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1
...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?