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1
...that the last surrender of the
American Civil War took place aboard the British
HMS Donegal after the
CSS Shenandoah completed a 9,000 mile voyage specifically to do so?
...that
plant physiology is the subdiscipline of
botany concerned with the function, or
physiology , of
plants ?
...that a scathing obituary of
British author Lord
Michael Pratt in
The Daily Telegraph called him "an unabashed snob and social interloper on a grand scale", who habitually outstayed his welcome?
...that during his
tenure as
curator at
Université Laval ,
François-Xavier Bélanger built a thousand-specimen strong collection of Canadian
birds from the ground up?
...that the 22,200 meter
Shimizu Tunnel was the
world's longest tunnel when it was completed in 1982?
...that even though the
Norwegian
Constitutional Assembly was held in the house of statesman
Carsten Anker , he was not present himself?
...that
Henri II 's
Edict of Châteaubriant (1551) assigned the
regulation of the French press to the Faculty of Theology of the
University of Paris ?
...that
tōgyū (
pictured ) is a bullfighting sport practiced in
Okinawa ,
Japan , in which two bulls wrestle in a ring in a manner compared to
sumo ?
...that
Bykivnia , a former village, now part of the
Ukrainian capital
Kiev , was the burial site of thousands of
enemies of the Soviet power ?
...that the
Defense (Emergency) Regulations first enacted in
British Mandate Palestine in 1945 were incorporated into
Israel 's domestic legislation in 1948 and remain in force to this day?
...that long-time
University of Oregon
track coach
Bill Hayward also played
lacrosse for the world champion Ottawa Capitals?
...that
Japanese artist
Atsuko Tanaka wore a costume made of lit lightbulbs—her 1956 work Electric Dress —to exhibitions?
...that a total of 4156
films were submitted to the
2007 Toronto International Film Festival and 349 of those, from 55 countries, were selected?
...that an edition of
Alpin , a supplement of the
Bangladeshi newspaper
Prothom Alo , was banned by the
caretaker government for publishing a controversial cartoon in relation to the
Islamic prophet
Muhammad ?
...that after
Robert William Hughes shot and wounded future
Virginia Governor
William E. Cameron , he was appointed a
federal judge by
Ulysses S. Grant ?
...that during the
siege of Constantinople in 626 AD, 12,000
Byzantine cavalry successfully fought off 80,000
Avars ?
...that the first session of the
Legislative Council of
Mysore State in
India was held in the
Jaganmohan Palace (
pictured ) in July 1907?
...that the
Grant Park Music Festival , a
Chicago tradition since its 1931 introduction by
Anton Cermak , is
America's only remaining free, outdoor concert series featuring
classical music ?
...that
China's leadership for the next five years will be unveiled at the
Seventeenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China , which will open on
October 15 in the
Great Hall of the People ?
...that after the defeat of his
British Band in the 1832
Black Hawk War , Chief
Black Hawk was taken captive and exhibited to large crowds throughout the
United States ?
...that
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas , having lost his position on the Historic Churches Preservation Trust (for which he denounced the
Archbishop of Canterbury as having "held a pistol to my face while the Dean of Gloucester plunged his dagger into my back"), founded his own, more intransigent, committee, the
Friends of Friendless Churches ?
...that a
graffiti artist from the
Bronx named
PHASE 2 invented the famous "bubble letter" style of graffiti writing when tagging trains on the
New York City Subway system in the early
1970s ?
...that more than 75% of
kraft
pulp is
bleached without
chlorine ?
...that
Baduanjin qigong (
pictured ) is one of the most common forms of Chinese
qigong used as exercise?
...that
Luník IX , a borough in
Košice ,
Slovakia , although originally built for army and police officers, now houses the largest
Roma community in
Central Europe ?
...that
Wurzbach Parkway , an unnumbered
freeway in
San Antonio, Texas , does not connect directly to the city's other freeways?
...that by using
automatic number plate recognition , a
CCTV network known as
ANPR ,
police in the
United Kingdom are able to track the movement of
cars in real time and store vehicle movement information for five years?
...that four-time
Moscow
chess champion
Nikolay Grigoriev won ten awards in an
endgame study composing tourney in 1935?
...that the
Ukrainian Marines were from May 1996 until 1998 part of the Ukrainian National Guard, but were transferred to the
Navy in
1998 ?
...that
Juan de Arphe y Villafañe was a renowned engraver,
goldsmith , artist,
anatomist and author?
...that
autobiographer
Lois Mark Stalvey ' s 1960s
anti-racist
activism in
Omaha, Nebraska was responsible for her husband's job transfer to
Philadelphia ?
...that the
Chick House (
pictured ) is the only 19th century
hotel building still standing in the city of
Rockford, Illinois ?
...that the
Stiefelgeiss , a breed of
goat , became nearly extinct in the
1980s but is making a comeback?
...that the leaders of the failed
coup in Poland in 1919 were arrested by their intended troops?
...that
Matthew Ricketts was the first
African-American to graduate from the
University of Nebraska College of Medicine and be elected to the
Nebraska Legislature ?
...that the
photographer duo of
Krupakar-Senani were kidnapped by the
bandit
Veerappan , while filming the movie
Wild Dog Diaries in
India ?
...that
the Annie Larsen affair led in
1917 to one of the
longest and most expensive trials in America at the time?
...that
lime was diluted in separated milk instead of water for
Vileišis Palace construction?
...that the
Danae class cruiser
HMS Durban ended her wartime career supporting the
Battle of Normandy as a
blockship off the
Normandy coast in 1944?
...that
The Most Reverend
Whakahuihui Vercoe was the first
Bishop of Aotearoa to be elected by its
Maori congregation, the first
Maori to become
Archbishop of New Zealand , and the first
Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit ?
...that
Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams (
pictured ) is known as the "father" of the
Royal Australian Air Force ?
...that by leading by one more lap in
the final NASCAR race of the 1992 season ,
Alan Kulwicki won the
1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship over
Bill Elliott ?
...that the
1897 Pattern British Infantry Officer's Sword was carried into battle by a young
Bernard Montgomery , was used in service against the
Dervishes in
Sudan , and is still the ceremonial sidearm for many British regiments?
...that
Samuel Hieronymus Grimm , a
Swiss painter, toured
England for twenty years leaving 2,662 sketches in the
British Library -- including the only known image of the
coronation of
Edward VI ?
...that
John Joseph Briggs , the author of a history of the original
Melbourne (in
Derbyshire ), corresponded regularly with
Charles Darwin regarding the fins of a fish?
...that the
Suevic king
Hermeric abdicated his throne due to a prolonged seven-year illness?
...that
William Gore Ouseley (
pictured ) , a diplomat noted for representing
British interests in
Nicaragua and
Honduras , found one of the earliest sources for the
Pantomime story of
Dick Whittington 's cat?
...that
Yue Hwa Building used to house a popular
boutique hotel , and was the tallest building in
Singapore 's
Chinatown when it was completed in 1936?
...that although in present-day
India the former
Princely states and their princes have lost that status, the
Raja of
Rajnagar still wears his ancestors' tattered royal attire twice a year?
...that the
Jay Pritzker Pavilion , an outdoor
bandshell and great lawn, uses an innovative
sound system that recreates an indoor
concert hall sound experience?
...that the
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society , today a prominent academic journal in statistics, had as its first work a simple door-to-door survey of occupations in
Manchester ?
...that the
Kallawaya
healers travel around
South America , often on foot and on ancient
Inca trails, in search of traditional
herbs ?
...that Major
Sir Hamish Forbes, 7th Baronet was awarded the
MBE (Military Division) for his many escape attempts while a
prisoner-of-war in
Germany from 1940 to 1945, and was later patron of the
Lonach Highlanders ?
...that the Baroque-style palace
Dilkusha Kothi (
pictured ) was once a summer retreat for the
nawabs of
Oudh but was heavily shelled during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 and is today in ruins?
...that
Karl Emil Nygard was the first
Communist
mayor in America?
...that a series of miscommunications and withdrawals by
Allied forces during the
Battle of Kranji , allowed the
Japanese forces to gain strategic footholds which led to the fall of
Singapore in 1942?
...that the city of
Puerto Suárez in eastern
Bolivia is supplied by the
Brazilian
power grid , not the
Bolivian ?
...that architect
Andreyan Zakharov rebuilt the
Admiralty in
Saint Petersburg , with symmetrical wings to its central tower, making it a symbol of the city?
...that after the
November Uprising in
partitioned Poland , the government of the
Russian Empire offered a
bounty for one of the Polish leaders,
Jan Czyński ?
...that
Eastern Orthodox
icon expert,
Father Egon Sendler , is highly respected by many
Eastern Orthodox
scholars , despite being a
Roman Catholic ?
...that
Yugoslavian
boxing champion
Marijan Beneš played the violin in his youth, and published a book of poems after the end of his career?
... that the name of
Polish
anti-Nazi and
anti-communist activist
Łukasz Ciepliński (
pictured ) was
banned from all books by the
Communist government ?
...that
Augie Hiebert not only built
Alaska 's first
television station ,
KTVA , but also founded the state's first
FM radio station ,
KNIK-FM ?
...that the
Norwegian
roller coaster
Speed Monster features a unique loop around an
escalator ?
...that
Mark Knight , a
political cartoonist for the
Herald Sun , created Leuk the Duck, a
mascot for charity named after
leukemia ?
...that in
Chinua Achebe 's novel
Arrow of God , an African chief's refusal to allow his villagers to harvest
yams causes them to convert to Christianity?
...that research has shown the 80-plus miles of
trails in Omaha ,
Nebraska increase homeowners' perceptions of the
value of their
houses ?
...that, although only a junior officer,
Akiyama Saneyuki developed the basic strategy for the
Imperial Japanese Navy in the
Russo-Japanese War based on his firsthand observations of the
U.S. Navy in the
Spanish-American War ?
...that
John Dement (
pictured ) served as Receiver of Public Moneys in the
U.S. Land Office under five
presidential administrations?
...that the
engravings of French Renaissance artist
Jean Duvet exhibit
horror vacui , or a fear of leaving space unfilled?
...
Benjamin Stephenson's
indentured servants made over 100,000
bricks during the construction of
his house in
Edwardsville, Illinois ?
...that
Peter Adolf Thiessen , who helped develop
Soviet
nuclear weapons after
World War II and received a
Stalin Prize , first class, for his efforts, was former member of the
Nazi Party ?
...that
South African anti-
conscription activist
Nan Cross once climbed a
tank at a weapons exhibition and attached
stickers to it reading: "Arms are for
hugging , not killing "?
...that the 2002
ITC Inferno , a
fire that destroyed a six-storey business complex, claimed sixty lives, and injured more than a hundred in
Ho Chi Minh City ,
Vietnam , was started by poor
welding ?
...that throughout the Western world until the 19th or 20th century, young boys wore
dresses (
example pictured ) until they were
breeched at an age varying between two and eight?
...that after Oregon's
Point Adams Lighthouse changed colors to reduce confusion, it caused a ship to run aground in 1881?
...that the success of the
Lifeline Express in providing medical services to remote places in India has seen similar projects being initiated in other countries including
China ,
Zimbabwe , and
Bangladesh ?
...that
Giuseppe Maggiolini , a
cabinet-maker from late 18th century
Milan , also made
marquetry flooring for royal villas in
Lombardy ?
...that
Dick Mann was the first
motorcycle rider to win
AMA's career Grand Slam by winning on
short track , mile, half mile, Tourist Trophy, and
road racing
race tracks ?
...that the
Brazilian
metropolis of
São Paulo had its origins in a humble
Jesuit mission known today as
Pátio do Colégio ?