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 American theater critic and historian T. Allston Brown(pictured) earned the title "Colonel" by riding on the back of a
tightrope walker in a circus performance?
...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 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
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 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 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 gallery owner Victoria Miro described
Jake Chapman—now famous for art which includes explicit and distorted mannequins—as an "adorable" baby sitter?
...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 the
Greek musical group C:Real sang only in
English before the arrival of lead vocalist Irini Douka in 2002, which led them to focus on
Greek language songs?
...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 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 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 the travel time of the
sternwheelerLytton(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 SoxpitcherMike 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 state of
Kentucky?
...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 Annie Armstrong, for whom the
Southern BaptistEaster collection for domestic
missions is named, resigned from the missionary organization she founded vowing never to serve the SBC again?
...that the titular planet in the Doctor Who episode "Planet of the Ood" is in the same planetary 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 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 Percy Hoskins was the only journalist working for a national British newspaper to defend suspected
serial killerDr. John Adams when he was arrested for murdering patients in 1956?
...that the Washington Irvingsidewheeler, the biggest passenger-carrying riverboat ever built, sank after colliding with an oil barge in 1926?
...that the village of Denshaw in
Greater Manchester(pictured) achieved international notoriety when
spoof information added to its Wikipedia entry was reported in national and international media?
...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
Academy Award winner Going My Way was filmed at St. Monica's (pictured), 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
Stonewall Jackson camped with his men at Carter Hall(pictured), and allowed his physician to perform a
cataract operation on the owner, on the
portico of the mansion?
...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 Chillenden Windmill 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 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 and
Poe?
...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 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 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
EnglishcricketerRoger 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 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 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 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 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 the entrance to Neptune's Grotto(pictured) in
Sardinia lies only around a meter (3 ft) above the sea, so the cave can only be visited when the waters are calm?
...that only about 10% of
Brazil's water resources is located in the
southeast, the agricultural and industrial heartland of the country, where 73% of the population lives?
...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 exhibits at the Bailey House Museum on
Maui include a 33 feet (10 m) fishing boat, a collection of snail shells, a unique wooden statue of a
Hawaiian demi-god, and 19th century Maui landscapes (pictured)?
...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?
14 April 2008
17:55, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
...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 the medieval Swedish ballad "
Stolt Herr Alf" contains an unusual name for the Norse god
Odin?
...that the Pentecostal Union of Romania has experienced rapid growth in recent years due to conversions and high birthrates, with some families having up to 18 children?
...that 17th-century actress Julia Glover was sold in marriage by her father for £1,000?
...that political opponents of
Kentucky governorThomas Metcalfe nicknamed him "Old Stone Hammer" because they felt his previous work as a
stonemason was a background unbecoming a governor?
...that Monte Testaccio(pictured) in
Rome is an artificial hill, 35 m (115 ft) high and 1 km (3,300 ft) in circumference, consisting entirely of the fragments of 53 million
ancient Romanamphorae?
...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 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 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 despite writing a full action-and-dialogue
screenplay for his film Raising Victor Vargas, Peter Sollett never showed the actors a script, so as to encourage authenticity through improvisation when filming?
...that the Chronicle of Man 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 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 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 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 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 English printer
John Day raided the printing premises of his son, Richard Day, after the latter had pirated his father's works and
illicitly published his own versions?
...that the Financial Stability Forum consists of officials from ministries and central banks of a dozen countries, who coordinate international financial stability?
...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?
...that in 1877 the 4,000-seat Queen's Theatre staged a spectacular and expensive production of The Last Days of Pompeii that flopped: the earth did not quake, the volcano did not erupt, and acrobats fell onto the cast?
...that Vice-Admiral Samuel Story was forced to surrender his
Batavian fleet to the
British navy without a fight in August 1799 because his officers started a mutiny?
...that despite dramatically improving the quality of education at
Transylvania University, Horace Holley was forced to resign as the university's president over doctrinal differences with the
Presbyterian Church?
...that
Edward Cocker's Arithmetick was such a popular textbook of mathematics that over 100 editions were published over a period of more than a century?
...that television critics have speculated as to how the 30 Rock episode "MILF Island" will avoid explaining the meaning of "
MILF" since the last letter stands for
an obscene word?
...that Chorley Old Hall, the oldest inhabited country house in
Cheshire, consists of two ranges, one
medieval (c.1300) (pictured), the other
Elizabethan (mid-16th century)?
...that after being captured by the rebel ruler
An Lushan, the
Tang Dynasty general Geshu Han offered to write letters to persuade other Tang generals to surrender to An?
...that after making the
first ascent of the remote
Mount Lucania, Robert Bates was forced to survive on squirrels and mushrooms during his 156-mile (251 km) trek out of the wilderness?
...that 50 years after winning
A£100 in a fridge-decorating competition,
Australian artist Robert Dickerson commands from
A$80,000 for a painting today?
...that due to its economic growth,
Taiwan served as a showcase for Japan's
propaganda on the colonial efforts throughout Asia, as displayed during the 1935 Taiwan Exposition?
...that the Malay kite, a model of
kite used for hundreds of years in the
Far East and introduced to the West in 1894, provided the inspiration for the now widespread and popular "Eddy" kite design?
...that troco(pictured), also called "trucks" or "lawn billiards", is a traditional
Englishlawn game played with wooden balls and long-handled
cues at the ends of which are
spoon-like ovals of iron?
...that Scottish actor Russell Hunter was so concerned about being identified with "Lonely", the anxious, smelly sidekick he played in the 1960s spy series Callan, that he took pains to smell nice?
...that the fact that no one has been arrested for the murder of
Indian ex-parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri is seen as evidence of government complicity?
...that Stone Bridge in
Saint Petersburg,
Russia was so steep, that in the 19th century bus passengers had to disembark in order for the bus to go over it?
...that in 1976, people reported feeling a floating sensation as they jumped in the air, caused by a Jovian–Plutonian gravitational effect(Jupiter pictured)?
...that the 24 Hours of LeMons includes such penalties as
tarring and feathering a racer's car and crushing a car via audience vote (crushing of a car pictured)?
...that John F. Kennedy was shot dead in an ambush by government agents who had foreknowledge of his whereabouts?
...that in a few villages and towns of southern
France and
Spain it is illegal to die, and that there are attempts to have the same law in a town in
Brazil?
...that Ben Affleck died while
shoveling snow outside of his house, leaving behind an unexpectedly small
estate speculated to be worth as little as
US$20,000?
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 American theater critic and historian T. Allston Brown(pictured) earned the title "Colonel" by riding on the back of a
tightrope walker in a circus performance?
...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 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
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 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 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 gallery owner Victoria Miro described
Jake Chapman—now famous for art which includes explicit and distorted mannequins—as an "adorable" baby sitter?
...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 the
Greek musical group C:Real sang only in
English before the arrival of lead vocalist Irini Douka in 2002, which led them to focus on
Greek language songs?
...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 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 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 the travel time of the
sternwheelerLytton(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 SoxpitcherMike 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 state of
Kentucky?
...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 Annie Armstrong, for whom the
Southern BaptistEaster collection for domestic
missions is named, resigned from the missionary organization she founded vowing never to serve the SBC again?
...that the titular planet in the Doctor Who episode "Planet of the Ood" is in the same planetary 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 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 Percy Hoskins was the only journalist working for a national British newspaper to defend suspected
serial killerDr. John Adams when he was arrested for murdering patients in 1956?
...that the Washington Irvingsidewheeler, the biggest passenger-carrying riverboat ever built, sank after colliding with an oil barge in 1926?
...that the village of Denshaw in
Greater Manchester(pictured) achieved international notoriety when
spoof information added to its Wikipedia entry was reported in national and international media?
...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
Academy Award winner Going My Way was filmed at St. Monica's (pictured), 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
Stonewall Jackson camped with his men at Carter Hall(pictured), and allowed his physician to perform a
cataract operation on the owner, on the
portico of the mansion?
...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 Chillenden Windmill 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 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 and
Poe?
...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 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 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
EnglishcricketerRoger 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 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 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 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 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 the entrance to Neptune's Grotto(pictured) in
Sardinia lies only around a meter (3 ft) above the sea, so the cave can only be visited when the waters are calm?
...that only about 10% of
Brazil's water resources is located in the
southeast, the agricultural and industrial heartland of the country, where 73% of the population lives?
...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 exhibits at the Bailey House Museum on
Maui include a 33 feet (10 m) fishing boat, a collection of snail shells, a unique wooden statue of a
Hawaiian demi-god, and 19th century Maui landscapes (pictured)?
...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?
14 April 2008
17:55, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
...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 the medieval Swedish ballad "
Stolt Herr Alf" contains an unusual name for the Norse god
Odin?
...that the Pentecostal Union of Romania has experienced rapid growth in recent years due to conversions and high birthrates, with some families having up to 18 children?
...that 17th-century actress Julia Glover was sold in marriage by her father for £1,000?
...that political opponents of
Kentucky governorThomas Metcalfe nicknamed him "Old Stone Hammer" because they felt his previous work as a
stonemason was a background unbecoming a governor?
...that Monte Testaccio(pictured) in
Rome is an artificial hill, 35 m (115 ft) high and 1 km (3,300 ft) in circumference, consisting entirely of the fragments of 53 million
ancient Romanamphorae?
...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 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 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 despite writing a full action-and-dialogue
screenplay for his film Raising Victor Vargas, Peter Sollett never showed the actors a script, so as to encourage authenticity through improvisation when filming?
...that the Chronicle of Man 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 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 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 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 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 English printer
John Day raided the printing premises of his son, Richard Day, after the latter had pirated his father's works and
illicitly published his own versions?
...that the Financial Stability Forum consists of officials from ministries and central banks of a dozen countries, who coordinate international financial stability?
...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?
...that in 1877 the 4,000-seat Queen's Theatre staged a spectacular and expensive production of The Last Days of Pompeii that flopped: the earth did not quake, the volcano did not erupt, and acrobats fell onto the cast?
...that Vice-Admiral Samuel Story was forced to surrender his
Batavian fleet to the
British navy without a fight in August 1799 because his officers started a mutiny?
...that despite dramatically improving the quality of education at
Transylvania University, Horace Holley was forced to resign as the university's president over doctrinal differences with the
Presbyterian Church?
...that
Edward Cocker's Arithmetick was such a popular textbook of mathematics that over 100 editions were published over a period of more than a century?
...that television critics have speculated as to how the 30 Rock episode "MILF Island" will avoid explaining the meaning of "
MILF" since the last letter stands for
an obscene word?
...that Chorley Old Hall, the oldest inhabited country house in
Cheshire, consists of two ranges, one
medieval (c.1300) (pictured), the other
Elizabethan (mid-16th century)?
...that after being captured by the rebel ruler
An Lushan, the
Tang Dynasty general Geshu Han offered to write letters to persuade other Tang generals to surrender to An?
...that after making the
first ascent of the remote
Mount Lucania, Robert Bates was forced to survive on squirrels and mushrooms during his 156-mile (251 km) trek out of the wilderness?
...that 50 years after winning
A£100 in a fridge-decorating competition,
Australian artist Robert Dickerson commands from
A$80,000 for a painting today?
...that due to its economic growth,
Taiwan served as a showcase for Japan's
propaganda on the colonial efforts throughout Asia, as displayed during the 1935 Taiwan Exposition?
...that the Malay kite, a model of
kite used for hundreds of years in the
Far East and introduced to the West in 1894, provided the inspiration for the now widespread and popular "Eddy" kite design?
...that troco(pictured), also called "trucks" or "lawn billiards", is a traditional
Englishlawn game played with wooden balls and long-handled
cues at the ends of which are
spoon-like ovals of iron?
...that Scottish actor Russell Hunter was so concerned about being identified with "Lonely", the anxious, smelly sidekick he played in the 1960s spy series Callan, that he took pains to smell nice?
...that the fact that no one has been arrested for the murder of
Indian ex-parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri is seen as evidence of government complicity?
...that Stone Bridge in
Saint Petersburg,
Russia was so steep, that in the 19th century bus passengers had to disembark in order for the bus to go over it?
...that in 1976, people reported feeling a floating sensation as they jumped in the air, caused by a Jovian–Plutonian gravitational effect(Jupiter pictured)?
...that the 24 Hours of LeMons includes such penalties as
tarring and feathering a racer's car and crushing a car via audience vote (crushing of a car pictured)?
...that John F. Kennedy was shot dead in an ambush by government agents who had foreknowledge of his whereabouts?
...that in a few villages and towns of southern
France and
Spain it is illegal to die, and that there are attempts to have the same law in a town in
Brazil?
...that Ben Affleck died while
shoveling snow outside of his house, leaving behind an unexpectedly small
estate speculated to be worth as little as
US$20,000?