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Did you know...[edit]

30 April 2004

...that Notre-Dame de la Paix Basilica in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire is the world's tallest cathedral?
...that the film The Titfield Thunderbolt was inspired by the restoration of the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales?
...that pole stars change over time because stars exhibit a slow but distinct drift with respect to the Earth's axis?
...that high jumper Ulrike Meyfarth became the youngest individual Olympic champion in athletics?

29 April 2004

...that the Allies organized the South East Asia Command, led by Lord Mountbatten, to manage operations in the southern Pacific Theater during World War II?
...that there are at least 10 Malay-based creoles?
...that Herb Robert, a species of cranesbill, is believed by traditional herbologists to be a toothache palliative?
...that Mickey Marcus is the only person buried at the United States Military Academy who died fighting under a foreign flag?
...that in the United Kingdom a County palatine was one which had special autonomy and was ruled by an Earl or Count?
...that many Mexicans pray to a figure known as Saint Death?
...that the Von Willebrand factor is a blood protein used by the coagulation function of the circulatory system?
...that Cousin problems have nothing to do with difficult relatives?
...that the Battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky was the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War?
...that most garden flowers and herbs are forbs?
...that The Most Dangerous Game has been repeatedly used as source material by television shows like Gilligan's Island?

28 April 2004

Shaposhnikov and Stalin

...that Russian military man Boris Shaposhnikov successfully transitioned from the armed forces of czarist Russia to those of the USSR?
...that Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida, was the first permanent French colony in North America?
...that the Henrician Articles, passed in 1573, laid out the principles of government in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
...that June and Jennifer Gibbons communicated via a twin language?

27 April 2004

...that the geology of the Grand Canyon area includes more than 40 identified rock layers?
...that the Schneider CA1 was the first French tank?
...that Pale Flax may be an evolutionary predecessor to Common Flax, from which the fiber is derived?
...that the lowest ranks in the Norwegian military are the menig (Army), flysoldat (Air Force) and Utskrevet menig (Navy)?

...that Boris Yeltsin wanted to remove the body of Vladimir Lenin from public display in Lenin's Mausoleum but failed to achieve his goal while in power?
...that China's peaceful rise is the current non-threatening foreign policy doctrine of the People's Republic of China?
...that gravitational collapse is a leading cause of star death?
...that the history of the periodic table records at least two pre-Mendeleevian attempts to organize the elements?

26 April 2004

...that the United States Navy practiced burial at sea as recently as World War II?
...that weather lore is essentially folk meteorology and varies widely in its veracity?
...that the British judicial practice of Quarter Sessions existed until 1972?
...that Beijing opera did not originate in Beijing but in the Chinese provinces of Anhui and Hubei?
...that the California Manroot has 5cm round fruits covered in 1cm spines, and a bitter taste?

...that Russian humor thrived even during the Soviet stagnation period of the 1970s and 1980s?
...that the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contains the remains of a Canadian soldier who died in France during World War I?

25 April 2004

...that the use of the term President in its current sense, meaning executive government officer, may have come from the colonial-era American university system?
...that Tamale, Ghana obtains its electricity from Akosombo Dam in the central Ghana?

24 April 2004

Sri Lanka Junglefowl

...that the colorful Sri Lanka Junglefowl is part of the junglefowl family from which our modern domestic chickens derive?
...that American Miranda rights are named for Ernesto Miranda?
...that the Byzantine Senate survived from the end of the Roman Empire up until the time of the Fourth Crusade?
...that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera seria Idomeneo is set on the island of Crete following the Trojan War?

22 April 2004

...that the Berry Islands of the Bahamas were settled in 1836 by a group of freed slaves?
...that the Scarlet King Snake can be distinguished from the Coral Snake by the mnemonic "red and yellow, kill a fellow" and "red and black venom lack"?
...that the white eagle on the Coat of Arms of Poland references the story of Lech, the legendary founder of Poland, who saw a white eagle's nest and was inspired to establish the city of Gniezno (literally nest)?

...that writers in the literary genre known as fantastique include Stephen King and Honoré de Balzac?
...that the crown lands of the United Kingdom are different than crown lands in Canada and Australia, the latter being more like the public lands of the United States?
...that the Turin King List is an ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll, written in hieratic, which lists all the pharaohs and gods believed to have ruled over the Nile kingdom?

21 April 2004

...that the famous horny toad of North America is not an amphibian but a reptile officially known as the Short-horned Lizard?
...that a woman named Priscilla, wife of Aquila, was one of the first Christian evangelists?
...that Bambaiya Hindi, a pidgin used in Mumbai, is a combination of English, Marathi, Gujarati and several other languages?
...that in 1990 Cecil Fielder became the first Detroit Tiger since Hank Greenberg (in 1938) to slug over 50 home runs in a season?
...that the Monty Python joke-warfare sketch is an example of a motif of harmful sensation?

Cecil Fielder

...that The Price of Loyalty claims that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not a reaction to the attacks of September 11?
...that Hans Guido Mutke claimed to be the first person to break the sound barrier?

20 April 2004

...that Grigol Peradze was a Georgian ecclesiastic figure who was gassed in Auschwitz?
...that Labatt Park in London, Ontario, Canada is thought to be the oldest continually operating baseball diamond in the world?
...that the USS Frank Knox was named in honor of Frank Knox, who was United States Secretary of the Navy during World War II?

19 April 2004

...that the Nicobar Pigeon is a large, heavy, 40-centimetre-long pigeon?
...that French Sinologist Paul Pelliot was caught up in the Boxer Rebellion and trapped in the siege of Peking?
...that Wyndham Halswelle was winner of the controversial 400-metre run at the 1908 Summer Olympics?
...that the first military plane mass-produced in Germany was the Rumpler Taube in 1910?

18 April 2004

...that, following the Russian Revolution, the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established by the Soviet Union as a homeland for the large Volga German minority in Russia?
...that the Deluge involving Noah or Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh is a widespread theme in mythology?
...that Tom Hanks was in a 1982 TV movie called Mazes and Monsters about a group of college students and their interest in the eponymous role-playing game?

17 April 2004

...that the Charioteer of Delphi, an almost-intact ancient Greek statue, was lost for nearly 2000 years?
...that in addition to human spaceflight, there have been many animals in space, including monkeys, apes, mice, dogs, guinea pigs, frogs, rats, cats, tortoises, fish, newts, insects, snails, spiders and nematodes?

16 April 2004

...that Winston Churchill personally oversaw the Sidney Street Siege?
...that the corticospinal tract contains both sensory and motor axons?
...that the Moro Rebellion was the second phase of the Philippine-American War?

...that leopard frogs are an environmental indicator species?
...that the soda ash, used in the production of glass, textiles, and paper, was historically made using the Leblanc process?
...that 1988's Hurricane Gilbert was the first to make landfall on Jamaica since 1955?
...that the Hungarian monarch wears the Crown of St. Stephen?

15 April 2004

Flintlock mechanism diagram

...that the first firearm to use a flintlock mechanism was produced in 1610 for King Louis XIII of France?
...that William James Sidis, an eccentric—and once world-famous—genius, entered Harvard University in 1909 at the age of 11?
...that Napoléon Bonaparte's defeat in what the Russians call the Patriotic War was the turning point in the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of the end for the Emperor?

14 April 2004

...that the Syrian Kalilag and Damnag fables originated in the Panchatantra, a collection of Sanskrit language animal stories written around 200 BC?
...that the blood vessel present during fetal development that carries oxygenated blood from the placenta to the growing fetus is called the umbilical vein?
...that in 1996 then New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman may have violated the civil rights of Sherron Rolax by frisking him?
...that few color blind humans have true monochromacy, but rather are dichromats or anomalous trichromats?

...that there are only a handful of true freshwater lakes in Australia because of that continent's minimal amount of glacial and tectonic activity?
...that osteomyelitis, i.e. bone infection, is particularly common in the tibia, femur, humerus and vertebral bodies?
...that religion in Canada is dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church?
...that Orcas Island, named for the area's killer whales, is the largest of Washington state's San Juan Islands?

13 April 2004

...that, like other yellow flowers of the genus Viola, Yellow Pansies can cause diarrhoea if eaten in large quantities?

...that the story of Sada Abe, a woman who cut off her dead lover's genitals and carried them around with her for days, is one of Japan's most notorious scandals?
...that Swedish adventurer Saloman Andrée died in 1897 while trying to reach the geographic North Pole by hot-air balloon?
...that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan severely injured his back while filming the blockbuster hit Kal Ho Naa Ho?
...that iron deficiency anemia is the final stage of iron deficiency?

...that fetal hemoglobin synthesis is used to treat adults with sickle cell anemia?
...that the "Pardoner's Prologue and Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is about three revellers who set out to kill Death?
...that Assyriologist Archibald Sayce discovered that the Hittite hieroglyphic system was predominantly syllabic?
...that writer Panait Istrati is known for his line, "All right, I can see the broken eggs. Where's this omelet of yours?"

12 April 2004

Heavyweight champ Joe Louis

...that the heavyweight class in boxing has no maximum weight limit?
...that the descent of Elizabeth II leads back directly 1500 years and fifty generations to Cerdic of Wessex?

...that Anglo-German novelist Elizabeth von Arnim was a cousin to New Zealand short story writer Katherine Mansfield?
...that one way to calculate distances in terms of latitude and longitude is the Haversine formula?
...that the longest NHL overtime game in the history of hockey was a 1936 match between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons?
...that Lumpsuckers are fish that have modified pelvic fins which have evolved into adhesive discs that allow them to adhere to their substrate?
...that the New Zealand McGillicuddy Serious Party wanted to return to a medieval lifestyle and establish a monarchy based on the Scottish Jacobite line?
...that Eric Coates was an English composer who wrote some songs for lyrics by Arthur Conan Doyle?

11 April 2004

...that Chinese Taipei is the designated name the Republic of China (Taiwan) uses in most international organizations?
...that a suikinkutsu is a type of Japanese garden ornament and a music device?
...that Kimono de Ginza are a group of kimono and Japanese clothing enthusiasts in Tokyo that meet monthly in full-dress in front of a department store and then later in an izakaya?
...that the unmanned Apollo VI space capsule was recovered by the USS Okinawa (LPH-3) 380 miles north of Kauai, Hawaii?

10 April 2004

Common circuit diagram symbols

...that some plants have tentacles, but octopuses have none (they have arms)?
...that the founders of College of Charleston included three signers of the Declaration of Independence and three fathers of the United States Constitution?

Tentacles of a plant

...that a chroot jail is a sandbox environment on a Unix system?
...that the 2000 Summer Olympics gold medalist in the heptathlon was Denise Lewis?

...that Queen Elizabeth I of England may have been named for her grandmother Elizabeth Boleyn?
...that Knecht Ruprecht, a figure in Germanic folklore, is often depicted as traveling with Santa Claus?
...that the Genghis Khan defeated Jelal ad-Din Mingburnu, sultan of the Khwarezmid Empire, at the Battle of Indus in 1221?
...that Oklahoma's Price Tower is one of the only two Frank Lloyd Wright skyscrapers ever built?

9 April 2004

...that a dichroic prism splits light into two beams of different color, or wavelengths?
...that image intensifiers, which are similar to night-vision, were invented by Vladimir Zworykin, a World War II-era RCA employee?
...that the journalistic practice of muckraking began at McClure's magazine?
...that Pieter de Hooch, a genre painter from the Dutch Golden Age, died in an insane asylum?

8 April 2004

Tibet

...that the Zhang Zhung culture of Tibet is the source of the Bön religion?
...that Los Angeles, California's Griffith Park was originally an ostrich farm?
...that, according to cat coat genetics, two different X chromosome alleles must be expressed to create a calico?

...that the Fairey Seafox was a Second World War reconnaissance floatplane of the Fleet Air Arm?
...that Connie Mack managed for 53 baseball seasons, winning nine pennants and five World Series?
...that the first diet soda was produced in 1958?
...that Nazi admiral Karl Dönitz advocated tonnage wars—military attacks on commercial vessels?

7 April 2004

...that the site of the Franklin Dam was blockaded for seven months before its construction was halted by the High Court of Australia?
...that one of the three Hoenn starter Pokémon is Torchic?

...that Peter Mitchell called for mercy on Louis Riel and blamed John A. Macdonald for causing the Riel Rebellion?
...that a 2002 BBC World Service global poll voted A Nation Once Again the world's most popular tune?
...that a theme in Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land is group marriage?

...that Pope Stephen VII exhumed the remains of Pope Formosus for the Cadaver Synod?
...that circles and Reuleaux triangles are examples of curves of constant width?
...that the Antarctic ecosystem cannot support vascular plants?
...that a diplomatic bag is a term of art in both international relations and cryptography?

6 April 2004

...that Prambanan, on Java, is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia?
...that the scandalous murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor has never been solved?
...that Benguela current of the Southern Ocean has a small El Niño effect?
...that the fundamental complexity of chemical synthesis impedes many efforts at drug design?

...the Jerusalem cricket is sometimes called "the old bald-headed man"?
...that autonomic ganglions are cell bodies within the autonomic nervous system?
...that the Korean poetic form of sijo resembles the Japanese poetic form of haiku?
...that poet Robert Hass, a two-term American Poet Laureate, is a neighbor of Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz?

...that the Mamayev Kurgan complex in Volgograd, Russia is a memorial to the Battle of Stalingrad?
...that Maia Chiburdanidze was the youngest woman ever to win the women's world chess championship?
...that the private income of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is known as the Privy Purse?

Statue of Mother Russia at Mamayev Kurgan

5 April 2004

...that Pop-Tarts are the most popular product made by Kellogg's?

Privy Purse

...that bone marrow transplants are used to restore stem cells in the bodies of cancer patients?
...that Villeurbanne and Lyon form the second-largest conurbation in France?

Jimmy McHugh

...that Jimmy McHugh was nominated five times for an Academy Award for Best Song, but never won?
...that one variety of baby blue eyes, a common California wild flower, is white?
...that newspaper columnist and game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen claimed to have information about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and she died under suspicious circumstances?
...that "God Save Ireland" was the unofficial national anthem of the Irish Free State?

4 April 2004

...that Baby blue eyes is a common Californian wild flower - and one variety of it is white?
...that, together with Mike Nichols, Elaine May founded the trail-blazing comic troupe The Compass Players, which later became Second City?
...that most of the 8,000 speakers of the Niuean language live outside the borders of Niue?
...that Swedish chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele discovered the first refractory metal in 1781?

...that the romantic epistles Letters of a Portuguese Nun were from a nun to her lover?
...that the U.S. movement toward small claims courts began in the early 1960s, as Justice of the Peace courts became increasingly archaic?

3 April 2004

...that the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 was sparked by a Minoan rebellion?
...that the Kei apple is a shrub often used for hedges, not an edible apple?
...that Bodega Bay in California was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds?
...that rattlesnake venom contains hemotoxins?
...that Ernest Duchesne discovered penicillin's antibiotic powers 32 years before Alexander Fleming?
...that the Indrikis chronicles are the oldest written history of Latvia and Estonia?

Ernest Duchesne

...that the boundaries between American Georgia and Spanish Florida were defined by the 1796 Treaty of Madrid?
...that the term Fertile Crescent was coined by James Henry Breasted?
...that an important tool in surface mining is the drag line excavator?
...that New York Point lost out to Braille in the "War of the Dots"?
...that The Mississippi Rag has been reporting on traditional jazz and ragtime music since 1973?
...that a cousin of curling, ice stock sport, is played primarily in Germany and Austria?

Drag line excavator

2 April 2004

Red fox

...that four different continents host red fox populations?
...that a crystal set is the simplest kind of radio receiver?
...that Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8,000 hymns despite being totally blind?
...that Austrian journalist Günther Nenning is nicknamed Auhirsch, meaning "meadow deer"?

...that the white-tailed deer can be found in all 48 contiguous U.S. states?
...that the Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine powers the Harrier jet?
...that Herschel Island in Canada is named for scientist John Herschel?
...that Heaven Can Wait, a play by Harry Segall, has been filmed at least four times?

1 April 2004

...that in 1929 the Graf Zeppelin completed a circumnavigation of the globe in 21 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes?
...that exploding head syndrome isn't fatal?
...that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley found Tom Riddle's diary in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?
...that Sean MacDermott, a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916, was executed by firing squad?

...that patent ductus arteriosus is a kind of congenital heart defect?
...that there is a form of mental calculation called Vedic mathematics which is based on the ancient Indian Vedas?
...that California's Russian River is named for the Russian trappers who explored it in the early 19th century?
...that the Diners Club card was the first independent credit card?