Archives are generally grouped by month of Main Page appearance. (Currently, DYK hooks are archived according to the date and time that they were taken off the Main Page.) To find which archive contains the fact that appeared on Did you know, go to article's
talk page and follow the archive link in the DYK talk page message box.
...that the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad never operated a single
train, despite completing a 42-mile (68 km) line and its own ore dock at a cost of over two million dollars?
...that articulation begins with the junction produced by creating a
joint and is defined by the degree joints are seen as a "distinct break" from each other, in contrast to joints that seem fluid and continuous with the whole?
...that after
screenwriterChuck Tatham's brother and writing partner Jamie quit their first job and returned to their hometown, Chuck went on to be nominated for two
Emmys?
...that
Wichita, Kansas mayor Russell Jump was, at the time of his death at the age of 105, recognized as one of the longest lived individuals to have held public office?
...that the Deperdussin Monocoque was the first aircraft to fly faster than 100 miles per hour?
...that American artist Sybil Gibson started painting in 1963, aged 55, using the medium of powdered tempera paints on brown paper grocery bags?
12:15, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
...that studies of the
inshoremarinefishsmall-scale whiting(Sillago parvisquamis, pictured) suggest the female starts life smaller than the male, but grows faster and is larger than the male within two years?
...that Jimmie Lewallen turned down an offer to buy into
NASCAR because "it would never amount to anything"?
...that the town of Orlová in the
Czech Republic was named for the
eagle that, legend has it, caused the premature birth of Kazimierz, son of Duke Mieszko and his wife, Ludmiła, on the spot where the town was founded?
...that the
All-Americanfootball player John Maulbetsch was known as the "Featherweight
Fullback" because he weighed only 155 pounds (70 kg) and ate two
pies a day for dinner during his playing career?
...that the projected
Russianhypersonic aircraft Ayaks was supposed to use novel "magneto-plasmo-chemical engines" capable of working in the
mesosphere?
...that Josiah Parsons Cooke(pictured) had little formal education in
chemistry, and instead spent eight months in Europe for advanced studies in the subject after he became Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at
Harvard in 1850?
...that Hinba, an island in
Scotland of unknown location (possible location pictured), was the site of a small
monastery associated with the church of
St Columba on
Iona?
...that when St Hilary's Church in
Wallasey,
England burnt down in 1857, a new church was built separately, leaving the
tower of the old medieval church as a free-standing edifice?
...that Svinøy island of
Norway is so exposed to the wind and high seas that supply boats to the island's
lighthouse could not dock but had to be lifted up by a
crane?
...that Irish
playwrightGeorge Farquhar(pictured) originally planned on an
acting career, but gave it up after accidentally wounding a fellow
actor severely on stage with a
sword?
...that as well as serving as the assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, Kent R. Hill has also published books and served as the president of the
Institute on Religion and Democracy?
...that after turning up drunk at an official dinner, crowing cock-a-doodle-doos, and throwing himself on an ambassadress, J.B. Manson retired as Director of the
Tate gallery and returned to painting flowers (pictured)?
...that the 18th century publisher Ralph Griffiths erected a sign outside his shop warning dunces that his Monthly Review would have no mercy in exposing and shaming dull authors?
...that Shanhua, a township in
Taiwan, is also known as Bakaloan and Tevoran?
...that when the
Duke of Austria,
Leopold III, established reign over the
Italian city of
Trieste one of his stipulations was that the city supply him each year with 100
urns of the region's best Ribolla wine?
...that, upon
exhumation, the 10th century saint Rasso was found to be 2 meters (6' 6") tall, although, given that his grave was 2 and a half meters, he had earlier been thought to be even taller?
...that Christopher Erhardt was a product planner for companies such as
Teledyne, and is now working on a doctoral dissertation on video game players' demographic considerations?
...that Stanley Green, the "Protein Man", walked up and down
Oxford Street in
London every day for 25 years, sometimes in green overalls to protect himself from
spit, warning passers-by about the dangers of too much
protein — and
sitting?
...that Clifford Last, a son of the author of the Housewife, 49 diaries, migrated from Britain to Australia after the
war and became a noted abstract
sculptor?
...that Cornelius Shea, the founding president of the
Teamsters, spent more than five years in
Sing Sing prison for slashing and stabbing his mistress 27 times?
...that when the old All Saints Church, Marple was replaced by a new church 30 metres away in 1880, the tower from the old church was retained and is now used as a free-standing bell-tower?
...that the man intensely reading in the oil portrait The Bookworm(pictured) represents the inward looking attitudes that affected
Europe during the time of its creation?
...that the Creusot steam hammer, with its massive 100 ton hammer and 750 ton anvil, was the world's largest
steam hammer on its completion in 1877 and is the largest surviving steam hammer today?
...that Mount Urpín is home to 35 endangered animal species, despite its proximity to downtown
Banská Bystrica?
...that some Tibetans once thought Britain’s
Queen Victoria was a reincarnation of Palden Lhamo, the wrathful deity considered to be the principal Protectress of Tibet?
...that Hallie Ford made the largest donation in the history of
Willamette University in 2006, and the largest donation ever to a cultural group in
Oregon in 2007?
...that glacial periods, commonly referred to as
ice ages, are actually cold intervals within an ice age?
...that the Polish side tried to keep the Suwałki Agreement limited in scope so that it would not interfere with the planned
Żeligowski's Mutiny?
...that in 2002, hundreds of former mobsters incarcerated in eight
jails across
Italy, supposedly having no way to contact one another, joined a
hunger strike to protest against article 41-bis of the Italian Penitentiary Act?
...that
naturalistJonathan Couch wrote the four-volume A History of the Fishes of the British Islands, with his own coloured
illustrations depicting the vivid natural colours of the different
species?
...the Amarna Princess, an ancient Egyptian statuette, bought by Bolton Museum for £440,000 and displayed at the
Hayward Gallery in an exhibition opened by the
Queen, was actually a fake by British forger
Shaun Greenhalgh?
...that the liwan, a long narrow-fronted
hall or
vaultedportal often open to the outside, has been a feature of
Levantine homes for more than 2,000 years?
...that a
Belgian, Robert Goffin, was the first person to write a serious book on the indigenous American art-form,
jazz?
14:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
...that
seeds of redtop(Agrostis gigantea, pictured) are long-lived and display a high
germination rate even after years of storage in an uncontrolled environment?
...that in
Hindu mythology, after Lakshmindara, son of Chand Sadagar, died of snakebite on his wedding night, his bride
Behula accompanied his corpse on a raft floating in a river?
...that in return for reinforcements against the
Lombards, Cunimund offered Emperor
Justin II the city of
Sirmium on two separate occasions?
13:17, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
...that The Love of Siam director
Chukiat Sakweerakul(pictured) intentionally sought to downplay the 2007
Thai film's
gay love story in marketing materials, in hopes of the film reaching a broader audience?
...that discards are the portion of a catch of
fish which is not retained on board during
commercial fishing operations and is returned, often dead or dying, to the sea?
...that though only one melody for every ten songs has been preserved among the work of the
troubadours, a remarkable three-quarters of Berenguier de Palazol's surviving poems have melodies?
...that social activists opine that the extension of the
Kolkata Metro on pillars on the bed of Adi Ganga will destroy the waterway?
...that once economic advisor to
Margaret Thatcher, Christopher Story went on to publish independent
intelligence magazines that are considered important reading by many international top agencies?
...that Ralph Millet, who brought the first
Saab cars to the United States, discussed production of Saabs in the U.S. in the 1950s, but that the idea was only resurrected with the U.S. production of a Saab in the 2006 model year?
...that Luo Binwang wrote a sharply worded accusation against Empress
Wu Zetian,
China's only female
emperor, that impressed her so much that after his death she collected his writings and published them?
...that the only elements of the Nativity of Jesus in art(example pictured) to span the whole history of its depiction are the
baby, the
ox and the
ass?
...that George K. Gay's house was the first brick house in
Oregon and served as the boundary marker between
Yamhill and
Polk counties?
...that
Wales had one of the highest
literacy rates in
eighteenth century Europe thanks to the wealthy Bridget Bevan(pictured), who sponsored a system of "circulating schools"?
...that a symbolic April 1995 boat trip—celebrating the foundation of the Mekong River Commission—was unable to cross the
Mekong River because China was filling the reservoir of its Manwan Dam?
...that Aline was an ordinary woman who lived in
1st century AD Egypt, and whose name and portrait were preserved in her grave?
...that
Country-Western singer, songwriter and actor Jimmy Wakely had his own series of
DC Comics comic books, billing him as "Hollywood's Sensational Cowboy Star!"?
...that John Pitre's 1965
visionary art painting, A New Dawn, which was valued at
$1.7 million in 1997, was offered in trade for a
£1 million house in
London in 2004?
...that boats crammed with people from both
India and
Bangladesh, flying the flags of their respective countries, converge on the Ichamati River, the international border, to immerse the idols after
Durga Puja?
...that the Carolina dayflower(pictured) is actually from
India and was named in the
United States nearly a century before it was described in its native country?
...that shortly after Captain William Day received the first
gun salute to an
American fighting vessel in a European port, at
Brest, France, in July
1777, he sailed home and effectively vanished from history?
...that Mike Vranos, a man considered by some to be the most powerful man on
Wall Street in the early 1990s, was known for breaking up business meetings to issue
armwrestling challenges?
...that since
Thomas Jefferson designed his home,
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Top Cottage(pictured) has been the only house designed by a U.S. President, although no President has stayed there overnight?
...that the Fabergé invoice for the Karelian Birch egg addressed the abdicated
Nicholas II of Russia as "Mr. Romanov Nikolai Aleksandrovich" instead of the previous "Tsar of all the Russias"?
...that systematic
mapping of the Michelangeloquadrangle on
Mercury has revealed the presence of four nearly obliterated multi-ring
impact basins, possibly the oldest features in the mapped areas of the planet?
...that the suffering caused by 19th century floods and famines in Mymensingh District, presently in
Bangladesh, led to the sale of human beings for around the price of a
maund of
rice?
01:03, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
...that during a disastrous battle leading 6000 counter-revolutionaries during the
French Revolution, Joseph-Geneviève de Puisaye (pictured) fled by ship to England, claiming he needed to save official correspondence?
...that Simone Ortega has received prizes from both France and her native Spain for her bestselling range of cookery books, one of which has been updated 48 times and sold millions of copies in Spanish and English?
...that although Howard Johnson became an opponent of animal cruelty, he had earlier called for the
Britisharmy to deploy
flamethrowers to eliminate the
seaweed breeding grounds for a type of
fly?
...that
crème brûlée(pictured) was invented in the 1690s by François Massialot, who recommended melting and burning the sugar topping with a red-hot fire shovel?
...that snocross riders travel up to 130 feet (40 meters) off jumps before they touch the ground?
...that in
1759, François Thurot's ship set out to create a diversion from an invasion of
Britain only to learn, after months of storms and starvation, that the invasion fleet had been
defeated before it even left France?
...that a design for the Hoyt Library(pictured) in
Saginaw, Michigan, which was rejected as too monumental, wasteful of space, and not functional as a library, was used to build the Public Library of
New Orleans, Louisiana?
...that the Tolstoj crater, a 400-km (240 mile) wide
impact crater on the planet
Mercury has an extensive, and remarkably well-preserved, radially-lineated
ejecta blanket?
...that Eduardo Serra Rexach is the only person to have held public office with all three governing parties of democratic
Spain?
...that Tetsuya Ota won a lawsuit against race organizers of the now infamous
1998JGTC race at
Fuji Speedway, despite signing a pledge not to seek compensation?
...that in the 1947 college football rankings, southern voters refused to vote for the integrated
Michigan Wolverines football team with black stars such as Gene Derricotte?
...that gender-bending
party promoterAndre J. appeared on the November 2007 cover of French Vogue wearing a women’s neoprene trench coat and ankle boots?
...that the dinosaur
fossilDakota is so well-preserved it has caused researchers to revise their estimates of the appearance, size, and speed of a whole group of dinosaurs known as
hadrosaurs?
...that
college football coach
Bo Schembechler died the day after attending the funeral of his 1971 quarterback Tom Slade and urging the football team to be "as good a Michigan man as Slade"?
...that Are You There? was widely promoted because of its score by
Ruggero Leoncavallo (best known for his opera Pagliacci), but the first-night audience were incensed when it turned out to have very little music?
...that
Gerald Ford's two greatest regrets in life were losing the starting
center job in college to All-American Chuck Bernard and losing a presidential election?
... theSafety Promotion Center, established by
Japan Airlines after the worst ever single aircraft accident, displays victims' farewell letters and wreckage to educate employees about safety?
...that
EnglishbotanistJohn Parkinson included a pun on his name in the title of his monumental 1629 work Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris? (It translates as Park-in-Sun's Terrestrial Paradise.)
...that the 1609 Treaty of Antwerp was influenced by the writings of
Hugo Grotius in the Mare Liberum, which was published at the insistence of the
Dutch East India Company during the course of the treaty negotiations?
...that the
Brazillianendemic genus Philcoxia, which may represent another genus of
carnivorous plants, was formally described in scientific literature 34 years after the first specimen had been discovered?
...that a possible local subsidence forced the Jalangi River, in
West Bengal, to flow in a south westerly direction, reverting the earlier trend of rivers in the region flowing in a south easterly direction?
...that
Tom Wolfe's 1975 book The Painted Word, which criticized
modern and
conceptual art, was so reviled by the art establishment that multiple reviewers compared the book to watching pornography?
...that the
Catalan lords Arnau Mir de Tost and his son-in-law Raymond IV of Pallars Jussà shared a scribe, Vidal, who helped introduce the use of written "conventions" for the feudal restructuring of western Catalonia?
...that according to legend,
ChristianmartyrSaint Getulius and his associates were clubbed to death after they had been thrown into flames but emerged unharmed?
...that Rev. Robert Shields maintained a diary chronicling every five minutes of his life for 25 years from 1972 until 1997, and only slept two hours at a time so he could record his dreams?
Archives are generally grouped by month of Main Page appearance. (Currently, DYK hooks are archived according to the date and time that they were taken off the Main Page.) To find which archive contains the fact that appeared on Did you know, go to article's
talk page and follow the archive link in the DYK talk page message box.
...that the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad never operated a single
train, despite completing a 42-mile (68 km) line and its own ore dock at a cost of over two million dollars?
...that articulation begins with the junction produced by creating a
joint and is defined by the degree joints are seen as a "distinct break" from each other, in contrast to joints that seem fluid and continuous with the whole?
...that after
screenwriterChuck Tatham's brother and writing partner Jamie quit their first job and returned to their hometown, Chuck went on to be nominated for two
Emmys?
...that
Wichita, Kansas mayor Russell Jump was, at the time of his death at the age of 105, recognized as one of the longest lived individuals to have held public office?
...that the Deperdussin Monocoque was the first aircraft to fly faster than 100 miles per hour?
...that American artist Sybil Gibson started painting in 1963, aged 55, using the medium of powdered tempera paints on brown paper grocery bags?
12:15, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
...that studies of the
inshoremarinefishsmall-scale whiting(Sillago parvisquamis, pictured) suggest the female starts life smaller than the male, but grows faster and is larger than the male within two years?
...that Jimmie Lewallen turned down an offer to buy into
NASCAR because "it would never amount to anything"?
...that the town of Orlová in the
Czech Republic was named for the
eagle that, legend has it, caused the premature birth of Kazimierz, son of Duke Mieszko and his wife, Ludmiła, on the spot where the town was founded?
...that the
All-Americanfootball player John Maulbetsch was known as the "Featherweight
Fullback" because he weighed only 155 pounds (70 kg) and ate two
pies a day for dinner during his playing career?
...that the projected
Russianhypersonic aircraft Ayaks was supposed to use novel "magneto-plasmo-chemical engines" capable of working in the
mesosphere?
...that Josiah Parsons Cooke(pictured) had little formal education in
chemistry, and instead spent eight months in Europe for advanced studies in the subject after he became Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at
Harvard in 1850?
...that Hinba, an island in
Scotland of unknown location (possible location pictured), was the site of a small
monastery associated with the church of
St Columba on
Iona?
...that when St Hilary's Church in
Wallasey,
England burnt down in 1857, a new church was built separately, leaving the
tower of the old medieval church as a free-standing edifice?
...that Svinøy island of
Norway is so exposed to the wind and high seas that supply boats to the island's
lighthouse could not dock but had to be lifted up by a
crane?
...that Irish
playwrightGeorge Farquhar(pictured) originally planned on an
acting career, but gave it up after accidentally wounding a fellow
actor severely on stage with a
sword?
...that as well as serving as the assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, Kent R. Hill has also published books and served as the president of the
Institute on Religion and Democracy?
...that after turning up drunk at an official dinner, crowing cock-a-doodle-doos, and throwing himself on an ambassadress, J.B. Manson retired as Director of the
Tate gallery and returned to painting flowers (pictured)?
...that the 18th century publisher Ralph Griffiths erected a sign outside his shop warning dunces that his Monthly Review would have no mercy in exposing and shaming dull authors?
...that Shanhua, a township in
Taiwan, is also known as Bakaloan and Tevoran?
...that when the
Duke of Austria,
Leopold III, established reign over the
Italian city of
Trieste one of his stipulations was that the city supply him each year with 100
urns of the region's best Ribolla wine?
...that, upon
exhumation, the 10th century saint Rasso was found to be 2 meters (6' 6") tall, although, given that his grave was 2 and a half meters, he had earlier been thought to be even taller?
...that Christopher Erhardt was a product planner for companies such as
Teledyne, and is now working on a doctoral dissertation on video game players' demographic considerations?
...that Stanley Green, the "Protein Man", walked up and down
Oxford Street in
London every day for 25 years, sometimes in green overalls to protect himself from
spit, warning passers-by about the dangers of too much
protein — and
sitting?
...that Clifford Last, a son of the author of the Housewife, 49 diaries, migrated from Britain to Australia after the
war and became a noted abstract
sculptor?
...that Cornelius Shea, the founding president of the
Teamsters, spent more than five years in
Sing Sing prison for slashing and stabbing his mistress 27 times?
...that when the old All Saints Church, Marple was replaced by a new church 30 metres away in 1880, the tower from the old church was retained and is now used as a free-standing bell-tower?
...that the man intensely reading in the oil portrait The Bookworm(pictured) represents the inward looking attitudes that affected
Europe during the time of its creation?
...that the Creusot steam hammer, with its massive 100 ton hammer and 750 ton anvil, was the world's largest
steam hammer on its completion in 1877 and is the largest surviving steam hammer today?
...that Mount Urpín is home to 35 endangered animal species, despite its proximity to downtown
Banská Bystrica?
...that some Tibetans once thought Britain’s
Queen Victoria was a reincarnation of Palden Lhamo, the wrathful deity considered to be the principal Protectress of Tibet?
...that Hallie Ford made the largest donation in the history of
Willamette University in 2006, and the largest donation ever to a cultural group in
Oregon in 2007?
...that glacial periods, commonly referred to as
ice ages, are actually cold intervals within an ice age?
...that the Polish side tried to keep the Suwałki Agreement limited in scope so that it would not interfere with the planned
Żeligowski's Mutiny?
...that in 2002, hundreds of former mobsters incarcerated in eight
jails across
Italy, supposedly having no way to contact one another, joined a
hunger strike to protest against article 41-bis of the Italian Penitentiary Act?
...that
naturalistJonathan Couch wrote the four-volume A History of the Fishes of the British Islands, with his own coloured
illustrations depicting the vivid natural colours of the different
species?
...the Amarna Princess, an ancient Egyptian statuette, bought by Bolton Museum for £440,000 and displayed at the
Hayward Gallery in an exhibition opened by the
Queen, was actually a fake by British forger
Shaun Greenhalgh?
...that the liwan, a long narrow-fronted
hall or
vaultedportal often open to the outside, has been a feature of
Levantine homes for more than 2,000 years?
...that a
Belgian, Robert Goffin, was the first person to write a serious book on the indigenous American art-form,
jazz?
14:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
...that
seeds of redtop(Agrostis gigantea, pictured) are long-lived and display a high
germination rate even after years of storage in an uncontrolled environment?
...that in
Hindu mythology, after Lakshmindara, son of Chand Sadagar, died of snakebite on his wedding night, his bride
Behula accompanied his corpse on a raft floating in a river?
...that in return for reinforcements against the
Lombards, Cunimund offered Emperor
Justin II the city of
Sirmium on two separate occasions?
13:17, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
...that The Love of Siam director
Chukiat Sakweerakul(pictured) intentionally sought to downplay the 2007
Thai film's
gay love story in marketing materials, in hopes of the film reaching a broader audience?
...that discards are the portion of a catch of
fish which is not retained on board during
commercial fishing operations and is returned, often dead or dying, to the sea?
...that though only one melody for every ten songs has been preserved among the work of the
troubadours, a remarkable three-quarters of Berenguier de Palazol's surviving poems have melodies?
...that social activists opine that the extension of the
Kolkata Metro on pillars on the bed of Adi Ganga will destroy the waterway?
...that once economic advisor to
Margaret Thatcher, Christopher Story went on to publish independent
intelligence magazines that are considered important reading by many international top agencies?
...that Ralph Millet, who brought the first
Saab cars to the United States, discussed production of Saabs in the U.S. in the 1950s, but that the idea was only resurrected with the U.S. production of a Saab in the 2006 model year?
...that Luo Binwang wrote a sharply worded accusation against Empress
Wu Zetian,
China's only female
emperor, that impressed her so much that after his death she collected his writings and published them?
...that the only elements of the Nativity of Jesus in art(example pictured) to span the whole history of its depiction are the
baby, the
ox and the
ass?
...that George K. Gay's house was the first brick house in
Oregon and served as the boundary marker between
Yamhill and
Polk counties?
...that
Wales had one of the highest
literacy rates in
eighteenth century Europe thanks to the wealthy Bridget Bevan(pictured), who sponsored a system of "circulating schools"?
...that a symbolic April 1995 boat trip—celebrating the foundation of the Mekong River Commission—was unable to cross the
Mekong River because China was filling the reservoir of its Manwan Dam?
...that Aline was an ordinary woman who lived in
1st century AD Egypt, and whose name and portrait were preserved in her grave?
...that
Country-Western singer, songwriter and actor Jimmy Wakely had his own series of
DC Comics comic books, billing him as "Hollywood's Sensational Cowboy Star!"?
...that John Pitre's 1965
visionary art painting, A New Dawn, which was valued at
$1.7 million in 1997, was offered in trade for a
£1 million house in
London in 2004?
...that boats crammed with people from both
India and
Bangladesh, flying the flags of their respective countries, converge on the Ichamati River, the international border, to immerse the idols after
Durga Puja?
...that the Carolina dayflower(pictured) is actually from
India and was named in the
United States nearly a century before it was described in its native country?
...that shortly after Captain William Day received the first
gun salute to an
American fighting vessel in a European port, at
Brest, France, in July
1777, he sailed home and effectively vanished from history?
...that Mike Vranos, a man considered by some to be the most powerful man on
Wall Street in the early 1990s, was known for breaking up business meetings to issue
armwrestling challenges?
...that since
Thomas Jefferson designed his home,
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Top Cottage(pictured) has been the only house designed by a U.S. President, although no President has stayed there overnight?
...that the Fabergé invoice for the Karelian Birch egg addressed the abdicated
Nicholas II of Russia as "Mr. Romanov Nikolai Aleksandrovich" instead of the previous "Tsar of all the Russias"?
...that systematic
mapping of the Michelangeloquadrangle on
Mercury has revealed the presence of four nearly obliterated multi-ring
impact basins, possibly the oldest features in the mapped areas of the planet?
...that the suffering caused by 19th century floods and famines in Mymensingh District, presently in
Bangladesh, led to the sale of human beings for around the price of a
maund of
rice?
01:03, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
...that during a disastrous battle leading 6000 counter-revolutionaries during the
French Revolution, Joseph-Geneviève de Puisaye (pictured) fled by ship to England, claiming he needed to save official correspondence?
...that Simone Ortega has received prizes from both France and her native Spain for her bestselling range of cookery books, one of which has been updated 48 times and sold millions of copies in Spanish and English?
...that although Howard Johnson became an opponent of animal cruelty, he had earlier called for the
Britisharmy to deploy
flamethrowers to eliminate the
seaweed breeding grounds for a type of
fly?
...that
crème brûlée(pictured) was invented in the 1690s by François Massialot, who recommended melting and burning the sugar topping with a red-hot fire shovel?
...that snocross riders travel up to 130 feet (40 meters) off jumps before they touch the ground?
...that in
1759, François Thurot's ship set out to create a diversion from an invasion of
Britain only to learn, after months of storms and starvation, that the invasion fleet had been
defeated before it even left France?
...that a design for the Hoyt Library(pictured) in
Saginaw, Michigan, which was rejected as too monumental, wasteful of space, and not functional as a library, was used to build the Public Library of
New Orleans, Louisiana?
...that the Tolstoj crater, a 400-km (240 mile) wide
impact crater on the planet
Mercury has an extensive, and remarkably well-preserved, radially-lineated
ejecta blanket?
...that Eduardo Serra Rexach is the only person to have held public office with all three governing parties of democratic
Spain?
...that Tetsuya Ota won a lawsuit against race organizers of the now infamous
1998JGTC race at
Fuji Speedway, despite signing a pledge not to seek compensation?
...that in the 1947 college football rankings, southern voters refused to vote for the integrated
Michigan Wolverines football team with black stars such as Gene Derricotte?
...that gender-bending
party promoterAndre J. appeared on the November 2007 cover of French Vogue wearing a women’s neoprene trench coat and ankle boots?
...that the dinosaur
fossilDakota is so well-preserved it has caused researchers to revise their estimates of the appearance, size, and speed of a whole group of dinosaurs known as
hadrosaurs?
...that
college football coach
Bo Schembechler died the day after attending the funeral of his 1971 quarterback Tom Slade and urging the football team to be "as good a Michigan man as Slade"?
...that Are You There? was widely promoted because of its score by
Ruggero Leoncavallo (best known for his opera Pagliacci), but the first-night audience were incensed when it turned out to have very little music?
...that
Gerald Ford's two greatest regrets in life were losing the starting
center job in college to All-American Chuck Bernard and losing a presidential election?
... theSafety Promotion Center, established by
Japan Airlines after the worst ever single aircraft accident, displays victims' farewell letters and wreckage to educate employees about safety?
...that
EnglishbotanistJohn Parkinson included a pun on his name in the title of his monumental 1629 work Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris? (It translates as Park-in-Sun's Terrestrial Paradise.)
...that the 1609 Treaty of Antwerp was influenced by the writings of
Hugo Grotius in the Mare Liberum, which was published at the insistence of the
Dutch East India Company during the course of the treaty negotiations?
...that the
Brazillianendemic genus Philcoxia, which may represent another genus of
carnivorous plants, was formally described in scientific literature 34 years after the first specimen had been discovered?
...that a possible local subsidence forced the Jalangi River, in
West Bengal, to flow in a south westerly direction, reverting the earlier trend of rivers in the region flowing in a south easterly direction?
...that
Tom Wolfe's 1975 book The Painted Word, which criticized
modern and
conceptual art, was so reviled by the art establishment that multiple reviewers compared the book to watching pornography?
...that the
Catalan lords Arnau Mir de Tost and his son-in-law Raymond IV of Pallars Jussà shared a scribe, Vidal, who helped introduce the use of written "conventions" for the feudal restructuring of western Catalonia?
...that according to legend,
ChristianmartyrSaint Getulius and his associates were clubbed to death after they had been thrown into flames but emerged unharmed?
...that Rev. Robert Shields maintained a diary chronicling every five minutes of his life for 25 years from 1972 until 1997, and only slept two hours at a time so he could record his dreams?