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1
...that
aiguillettes (
pictured ) are decorative tags or tips for
cord or
ribbon , usually of gold and sometimes set with
gemstones or
enameled , used to decorate 16th- and 17th-century
clothing and
hats ?
...that Father
Hyacinth (Jacek) Gulski had such a gift for singing that he earned the nickname of "Polish
Nightingale "?
...that the short-lived
Industrial Syndicalist Education League was both the first and the largest
syndicalist organisation ever in the
United Kingdom ?
...that
American folklorist
Helen Hartness Flanders recorded, transcribed and catalogued traditional
ballads from
New England at a time when people were ceasing to sing them?
...that the use of
turtle excluder devices has decreased the number of
sea turtles accidentally killed by
shrimp fishermen by 97 percent?
...that photographer
Hans Namuth took over 500
black-and-white images of
abstract expressionist artist
Jackson Pollock at work in his studio in 1950?
...that
Henry III of France took to calling
Catherine of Cleves "the mistress of Saint-Mégrin", in reference to a young nobleman killed by
her illustrious husband ?
...that eighty years on, scientists are still debating whether the
Palæozoic
fossils known as
Chitinozoans (
SEM
image pictured ) represent plants, animals and eggs?
...that the
Hypothenemus hampei , a small
coleopter
insect native to
Africa , is recognized for being the most harmful pest to
coffee crops worldwide?
...that the
Lobel's Maple is one of very few trees that grow with a narrow, erect crown, known as a fastigiate form, naturally?
...that aeronautics engineer
Paul Moller plans to sell the
M200G Volantor , a
flying saucer -style aircraft, in the United States by early 2008?
...that the
Hughes Brothers became the first sibling duo allowed by the
DGA since
Jerry and
David Zucker to take co-credit as directors for their 1993 film
Menace II Society ?
...that
Graham Linehan , co-creator of
Father Ted , made his
directorial debut with the
comedy horror
short film
Hello Friend ?
...that when a rival took over an estate belonging to
Sir Walter Clarges , Clarges used his position as a
Member of Parliament to send the interloper to jail?
...that the
United States Youth Council received more than 90 percent of its funds from the
Central Intelligence Agency ?
...that the first
HMS Ark Royal was sunk in
1636 when she struck her own
anchor and stove in her hull whilst underway?
...that the
Governor's residence in Gibraltar (
pictured ) is supposedly haunted by the
ghost of a
nun who was bricked up alive into a chamber wall?
...that
Benjamin Aaron helped negotiate the first
contract between a
county and its public employee
union in
California history in 1968?
...that
Coptic architectural monuments in
Christian Cairo include the
Hanging Church , one of the oldest in
Egypt ?
...that
Olga D. González-Sanabria , a
Puerto Rican
scientist and
inventor , is the highest ranking
Hispanic at
NASA
Glenn Research Center ?
...that
three Australians were awarded the
Victoria Cross for their role in the
Battle of Mont St. Quentin , a battle that the commander of the
British Fourth Army , General
Henry Rawlinson , considered Australia's greatest military achievement of the
war ?
...that although enterprising citizens were said to have dragged a
flatboat up
Spring Creek to establish
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania as the
head of navigation and the
county seat in 1800, the
Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation canal did not reach the town until 1848?
...that the
eight-million-year-old cypresses found in northern
Hungary are an archaeological phenomenon because none of the 16 tree trunks were
fossilized ?
...that the
National Art Gallery of Singapore will incorporate two
national monuments — the
Old Supreme Court Building and the
City Hall (
both pictured ) ?
...that
fox tossing was a popular
blood sport in parts of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries?
...that
Patrick Nash helped change the city charter, which called for a special election in the case of death of the
Chicago Mayor , so that the
Chicago City Council could appoint
Edward Joseph Kelly ?
...that
Sir T. L. Yang was the first
ethnic Chinese to become
Chief Justice of Hong Kong under
British colonial rule?
...that the
gulf sturgeon , a subspecies of the
Atlantic sturgeon , fasts for eight to nine months each year?
...that the
United States threatened privately to cut off aid to
Ngo Dinh Diem 's Catholic regime as a result of
chemical attacks on
Buddhist protestors in
Huế ,
Vietnam in 1963?
...that
Alexander Novikov , double
Hero of the Soviet Union and pioneering commander of the
Soviet Air Force , was used to frame
Marshal Zhukov , then thrown in prison by
Joseph Stalin ?
...that the
bootleg album
The Lost Paris Tapes contains the last known recording by
Jim Morrison ?
...that
three Australians were awarded the
Victoria Cross for their role in the
Battle of Mont St. Quentin and that the battle was regarded by British Fourth Army's commander, General Henry Rawlinson, as Australia's greatest military achievement of the
war ?
...that the
Bank of the Holy Spirit , founded by
Pope Paul V in 1605, was the first
national bank in Europe?
...that
coffin portraits (
example pictured ) of
nobility of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were meant to create an impression that the deceased is taking part in the
funeral ?
...that during
World War II ,
Shepton Mallet , the oldest operating
prison in
Britain , was used as the protective storage of important government documents including the
Magna Carta and
Domesday Book ?
...that
Presbyterian minister
Robert Jefferson Breckinridge is known as the father of the public school system in
Kentucky ?
...that the
Suevic king
Rechiar was the first
Germanic monarch to convert to
Nicene Christianity , the first to mint his own coins, and the only to ever ally with the peasant rebels called the
bagaudae ?
...that the
Native American
Old Connecticut Path from
Cambridge, Massachusetts to the
Connecticut River across from
Hartford , was the very first of the American trails that led west from the Atlantic seacoast settlement, towards the interior?
...that the citizens of
Perugia compelled the surrender of the citadel of
Gérard du Puy , the
cardinal-nephew of
Pope Gregory XI , during the
War of the Eight Saints with a
trebuchet nicknamed the cacciaprete ("priest chaser")?
...that
water-colorist
Floris Arntzenius ' s (
self-portrait pictured ) cityscapes were mostly painted in misty or rainy weather, so the subjects could be reflected on the wet
asphalt ?
...that in 1995—1997 a
Center for Disease Control program identified over a hundred patients likely suffering from life threatening infections new in the
history of emerging infectious diseases ?
...that in late 1992, the
German
Federal Ministry of the Interio banned the
neo-Nazi groups
German Alternative (DA),
Nationalist Front (NF), German Comradeship Alliance (DKB), and the
National Offensive (NO) all within a month?
...that in 2005
John Carroll , the editor of
The Los Angeles Times , chose to resign rather than continue reducing the number of journalists at the paper?
...that the
Wendish Crusade of 1147 was a largely unsuccessful campaign of
Saxons and
Danes against the
Polabian Slavs concurrent to the
Second Crusade ?
...that the
Byron Nuclear Generating Station (
pictured ) produced about 2,300
MWe in 2005, enough
electricity to supply 2 million average U.S. households?
...that
Pope Martin V objected to the wording of the inscription on the
tomb of
Antipope John XXIII in the
Florence Baptistry because he thought it implied John had died as pope?
...that
electrocardiogram technicians responsible for recording
ECGs in hospitals reduce
medical errors in the emergency reporting of ECGs?
...that despite being open for only two years, the
Naomi Institute earned a reputation as one of the leading
educational institutions in pioneer
Nebraska ?
...that many of the
carnatic
musicians of the Mysore Kingdom were also trained in
Western classical music ?
...that the small population of
Estonian Ruhnu sheep is thought to descend from animals left on
Ruhnu Island by
Swedes ?
...that the main building of the
Krzyżtopór Castle (
pictured ), a
Baroque structure in
Poland , has been a ruin since the
Swedish Deluge ?
...that while it's easy to prove that no
compression algorithm can reduce every data stream's size, many people
keep trying to invent one?
...that over 70,000
Dark-eyed Juncos have been counted in a single day at the
Bird Observatory in
Prince Edward County ,
Ontario ,
Canada ?
...that in 1847, the
German engineer
Gustav Schleicher , who later became a veteran of the
Confederate Army , founded a
commune in
Texas to prove the truth of
communist ideals?
...that the
Peshtigo Fire Museum features an intact
tabernacle , one of the few items to survive the
deadliest natural fire in United States history ?
...that the first
company union in the United States was created by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , in response to the bad publicity generated by the
Ludlow massacre ?
...that the
Hal Far Fighter Flight , a
British
fighter unit formed during the
siege of Malta , is the source of the myth that only three aircraft formed the entire fighter cover of the of island in June
1940 ?
...that
Tan Teck Guan Building (
pictured ) was the site of
Singapore 's first
medical school , and has been
conserved as a
national monument ?
...that the pieces of
dougong , an ancient
Chinese structural element of interlocking wooden
brackets , are cut to fit so perfectly that no glue or fasteners are needed?
...that
Miriam Rodon-Naveira , a
Puerto Rican
scientist , was the first
Hispanic woman to hold the Deputy Directorship for the Environmental Sciences Division in the
National Exposure Research Laboratory ?
...that the participants of the
Channel 4
programme
Dumped were not told that they would be living on a
landfill site for three weeks?
...that
romance novellist
Nancy Warren wrote real-life NASCAR driver
Carl Edwards into two of her novels?
...that
citrus fruits
white sapote ,
hercules' club and
rue are all members of the family
Rutaceae ?
...that in 2007, the first
Australian outbreak of equine influenza caused all
horse racing to be cancelled?
...that
MinnPost plans a
non-profit
Minneapolis-Saint Paul
online newspaper that readers who wish for hard copies can
print on demand ?
...that the
Toronto Magnetic Observatory had to be moved as the
University of Toronto 's electric lighting was interfering with observations?
...that
Count Henry Russell held high-altitude receptions for princes and notables in his caves on the peak of
Vignemale (
pictured ) in the
Pyrenees ?
...that
WikiPilipinas is the first
online encyclopedia in the
Philippines ?
...that the
cuisine of Omaha includes several renowned
Italian restaurants , as well as the origins of the
Reuben sandwich ,
Omaha Steaks and
ConAgra Foods ?
...that the
epithet "
little red dot " was uttered by former
Indonesian
President
B.J. Habibie to disparage
Singapore , but has come to be used by Singaporeans with pride?
...that
Gord Bamford , a
country music
singer , was one of only two Canadian artists invited to perform at the Global Artist Party at the
CMA Music Festival in Nashville during 2007?
...that though the
Indian rivers ,
Tunga and
Bhadra originate at
Gangamoola , they flow separately for more than 145 km (90 miles), before joining at
Koodli to form the River
Tungabhadra ?
...that the
ABC television network created controversy when they licensed and produced a doll based on fictional rapist
Todd Manning ?
...that four of the 38
IRA members that
escaped from Maze Prison in 1983 were caught hiding underwater in a river near the prison, using
reeds to breathe?
...that the
Treatise of Garcia of Toledo was written as a satire against
Pope Urban II and
Bernard, Archbishop of Toledo in the 11th century?
...that in 1949, the
Swedish
dentist
Alice Timander (
pictured ) was considered for expulsion from the
Swedish Dental Association after she appeared publicly in a
bikini ?
...that
Christine Langan distracted a man from
jumping off of a multi-storey
car park by speaking to him in a
Manchester accent until the police arrived?