the
Midcontinent Rift ?
...that even though his predecessor,
Verne Duncan , was a
Republican ,
Democrat
Kurt Schrader faced no Republican opponent in his 2002 run for the
Oregon State Senate ?
...that police patrolled
Incarnation Church during the 2000 funeral of a Hispanic youth killed with a tire iron by
Armenian-Americans after a retaliatory shooting at a donut shop?
...that
Booksfree is the first online book rental company in the
United States to offer flat rate rental-by-mail to its customers?
...that
Joe Shell , the
conservative
Republican who challenged
Richard Nixon for the 1962
California
governorship was a champion
football halfback in 1939 and 1940?
...that
Carl Hans Lody was the first German spy to be executed in the
United Kingdom during
World War I ?
...that
Oldbury-on-the-Hill , part of
Didmarton , has a 30-metre (98 ft)
Bronze Age
round barrow called Nan Tow's Tump (pictured) ?
...that the
Battle of Mataquito , part of the
Arauco War , was lost by the
Mapuche after disaffected local Indians betrayed their location to the
Spanish ?
...that the
Wrawby Junction rail crash involved a
locomotive supposedly renumbered after a
psychic predicted a locomotive with the original number would be involved in a crash?
...that the
Tang Chinese government of
Emperor Xuanzong achieved considerable savings from reforms implemented by
Chancellor
Pei Yaoqing ?
...that
Old Catholic Cemetery was created for
Roman Catholics after a
yellow fever epidemic struck
Mobile, Alabama in the 1830s?
...that before working as
biomechanist to the
Indian cricket team ,
Ian Frazer helped
Australian
cricketer
Greg Chappell develop a patented
cricket training program?
...that
tourism in Zanzibar is the top income generator for the islands, out-earning the lucrative
spice industry?
...that
Rev. D'Ewes Coke , colliery owner and philanthropist, (find in imagemap) was descended from
Dr. George Coke ,
Bishop of Hereford who was charged with
high treason ?
...that
Helen Yglesias , best known for writing the 1981 novel Sweetsir , died one day before her 93rd birthday?
...that
New Zealand
cricketer and
Test match captain
Merv Wallace has been called "the most under-rated cricketer to have worn the silver fern"?
...that the
Fifteen Guinea Special , one of the last
British Rail steam services before the steam ban of 1968, was so called because of the high prices from popular demand for it?
...that
East German
sprinter
Sabine Günther won three gold medals in
4 x 100 metres relay at three different
European Championships ?
...that
rugby union footballer
Farah Palmer captained the
Black Ferns to three consecutive
Women's Rugby World Cup titles?
...that
Harlow Row was named for and designed by a former
mayor of
Poughkeepsie ?
...that
Maseru , the capital of
Lesotho , was founded in 1869 as a police camp?
...that
anti-conscription activist
Ivan Toms served as the only medical
physician for approximately 60,000 people in a
Cape Flats
shanty town during
South Africa 's
Apartheid era?
...that the
Battle of Palikao was a victory for the
British and
French forces during the
Second Opium War which enabled them to take
Beijing and defeat the
Qing Empire ?
...that the
Hebron glass industry goes back to at least the
thirteenth century ?
...that current
International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation president
Robert H. Storey survived a 1966 four-man
bobsleigh
crash that took the life of one
teammate and severely injured
another ?
...that
St. Finbar Church in
Burbank , faced with a dwindling flock and changing
demographics , was one of the first U.S.
parishes to offer
Spanish language
Mass ?
...that
British international
rally driver
Tony Ambrose was given an
MG sports car by his father for winning a
scholarship to
Jesus College, Oxford ?
...that the
Maitreyi Express was launched on
Pohela Baisakh in 2008 to revive the railway link between
India and
Bangladesh that had been closed for 43 years?
...that like building a better
mouse trap , there is still a challenge for
inventors to produce a kinder and more gentle
scallop dredge ?
...that
Sans Pareil (pictured) , one of five
locomotives to compete in the 1829
Rainhill Trials , was later used on the
Bolton and Leigh Railway ?
...that
A. V. Meiyappan produced
India 's first
dubbed film, Harischandra , in
1944 ?
...that
Cyclone Gamede in
February 2007 was among the
wettest tropical cyclones on record , dropping more than 5.5 metres (18 ft) of precipitation in a nine day period on
Réunion island?
...that
John Heisman , namesake of the
Heisman Trophy , played for the
Brown Bears before eventually transferring to the
University of Pennsylvania ?
...that the
original specimen of the
mauve splitting waxcap , a
fungus from eastern
Australia , found its way from
Melbourne to
Budapest but disappeared during the
First World War ?
...that there was an element of
eroticism concerning
death in Viking culture , and that the dead were often described as being received by a lady?
...that the world's largest
factory trawler , the 144 metres (472 ft) long Atlantic Dawn , is able to process 350 tonnes of fish a day?
...that when
St. Andrew's Church in
Pasadena was built in the 1920s, it was compared to "a jeweled crown on the head of a
Byzantine queen"?
...that the former
Lady Washington Hose Company
firehouse in
Poughkeepsie incorporates both
Japanese and
Gothic Revival elements in its design?
...that reputed 25-year-old
gangster
Nicodemo Scarfo, Jr. was the victim of a notorious
mob hit by a gunman wearing a
Batman mask on
Halloween in 1989?
...that
Kevin Reiman , a
MLS
footballer for
Real Salt Lake , helped
Maryland U. win an
NCAA title, then transferred after their addition of
Robbie Rogers ?
...that the
papal election, 1292-1294 was the last election of a
pope which did not take the form of a
conclave ?
...that the
Tang Dynasty
chancellor
Zhang Jiuling offered a five-volume historical work that he authored as a birthday gift to
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang , instead of mirrors, which the other officials were giving?
...that having moved to
South Africa to start his missionary work at age 22,
Joseph Gérard died at age 83 in
Lesotho without ever returning to his home country of
France ?
...that in 1998, an
oil fire at the
Lost Hills Oil Field in
Kern County, California burned for 14 days and was visible more than 40 miles (64 km) away?
...that Italian
Jesuit priest
Sabatino de Ursis moved to
China in 1607 to assist
Matteo Ricci in his
astronomical research, and attempted to reform the
Chinese calendar ?
...that the
Hasbrouck House is an unusually large
Romanesque Revival dwelling for a city the size of
Poughkeepsie ?
...that future
ice hockey stars
Brett Hull and
Dominik Hašek participated in the
Calgary Cup , a preview event for the
1988 Winter Olympics ?
...that
screenwriter
Tim Calpin says he picked up most of his writing experience from the
television series
South Park , despite never being part of the writing staff?
...that
East German athlete
Henry Lauterbach competed on an international level in both
high jump and
long jump ?
...that
Egypt had an active
national cricket team before
World War II , but only one player was a
native Egyptian ?
...that
migrants from India form over 40% of the total population of the
United Arab Emirates ?
...that
St Mark's Church in the small village of
Vrba was mentioned in a
sonnet by the
Slovene
national poet ?
...that
English
cricketer
Roger Davis was once struck so hard on the head by a
ball that his heart and breathing stopped, and he had to be revived by a doctor from the crowd?
...that
Jean Follain was a
corporate lawyer ,
magistrate and award-winning
author and
poet who wrote the poem "Death of the
Ferret "?
...that "
The Fires of Pompeii " is the first
Doctor Who episode since the
television show 's revival where the cast filmed abroad?
...that
AT&T engineer
Otto Zobel helped to establish that
electronic noise cannot be completely eliminated from radio and cable transmissions?
...that
Louis XIV of France employed a
native Chinese
librarian ,
Arcadio Huang , to organize the
royal library 's collection of
Chinese books?
...that
coal
mining in
Nigeria , for which the
Nigerian Coal Corporation had a monopoly until 1999, peaked in the 1950s, then suffered from the use of oil and the
Nigerian Civil War afterwards?
...that
Thomas R. Kimball gutted the central part of the
Burlington Headquarters Building in
Omaha to make it resemble the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad headquarters in
Chicago ?
...that a
pit crater , unlike an
impact crater , is formed by the ground sinking over a void such an emptied
magma chamber or
caldera ?
...that when
Gui de Cavalhon besieged
Castelnaudary in the fall of 1220 he requested assistance from friend and fellow
troubadour ,
Bertran Folcon d'Avignon , in a poem?
...that
river miles measure distances along a
river from its mouth and are used to reference locations and to name islands?
...that the Rev.
Teddy Boston was immortalized as "the Fat Clergyman" in
The Railway Series of children's books by the Rev.
W. V. Awdry ?
...that
Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino was the largest
naval
shipbuilding firm of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire ?
...that although
Norman Rockwell felt
Freedom of Speech and
Freedom to Worship were the most successful of his
Four Freedoms
painting series,
Freedom from Want has had the most enduring success?
...that
Muhamed , a German
horse , seemed to extract
cube roots and tap out the answer with his
hooves ?
...that in
1933 ,
Ed Walsh (Jr.) , son of
Hall of Famer
Ed Walsh , stopped
Joe DiMaggio 's
minor league record 61 game hitting streak?
...that the
O. H. Booth Hose Company (
pictured ) in
Poughkeepsie was named after the
fire chief who formed it after a previous company of
volunteer firefighters quit because they were jealous of other companies' facilities?
...that
mutations in the
FLNB
gene cause
boomerang dysplasia , a lethal
congenital disorder in which the limbs'
long bones malform into the shape of a
boomerang ?
...that
incendiary ammunition may be used
against tanks , as it can penetrate armor and spread
phosphorus through the compartment, burning the crew and depleting their
oxygen ?
...that filming on
The Office episode "
Dinner Party " was interrupted for over four months due to the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike ?
...that the 1943
Greater East Asia Conference praised
Pan-Asianism and condemned Western colonialism but did not produce plans for the
region's development?
...that
George Francis Train promoted
Columbus, Nebraska as "the new center of the Union and quite probably the future capital of the U.S.A." in order to sell
Credit Foncier land there?
...that in the 1830s, anticipating construction of the
Long Island Rail Road , land developer Ambrose George purchased a large tract of land between
Bethpage and Hardscrabble in Suffolk County?
...that a
painting by
Antoine-Jean Gros (pictured) shows
Napoleon Bonaparte touching the
armpit of a
plague victim in
Jaffa ?
...that the 2008
Hillsong United album
The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One was released as a
USB flash drive containing the MP3 files of the songs, embedded into a rubber wristband?
...that, besides
smuggling and distributing
Colombian
cocaine and
Mexican and
Southeast Asian
heroin ,
Sinaloa Cartel produces its own
opium and
marijuana ?
...that
Which Moped with Chrome-plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard? , a comedic novella by
Georges Perec , has an index of rhetorical devices used, including
anadiplosis and
metalepsis ?
...that
Spanish artifacts excavated at
Citico ,
Tennessee suggest that the historic
Native American site submerged by
Tellico Lake may have been the village of "Satapo" visited by the
Juan Pardo expedition in 1567?
...that the
automated tank cleaning machine used to clean
oil tankers after discharging cargo was patented by Arthur Butterworth in 1920?
...that
lumpenbourgeoisie , a
neologism of
lumpenproletariat and
bourgeoisie popularized by sociologist
Andre Gunder Frank , is used to describe
colonial and
neocolonial
elites in
Latin America ?
...that
Hawaii 's
Chain of Craters Road has been blocked repeatedly by
lava flows from
Kīlauea volcano (pictured) since it was built in 1928?
...that
Hemerdon Mine in
Devon ,
England is one of the world's largest sources of
tungsten and
tin , but has not been
mined since
World War II ?
...that
Camling is an ancient
Kiranti language , with only 10,000 speakers in eastern
Nepal ,
Bhutan and
India ?
...that the
polska —the
Swedish word for
Polish —is the signature music and dance form in
Swedish folk music ?
...that
Jewish
screenwriter
Barry Levy has taught
Hebrew at
Temple Israel California in between writing jobs?
...that
My Brother, My Executioner , a 1970s novel by
F. Sionil José , is about two half-brothers with opposing
Filipino ideologies?
...that
Frank Morse once
outsourced the research for a speech on
globalization to a company in
India ?
...that the
British colonials employed
Indian agents called
gomasthas to obtain goods from local
weavers and
fix their prices ?
...that
American actor
Vincent Piazza was
coached for a
Puerto Rican accent by a woman who usually did the opposite?
...that in 1582
Ursula Kemp confessed to using
familiar spirits to kill her neighbours and was later
hanged for
witchcraft ?
...that on a 1922 expedition to
Everest ,
Howard Somervell entertained fellow climbers by reading
Shakespeare ?
...that objects found in 1939 in the
ship burial at
Sutton Hoo (helmet pictured) were not a
treasure trove as their owners intended to bury them permanently?
...that
Quirinus Kuhlmann , a
German poet who called himself "son of the
Son of God ", was denounced as theologically and politically dangerous, and
burnt at the stake for
heresy in
Moscow in 1689?
...that the
Militia of the Faith of Jesus Christ was founded to defend the lands of
Amaury de Montfort , leader of the
Albigensian Crusade ?
...that the
Tang Dynasty
chancellor
Yuwen Rong was known in traditional history to have served for 100 days—even though he only served 99 days?
...that before the
Toronto Maple Leafs of the
National Hockey League adopted its current name, they had already won two
Stanley Cups by defeating the
Vancouver Millionaires in
1918 and in
1922 ?
...that the
Palace Hotel in
Perth, Western Australia was described at its opening as "one of the most beautiful and elegant hotels in Australasia"?
...that
Palwankar Shivram , brother of the
Dalit
cricketers
Baloo and
Vithal , was a
spin bowling
all-rounder who represented the
All-India
cricket team that toured
England in 1911?
...that the
pastor of
Burbank 's
St. Bellarmine Church was a
World War I
chaplain who modeled the campus on
Monticello and
Independence Hall ?
...that
mineralogist
George Switzer persuaded
Harry Winston to donate the
Hope Diamond (
pictured ) to the
Smithsonian Institution , establishing the
National Museum of Natural History 's
gem and
mineral collection?
...that
Douglas Hadow slipped on the descent after the
first ascent of the
Matterhorn , dragging
Lord Francis Douglas ,
Charles Hudson and
Michel Croz to their deaths?
...that some species of
Vireo , a genus of
passerines , bind their nests with
spider silk and ornament them with spider eggs?
...that
Hugh Daily , a
pitcher with only one arm, once
struck out
19 batters in a
Major League Baseball game?
...that
Bob Kames was given his
stage name when an announcer on
Armed Forces Radio could not pronounce his real name?
...that
Section 171 of the Criminal Code of
Cyprus , which prohibits
homosexual acts between men, was repealed just eight days before a May 29, 1998 deadline set by the
Council of Europe ?
...that the
Order of the Faith and Peace , founded by the
Archbishop of Auch c. 1230 for the defence of the peace in
Gascony , was patronised by
Gaston VII of Béarn ?
...that the portrait by
Pontormo of Maria Salviati with the young
Giulia de' Medici (pictured) is one of the first portraits in Europe of a child with presumed
African and
European ancestry?
...that the
sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard may not be the world's worst
sound ?
...that the
palm tree
Ptychococcus lepidotus is used in the
New Guinea
highlands to make
bows and
arrows ?
...that medieval
Perpendicular Gothic
Somerset Towers typically feature
pinnacles , lacy
tracery windows and bell openings,
gargoyles , arches,
buttresses ,
merlons , and external stair
turrets ?
...that the
American
mathematician
Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler married a former professor, who was actually a
Russian
double agent named Sergei Degaev?
...that
David Powel compiled and published the first printed history of
Wales in 1584, which popularized the legend that
Prince Madoc discovered America in about 1170?
...that
Hero of the Soviet Union
Ivan Sidorenko , a
World War II Soviet sniper, destroyed a
tank and three tractors, in addition to killing five hundred
Wehrmacht soldiers?
...that the
Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company was among the earliest and the last major electric
streetcar systems in the
United States ?
...that the entrance to
Neptune's Grotto (pictured) in
Sardinia lies only around a meter (3 feet) above the sea, and therefore the cave can only be visited when the waters are calm?
...that
Fred Walker helped to boost sales of his new spread
Vegemite , now an
Australian
cultural icon , by giving free jars to customers?
...that only about 10% of
Brazil 's
water resources is located in the
Southeast Region , the agricultural and industrial heartland of the country, where 73% of the population resides?
...that
revolution in the Kingdom of Poland , part of the
Russian Revolution , included a three-year-long school strike which resulted in lessening of
russification of the Polish educational system?
...that
Nepali
nationalists seek a
Greater Nepal that extends the present boundaries of Nepal into the
Indian states of
Uttar Pradesh ,
Himachal Pradesh ,
Uttarakhand and
Sikkim ?
...that
British politician
Jock Stallard was expelled from the
Labour Party in the 1950s for flying the
red flag from
St Pancras town hall, but later served as a Labour
MP and
life peer ?
...that
Ermita are all namesakes for a character, a
place , and a novel by Filipino author
F. Sionil José ?
...that the asymmetrical
monoplane
BV 141 is one of many
military aircraft designed by
Richard Vogt ?
...that
Rondel Racing was the first racing team founded by current
McLaren chairman and CEO
Ron Dennis ?
...that while
Peover Hall in
Cheshire , England , is a Grade II*
listed building , its
stable block is listed Grade I because of its elaborate internal architecture?
...that
Max Weber argued that the increasing
rationalization of human life traps individuals in an
"iron cage" of rule-based, rational control?
...that
Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish , founder of the
Mazdaznan religion, claimed to have been a child to a secret society of
Zarathustrians ?
...that
Royal Brunei Catering , a wholly-owned
subsidiary of
Royal Brunei Airlines , was named as Best Regional Caterer 1995/1996 by
Singapore Airlines ?
...that
Pei Guangting , a
chancellor of the
Tang Dynasty , traced his ancestry to officials serving several dynasties, including the
Han Dynasty ?
...that
Abraham Esau was the head of the
physics section of the
Reich Research Council ,
Nazi Germany 's centralized planning institution for almost all basic and applied research?
...that although
Tropical Storm Arthur (1996) made landfall in
North Carolina , total damage amounted to only $1 million dollars (1996 USD)?
...that former
Anglican
clergyman and
Liberal Party
life peer
Tim Beaumont was the only
Green Party representative in the
Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1999 until his death in
2008 ?
...that
Agnolo Bronzino 's 1542 painting of
Bia de' Medici was painted from the girl's
death mask ?
...that
Alojzy Ehrlich ate rolls and a
Polish sausage while playing a
table tennis match in which neither he nor his opponent scored for over an hour?
...that rumors of the beating of a teenage
shoplifter set off a
race riot in 1935 in
Harlem ,
New York ?
...that despite the recorded influence of
American Sign Language ,
Filipino Sign Language has a history that can be traced from the works of European missionaries in the
Philippines as early as the 1600s?
...that
William Whitaker introduced
orange
groves to
Florida ?
...that besides being the first president of the
International Luge Federation ,
Bert Isatitsch was also a
special education
teacher ?
...that
Palwankar Vithal became the first
Dalit
cricketer to captain the
Hindus team in the
Bombay Quadrangular
cricket competition, a milestone in the
Hindu society 's struggle against
caste discrimination ?
...that at age 23,
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen (pictured) was the youngest
Danish politician ever to participate in a nationally televised debate for
party leaders?
...that
Lualhati Bautista ’s
Tagalog novel,
Bata, Bata… Pa’no Ka Ginawa? became a film starring
Vilma Santos , an actress turned first female governor of
Batangas of the
Philippines ?
...that
Gilbert Patten , the author of the
Frank Merriwell
dime novels ,
managed a semi-
professional baseball team in
Camden, Maine during the 1890-1891 season?
...that although it is used in
aquaculture , there are only two known cases of
Palometa being traded as
aquarium
fish over a five-year period?
...that
George Rea was the first paid president of the "New York
Curb Exchange," now known as the
American Stock Exchange ?
...that
Ingmar Bergman 's film
The Virgin Spring is based on the medieval
Swedish
ballad "
Töres dotter i Wänge " ?
...that
pioneer
Omaha
physician
George L. Miller served as president of the
Nebraska State Historical Society after being labeled a "raving
maniac " by the
press ?
...that the former
Farmer's and Manufacturer's Bank (pictured) is the only commercial
Greek Revival building in
Poughkeepsie ?
...that
Su Huan-chih is the second member of the
Democratic Progressive Party to ever hold the position as
Tainan County magistrate?
...that although the
damages by
Hurricane Dennis in
Mississippi in 2002 were mostly minor, 41
counties in the
state were declared
federal
disaster areas ?
...that a
subsidiary of
Royal Brunei Airlines operates restaurants in
Brunei including two
halal
Chinese restaurants?
...that in order to cut costs,
Olau Line
re-flagged their
cruiseferry
Olau Hollandia to
Luxembourg in January 1993, but were forced to revert the ship to
German flag only a month later?
...that
Ronnie Thompson , the first
Republican to have served as
mayor of
Macon, Georgia in the
20th century (
1967 -
1975 ), also had a career as a
singer of
gospel and
country music ?
...that
Brad Avakian ,
Oregon 's recently appointed
Labor Commissioner , previously worked as a civil rights attorney, and was honored by two unions during his time in the
Oregon Legislative Assembly ?
...that exhibits at the
Bailey House Museum on
Maui include a 33-foot fishing boat, a collection of snail shells, a unique wooden statue of a
Hawaiian demi-god, and 19th century Maui landscapes (pictured )?
...that although the
Czech Republic village of
Blevice has a
Jewish cemetery it has no matching community?
...that
František Kriegel was the only political exponent of
Czechoslovakia deported to Moscow in 1968 who refused to sign the
Moscow Protocol dictated by
Brezhnev ?
...that
Fabian de la Rosa was not only mentor to the Filipino painters
Fernando and
Pablo Amorsolo , but a leading painter in his own right?
...that the chief purpose of the
military order the
Militia of Jesus Christ was to combat heresy?
...that the
Norwegian
black /
death metal band
Cor Scorpii cites inspiration from
classical composers such as
Prokofiev ,
Grieg ,
Rachmaninov , and
Satie ?
...that the
SS Blairspey was hit by at least three
torpedoes from two different
U-boats , but still managed to reach port because her cargo of
timber kept her afloat?
...that the
Decker building (pictured) , an 1892 Moorish-influenced design, is where
Andy Warhol had his Factory from 1967 to 1973, and was shot in 1968?
...that
Opération 14 juillet , a French mission to rescue
Ingrid Betancourt from
FARC guerrillas, was launched without the knowledge of
the French president ?
...that
Gregory XV was
acclaimed as the new
pope in the
papal conclave of 1621 even though
Cardinal
Robert Bellarmine had received the most votes in the ballot?
...that
Levi Todd , the grandfather of
Mary Todd Lincoln , wrote the first and last contemporary accounts of the
Battle of Blue Licks , one of the last battles of the
American Revolutionary War ?
...that only two days before
Payment on Demand was scheduled to open at
Radio City Music Hall ,
RKO executive
Howard Hughes called the director and the two leads into the studio to film a new ending?
...that the
Draco Dwarf spheroidal
galaxy is one of the faintest companions of the
Milky Way and the most
dark matter dominated object known?
...that local legends say that a
white witch lives in
Mother Ludlam's Cave (
pictured ) near
Waverley Abbey in
Surrey ,
South East England ?
...that after
Norman Rockwell 's
Four Freedoms were published in the
Saturday Evening Post , 25 million people bought posters of them?
...that
Haraprasad Shastri discovered the
Charyapada , poems written in the earliest-known precursor to the
Indo-Aryan languages ?
...that Polish
war correspondent
Melchior Wańkowicz was charged with "
slandering the
People's Republic of Poland ", for criticizing the state in a private letter?
...that
Unabomber for President was a 1996
write-in campaign to elect
Theodore Kaczynski as
President of the United States ?
...that two people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed during the
2008 Egyptian general strike ?
...that the brother of
Australian
rugby player
Dean Mumm was assistant coach to the
Fijian rugby team , whilst their grandfather played for the
All Blacks ?
...that
Paul Salamunovich , choir director since 1949 at
St. Charles Borromeo Church (pictured) in
North Hollywood , has also conducted choirs for dozens of feature films, including
The Devil's Advocate ?
...that a
novel human polyomavirus is associated with
Merkel cell carcinoma , a rare and highly aggressive form of
skin cancer ?
...that
Thaba Bosigo , a
Basotho stronghold in
Lesotho , was the only fortress to remain impregnable during the
Free State-Basotho Wars ?
...that political opponents of
Kentucky governor
Thomas Metcalfe nicknamed him "Old Stone Hammer" because they felt his previous work as a
stonemason was a background unbecoming a governor?
...that the
SS Assyrian started life as a
German
merchant ship in the
First World War and ended it as
British merchant in the
Second World War ?
...that despite being called the "
Aladdin's Castle of
George Francis Train ," the
Cozzens House Hotel in
Omaha operated for only four years before sitting empty for several more?
...that 39% of
Israeli schoolchildren watch the educational television program
Bli Sodot in their classroom?
...that the
Royal Navy
destroyer
HMS Quail (pictured) was
mined in November 1943, but did not sink until May 1944?
...that the Adipose in the
Doctor Who episode "
Partners in Crime " were based on a stuffed toy that writer
Russell T Davies owned?
...that the
Ligonier Valley Railroad 's reliance on verbal orders resulted in a
head-on collision between a
freight train and a train carrying partygoers?
...that
Jessie Vasey was helping
Australian war widows before she became one herself when
her husband, George , died in an air crash?
...that the
Samnite
gladiator type likely went out of fashion in
Ancient Rome when the people of
Samnium , whom it was intended to mock, became assimilated into the
Roman Empire ?
...that
Irish computer
programmer
Gavin Walsh owns the world's largest collection of
Sex Pistols records and
memorabilia ?
...that the use of multiple strains of
rhizobacteria as composite
microbial inoculants has been shown to benefit the cultivation of
crops such as
rice and
barley ?
...that the
Birhor people are a
tribal forest people, traditionally
nomadic , living primarily in the
Indian
state of
Jharkhand ?
...that
Monte Testaccio (pictured) in
Rome is an artificial hill, 35 m (115 ft) high and 1 km in circumference, consisting entirely of the fragments of 53 million
ancient Roman
amphorae ?
...that the
Blank family , the maternal ancestors of
Vladimir Lenin , were relatives to Nazi
field marshal
Walter Model ,
archeologist
Ernst Curtius , and
President of Germany
Richard von Weizsäcker ?
...that
Charles Starr and
Bruce Starr were the first father and son tandem to serve at the same time in the
Oregon State Senate ?
...that
William Thomas Havard , who was bishop of two
Welsh dioceses (
St Asaph , then
St David's ), once
represented
Wales in an international
rugby union match?
...that, with an estimated 308,000 members as of 2005, the
Bahá'í community in Kenya constitutes 1% of the country's population?
...that
Naats'ihch'oh National Park Reserve takes its name from a
Dene phrase meaning "stands like a
porcupine "?
...that despite peaking at 38 in the
UK Albums Chart , seven-year-old
child singer
Connie Talbot 's debut album
Over the Rainbow was rated
gold in Britain shortly after its release?
...that yearly whale counts of the
endangered
Humpback Whale (pictured) in the
Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary show their numbers are increasing by 7% per year?
...that the
Spanish -introduced
limestone house of the
Ivatans was designed to withstand typhoons?
...that English printer
Thomas Adams published
John Dowland 's The Third and Last Booke of Songes or Aires out of his shop in
St. Paul's Churchyard ?
...that the
Mill Mountain Zoo is host to three endangered species: the
Red Panda ,
Snow Leopard and
White-naped Crane ?
...that
Black Grace , an internationally-touring New Zealand contemporary-dance company, melds
Maori and
Pacific Islander indigenous dance with modern dance and
hip hop ?
...that "the light arises in the East", an apparently pro-
Soviet slogan coined by
Romanian writer
Mihail Sadoveanu in 1945, is seen by some as a coded warning to his fellow
Freemasons about
communization ?
...that the discovery of
Lazarussuchus showed that
choristoderes , a type of aquatic reptile, had not gone extinct in the
Eocene , but persisted for millions of years after?
...that
Rear Admiral
Ralph Christie of the
U.S. Navy was so incensed by the decision not to award
Samuel Dealey the
Medal of Honor , he sent a blunt message to
Thomas Kinkaid that some viewed as bordering on
insubordination ?
...that in 1989, the
Popular Front of Moldova was initially backed by a range of ethnic groups, but quickly lost support from
Russian speakers and
Gagauz ?
...that
Australian
veterinary student
Barry Larkin carried a fake
Olympic Flame in the
1956 Summer Olympics as a protest, because he thought the flame was given too much reverence?
...that
film producer
Neil Kopp stood in as a
location scout ,
location manager ,
assistant director and
grip while filming
Old Joy ?
...that the second largest
mobile operator in
Slovenia ,
Si.mobil , was one of the first worldwide to offer
EDGE ?
...that
Jeremy Dalton was
suspended , and later expelled, from the
British Columbia Liberal Party
caucus in the
provincial legislature ?
...that the
funerary art of many cultures includes
psychopomps , like the
Zapotec bat god, who conduct souls to the afterlife?
...that the
Emperor of Russia ,
Alexander III bought the art of
Ukrainian realist painter
Volodymyr Orlovsky ?
...that
twenty out of the thirty five
merchant ships of
convoy SC-7 were sunk by
German
U-boats ?
...that
Canadian band
Article One took their name from the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights after hearing about it on
U2 's
Vertigo Tour ?
...that
Josiah Failing became the
fourth mayor of
Portland, Oregon less than three years after moving there from
New York City ?
...that actress
Anna Kendrick was nominated for a
Tony Award at the age of twelve, making her the youngest-ever Tony nominee
as of 2008 ?
...that, on
D-Day , attorney and
U.S. Army Ranger
Leonard Lomell managed to destroy five concealed, long-range
German guns pointed at the
landing
beaches even though he had been wounded by
machine gun fire a few hours earlier?
...that
Nathaniel Higginson , the first Mayor of
Madras city and the second American-born
President of Madras , was the son of a
Puritan
minister , a leading investigator in the
Salem witch trials ?
...that the
Taipei Metro C301 cars were built in the former
Otis plant in
Yonkers, New York , which was the first
elevator factory in the world?
...that the
Biographicon aspires to be an online directory of
biographies for "all the people of the world"?
...that after becoming
Bishop of Brechin at the instigation of the
Earl of Argyll ,
Alexander Campbell of Carco , still only a
minor , handed most of his bishopric's lands over to the earl?
...that the
1937
Western fiction book
Buckskin Brigades was
Scientology founder
L. Ron Hubbard 's first published
novel ?
...that
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang , impressed with
Zhang Jiazhen but forgetting his name, almost made Zhang Qiqiu
chancellor instead of Zhang Jiazhen?
...that the
Shoshone was the first of only two
steamboats to be brought down through
Hells Canyon , North America's deepest
gorge , to the lower
Snake River ?
...that
Red Dog was such a well-known and beloved dog in
Western Australia 's
Pilbara region that a statue ([[Image:Dampier Red Dog, Western Australia (cropped).jpg|pictured) was built in his honour?
...that
Princess Margaret of Prussia had her jewels stolen by American soldiers in the aftermath of
World War II ?
...that
Jacqueline Audry was the first commercially successful woman
film director of post-war
France ?
...that his son's infection with
polio in 1930 led
electrical engineer
Reinhold Rudenberg to develop an
electron microscope as a tool to study the
poliovirus ?
...that Jewish American
surfer
Doc Paskowitz helped bring
surf boards to
Gaza to help promote peace in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict ?
...that
Dutch
topologist
Johannes De Groot is the
academic grandfather , great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather of his
namesake via four different paths of academic supervision?
...that, between 1945 and 1947,
correspondent
John Roderick spent seven months living with
Mao Zedong and other
Chinese Communist leaders in the caves of
Yan'an ?
...that
Dory Dean of the
1876
Cincinnati Reds was the first pitcher to include turning his back to the hitter in his delivery before pitching the ball?
...that
Comfort Stations No. 68 (pictured) and
No. 72 in the
Rim Village Historic District of
Oregon , listed on the
U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1988, are
public restrooms built in the 1930s?
...that
Rev. Thomas Dyche is credited with writing the first book in
English published in
Asia ?
...that the
Battle of Sugar Point was the last major battle fought between
Native Americans and the
United States Army ?
...that
Cyclone Jokwe killed 16 people in
Madagascar and left at least 55,000 homeless?
...that the
Alabama-Huntsville Chargers ice hockey team is the only
Division I collegiate hockey team located south of the
Mason-Dixon Line ?
...that
kimchi bokkeumbap is a
Korean
fried rice made with
kimchi and any available ingredients?
...that
Quilceda Creek Vintners
Cabernet Sauvignon is the first American wine from outside
California to earn perfect 100-point score reviews from wine critic
Robert M. Parker, Jr. in
The Wine Advocate ?
...that a
horreum was a type of public
warehouse used in
Ancient Rome to store foodstuffs such as
grain and
olive oil ?
...that despite writing a full action-and-dialogue
screenplay for his film
Raising Victor Vargas ,
Peter Sollett never showed the actors a script to encourage authenticity through improvisation when filming?
...that
sailors use a tool called a
needlegun (pictured) to remove old
paint and
corrosion aboard
ships ?
...that the
Chronicle of Mann claimed
William Russell to have been the first
Bishop of the Isles consecrated by the
pope , even though he was not consecrated by the pope, and even if he had been, he would not have been the first?
...that the
Danville 97s
minor league baseball team name of 97s was selected as a tribute to the victims of the
Wreck of the Old 97 train accident?
...that
Banaag at Sikat , a novel by
Lope K. Santos , was once considered the “Bible of Filipino laborers”?
...that the name of
Lake Burrumbeet , a large but shallow
eutrophic lake in
Victoria ,
Australia , derives from the
local aboriginal word burrumbidj , meaning 'muddy or dirty water'?
...that
The Guardian newspaper was founded 189 years ago in
Manchester ,
England as a direct response to the
Peterloo Massacre ?
...that
Adrianne Calvo is the youngest chef to have cooked for the
United Nations ?
...that
Mid-State Regional Airport is a
Keystone Opportunity Zone to promote economic growth, but, to protect the
Pennsylvania state
park and
forest (
pictured ) it was formed from, cannot legally expand?
...that in 1998, the
Hopi Dictionary: Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni , the first comprehensive
Hopi language dictionary, was almost prevented from being published for fear of having non-Hopis learning the language?
...that real-life medical cases in the book The Medical Detectives , by
Berton Roueché , inspired many of the medical mysteries on the television show
House ?
...that Johanne Sørensen became the first
Bahá'í in Denmark in 1925, and the only
Bahá'í in her country till 1947?
...that
Moseley Wanderers represented
Great Britain and Ireland at
Rugby Union in the
1900 Summer Olympics in
Paris , winning the
Silver medal despite losing their only game?
...that the US
National Park Service is helping to fund improvements to county road
H-58 which serves as the main access road to the
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the
Upper Peninsula of
Michigan ?
...that the Madras Bank,
India 's oldest Western-style
banking institution, was established in 1683 by
William Gyfford , the Agent of
Madras at the time?
...that
Myer Lyon ,
hazzan of the
Great Synagogue of London , doubled as opera star Michael Leoni, whose contract excused him on the Jewish
Sabbath ?
...that despite its bitter taste, the
heart of the
palm tree
Plectocomiopsis geminiflora is a delicacy in
Borneo ?
...that
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church is the first
Baptist church in the
Southern United States to have chosen an openly
gay person as lead
clergy ?
...that
Titanium La Portada is expected to briefly become the tallest
skyscraper in
Chile , before being overtaken by
Torre Gran Costanera of the
Costanera Center complex?
...that
Beinn an Tuirc windfarm in
Scotland is trying to keep
Golden Eagles away from their
turbines by reintroducing
Mountain Hares ?
...that
New York writer and socialite
Anthony Haden-Guest is both son of
the 4th Baron Haden-Guest and the
brother-in-law of actress
Jamie Lee Curtis ?
...that
Shelby Place Historic District was begun due to the
woodworking industries that revitalized
New Albany, Indiana ?
...that despite its name, the
Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes does not contain a volume about
badminton ?
...that the
Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood (
pictured ) is the oldest authenticated and extant work of
Paolo Uccello ?
...that when
Norman Rockwell 's
model for his
World War II
Willie Gillis series enlisted, the
Saturday Evening Post demanded that Rockwell continue the character?
...that seven
whaling ships escaped the
Whaling Disaster of 1871 , but were forced to abandon their catch in order to accommodate 1,219 people from 33 other ships trapped in ice off the
Alaskan coast?
...that
Etta Palm d'Aelders , whose
salon in
Paris was frequented by
Jean-Paul Marat ,
François Chabot and other prominent political figures during the
French Revolution , might have been an agent for the
Dutch government?
...that when the senior officials
Yuan Qianyao ,
Song Jing , and
Zhang Shuo were commissioned with new offices in 729,
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang held an elaborate ceremony, with music and food from the imperial kitchen?
...that
Polyandrococos , a
genus of
palm trees
endemic to
Brazil , is so named partly because of its hairy
tomentum ?
...that
Alojz Rebula was a
Slovene author who wrote extensively about the philosophy of
Jacques Maritain ?
...that
natural gas in the
Marcellus Formation could increase
United States energy reserves by one
trillion
U.S. dollars ?
...that
Gordon Dam (
pictured ) , a 140-metre (460 ft) tall
arch dam on the
Gordon River , is the tallest in
Tasmania ,
Australia ?
...that the
USS Mount Vernon , a control ship in the cleanup of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill , was destroyed off the coast of
Hawaii in 2005?
...that
New Albany, Indiana 's
Cedar Bough Place is the only "private street" in a city near
Louisville, Kentucky ?
...that
compression of the duodenum by the
aorta and the overlying
superior mesenteric artery may lead to
nausea ,
bilious
vomiting ,
abdominal pain and
weight loss ?
...that
turquerie became popular in Europe and America primarily due to the writings of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ?
...that as a result of a
1972 referendum , the boundary between
time zones in
British Columbia ended up being different from the provincial boundary?
...that the
C-Leg
microprocessor -controlled
prosthetic leg records the motion of the user?
...that the
Hawai`i Institute of Marine Biology is the only research center in the world built on a
coral reef ?
...that among the
effects of Hurricane Dennis in Georgia was the death of a
Decatur man from a tree that fell on his bedroom?
...that
Claire Clairmont (pictured) was the inspiration for
Percy Bysshe Shelley 's posthumously published poem "To Constantia, Singing"?
...that the
Gens de Terre River in
Quebec ,
Canada , has a 25 km (15.5 mi) section with continuous
whitewater while flowing through 25 m (80 ft) high cliffs?
...that in 1985, overflowing from the
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines Dam in
Sonora, Mexico resulted in the evacuation of 20,000 people?
...that books by the
writer of romantic fiction
Denise Robins sold more than
one hundred million copies ?
...that the barnacle
Megabalanus can reach 7 cm in length?
...that in 1128
Geoffrey ,
Prior of
Christ Church ,
Canterbury , became the first
Abbot of Dunfermline ?
...that nearly $1 million worth of tickets were sold during the week following the first
New York Times ad announcing
Elizabeth Taylor 's appearance in the 1981
Broadway revival of
Lillian Hellman 's
The Little Foxes ?
...that
Thurston Rostron is the fourth-youngest player in the history of the
England national football team ?
...that the name of
Mohrland, Utah was formed as an
acronym from the surnames of the principal investors in its
coal mining company?
...that
Dovedale (
pictured ) , a
National Nature Reserve in the
Peak District ,
England is so popular that it attracts a million visitors a year?
...that
Audrey Stubbart worked until age 105, becoming the oldest verified full-time employee ever in the
United States ?
...that despite
Herodotus 's claim that the
sundial was invented in
Babylon , the oldest known example is from
Egypt ?
...that during a period of widespread family ownership in the industry, the
Falstaff Brewing Corporation was one of the few publicly-traded
breweries in the
United States ?
...that
Elm Yellows is a
disease of
elm trees caused by
mycoplasma -like organisms infecting the
phloem and can be spread by
leafhoppers or
root grafts ?
...that no
governing party in
British Columbia has
won a provincial by-election since 1981?
...that
Antley-Bixler syndrome is a rare but severe
congenital malformation disorder with symptoms that include
flat forehead ,
closure of
cranial
sutures and fused bones in the limbs?
...that
New York
Governor
David Paterson's
press secretary
Errol Cockfield Jr. was previously
Albany bureau chief of
Newsday ?
...that the free-floating fruit of
Posidonia oceanica (pictured) , a
Mediterranean
seagrass , is known as the "
olive of the sea"?
...that the
Financial Stability Forum consists of officials from ministries and central banks of a dozen countries, who coordinate international financial stability?
...that when
Ahmad Said was appointed as Chief Minister of the Malaysian state
Terengganu by
King of Malaysia
Mizan Zainal Abidin , it was against the wishes of
Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ?
...that the
economy of Omaha, Nebraska has expanded to embrace the burgeoning
information technology
sector since the city was labeled the "Motor Mouth City" by the
New York Times ?
...that the
1990 Strangeways Prison riot at 25 days was the longest British prison riot?
...that the
Taipei Metro
Xinbeitou Branch Line , consisting of two stations, was severely restricted due to complaints of
noise pollution ?
...that 16 of the 72
fiction authors with at least 100 million copies of their works in print did not write in
English , and 16 of them are women?
...that the
Creeping Groundsel (pictured) , a climbing
succulent
perennial native of
South Africa , is a problem
weed in
New Zealand , but cultivated in parks in
Spain and
Germany ?
...that the acquisitions of
Joseph Smith , British
consul in
Venice , formed the basis of the drawings collection in the
Royal Collection and the "King's Library" of
George III at the
British Library ?
...that
Charles J. O'Byrne , Secretary to
Governor
David Paterson of
New York , is a former
priest who officiated at the marriage of
John F. Kennedy Jr. and
Carolyn Bessette in 1996 and presided over their funeral in 1999?
...that
City of Truro was the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h) while hauling a train near
Wellington station on the
Reading to Plymouth Line in
England ?
...that residents of 22½ St. in
Minneapolis petitioned the
City Council and changed the street's name to
Milwaukee Avenue because the '½' made them feel as if they lived in an alley?