31 January 2010

• 18:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that in Early Medieval art Christ treading on the beasts (pictured) often showed Christ trampling on a lion, asp, basilisk and dragon, all representing the devil?
• ... that Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny, son of French World War II hero Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, was one of 21 sons of French marshals and generals to be killed in the First Indochina War?
• ... that the SOE assassination operation Bittern received severe criticism from the Norwegian resistance movement?
• ... that Lý Anh Tông, the sixth emperor of the Lý Dynasty, was considered the first ruler of Đại Việt who promoted Buddhism as the state religion?
• ... that after a quiet tour, ball tampering allegations and problems with the review system caused controversy in the third and fourth Tests of the England–South Africa series in 2009–10?
• ... that Pirot-born Krastyo Krastev, the first professional Bulgarian literary critic, was a shorthand writer for the National Assembly of Bulgaria while still a schoolboy?
• ... that Nallathambi marked the film debut for C. N. Annadurai, who later went on to become Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu?
• ... that during the 2001–02 season, Hibernian F.C. sacked manager Franck Sauzee just 69 days after he had been appointed?
• 12:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that five of the seven German battlecruisers (SMS Von der Tann pictured) took part in the Battle of Jutland, where they sank three of their British rivals?
• ... that at age 19, Felix Barker became the youngest drama critic working on Fleet Street?
• ... that the Ngwenya Mine in Swaziland is one of the oldest mines in the world?
• ... that 28 people died in a 1922 fire in the Palacio de la Aduana in Málaga, Spain?
• ... that John Usher was called to the Bar and made an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn at the same time?
• ... that the barbeled houndshark is the only shark with a spherical placenta?
• ... that if rugby union player Tom Prydie appears for Wales in the 2010 Six Nations, he will become the youngest cap in the team's history?
• ... that the BBC Radio 4 panel game Act Your Age was voted by readers of the British Comedy Guide the "Worst British Radio Panel Show/Satire 2008"?
• 06:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that nearly 25% of all the wine grapes grown in Mendocino County (pictured) are farmed organically – the largest percentage of any California county?
• ... that the character actor Tom Greenway, shot down as a pilot in World War II, spent more than a year in Italian and German POW camps?
• ... that in Minuscule 545 iota adscript occurs up to Luke 1:77, then ceases?
• ... that Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, is opening a law school in Boise, Idaho?
• ... that the land on which Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico, stands was under Lake Texcoco until the early 20th century?
• ... that the 1925 Rochester Jeffersons season included the final seven games of a twenty-three game streak without a victory?
• ... that the hieroglyphic inscriptions at the Early Classic Maya city of Bejucal in northern Guatemala were all made within a narrow 40-year period?
• ... that Barack Obama's most recent State of the Union address was almost scheduled to preempt the broadcast of "LA X", the final season premiere of the television show Lost?
• 00:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that pioneering aeroplane pilot and racing driver Henri Rougier won the inaugural Monte Carlo Rally in his Turcat-Méry car (pictured)?
• ... that the omissions due to homoioteleuton are unusually frequent in Minuscule 544?
• ... that Fritz Bultman, an original Abstract Expressionist of the New York School, missed a photo shoot for the Life magazine article that established his colleagues' reputations?
• ... that Guyanese president Forbes Burnham was president of the Guyana Labour Union twice, from 1952 to 1956 and again from 1963 to 1965?
• ... that the character actor Tom Greenway, shot down as a pilot in World War II, spent more than a year in Italian and German POW camps?
• ... that Elders Colonial Airways ceased flying to Bathurst in The Gambia after its Short Scion Senior sank in the city's harbour in August 1939?
• ... that John Douglas' design for 78–94 Foregate Street, Chester was so unlike any of his previous architectural styles that it "shocked the City Council Improvement Committee"?
• ... that David Haig-Thomas who rowed for Great Britain at the 1932 Summer Olympics was an ornithologist, arctic explorer and commando officer who was killed in action on D-Day?

30 January 2010

• 18:00, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Jacob Svetoslav (pictured on coin), a 13th-century Bulgarian noble of Russian origin and ruler of Vidin, twice changed allegiance between Hungary and Bulgaria and vice versa before possibly being poisoned?
• ... that during the 1960s Air Guinée was managed by Alaska Airlines and Pan American World Airways, each for a short time?
• ... that basketball player Bill Spivey sued the National Basketball Association and its commissioner in 1960, claiming that the league blacklisted him?
• ... that in 1894, after the Pall Mall Gazette mocked what became the Viking Society for Northern Research, a member wrote, "The fiercest warriors, even savages, drink tea and coffee nowadays"?
• ... that settlement money given to the city to close the Harbour Island People Mover was utilized in the creation of an endowment to cover the operating costs of the TECO Line Streetcar in Tampa, Florida?
• ... that Charles Terront used a prototype pneumatic tyre made by Edouard Michelin when he won the inaugural Paris-Brest-Paris cycle race in 1891?
• ... that on the brink of the American Civil War, there was a movement in the mid-Atlantic states to secede from the Union and form a Central Confederacy?
• ... that John Smith, a noted 18th century London housebreaker, managed to avoid execution three times, and was eventually transported to Virginia?
• 12:00, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Hatadage, Nissanka Latha Mandapaya, and Rankoth Vehera (pictured) were all built by King Nissanka Malla of Sri Lanka?
• ... that in the United Kingdom, the military offence of looting carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment?
• ... that when Townsville financial advice company Storm Financial collapsed in 2009, victims included cricketer Andrew Symonds, who lost at least AU$1 million?
• ... that former actress Esme Church founded a theatre school in Bradford, England, where stars such as Tom Bell, Bernard Hepton and Robert Stephens received their training?
• ... that the mayors of six Parisian suburbs took part in founding the Socialist-Communist Union in 1923?
• ... that the Alfie Atkins children's book series by Swedish author Gunilla Bergström has been translated into twenty-nine different languages and sold over eight million copies worldwide?
• ... that if anyone appeals to the Pashtunwali doctrine of Nanawatai, even his sworn enemy will have to give him sanctuary?
• ... that Arne Rettedal, county mayor of Rogaland from 1988 to 1991, died on the birthday of his successor Odd Arild Kvaløy?
• 06:00, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that although it was first classified as a reptile, the extinct genus Batropetes (restoration pictured) is now known to be a microsaur amphibian?
• ... that former Louisiana State Senator Lawson Swearingen in 1990 cast one of three critical votes to sustain Governor Buddy Roemer's veto of a restrictive anti-abortion bill?
• ... that the 900 South station was the first infill station constructed as part of the UTA TRAX light rail system in Salt Lake City, Utah?
• ... that Shenandoah and Alison Krauss' "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart" won a Grammy Award in 1995, and its b-side "Darned If I Don't (Danged If I Do)" was also nominated for one?
• ... that in 1916, William Gilbert Gosling's 12-man governing commission of St. John's, Newfoundland, allowed for legal proceedings to be instigated against the town's tax evaders?
• ... that the Hill 50 Gold Mine was Australia's most profitable mine between 1955 and 1961?
• ... that during the construction of the Manila Film Center, its scaffolding collapsed, where at least 169 workers fell and were buried under quick-drying wet cement?
• ... that Diane Keaton accepted the lead role in Sister Mary Explains It All because she thought she couldn't do it?
• 00:00, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that of the six torpedoes fired to scuttle (result pictured) the Russian pre-dreadnought battleship Slava during the Battle of Moon Sound in 1917, only one worked?
• ... that one of the patrons of The Ypres League was Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, whose son, Prince Maurice of Battenberg, had died in World War I at the First Battle of Ypres?
• ... that Bob Matthewson, an English footballer and referee, was recently portrayed in the 2009 film The Damned United?
• ... that forty-three butchers' shops were built around the outside of Borough Market in Halifax, England, along with three pubs?
• ... that Bracetti Plaza, an NYCHA development in the East Village, New York City, is named after Mariana Bracetti?
• ... that Scorpions were transported to Cyprus in 1974 to protect the British Sovereign Base Areas during the Turkish Invasion?
• ... that 13-year-old Emer Jones's "Research and Development of Emergency Sandbag Shelters" helped her win the 2008 Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, the youngest ever and her school's debut?
• ... that the Nanodragster is a nanocar which is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair and has a top speed of 0.014 millimeters per hour?

29 January 2010

• 18:00, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that during England's Peasants' Revolt in 1381, William d'Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (pictured) had to flee the rebels disguised as a groom?
• ... that the Louisiana State Rep. H. Lawrence Gibbs in 1956 authored legislation which outlawed social events and athletic contests including both African Americans and whites?
• ... that the blind crustacean Polycheles typhlops preys on fish and on other crustaceans, probably acting as an ambush predator?
• ... that when James Cudworth introduced the 0-4-4T to the South Eastern Railway, they were the first locomotives of this wheel arrangement in England?
• ... that Starobrno Brewery annually produces a special batch of green beer distributed only on Maundy Thursday?
• ... that despite being a famous pre-war career criminal with a very controversial war record, Johannes "The Yellow Cheese" Andersen gained the friendship and patronage of King Haakon VII of Norway?
• ... that the Swedish zoo Skånes Djurpark displays almost a hundred different animal species, most of which are part of the Nordic fauna?
• ... that Chekhov's White Dacha in Yalta, where he wrote his finest works, was visited by Leo Tolstoy, Feodor Chaliapin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maxim Gorky, Leonid Kuchma and Vladimir Putin?
• 12:00, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Hindu mythical beast Sharabha (pictured, god Shiva as Sharabha), described as mightier than the lion and elephant, is included in the list of edible animals in the Mahabharata?
• ... that Bredtveit is one of three women's prisons in Norway?
• ... that the cap of the mushroom Xeromphalina campanella resembles a navel when the mushroom matures?
• ... that after retiring from professional wrestling, Ida Mae Martinez was one of the first nurses in Baltimore to work with AIDS patients?
• ... that the out-of-service Fairmount Avenue station building still wears the same coat of paint it received in the 1960s?
• ... that Muhammad Naguib, who would later lead a coup d'état in Egypt, was relieved of his command of a brigade for its failures in the Second Battle of Negba?
• ... that the American Delta blues pianist and singer, Willie Love, never employed his musician friend, Sonny Boy Williamson II, on any of his own recordings?
• ... that screenwriter Ian Brennan wrote the first draft of the musical comedy-drama Glee with the aid of Screenwriting for Dummies?
• 06:00, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that completion of the Howard A. Hanson Dam (pictured) in 1961 ended a 70-year era of flooding in the Green River Valley, and by 1996, the dam had prevented an estimated US$694 million in flood damages?
• ... that the western outlaw L.H. Musgrove "calmly puffed a cigar to its bitter butt" as he awaited hanging by vigilantes in Denver, Colorado, in 1868?
• ... that 13 and 14-year-old Liam McCarthy and John D. O'Callaghan achieved fame in 2009 for "The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and Its Importance In Milk Production"?
• ... that L'ange de Nisida, an opera semiseria by Gaetano Donizetti, was completed but never performed due to the bankruptcy of the theater company Donizetti contracted?
• ... that in 1991, John C. Ensminger of Monroe defeated Frank Snellings, the husband of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, for a seat in the Louisiana State Senate?
• ... that after decommissioning, the Commandant's Quarters of the Dearborn Arsenal was used as a library, American Legion hall, town hall, police station, school, newspaper office, and finally a museum?
• ... that American football defensive tackle O'Brien Schofield, who completed his college career for Wisconsin in 2009, is a cousin of the National Football League veterans Vonnie Holliday and Bobby Engram?
• ... that United States Supreme Court associate justice Antonin Scalia reportedly hates the word "choate", because it is a back-formation from "inchoate"?
• 00:00, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Bedford Village Archeological Site in Pennsylvania was discovered on the grounds of a living history museum (pictured)?
• ... that John Haworth is the only Burnley manager to date to have led the team to an FA Cup victory?
• ... that the Classic Period Maya site of El Zotz, in Guatemala, takes its name from the enormous quantity of bats that live in a cave under the ruins?
• ... that singer-songwriter Gillian Welch met her musical partner David Rawlings at a successful audition for the only country band at Berklee College of Music?
• ... that many of the canopies at the light rail transit stations in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah are designed to resemble the canopy of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building?
• ... that William Ashwell Shenstone, a published chemist, listed "experimental work" among his recreations in Who's Who?
• ... that the Portuguese Socialist Party was the sole political party tolerated by the military regime after the 28 May 1926 coup d'état?
• ... that Donald Goerke invented SpaghettiOs, choosing the "O" over pasta shaped like baseballs, cowboys, and spacemen, and later ran the company's dog food division?

28 January 2010

• 18:00, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Cincinnatus Leconte (pictured), president of Haiti, died when the National Palace exploded in August 1912, just months after his nephew became the only black man to perish on the Titanic?
• ... that the Swetman House was known as the "architectural gem" of Seward, Alaska?
• ... that John Sheridan commanded the bomb vessel HMS Terror during the Battle of Baltimore, the action that inspired the writing of the poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner"?
• ... that the documentary film Barricades was shelved for three years by Israeli television because of the controversy that would result from airing it?
• ... that centenarian Dorothy Geeben was the oldest mayor in the United States until her death on January 10, 2010?
• ... that former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was initially delighted by the 1975 Stringband song "Dief Will Be the Chief Again" but later refused to comment about it?
• ... that when GNU Oleo became officially part of the GNU Project, a 1996 article in iX magazine dubbed it as "GNU's response to Excel"?
• ... that Jan C. Gabriel is credited for the tagline "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!", along with bringing NASCAR and NHRA to television?
• 12:00, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that before captaining the Pinta on Columbus's first voyage, Martín Alonso Pinzón (statue pictured) had already sailed to the Canary Islands and Guinea?
• ... that coal accounts for 86% of South Africa's carbon dioxide emissions?
• ... that Jon Hippe, who suggested higher taxes as a way to reduce the gap between rich and poor, was appointed leader of the Norwegian Financial Crisis Committee by the Ministry of Finance?
• ... that the Philippine Commission on Elections cited the Bible and the Koran to disqualify the Ang Ladlad LGBT Party from the 2010 party-list election?
• ... that Victorian psychiatrist L. Forbes Winslow was involved in the cases of Jack the Ripper, Percy Lefroy Mapleton, Florence Maybrick, and Amelia Dyer?
• ... that in 1920 Hungarian socialists such as Sándor Garbai, Zsigmond Kunfi and Vilmos Böhm, exiled after the crushing of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, founded the Világosság émigré group?
• ... that the last two buildings used by the Makawao Union Church were built atop the foundation of a 19th-century sugarcane mill in Maui, Hawaii?
• ... that Cultivator No. 6 was an enormous fighting machine conceived by Winston Churchill and developed in Britain early in World War II?
• 06:00, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that after engaging ten German fighters single-handed on 16 August 1917, Alexander Pentland (pictured) found that four bullets had penetrated his flying suit without injuring him?
• ... that the March 18–20, 1956 nor'easter left snow drifts 14 ft (4.3 m) high?
• ... that Enoch Cobb left land in his will to be used to raise funds that would benefit public school students of the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts?
• ... that US Project Exploration received a Presidential Award for creating collaborations between scientists and students, especially girls and minorities, traditionally underrepresented in science?
• ... that after scouting him at South Carolina, current Philadelphia Eagles running backs coach Ted Williams advised the Eagles to take Duce Staley with a third-round draft pick in the 1997 NFL Draft?
• ... that the Byzantine emperor Justin II had his cousin, the general and former consul Justin, murdered in his sleep as a potential rival to the throne?
• ... that The Black Pearl, a 1996 limited series comic book written by Mark Hamill and Eric Johnson, was originally written as a screenplay?
• ... that the Suite Vollard in Curitiba, Brazil, is the only building in the world in which floors can independently rotate 360° in either direction?
• 00:00, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Isaac M. Wise Temple (pictured) in Cincinnati and the Old Main building of Bethany College in West Virginia are both U.S. National Historic Landmarks designed by architect James Keys Wilson?
• ... that Andy Hayman, the police officer in charge of investigating the 7 July 2005 London bombings, was awarded the CBE for his role?
• ... that Hurricane Barbara of 1953 uprooted trees left standing intact after the more intense Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944?
• ... that the assembly of the Vermont Republic voted in June 1781 to expand its borders into parts of New Hampshire and New York during the Haldimand Affair?
• ... that John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, rescued Edward II of England from being captured by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Old Byland?
• ... that the Great Western Railway operated ships in connection with their trains to provide services to Ireland, the Channel Islands and France?
• ... that seed of the flowering shrub Banksia dryandroides made its way from King George Sound to the United Kingdom, before it was finally described from plants growing in Bayswater, then a London suburb?
• ... that after being stranded by Ghana Airways at Banjul's international airport, a group of disgruntled passengers threatened to burn the airline's aircraft and offices at the airport?

27 January 2010

• 18:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that according to clan tradition, the wife of chief Iain Ciar MacLeod had two of her daughters buried alive within the dungeon of Dunvegan Castle (pictured)?
• ... that the English Statute of York has been described as "the end of a period of revolutionary experiments in English government"?
• ... that HMS Alcmene's surgeon for nearly five years was William Beatty, who in 1805 attended the dying Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar?
• ... that the Norwegian Seamen's Church in San Pedro, California, is visited by the crews of about 160 Norwegian ships every year?
• ... that the 2007–2008 Nazko earthquakes in British Columbia, Canada, are the only recorded earthquakes in the Canadian Cordillera away from the coast resulting from magma moving in the Earth?
• ... that Samuel Fox helped start the first free adult school in Britain, at Nottingham in 1798?
• ... that National Bolshevik Ernst Niekisch played an important role in formulating the ideological line of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany?
• ... that Syrian-American Mohammed Loay Bayazid, a former member of al-Qaeda, was noted for "always teasing bin Laden"?
• 12:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Suvarnadurg (pictured), on the west coast of India, which was called a "Golden Fort" and the pride of the Marathas, was a naval fortification built to defend against European colonialist attacks?
• ... that in 1974 an Air Mali Ilyushin Il-18 crashed after performing a night-time forced landing on the road from Ouagadougou to Niamey, killing at least 47 people?
• ... that Minuscule 543, a manuscript of the four Gospels, has additional non-biblical material – Limits of the Five Patriarchates?
• ... that Milorg pioneer Arne Laudal, who was shot at Trandumskogen in 1944, was honoured with the British King's Commendation for Brave Conduct?
• ... that according to the 10th century Jain text Dravyasamgraha, the three jewels of Jainism—rational perception, rational knowledge and rational conduct—are essential for achieving liberation?
• ... that Aaslaug Aasland was Norway's first female head of a government ministry?
• ... that the English Statute of Enrolments, believed to have been emergency legislation, contains no preamble and was drafted by the Clerk of the House of Commons rather than a legislator?
• ... that Egyptian poet Farouk Shousha has described the decline in the quality of Arabic in Egypt as "an issue of national security"?
• 06:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that American racehorse Goldsmith Maid (pictured) set a world harness racing record at the age of 17?
• ... that David Thomas Lenox was the captain of the first wagon train on the Oregon Trail to travel all the way to Oregon?
• ... that Thor, scheduled for release in 2011, was envisioned and pitched to 20th Century Fox as early as 1990?
• ... that clan tradition states that Iain Borb MacLeod was wounded in the head at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411 and that the wound's reoccurring bleeding caused his death 31 years later?
• ... that the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1914 that American football player Walter Rheinschild had been rated as "the highest salaried amateur athlete in the business"?
• ... that the Stark County Courthouse and the Zanesville Federal Building are both listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and designed by architect George F. Hammond?
• ... that in 1862, Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas proposed the colony of Linconia to fulfill U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's vision for African-American emigration to Central America?
• ... that a recent outbreak of "hat mania" surrounding RTÉ reporter Paul Cunningham's "woolly pancake" from "Pakistan's tribal areas" has led to a Facebook campaign for fans to gather in their own hats?
• 00:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the superior design of HMS Princess, a former Spanish ship captured (pictured) in 1740, led to the Admiralty initiating a series of increases in British warship dimensions?
• ... that 2001's European of the Year Tommie Gorman's half hour interview with a central figure in the 2002 Roy Keane incident became the most viewed television programme of May 2002?
• ... that Bank Buildings, in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England, was built by the Bank of Liverpool, later occupied by Martins Bank, and now houses shops and offices?
• ... that despite damage from a tramway, the Deffenbaugh Site is one of the most valuable archaeological sites in Fayette County, Pennsylvania?
• ... that in 1985 the Canadian company Sound Ideas became the first to release a sound effects library on compact disc?
• ... that the Mastaba of Mereruka, Vizier to king Teti of the sixth dynasty Old Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt, is the largest and most elaborate of all the non-royal tombs in Saqqara?
• ... that Z Special Unit member F. G. L. Chester gained the nickname "Gort" due to his physical resemblance to the British Army Field Marshal John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort?
• ... that the American wine critic Robert Parker is credited with popularizing the use of numerical wine ratings?

26 January 2010

• 18:00, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland (example pictured) were dominant between 1550 and 1650, when they were finally replaced with baroque?
• ... that attorney William Lair Hill codified the laws of both the states of Oregon and Washington?
• ... that the krill species Euphausia crystallorophias was first described from specimens caught from a hole bored during Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition?
• ... that Norwegian journalist Ivar Hippe is friends with the current Labour Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg?
• ... that at the Dong Xuan night market in Hanoi, one can not only buy goods but also enjoy traditional performances such as ca trù or xẩm?
• ... that the Chester architect John Douglas showed his designs for Wrexham Road Farm, Eccleston, and Saighton Lane Farm at the Royal Academy in 1888?
• ... that in 2001 the Richland County Public Library was named National Library of the Year by the Library Journal and the Gale Group?
• ... that one of the victims in a recent rare shooting in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, was the gunman's mother-in-law?
• 12:00, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the wine industry in the Barossa Valley (pictured) was founded by German immigrants fleeing persecution from the Prussian province of Silesia?
• ... that Vimcy received an award from the Kerala State Sports Council for his lifelong contributions to sports journalism?
• ... that Mallee Cliffs National Park has no public access in order to preserve the mallee eucalyptus habitat of the mallee fowl?
• ... that poet Simbo Olorunfemi's Rhythm of the Coins was described as "a promise that the Nigerian literary scene is not entirely off-course?"
• ... that the Historia Ecclesie Abbendonensis, a 12th-century chronicle from Abingdon Abbey, describes the collapse of the abbey's church tower and the narrow escape the monks had?
• ... that Napaljarri artists include Biddy, Daisy, Susie, Kowai, Wentja, Peggy, Doris, Parara, Eileen, Louisa, Lucy, Helen, Linda, Kitty, Sheila, Valerie, Maggie, Topsy, Nora, Ada, Ngoia, Molly, Mona and Norah?
• ... that the Jain polemic Tamil epic Neelakesi was written as a rebuttal to the Buddhist epic Kundalakesi?
• ... that Grete Prytz Kittelsen is known as the "Queen of Scandinavian Design"?
• 06:00, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that after travelling to Australia in 1888 aboard the Rynda (pictured in Sydney) for the colony's 26 January centenary, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich supported expanding relations between Russia and Australia?
• ... that Northwestern University's appearance in the 2003 Motor City Bowl marked the first time a Big Ten team played in that bowl game?
• ... that the electors of Inuvik Boot Lake have not voted in a Northwest Territories general election since 1999, as in every election since only one candidate has registered to run?
• ... that the Star Wars video game Flight of the Falcon lets the player pilot not only the Millennium Falcon, but also an X-wing, a landspeeder, and a speeder bike?
• ... that an 1867 Tintara claret became the oldest surviving bottle of Australian wine after the previous record holder was accidentally broken by a Christie's office cleaner?
• ... that Brad Johnson, the deputy Lofty Craig on the western TV series Annie Oakley, portrayed one of six unnamed students in Ronald Reagan's 1951 film Bedtime for Bonzo?
• ... that the pebble-mound mice of northern Australia construct mounds of stones around their burrows up to 10 m² in area?
• ... that Basil Hayden was not only the University of Kentucky's first All-American basketball player, but probably also its shortest?
• 00:00, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the French poet Victor Segalen admired the four tortoises (later example pictured) that had glorified Prince Ancheng of Kang for almost one and a half millennia?
• ... that the schools designed by John Douglas for the 1st Duke of Westminster in Eccleston and Waverton, Cheshire, are considered to be the best of his village schools?
• ... that in November 1931, American country blues harmonicist Eddie Mapp was found stabbed to death at the age of 20 on an Atlanta, Georgia, street corner?
• ... that the molecularly distinct Abrotrichini group of South American rodents was not recognized as distinct from the Akodontini until the 1990s?
• ... that construction innovator Olav Selvaag started Norway's first music school?
• ... that the passage of the A.B. 390 by California's Public Safety Committee marked the first time in United States history that a bill legalizing marijuana passed a legislative committee?
• ... that Frederick Hobbs, after singing leading roles from 1914 to 1920 with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, became its stage manager and then business manager for the last two decades of his life?
• ... that the Cucuteni-Trypillian people experienced a considerable abundance of food, which contributed to why they had no evidence of war throughout their entire existence?

25 January 2010

• 18:00, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Tinsley Green in West Sussex has hosted the World Marble Championships (venue pictured) every year since 1932?
• ... that Nicolas Andry gave the field of orthopedic surgery its name with his 1741 book Orthopédie?
• ... that parts 2 and 3 of the BBC television documentary series Berlin were watched by approximately one million people in the United Kingdom?
• ... that Yakubu Mu'azu is one of a group of Nigerian former military administrators who formed the United Nigeria Development Forum, a political pressure group?
• ... that upon graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts, Hayato Matsuo went straight to work under Koichi Sugiyama, the composer for the Dragon Quest video game series?
• ... that the last known specimen of the Styre, a once-famous variety of cider apple, was felled in 1968?
• ... that Endre Berner, Bjørn Føyn, Carl Jacob Arnholm, Eiliv Skard, Harald K. Schjelderup and Anatol Heintz were among the professors at the University of Oslo who were arrested by Nazis during World War II?
• ... that Captain George Eyre narrowly escaped death in 1810, when he was hit in the head by a musket ball and three others passed through his clothes?
• 12:00, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that seven generations of Morya Gosavi (pictured) – a prominent saint of the Ganapatya Hindu sect – were worshipped as incarnations of the god Ganesha, and his tomb still attracts many Ganesha devotees?
• ... that when 30 Bridge Street, Chester was rebuilt in 1890, it was unique at that period in the city because it was no higher than the building it replaced?
• ... that, in Montreal, since a shish taouk is not grilled on a skewer, it would better be called a chicken shawarma?
• ... that in 2001, when Nina Frisak became the first female leader of the Norwegian Office of the Prime Minister, she left the position of Supreme Court Justice?
• ... that in rodents, the position of the zygomatic plate varies from nearly horizontal to nearly vertical?
• ... that Ossetian jurist and politician Alan Parastaev has been a member of the governments of both South Ossetia and Georgia?
• ... that Towers Watson is world's largest employee-benefits consulting firm by revenue?
• ... that up to 2 million illegal immigrants are estimated to live in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi alone?
• 06:00, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that although most famous for inventing the Quarter Pounder (pictured), Al Bernardin felt that his most important contribution to McDonald's was his development of frozen french fries?
• ... that although he has composed music for over 20 video games and conducts the Video Games Live concert series, Jack Wall has a degree in civil engineering?
• ... that embryonic development in the bluntnose stingray does not start until several months after mating?
• ... that the Toledo Rockets played the Boston College Eagles in the 2002 Motor City Bowl, the first time that a bowl game was played in then-new Ford Field?
• ... that the palm Aiphanes deltoidea, which occurs across a broad area encompassing parts of Colombia, Peru and Brazil, is present at such low densities that it is considered a rare species?
• ... that in 2009, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut Enuk Pauloosie called on the Government of Nunavut to ban all of its employees from flying Air Canada to support Canada's northern airlines?
• ... that Yale University's Street Hall (1867), designed by architect Peter Bonnett Wight, was the first collegiate art school in the U.S.?
• ... that the Italian producer Azienda Agricola Testamatta once had a wine banned in the U.S. because of its label's suggestive imagery that included the Firenze slang term for fellatio?
• 00:00, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Jensen FF (pictured) introduced anti-lock braking systems to the automotive world with the Dunlop Maxaret system, prompting Sports Illustrated to call it "the safest car in the world"?
• ... that despite allowing the second most goals in the 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, Swiss goalie Benjamin Conz was selected an all-star and named the best goaltender of the tournament?
• ... that during the Great Northern War, the army that relieved the Siege of Stralsund was forced to surrender when trapped in the Siege of Tönning?
• ... that musical style of Czech singer Zuzana Navarová was inspired by Latin American music?
• ... that the town of Chase, Wisconsin, purchased the Daniel E. Krause Stone Barn and it is planning to create a park to preserve this historic barn?
• ... that Julius Gehl, the vice president of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, was a mason by profession?
• ... that longnose stingrays are born in relatively fresh water, move into saltier water soon after, and then move back into less salty water when they mature?
• ... that St Cuthbert, according to the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, caused a Scottish army preparing to fight King Guthred of Northumbria to be swallowed up by the earth?

24 January 2010

• 18:00, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the engines of the Russian pre-dreadnought battleship Ekaterina II (pictured) were disabled when the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied in June 1905 to prevent her from joining Potemkin?
• ... that in response to the growing National Socialist influence, the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig formed a 4,500-man strong paramilitary force?
• ... that the 2005 Liberty Bowl was the first time Fresno State played a college football bowl game east of the Mississippi River?
• ... that now-Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut Peter Taptuna was a participant in the first and only Inuit drilling crew on the Beaufort Sea?
• ... that although Esenbeckia runyonii is common in parts of Mexico's Sierra Madre Oriental, the type specimen was collected from a disjunct population of trees in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas?
• ... that St Symphorian's Church in Durrington, West Sussex, was wrecked during the English Civil War by Parliamentarian villagers, who disliked their rector's Royalist views and unintelligible preaching?
• ... that Charles Dickens wrote his novels Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities at his Tavistock House home?
• ... that in response to sightings of Osama bin Laden in the United States, his face was added to facial recognition programs for the 2002 Olympics?
• 12:00, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that despite losing his right arm and having no formal civil engineering education, Henry Perrine Baldwin (pictured) oversaw a pioneering sugarcane irrigation system on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 1876?
• ... that Castle Green in London was named after a castellated house built from around 1800 that survived until 1938?
• ... that Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, is also a member of parliament from Antalya Province?
• ... that Nigeria's Bakolori irrigation project, one of the world's most expensive irrigation schemes, adversely affected downstream farming in the floodplains?
• ... that there was a Czech section of the Austrian Republikanischer Schutzbund, associated with the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party in Austria?
• ... that British literary critic Clement King Shorter turned his large Brontë-related literary collection into four books on the sisters?
• ... that landslides from the 1981 Irian Jaya earthquake destroyed 150 homes and cut off transportation for more than 2,000 people?
• ... that Olympic freestyle skier Patrick Deneen first skied when he was only 11 months old?
• 06:00, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that architect Frederick W. Garber based his design for the Walnut Hills High School (pictured) in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the rotunda of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia?
• ... that the cover of The Byrds' compilation album, History of The Byrds, features the same David Gahr photograph as the band's Greatest Hits, Volume II album, which had been released just six months earlier?
• ... that comedian Russ Meneve co-founded the "New York Comedians Coalition" in order to negotiate better payment for New York's comedians?
• ... that the present-day Honduran island of Roatán was the site of a battle in the American War of Independence on March 16, 1782?
• ... that professional wrestler Ángel Blanco was killed in a car accident that left his long-time tag team partner Dr. Wagner an invalid?
• ... that Hunter-Schreger bands strengthen the enamel of the incisor in rodents?
• ... that the American photographer Kenneth Josephson is one of the founding members of the Society for Photographic Education?
• ... that Prince Rupert's white poodle Boye was given the rank of Sergeant-Major-General, and was believed by some to be the Devil in disguise?
• 00:00, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that it is thought that Rochdale Town Hall (pictured) was so admired by Adolf Hitler that he wanted to ship it, brick-by-brick, to Nazi Germany had the UK been defeated in World War II?
• ... that the Byzantine general Justinian plotted twice to overthrow Emperor Tiberius II, but was pardoned both times when the plot was discovered?
• ... that Nottingham Catchfly is the county flower of Nottingham, even though it is not found anywhere in Nottinghamshire?
• ... that New Zealand's historic Arapuni Suspension Bridge received little mention when under construction as it was part of a much larger project?
• ... that Rhodesian cricketer Ray Gripper's score of 279 not out in a 1968 game against Orange Free State was a Currie Cup record?
• ... that 51 armed mercenaries attempting to overthrow President France-Albert René in 1981 travelled to Seychelles on board a Royal Swazi National Airways flight?
• ... that Andreas Sigismund Marggraf is widely credited with isolation of zinc though he was not the first to achieve that?
• ... that in order to play for the All-American Basketball Alliance, one must be a natural-born US citizen "with both parents of Caucasian race"?

23 January 2010

• 18:00, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Pinzón brothers (statue pictured) played so crucial a role in Christopher Columbus's first expedition that some historians credit them as "co-discoverers" of America?
• ... that the American thoroughbred racehorse Meridian won the Kentucky Derby in 1911, establishing a new record time?
• ... that the first Premier of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, Hiram Blanchard, served for less than three months before his party was defeated in an election?
• ... that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat survived the crash of an Air Bissau aircraft during a sandstorm in the Libyan desert in 1992?
• ... that Orval Prophet was among the earliest Canadian country music artists who recorded in a Nashville, Tennessee, studio?
• ... that the type specimen of Kinkonychelys represents the first turtle skull described from the pre-Holocene era in Madagascar?
• ... that Andy White replaced Ringo Starr on drums on The Beatles's first single, "Love Me Do"?
• ... that the mushroom Clavariadelphus truncatus contains clavaric acid, which slows tumor development in mice?
• 12:00, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that in the 1990s, the Government of Thailand ran a short-lived captive breeding program for endangered freshwater stingrays, including the marbled whipray (pictured) and the white-edge freshwater whipray?
• ... that former strongman Joe Rollino, who died at the age of 104, earned five medals, including three Purple Hearts, for military service during World War II?
• ... that the German chemist Rudolf Christian Böttger synthesised the first organocopper compound, the explosive copper(I) acetylide Cu₂C₂, in 1859?
• ... that Australian government approval of the sale of mining assets including Golden Grove Mine to a Chinese corporation was only given when Prominent Hill Mine was excluded on national security grounds?
• ... that a 19th-century antiquary considered that a saga character named Ljótólfr was the eponymous ancestor of the Clan MacLeod?
• ... that many rice rats have pits at the back of their palates recessed into a deep depression?
• ... that despite describing county cricket as being "a little over done", Joseph Gibbs made five first-class appearances for Somerset County Cricket Club?
• ... that Indians perform the second most Google searches for Ayn Rand after Americans?
• 06:00, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Williamson trade-off model (graph pictured), which compares costs and benefits of horizontal mergers, has been used by the American legal scholar and former judge, Robert Bork, to evaluate antitrust laws?
• ... that the start and finish of the Via Crucis in Seville, Spain, have both changed over the years, as has the number of stations of the cross represented?
• ... that Michigan halfback Paul Magoffin later coached the George Washington "Hatchetites" on the White House Ellipse?
• ... that the yellow nectar of the western Australian wildflower Banksia sphaerocarpa congeals to a thick, olive-green mucus?
• ... that upon completion in 1151, Anping Bridge in present-day Fujian was the longest bridge in China till 1905?
• ... that psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel, whose work established hypnosis as a legitimate medical therapy, used "Sybil" as a demonstration case for his hypnosis classes at Columbia University?
• ... that thousands of people watched the Action of 31 July 1793 between British and French frigates from the New Jersey shoreline?
• ... that Roxxxy, described as the world's first sex robot, has an artificial intelligence engine programmed to learn the owner's likes and dislikes?
• 00:00, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Upper Harz Water Regale (pictured), a network of dams, lakes, ditches, and tunnels built between 1536 and 1866 to supply water to the mines of the Harz mountains in Germany, is the largest of its kind in Europe?
• ... that the corporate chambers in interwar Estonia were inspired by the example of Fascist Italy?
• ... that while at Leeds University, the late Sunday Mirror defence correspondent Rupert Hamer wrote a satirical column for the student newspaper titled "Rupert Hamer on Friday"?
• ... that the destroyer HMS Thanet evacuated Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, just hours after the Japanese began their attack?
• ... that the daisy and pearl stingrays are characterized by a "pearl spine", an enlarged dermal denticle in the middle of their backs?
• ... that the Byzantine general Vitalian led a large-scale revolt against Emperor Anastasius I, was pardoned and named consul by his successor, Justin I, and was murdered seven months into his consulship?
• ... that South Africa beat Hong Kong in the final of the 2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes by hitting a six off the last ball of the match?
• ... that the last execution by firing squad in France took place in 1963 at Fort d'Ivry in Ivry-sur-Seine, Paris?

22 January 2010

• 18:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the bleeding tooth fungus (pictured) secretes a red juice that contains an anticoagulant similar in biological activity to heparin?
• ... that Norwegian SOE agent Odd Starheim was killed in 1943 when the coastal steamer he and his team had seized off the coast of occupied Norway was sunk by German bombers?
• ... that Spanish naval officer Ignacio de Arteaga y Bazán led an expedition in 1779 to Alaska, and performed a formal ceremony of possession at present-day Port Etches?
• ... that Cathy Davey "despised" performing the songs from her debut album Something Ilk live?
• ... that Beccariophoenix alfredii, a newly discovered species of palm tree native to Madagascar, has a similar appearance to the Coconut palm, but is cold hardier?
• ... that one of Canada's most prolific mass murderers, Dale Nelson, had been still hiding at the scene of his first killing when police left the scene?
• ... that the video game Obi-Wan's Adventures chronicles the events of the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, but from the perspective of Obi-Wan Kenobi?
• ... that Manchester United Methodist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, originally had separate doors for men and women?
• 12:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that a study concluded that the ideal temple design described in the Hindu text Vishnudharmottara Purana is based on Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh (sculpture pictured)?
• ... that Tim Westoll painted more than ten thousand bird species in watercolour?
• ... that tufo is a Mozambican dance said to have originated when the Islamic prophet Mohammed migrated to Medina?
• ... that the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628 critically weakened both the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires, allowing the rapid Muslim conquest of Persia, the Middle East, and North Africa?
• ... that the medieval English monk Thomas of Marlborough wrote the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham to help Evesham Abbey's legal case against Mauger, Bishop of Worcester?
• ... that Betsy Warland edited a collection of essays named InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers and Lesbians which was published in 1991?
• ... that animals recorded from Australian Pungalina-Seven Emu Sanctuary and adjacent waters include the Masked Owl, Spectacled Hare-wallaby, Loggerhead Turtle and Shovelnose Shark?
• ... that the Lawless Court had only natural light and charcoal to see and write with, could only end its session when a cock crowed, and arose after the local lord discovered a plot to murder him?
• 06:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the fruit bodies of the fungus Agaricus texensis (pictured) have adapted to growth in dry habitats?
• ... that the books of educator and mayor of Holmestrand, Norway, Fredrik Ording (1870–1929), were still being reissued as late as 1974?
• ... that during certain points in a grapevine's growing season, irrigation is often withheld in order to put the vine through water stress because it is believed to improve wine grape quality?
• ... that Ilya Chaiken's film Liberty Kid won Critics' Pick from both The New York Times and New York magazine?
• ... that John Ash partially owed his 1865 election to the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company, whose employees constituted the majority of the voting population?
• ... that Minuscule 541, a fragmentary manuscript of the New Testament, has an unusual number of iotacistic errors?
• ... that 1090 Vermont Avenue was one of five new structures built in the late 1970s which helped rejuvenate Vermont Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.?
• ... that the acronym Vorb contained in Tama Easton's popular New Zealand internet forum vorb.org.nz stands for "Vaguely Organised – Ride Bikes"?
• 00:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that British sculptor Marcus Cornish has created a sculpture of the fictional Paddington Bear (pictured) and a statue of Jesus Christ dubbed "Jesus in Jeans" by the media?
• ... that the Vintners Parrot pub in Worthing, West Sussex, occupies a Grade II-listed Greek Revival-style former wine merchants premises and a Grade II-listed former Methodist chapel?
• ... that Waddell Wilson built the engine used in the first NASCAR car to exceed 200 miles per hour (320 km/h)?
• ... that although nebulium was discovered spectroscopically in 1864, it took until 1927 to show that it was actually doubly-ionized oxygen?
• ... that during the 1880s, businessman Guillaume Bresse joined a syndicate which bought a railway from the Quebec government, and sold it to Canadian Pacific Railway for substantial profits?
• ... that the eggs of the Oceanic Gecko have a long incubation period and may take up to 115 days to hatch?
• ... that Rock 'n' Roll Prophet, the only album on which Rick Wakeman sang lead vocals, received criticising reviews that described it as "goofy", "novelty", and like "pressing the self-destruct button"?
• ... that the defunct Wichita Wind ice hockey team once had their coach and a public relations employee on their roster?

21 January 2010

• 18:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that film director Vicente Aranda used the Wharf of the Caravels (pictured), a museum in Palos de la Frontera, Spain, as a set for both Mad Love and Tirant lo Blanc?
• ... that the Gaelic Athletic Association's inter county championships have taken place since 1887?
• ... that Elton John created the name by which he became famous out of the names of two of the musicians in his previous band Bluesology?
• ... that Richard Reid, who in 2001 attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his shoes aboard an aeroplane, used to attend the Brixton Mosque in London, England?
• ... that plans for St Werburgh's Mount, Chester, should have been submitted at the same time as those for St Werburgh Chambers, but were delayed because its architect John Douglas was ill?
• ... that Israeli chess Grandmaster Ronen Har-Zvi first met his wife playing online chess at the Internet Chess Club?
• ... that the Schnütgen Museum of religious art in Cologne was founded with the collection of a priest known for his "zealous and sometimes crafty collection tactics"?
• ... that disagreements about the appointment of Johannes Ording as theology professor at Royal Frederick University sparked the foundation of a new school of theology?
• 12:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that tempest-tossed aboard the Niña (replica pictured) while returning from his first voyage, Christopher Columbus and his crew vowed to perform several vigils and pilgrimages should they live?
• ... that King Vasabha (67–111 AD) started a new dynasty and pioneered the construction of large scale irrigation works in Sri Lanka?
• ... that in 2007, three specimens of the Caspian whipsnake were found in Galaţi County, the first in Moldavia (eastern Romania) since 1937?
• ... that the actor-stuntman Paul Stader broke both heels when he fell from the second floor of a burning building in the filming of the 1949 movie Mighty Joe Young?
• ... that the Ekaterina II-class battleship Georgii Pobedonosets was the only ship of her class to use guns in battle when she fired three rounds at the Goeben during her bombardment of Sevastopol in 1914?
• ... that Togolese painter and sculptor Paul Ahyi, who designed the flag of Togo, was inducted as a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2009?
• ... that Meru Betiri National Park in East Java is known as the last habitat of the Javan Tiger which is now considered extinct?
• ... that future National Hockey League player Tom Martin was traded by his junior team in exchange for a bus?
• 06:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Barnsley fern (pictured) was first described by and named after a mathematician, and despite its name, it is not a real fern?
• ... that the actor Tyler MacDuff played Billy the Kid in the 1954 film The Boy from Oklahoma, which inspired the Sugarfoot television series?
• ... that Robbins Island is the largest freehold island in the Australian state of Tasmania?
• ... that at age 10, fiddler Ruby Jane Smith became the youngest invited player to perform at the Grand Ole Opry?
• ... that the Topos de Tlatelolco volunteer professional search and rescue team is in Haiti assisting with relief efforts after the 2010 Haiti earthquake?
• ... that the sixteen-year cabinet term of Stephen Kakfwi is the longest in the Northwest Territories' history?
• ... that Yukon Eric lost part of his ear after a botched move in a professional wrestling match against Wladek Kowalski?
• ... that the Gymnasticon was an eighteenth-century exercise machine claimed by its inventor to effectively treat gout, palsy, and other illnesses?
• 00:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Mazunte (pictured), now home to the Mexican National Turtle Center, was the site of a sea turtle slaughterhouse until 1990?
• ... that Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King rebounded from the 1931 Beauharnois scandal to be elected to another 13 years in office?
• ... that Mel Brooks credited Sidney Glazier, the producer of the original The Producers, as "the man who made it happen"?
• ... that the February 1969 nor'easter resulted in the first time in history that the New York Stock Exchange closed for a full day due to the weather?
• ... that Henry Stafford became 1st Baron Stafford despite his father being executed for treason?
• ... that Mickey Cochrane is the only catcher in Major League Baseball history with at least 3,000 plate appearances and a career .400 on-base percentage?
• ... that the 1770 Port-au-Prince earthquake destroyed all the buildings of Port-au-Prince, in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (the future Haiti)?
• ... that despite being fired from his first job, English entrepreneur Ray Ingleby was a millionaire by the age of 21?

20 January 2010

• 18:00, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Schloss Rosenau, Coburg (pictured), was the "happy birthplace" of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert?
• ... that in the Border Cave of Swaziland a 35,000 years old tally stick was found in the 1970s?
• ... that Rudyard Kipling's 1922 poem, The King's Pilgrimage, describes a journey made by King George V to the World War I cemeteries and memorials being built in France and Belgium?
• ... that due to the insistence of Joseph-Hyacinthe Bellerose, the record of debates in the Senate of Canada was translated into French as early as 1877?
• ... that the European great raft spider eats small fish and tadpoles?
• ... that because of the Rwandan Genocide, Air Rwanda stopped operating domestic flights within Rwanda in 1994?
• ... that comedian Will Arnett starred alongside his real-life wife Amy Poehler in the Parks and Recreation episode, "The Set-Up"?
• ... that fashion designer Charles Kleibacker earned the nickname "Master of the Bias" for the complex designs of his women's clothing, carefully cut from fabric at a diagonal to the weave?
• 12:00, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that during the Cultural Revolution, after the crosses of St. Michael's Cathedral (pictured) in Qingdao were cut from its steeples by the Red Guard, they were buried by loyal Catholics to protect them?
• ... that Japanese film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa did not miss a single appearance in his 36 years as the host of TV Asahi's Sunday Western Movie Theatre until a week before his death?
• ... that the origins of the baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège, usually dated 1107–1118, have been much disputed by art historians?
• ... that Eunice W. Johnson, who created Ebony together with husband John H. Johnson in the 1940s, suggested the magazine's title to match that of the fine black ebony wood?
• ... that the tail of the Indonesian Long-tailed Starling can be longer than its body?
• ... that researcher Günther Theischinger broke his ribs while on a trip to Tasmania to search for the larva of the dragonfly Synthemiopsis?
• ... that Afro-Abkhazians may be related to the descendants of Ethiopian Jews, and place names of Abkhazia resemble those in Ethiopia?
• ... that Charles Benham invented a "miniature twin elliptic pendulum harmonograph" described as being "a good means of entertaining friends at home or elsewhere"?
• 06:00, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the thorntail stingray (pictured) is one of the subjects of potential stingray ecotourism at Hamelin Bay, Western Australia?
• ... that architects in the Pretzinger family designed several buildings in Dayton, Ohio, that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Dayton Daily News Building?
• ... that Making Our Economy Right, a free market think tank in Bangladesh, was established in 1991 by Nizam Ahmad?
• ... that the founder of Nassau Valley Vineyards had to lobby the Delaware legislature and even draft the bill that overturned the state's Prohibition-era laws which banned wine production?
• ... that architect George J. Wimberly came to Hawaii in 1940 as a journeyman architect doing naval work at Pearl Harbor before establishing a successful reputation for the design of resorts?
• ... that traversing all the guns of the Russian pre-dreadnought battleship Chesma to one side as far as they could go produced a list of 7.6°?
• ... that the German chemist Lorenz von Crell published the first periodical focusing on chemistry in 1778?
• ... that no man could own stock in the Woman's Temperance Publishing Association?
• 00:00, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Red Army prevented the incomplete Borodino class battlecruiser Izmail (pictured) from being converted to a carrier by gaining control of a commission appointed to review the needs of the Navy?
• ... that Isaac Crewdson's book A Beacon to the Society of Friends triggered a split in the Quakers which was like a "volcanic explosion"?
• ... that Mertens' Water Monitors are threatened by poisoning from eating Cane Toads?
• ... that Kentucky political boss Thomas Rhea was instrumental in getting delegates from Southern states to vote to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for president at the 1932 Democratic National Convention?
• ... that Bertrand Tavernier's 1996 film Capitaine Conan is based on a 1934 novel by Roger Vercel?
• ... that in 1919 Hungarian and German social democrats in Slovakia formed a party of their own, as they differed with the Slovak social democrats on the Hungarian Soviet Republic?
• ... that Captain Cedric Howell was awarded the DSO for bringing down eight Central aircraft in a four-day period in July 1918, including destroying five in a single action against ten or fifteen planes?
• ... that nearly half of all horse chestnut trees in Great Britain (used by generations of children for the game of conkers) are now infected by the potentially lethal disease Bleeding Canker of Horse Chestnut?

19 January 2010

• 18:00, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that today – on Ganesh Jayanti (Ganesha's birthday) – the Hindu god Ganesha (pictured) is worshipped by couples to beget a son?
• ... that Saint Indract of Glastonbury was the subject of a lost work by William of Malmesbury?
• ... that the hand-cranked Saugatuck River Bridge is the oldest surviving movable bridge in the U.S. state of Connecticut?
• ... that masked Mexican professional wrestler Metro is sponsored by the major Mexico City newspaper "Metro" and has the paper's logo on his tights?
• ... that the Office of Thrift Supervision was the primary regulator for American International Group when it needed a bailout?
• ... that the mushroom Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus has been described as "beautiful, but bitter-tasting"?
• ... that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society lodged a piracy complaint against the captain and the crew of the MV Shōnan Maru 2 in the Dutch courts following the sinking of the Ady Gil?
• ... that electronic musician DJ Champion played percussion on a bicycle alongside Benoît Charest and Béatrice Bonifassi at the 76th Academy Awards ceremony?
• 12:00, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Hindu Morgaon Ganesha temple (pictured) – the most important Ashtavinayak shrine – has four minarets around its boundary wall, suggesting Islamic architecture influence?
• ... that while serving as State Conciliator of Norway for eleven years, Preben Munthe was also economics professor at the University of Oslo?
• ... that the early-February 1995 winter storm was the only major nor'easter of the 1994–1995 winter?
• ... that the 13th and 14th century Hebridean chieftains Tormod and Torquil were once believed to have been brothers, and sons of Leod; but now Torquil is considered as a grandson of Tormod?
• ... that after winning the 1960 general election in Burma, premier-elect U Nu said, "I guess people like us"?
• ... that Wallis Simpson said she fell in love with Prince Edward during a cruise in 1934 on W E Guinness's private yacht Rosaura?
• ... that singer Robb Johnson based the central character in his song cycle The Ghost of Love on a girl he had taught while working as a schoolteacher?
• ... that during the period of hyperinflation in Germany of 1921–1923, there were reports of people suffering from zero stroke, a disorder where they had the desire to write endless rows of zeros?
• 06:00, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that with 14 goals, Jordan Eberle (pictured) is the highest scoring Canadian to participate in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-20 Championships?
• ... that in 1925 the Labour and Socialist International urged the League of Nations to accept the Rif Republic as a member?
• ... that Arthur E. Bartlett co-founded Century 21 Real Estate with a single office in 1971 and saw the firm grow to 7,700 offices worldwide by the time of his death in 2009?
• ... that in Jain cosmology, the universe is made up of six substances, called dravyas—souls, matter, the principle of motion, the principle of rest, space and time?
• ... that Sir Samuel Shepherd repeatedly refused judicial posts, partially due to his deafness, before becoming Lord Chief Baron of the Scottish Court of Exchequer in 1819?
• ... that Villagers have toured with Tracy Chapman, are the only Irish act to have signed with Domino Records and were named sixth best band in Ireland by The Irish Times without releasing an album?
• ... that The West Wing actor Dule Hill voiced the audiobook of Jacqueline Woodson's young adult novel Miracle’s Boys?
• ... that the daughter of Canadian adventurer Tillson Harrison claims that her father's life served as the inspiration for the Indiana Jones film series?
• 00:00, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that nearly all the trees and mangroves of La Ventanilla, Oaxaca, Mexico (landscape pictured), were destroyed by Hurricanes Pauline and Rick in 1997?
• ... that former Northern Ireland footballer Phil Hughes is the only goalkeeper ever to have won international caps while playing for Bury?
• ... that early humans inhabited the area surrounding Aransas Bay as early as 6,000 to 8,000 years ago?
• ... that Calgary Flames' defenceman Adam Pardy grew up in Bonavista, Newfoundland, a town of about 3,800 people?
• ... that Cryptothallus mirabilis is the only bryophyte that grows underground and obtains all its nutrients by parasitizing a fungus?
• ... that it is said that when the 10th-century Viking leader Onlafbald invoked the power of his Norse gods Thor and Odin, he was miraculously killed by the spirit of the 7th-century English saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne?
• ... that the Pullman Company boycotted Transpo '72 after the US government provided millions in funding so military contractors could show their attempts to enter the mass transit field?
• ... that Anandita Dutta Tamuly ate 51 ghost chillis in two minutes and squeezed the seeds of 25 onto her bare eyes in just one minute?

18 January 2010

• 18:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Polonnaruwa Vatadage (pictured) is considered the "ultimate development" in vatadage architecture?
• ... that as the chairman of the U.S. Reform Party, Russ Verney asked its highest elected official, Governor Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, to resign from the party?
• ... that in 2007 the Côte-Rôtie producer Guigal set the record for the most expensive Rhône wine ever released with the 2003 vintage of their single vineyard "La La" wines?
• ... that the Liverpool businessman Sir Arthur Forwood was the first shipowner to become an Admiralty minister, and the first serving town councillor to be appointed as a privy councillor?
• ... that poker tool software program SitNGo Wizard has a quiz mode that serves as poker's electronic analogue to flash cards?
• ... that Sir John Gurney first rose to fame as a barrister within two months of qualifying?
• ... that artist Harry Bertoia's sculpture "Textured Screen" was labelled "a piece of junk painted up" when it was unveiled at the Old Dallas Central Library building in 1955?
• ... that Sealyham Terrier Efbe's Hidalgo At Goodspice, best in show at Crufts in 2009, sometimes sleeps next to his owner's toilet?
• 12:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Paduka (pictured), a footwear, is generally worn by mendicants and saints of Hindu and Jain religions, with significance in Hindu mythology linked to the epic Ramayana?
• ... that the Anevo Fortress, a medieval castle near Sopot in central Bulgaria, was the capital of a short-lived quasi-independent domain in the late 13th century?
• ... that the Russian battleship Sinop was the first large warship to use triple expansion steam engines?
• ... that Arne Kjelstrup from the Norwegian heavy water sabotage team also participated in the anti-demolition operation Sunshine?
• ... that using the Preston curve, Pritchett and Summers found that more than half a million child deaths in 1990 could have been prevented by higher income growth in the 1980s?
• ... that the Surtees Society was founded in 1834 by James Raine in order to honour the memory of his friend and fellow-antiquarian Robert Surtees?
• ... that De Hoop and Zeldenrust are two windmills in Dokkum, the Netherlands that are fitted with a pair of Common sails and a pair of Ten Have sails?
• ... that the 1972 science fiction horror film Night of the Lepus was panned by critics for its failure to make killer bunnies seem scary?
• 06:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 4859 (pictured) pulled the first electric train from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in 1938 and was designated a state symbol of Pennsylvania in 1987?
• ... that after a falling out in 1877, Georgina Weldon refused to return Gounod's original score for his opera Polyeucte, forcing him to rewrite it?
• ... that the Yantai, blackish, and Chinese stingrays are the three most commonly sold stingrays in China?
• ... that Cliffe, Richmondshire, where the "clock stopped, never to go again", is surrounded by archaeological features including barrows, a Roman road and an English Civil War battleground?
• ... that actress Naya Rivera from the musical comedy series Glee had a talent agent before she was even one year old?
• ... that colitis-X is a fatal form of acute colitis in horses, with severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, shock and dehydration, and near 100% mortality in less than 24 hours?
• ... that the leaders of the Bourla-papey revolt in 19th century Switzerland were sentenced to death but then amnestied to defend the government they opposed?
• ... that although the name of the palm genus Aiphanes means "always conspicuous", many of its species are actually small plants which are inconspicuous in the forest understorey?
• 00:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the position of Laudian Professor of Arabic was established at the University of Oxford by William Laud (pictured), the Archbishop of Canterbury?
• ... that the ground floor of the Aceh Tsunami Museum is modeled on the design used by Acehnese houses that were best equipped to survive the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster?
• ... that biographer Andrew Lycett has claimed the spirit named 'Dodd' in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The New Revelation is that of cricketer Surgeon-Captain John Trask?
• ... that comparatively warm temperatures following the February 1987 nor'easter caused snow in the affected Mid-Atlantic U.S. states to quickly melt?
• ... that Hockey Hall of Famer Dan Bain, also a champion figure skater, trapshooter, gymnast, roller skater and cyclist, was named Canada's top athlete of the last half of the 19th century?
• ... that John Douglas's design for a shop in Sankey Street, Warrington, Cheshire, was said to be influenced by Ruskin and G.G. Scott?
• ... that in 1935, the Italian Governor-General in Libya, Italo Balbo, founded the Arab Lictor Youth, a fascist youth movement that trained Arab youth for military service?
• ... that during the Metropolitan Opera premiere of The Makropulos Case, tenor Richard Versalle suffered a fatal heart attack after singing the line "You can only live so long"?

17 January 2010

• 18:00, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Vivary Park (pictured) in Somerset, England, is named for the medieval fish farm, or vivarium, for Taunton Priory on which it was laid out?
• ... that the music of video game music composer Masaharu Iwata has been described as among the most well-recognized in the tactical role-playing game genre?
• ... that after the Battles of Kfar Darom and a prolonged Egyptian siege, the Israelis evacuated the village on July 8, 1948, but not knowing this, the Egyptians staged an offensive on the next day?
• ... that a 66-year-old man named Johnny Lee Wicks opened fire at a Las Vegas federal courthouse on January 4, 2010, allegedly over cuts to his Social Security benefits?
• ... that Byzantine general Peter Phokas was originally born a slave and made a eunuch, but rose to become one of the senior-most commanders of the Byzantine Empire in the 960s and 970s?
• ... that Knut Getz Wold served as a State Secretary in a Labour Party cabinet despite belonging to the Liberal Party?
• ... that the music video game Just Dance features MC Hammer's "You Can't Touch This", Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam", and the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out?"?
• ... that one head of the English Court of Chancery was appointed not due to his legal skill, but because the Queen was impressed by his dancing?
• 12:00, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Jean-Baptiste Aubert-Dubayet was born in French Louisiana in 1759, became Minister of Defense of France in 1795, and died as French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (pictured) in 1797?
• ... that Michael T. Flynn is the top U.S. military intelligence officer in Afghanistan and has been pushing for closer cooperation with Afghans?
• ... that the Wiltshire hundred of Whorwellsdown was named after a hill on which its court met under an oak or thorn tree?
• ... that Admiral John Elliot transported the members of the Carlisle Peace Commission to North America?
• ... that the freshwater whipray is the only Australian stingray restricted to fresh and brackish water?
• ... that Susan Bower, the Executive Producer of Neighbours, got her break into television writing by providing A Country Practice with medical information?
• ... that the medieval chronicler Matthew Paris accused the medieval bishop Hugh of Wells (d. 1235) of being biased against monks, calling him "an untiring persecutor of monks"?
• ... that despite the masculine pen name, British author George Paston was a woman?
• 06:00, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Corta Atalaya (pictured) in the province of Huelva, Spain, is the largest open-pit mine in Europe?
• ... that Calvisius Sabinus and Marcius Censorinus were the only two senators who tried to defend Julius Caesar during his assassination?
• ... that the John Tigard House in Tigard, Oregon, was moved and is still listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
• ... that Queensland produces 94% of Australia's sugar?
• ... that Norman Lind, who among other things survived Operation Sunshine of World War II, was killed many years later by a landmine in Guatemala?
• ... that in a plebiscite of June 18, 1950, 57% of the people in North Rhine-Westphalia ratified its new constitution?
• ... that the Gaelic Athletic Association's relaxing of Rule 42 allowed the staging of the 2008–09 Heineken Cup semi-final in Croke Park and the breaking of the rugby union club world attendance record?
• ... that the marriage settlement of Richard Basset (d. before 1144) still survives and assigns his wife Matilda a dowry of four knight's fees?
• 00:00, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that St Andrew's Church (pictured) in Worthing, West Sussex, stood unused for two years after its completion as controversy raged over the "Worthing Madonna"?
• ... that recently knighted actor Patrick Stewart is the patron of domestic violence charity Refuge, which was founded in Chiswick in 1972 by Erin Pizzey?
• ... that Paul v. U.S. expressed the principle that the legal theories of res judicata and stare decisis do not apply to Congressional reference cases?
• ... that the Anemone hupehensis is often called the Japanese anemone, but is actually native to China?
• ... that the Bethany settlement house in Laredo, Texas, serves nearly 300,000 free meals annually to the homeless and other indigent?
• ... that Shmuel Rechtman was the first member of the Knesset to be sent to prison?
• ... that the marathon course at the 1972 Summer Olympics was designed to represent the first Olympic mascot, Waldi?
• ... that Cake Man Raven baked the world's tallest wedding cake and unveiled it on Good Morning America in 2005?

16 January 2010

• 18:00, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the world's first air force, the French Aerostatic Corps, was founded in 1794 and used balloons (pictured) for reconnaissance?
• ... that Craig Biggio, a first-round draft pick of the Houston Astros, is a member of the 3000 hit club?
• ... that cutis rhomboidalis nuchae, a type of actinic elastosis caused by sun exposure to the back of the neck, is preventable with regular sunscreen use?
• ... that using a dynamic aspect weaver has been shown to improve the performance of aspect-oriented software by 26%?
• ... that the Enclave of Treviño in northern Spain is part of the territory of the Castilian-Leonese province of Burgos, but is completely surrounded by the territory of the Basque province of Álava?
• ... that following the Liberal Wars, the owner of Fonseca Guimaraens had to flee Portugal in an empty Port wine barrel because of his support of liberal reforms?
• ... that one of Bodley's Librarians at Oxford University had been in the King's African Rifles, another wrote about French anarchy, another had sixteen siblings, another used boys for routine library tasks, and another later died of a "surfeit of cherries"?
• ... that amongst the policies included in The People's Manifesto created by British satirist Mark Thomas are introducing a maximum wage and renaming Windsor "Lower Slough"?
• 12:00, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Australasian bird family Cinclosomatidae contains such birds as quail-thrushes (example pictured), jewel-babblers, whipbirds and wedgebills?
• ... that although the current mayor of the Valle de Villaverde enclave belongs to the Regionalist Party of Cantabria, a previous mayor in 1987 advocated integrating it into the Basque province of Biscay?
• ... that music journalist Jim Carroll co-founded the Choice Music Prize, known for its tendency to come to "some pretty eccentric decisions"?
• ... that a naval museum in Boca del Río, Veracruz, Mexico, has a battle simulation room based on the technology of the Xbox 360?
• ... that, because he was only 17, professional wrestler Jim White needed a signed permission slip from his father in order to wrestle in his first match?
• ... that in 1194, one of the taxes in medieval England imposed a 25% tax on all personal property and income?
• ... that several publications, including GamePro and IGN, consider Jade to be one of video games' greatest heroines?
• ... that the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" is about the advertisement on Madison Avenue in New York City?
• 06:00, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Jarkov Mammoth (pictured) was found when Simion Jarkov noticed the protruding tusks on a hunting trip?
• ... that St Oswald's Chambers in Chester, Cheshire, England, was built on land purchased by the architect John Douglas to enhance the view towards Chester Cathedral?
• ... that while living in Saddam's Iraq, heavy metal band Acrassicauda was banned from head banging because it looked similar to Jews praying?
• ... that Harrytown Catholic High School originated as a convent school within the 250 year old Harrytown Hall?
• ... that the oil spill which spread from the Wei River to the Yellow River was ultimately contained in the Sanmenxia reservoir?
• ... that Jain text Atma Siddhi propounds six fundamental truths: the soul exists, is eternal, is doer of action, enjoys or suffers its actions, liberation exists, and means to achieve liberation exists?
• ... that friends of the family raised $3,500 for Laurie Phenix to travel to the 2000 Summer Olympics and see her daughter Erin Phenix win a gold medal?
• ... that Donald Trounson distributed chocolate to soldiers returning from Dunkirk, escorted captive Italians to prison camps in Algeria, and founded the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife?
• 00:00, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that one of the Lugares colombinos is the Fontanilla (pictured), from which Christopher Columbus's crew, for his first voyage, are believed to have taken their drinking water?
• ... that Haim Bar Lev said that the Battle of Nirim decided the outcome of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War?
• ... that the Dickson Tavern is the oldest building in Erie, Pennsylvania?
• ... that publishers at first considered Nora Roberts' debut novel Irish Thoroughbred to be too ethnic because the heroine was from Ireland?
• ... that Swedish landscape painter Alfred Wahlberg was awarded with medals at the Paris Salon in 1870 and 1872, and at the 1878 World's Fair in Paris?
• ... that the E-mu Modular System is a modular synthesizer made in the early 1970s that produces musical sounds by the manipulation of patch cords to create connections among its various modules?
• ... that Harrington Bridge is a listed building, except for the central section which crosses the River Trent into Derbyshire, England?
• ... that Stephen Reay, Under-Librarian at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was remembered by colleagues for his habit of "hovering over hot-air gratings in search of warmth"?

15 January 2010

• 18:00, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the pinwheel Marasmius (pictured) releases its spores in response to rain, rather than circadian rhythm like other mushrooms?
• ... that the actor Jonathan Cecil, whose film roles include Hercule Poirot's assistant Hastings, has been called "one of the finest upper-class-twits of his era"?
• ... that until 1974, all visits of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the Soviet Union were hosted by the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee rather than government representatives?
• ... that before it was scientifically described, the stingray Dasyatis acutirostra was often confused with Dasyatis zugei?
• ... that in 1883, Carl Schotten and Eugen Baumann discovered how to synthesise amides from amines and acid chlorides?
• ... that next to the 19th-century St Botolph's Church in Heene, West Sussex, stand the "somewhat scanty" remains of its 13th-century predecessor?
• ... that with the Peace of Travendal, Sweden forced Denmark-Norway out of the Great Northern War in the first war year?
• ... that Ashley Madison is an online dating service for people currently in a relationship who wish to cheat on their partners?
• 12:00, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that today on Mattu Pongal, the bull riding sport Jallikattu (pictured) – that has led to deaths in the past – is traditionally conducted in the villages of Tamil Nadu, India?
• ... that after a meeting in 1940, the English Judges' Council did not meet for another 10 years?
• ... that soon after the annexation of Albania in 1939 Italian fascists set up the Albanian Lictor Youth, a branch of the Italian fascist youth movement?
• ... that Aiphanes bicornis, a palm species known only from two locations in Ecuador, is named for the notched tips of its leaves which are said to evoke the horns of an antelope?
• ... that Charles Gray was one of the original trustees of the British Museum?
• ... that no more than 250 mature northern river sharks are estimated to live in the wild?
• ... that Htoo Group of Companies, among Myanmar's largest privately held companies, has been under sanctions by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) since 2008?
• ... that drummer Dave Clark was a stuntman who performed in over 40 films before he formed the 1960s British Invasion band The Dave Clark Five?
• 06:00, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the first modern U.S. presidential debate between Thomas E. Dewey and Harold E. Stassen (pictured) in 1948 was heard by approximately 40 million people?
• ... that the Will & Grace episode "Fagel Attraction" was actor Michael Douglas' first television acting role in almost thirty years?
• ... that Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford built his Honeymoon House from plans drawn by his wife Clara, using lumber he cut and finished himself?
• ... that the most prominent leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia within the Polish minority, Karol Śliwka, died in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in 1943?
• ... that 1960's Tropical Storm Brenda, which made its initial landfall in Florida, dropped record-breaking rainfall on New York City?
• ... that fairy-like insect people feature in the classic Czech children's book Broučci by Jan Karafiát?
• ... that Lowell, West Virginia, was first settled in 1770, making it the oldest community in Summers County?
• ... that Sir John Ramsay was the first Australian surgeon to apply heart massage to revive a dead man?
• 00:00, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the York Imperial apple (pictured) is easily identified by its lop-sided shape and was developed by Quaker Jonathan Jessop?
• ... that within ten years bass singer Klaus Mertens recorded all vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir?
• ... that workers employed at the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company were banned from reading the communist newspaper Rahbar, and could be fired if they did?
• ... that the English coin collector Roger Gale (d. 1744) not only donated his collection of coins to Cambridge University, but translated a book that helped new coin collectors avoid being cheated?
• ... that the Snow Patrol song "An Olive Grove Facing the Sea" was recorded in two different studios, The Stables and Substation?
• ... that 21 October is now an annual public holiday in the Bulgarian city of Kardzhali to commemorate a battle victory in 1912 during the First Balkan War?
• ... that Texas' northernmost extensive beds of seagrass can be found in Redfish Bay, where they are protected by state law?
• ... that during the English Civil War, Royalist soldiers fired artillery at Leicester from Raw Dykes Roman earthwork?

14 January 2010

• 18:00, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Edward Pritchard Gee discovered Gee's Golden Langur (pictured) and was influential in the creation of Chitwan National Park, the first National Park in Nepal?
• ... that Duchess of Norfolk, a minesweeper in the Royal Navy during World War I, rejoined the Navy for World War II as Ambassador, but reprised her old role as a minesweeper?
• ... that the Hannah Robinson Tower in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, is named after a woman whose life of poverty had one of her last moments at an overlook over Narragansett Bay?
• ... that the District of Columbia Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., is responsible for 144,000 trees adjacent to city streets and 241 bridges?
• ... that Lenny Fant, as coach of the University of Louisiana at Monroe men's basketball team from 1957 to 1979, compiled eighteen consecutive winning seasons?
• ... that one day after Mexican soldier Melquisedet Angulo Córdova was honored as a hero at his funeral, his mother and three relatives were gunned down in retaliation by drug cartel hitmen?
• ... that despite snowfall totals exceeding 24 in (60 cm), the effects of the December 2000 nor'easter were minimized due to its weekend arrival?
• ... that Royal Navy Captain Francis Laforey successfully sued the Admiralty over the amount of prize money he should be awarded for the capture of the French frigate HMS Castor at the frigate action of 29 May 1794?
• 12:00, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that disgruntled at not being rewarded for his capture of Antioch in 969 (pictured), the Byzantine general Michael Bourtzes participated in the assassination of Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas?
• ... that Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning author and illustrator Wolf Erlbruch illustrated his first book so his son could boast, "Look, my papa made a children's book"?
• ... that Percnon gibbesi is the most invasive decapod species ever to enter the Mediterranean Sea?
• ... that Zairean President Mobutu gained renown for treating Air Zaïre as his personal service, and would commandeer its aircraft for shopping trips abroad?
• ... that the Austrian chemist Guido Goldschmiedt determined the structure of the opium alkaloid papaverine in 1889?
• ... that the pitted stingray is one of only two stingrays with a "W"-shaped groove on its underside?
• ... that although formally banned, the Iranian communist Central Council of United Trade Unions was able to revive its activities under the rule of Mohammad Mosaddegh in the early 1950s?
• ... that an inch-long bristly crab can carry 4000 eggs?
• 06:00, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Orthalicus reses (shell pictured) lives only in tropical hardwood hammocks in Florida?
• ... that a Sunday assassination attempt against Malkiat Singh Sidhu caught Canadian authorities off-guard, as information about the threat received on Friday was not passed along until Monday?
• ... that Hondo Creek, a tributary of the Frio River in Texas, was the site of both an 1842 battle between the Republic of Texas and Mexico, and an 1866 Indian attack?
• ... that among the recipients of the Arts Council Norway Honorary Award are fiddler Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa, actress Ella Hval, and long term editor of Arbeidermagasinet Nils Johan Rud?
• ... that prior to becoming a St. Louis County park, Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park was a resort and the site of numerous boating events?
• ... that Flower was intended by designer Jenova Chen to fill what he saw as a gap in the "emotional spectrum" offered by video games?
• ... that the Master of SS Brighton committed suicide in a pub after he was blamed for the collision with the windjammer Preußen in 1905?
• ... that Old Ephraim, a giant grizzly bear that lived in Utah, was known as "Old Three Toes" by shepherds because of a congenital deformity on one foot?
• 00:00, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Renaissance-styled Hortus Palatinus gardens (pictured) of Heidelberg included a collection of singing mechanical birds?
• ... that Howard C. Hillegas was the first journalist to report that the fighting between Britain and the Boers had started in the Second Boer War?
• ... that in Santa María Tonameca, Oaxaca, Mexico, there is a group of people called “pintos” or “Ñutis” who have patches of yellow, black, red, white and even blue on their skin due to a genetic mutation?
• ... that Slovakia recently sent explosives to Ireland on Danube Wings Flight V5 8230?
• ... that May Day was first celebrated in Persia in 1922, and during the 1920s thousands of people participated in the May Day rallies of the Central Council of Trade Unions in Tehran?
• ... that pin-up girl Gloria Nord attracted more than a million people to her rolling skating exhibitions in 1942 and 1943 and later gave a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II?
• ... that a Spanish vessel blown into Texas' Saint Charles Bay by a storm, was allegedly stranded in a creek and later taken apart to construct houses?
• ... that the Simpsons episode "Million Dollar Maybe" will feature a new character created by the winner of a fan-contest organized by the staff of the show?

13 January 2010

• 18:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the royal fly agaric (pictured) was the German Mycological Society's "Mushroom of the Year" in 2000?
• ... that the Irish novelist Lady Morgan was married to the private physician Thomas Charles Morgan after a meeting engineered by the wife of his employer?
• ... that in 1965 Congo-Brazzaville national airline Air Congo was renamed to avoid confusion with an airline of the same name from Congo-Kinshasa?
• ... that Emanuel Chobot, chairman of the Polish Socialist Workers Party in interbellum Czechoslovakia, was active in the cooperative movement?
• ... that 51-year old Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg will represent Mexico at the 2010 Winter Olympics?
• ... that Johannes Andenæs, himself a concentration camp prisoner of Nazis during WWII, criticized the harshness of the legal process against Nazis in Norway after the war?
• ... that the Mary Rose Trust, the charitable trust that salvaged the Mary Rose in 1982, played an important part in preserving historical shipwrecks in the UK from exploitation?
• ... that Andrew Lloyd Webber is concerned about casting a dog in the forthcoming BBC television series Over the Rainbow?
• 12:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Lalitha Mahal (pictured), a palace in Mysore, India, was built in 1921 on orders of the Maharaja of Mysore for exclusive stay of the Viceroy of India?
• ... that on December 14, 1947, a rival government-supported Iranian union, ESKI, carried out an attack on a club building of the Central Union of Workers and Peasants of Iran?
• ... that Cyclone Gwenda of the 1998–99 Australian region cyclone season was the most intense Australian tropical cyclone on record?
• ... that the bombing of an Italian courthouse, the arrests of five Indian police officers, and the funeral for Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto's son are among the events in organized crime so far this year?
• ... that the Blue Vanga is the only vanga occurring outside of Madagascar?
• ... that the Nigerien politician Issa Lamine ignored the opposition calls for a boycott of the 2009 parliamentary election, and was elected as an independent?
• ... that Irish film critic Michael Dwyer attended every Cannes Film Festival from 1982 until 2009, months before his death?
• ... that New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was a finalist for the 2009 Cycle Friendly Awards in the 'Cycling Champion of the Year' category?
• 06:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that in The Last Theorem, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (pictured) moved the equator north to Sri Lanka to allow for the building of a space elevator there?
• ... that in the first naval engagement of the War of 1812, the American privateer Dash captured HMS Whiting but the US released her, telling her captain to leave American waters as soon as possible?
• ... that the fungal genus Polytolypa is known from a single specimen found growing on dung of the North American porcupine?
• ... that Jonathan Richardson wrote "the first significant work of artistic theory in English"?
• ... that during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia the site of the Maritime Museum was used as logistic storage for the Japanese army?
• ... that according to a mediaeval chronicle, saga, and later clan tradition, Páll, son of Bálki blinded and castrated the son of a Manx king—a son who would in time become king himself?
• ... that American basketball player Kobe Bryant has scored forty points or more in 113 games in his career?
• ... that three Canadian Sikhs accused of plotting to blow up Air India Flight 112 in 1986 were released when it was revealed that wiretaps had been mistranslated?
• 00:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that only eastern Northern American strains of the bitter oyster (pictured), a widely distributed mushroom species, are bioluminescent?
• ... that the father and daughter, mathematics professor Ralph Tambs-Lyche and women's rights activist Guri Tambs-Lyche, were both members of left-wing organizations, Clarté and the Communist Party respectively?
• ... that the undefeated 1930 Michigan Wolverines football team was led by Harry Newman, referred to by the United Press as the "crack Jewish field general"?
• ... that Rodrigo Pérez de Traba's knights unlawfully imprisoned Arias Muñiz, the archdeacon of Trastámara, in the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela?
• ... that although the first season of the NBC series Parks and Recreation was critically panned, it was considered one of the best comedies of the year during its second season?
• ... that after losing his House of Commons seat, Denis Shipwright found he "cannot get work" and resorted to advertising in The Times?
• ... that the Vardy Community School in Hancock County, Tennessee, was started by missionaries to educate children who were barred from public schools because they were Melungeons?
• ... that during spring training in 1997, Mexican baseball player Tavo Alvarez was mistakenly introduced as Taco Alvarez?

12 January 2010

• 18:00, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Black-winged Starling (pictured) was once considered a potential problem for the threatened Bali Starling but is now an endangered species itself?
• ... that the crew of the Russian battleship Georgii Pobedonosets mutinied themselves when they confronted the mutinous battleship Potemkin in Odessa Harbor in June 1905?
• ... that Sigmund Freud visited Worcester State Hospital in 1909 during his only trip to America?
• ... that the first photography subjects of the German photographer Aenne Biermann were her own children?
• ... that the American Journal of Physical Anthropology was selected as one of the top 10 most influential journals of the last 100 years in the fields of biology and medicine?
• ... that Rosario Rodríguez was the youngest baseball player in the National League during the 1989 season?
• ... that the smalleye stingray may have convergently evolved a shape and swimming mode akin to that of manta rays?
• ... that Tales of Silversleeve, named ninth best album of the decade by The Irish Times, received its title after its creator neglected to wipe her runny nose?
• 12:00, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau designed the iconic East German Ampelmännchen traffic lights (pictured), one of the few GDR symbols to remain popular after reunification?
• ... that Jason Little won two Ignatz Awards in consecutive years for his graphic novel Shutterbug Follies?
• ... that Z Special Unit member Major G. S. Carter went on to found the Kundasang War Memorial and Gardens in Sabah?
• ... that the juvenile leaves of the Australian Queensland rainforest tree Stenocarpus cryptocarpus reach 115 cm long, but the adult leaves only 14 cm long?
• ... that before he won a record seven short course off-road racing championships, Carl Renezeder was an All-American in water polo?
• ... that the 20-metre (66 ft) tall trestle bridge on the former Noojee railway line is the tallest surviving trestle bridge in Victoria, Australia?
• ... that cellist Felix Wurman founded the Church of Beethoven, described by NPR as "a church for people who don't go to church," in an abandoned gas station off Route 66 in New Mexico?
• ... that the Metzgeriales always produce their sex organs on their backs?
• 06:00, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Orange Bowl stadium (pictured) first hosted the college football bowl game of the same name in 1938?
• ... that Eustace fitz John, the founder of Alnwick Abbey who fought against his own countrymen at the Battle of the Standard, had only one eye?
• ... that the release of Game Change, a book about the 2008 United States presidential election, led Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to apologize over remarks he made about President Barack Obama?
• ... that Unė Babickaitė, a Lithuanian actress who appeared in American silent films, was sentenced to five years in a Soviet gulag?
• ... that Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, located in East Java, is the only conservation area in Indonesia that has a sand sea?
• ... that the late Wyoming politician Tom Walsh made 14 trips to Southeast Asia at his own expense looking for Vietnam War POWs and MIAs?
• ... that the horse Authentic has won three Olympic medals and two World Equestrian Games medals?
• ... that Terminator: TSCC's "Self Made Man" references franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger with its Skynet plot to assassinate the Governor of California on New Year's Eve 2010?
• 00:00, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that a 1760 m² cyclorama, the Arrival of the Hungarians (fragment pictured), was painted in 1894 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895?
• ... that Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, which accompanied the Cosmos television series, became the best-selling science book in 1980?
• ... that the Major League Umpires Association's executive director and 22 umpires were fired after they tried a mass resignation campaign in 1999?
• ... that the Phenes raptor dragonfly is the largest Odonata in Chile?
• ... that the Todd Manning and Marty Saybrooke rape storylines from the American daytime drama One Life to Live have been the subject of various academic works, as well as outrage from leading anti-sexual assault organizations such as RAINN?
• ... that reproductions of The Moorish Chief, painted by Eduard Charlemont, are the best-selling paintings at the museum store of the Philadelphia Museum of Art?
• ... that the BBC program Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas was described in the press as Oz Clarke and Hugh Dennis divining that the true spirit of Christmas is "getting hammered"?
• ... that Swiss defenceman Tim Ramholt played just 45 seconds in his National Hockey League career?

11 January 2010

• 18:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that France-Americas relations (map pictured) were initiated in 1524 with the explorations of Giovanni da Verrazzano in the service of Francis I of France?
• ... that Joseph Stalin imposed a tax on childlessness, which forced bachelors and childless families to pay an additional 6% income tax until the collapse of the Soviet Union?
• ... that the anonymous composer of the 15th-century carol "I syng of a mayden" used traditional imagery deriving from Old Testament texts to celebrate the Annunciation of Jesus?
• ... that at the 2010 Olympics, 20-year-old Drew Doughty is to become the youngest ice hockey player since Eric Lindros in 1991 to represent Canada in a major best-on-best tournament?
• ... that the Colombian palm Aiphanes leiostachys is an endangered species, while two other Colombian endemics in the same genus, Aiphanes duquei and Aiphanes lindeniana, are vulnerable to extinction?
• ... that the Armenian Iranian communist leader Ardeshir Ovanessian spent eleven years in Qasr prison?
• ... that the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion is the administrative organisation responsible for monitoring the accounts of professional football clubs in France?
• ... that while recording their album Fight the Tide, Sanctus Real's guitarist tried putting nail polish on his fingertips because they were raw from continuous playing?
• 12:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the 90-ton Mingun Bell (pictured) in Mingun, Myanmar, was the world's heaviest hanging bell until 2000, when the 116-ton Bell of Good Luck was erected in Pingdingshan, China?
• ... that Glamorgan County Cricket Club's 1921 promotion to first-class status was strongly aided by early fund-raisers organised by Vernon Hill?
• ... that Billfrith, the Northumbrian saint whose name appears in the Durham Liber Vitae, is credited with providing the original gold, silver and jewel ornamentation for the Lindisfarne Gospels?
• ... that the Sony CDP-101 was the world's first commercially available CD player?
• ... that John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge-Ernle-Erle-Drax raised and supported the East Kent militia during the 1830 Swing Riots?
• ... that the Gulf Snapping Turtle was described as "Australia's first living fossil freshwater turtle, an extant population of a Pleistocene taxon"?
• ... that Ange Diawara, the leader of the Congolese rebel group M 22, sought inspiration from Che Guevara and the Cameroonian UPC?
• ... that in 1992, the Greece men's national junior ice hockey team lost 1–47 to Latvia?
• 06:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that there are more than 80 geysers (example pictured) at the southwest end of Shoshone Lake in Wyoming, US, one of the highest concentrations of geysers in the world?
• ... that although little is known of the episcopate of William de Blois, Bishop of Lincoln from 1203 to 1206, he was still remembered as a learned man in the 14th century?
• ... that in 1831 John D. Defrees founded the first newspaper in Northern Indiana?
• ... that after ten years of service in the Royal Navy, the brig-sloop HMS Curlew became involved in the drug trade, and sold £330,000 worth of opium in China in 1833?
• ... that The Terrorist Hunters was originally banned from sale by a High Court injunction issued the day of its official release?
• ... that it is unclear who designed the Majestic Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, due to conflicting records on the building's plans and permits?
• ... that State Representative Lanny Johnson was inducted in 1982 into the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame for the 1958–1962 seasons at the University of Louisiana at Monroe?
• ... that Clayton, West Virginia, was named after a balloonist from Cincinnati who landed in the community after a record-setting 300-mile (480 km) flight in 1835?
• 00:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Swedish painter Hugo Birger's most famous work is Frukosten hos Ledoyen (pictured), which depicts several famous Nordic painters having breakfast together on the day of the Paris Salon's opening?
• ... that the satirical radio comedy The News at Bedtime is based on a column in Private Eye magazine?
• ... that Laumeier Sculpture Park in Sunset Hills, Missouri, does not have any recreational facilities because its founder wanted a passive park?
• ... that the cellar of 23 Northgate Street, Chester, Cheshire, England, contains the remains of columns from the principia of the Roman fortress that previously stood on the site?
• ... that no member of the U. S. Congress has been appointed to the United States Supreme Court since the 1949 nomination of Sherman Minton?
• ... that the Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship Sovetskaya Belorussiya was cancelled on 19 October 1940 after it was discovered that 70,000 rivets used in her hull plating were of inferior quality?
• ... that between 2000 and 2009, ten singles sold more than 1 million copies in the United Kingdom?
• ... that after his ship was torpedoed, Captain Maurice Swynfen Fitzmaurice was picked up from the water, apparently with his monocle still firmly in place?

10 January 2010

• 18:00, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that old Atlantic ghost crabs (pictured) may dig burrows in the sand up to 400 metres from the sea?
• ... that the Etzioni Brigade participated in the first ever Israeli Haganah operation that deployed more than one brigade?
• ... that, according to a medieval source, the Anglo-Saxon Fenland noble Æthelstan Mannessune donated a piece of the True Cross to Ramsey Abbey?
• ... that at the 1949 congress of the government-sponsored Iranian trade union centre ESKI, only two out of 36 delegates were workers?
• ... that Bertrand Tavernier directed Safe Conduct because of his interest in reviving films from 1942 to 1944 and because he has friendships with key figures from those films?
• ... that the employers' organization in French Equatorial Africa, COLPAEF, was significantly weaker than its West African counterparts, as employers in Equatorial Africa were highly individualistic?
• ... that Claude d'Abbeville was a Franciscan missionary who wrote in 1614 about the dispatch of Brazilian Tupinambá Indians to the French king Louis XIII?
• ... that the edible mushroom Hygrophorus agathosmus smells like almonds?
• 12:00, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Rod Stewart (pictured), Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and The Beatles have all received the Chopard Diamond award?
• ... that the attack on Camp Chapman in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009, was the most lethal sustained by the CIA in 25 years?
• ... that Patrick Whelan allegedly assassinated Thomas D'Arcy McGee four months after warning the police about a similar plot against the Canadian politician?
• ... that the civil flag of Monaco utilizes the heraldic colors of the House of Grimaldi?
• ... that after having covered the Spanish Civil War as a war correspondent journalist Lise Lindbæk worked to aid Spanish refugee children in France?
• ... that De Cornwerdermolen, Cornwerd is the most westerly windmill in Friesland?
• ... that in 1974, Rudolf Jaenisch and Beatrice Mintz created the first transgenic mouse by injecting DNA from Simian virus 40?
• ... that Blind Willie Johnson's gospel-blues song "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" was included on the Voyager Golden Record to represent human loneliness to extraterrestrial life?
• 06:00, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Andrew Cowper (pictured) was awarded the Military Cross three times in the First World War for his efforts in destroying 19 German aircraft?
• ... that American artist William Allen Rogers worked with Harper's Weekly as a political cartoonist for 25 years, and with the New York Herald for an additional 20 years?
• ... that artifacts uncovered in Kafr Misr, an Arab village located to the south of Mount Tabor, Israel, attest to Jewish, Christian and Muslim habitation over the centuries?
• ... that Thomas Humber was apprenticed as a blacksmith and went on to found the Humber bicycle company in 1869 which evolved into Humber automobiles?
• ... that Flight of the Red Tail chronicles the second restoration of a P-51 Mustang bomber escort for the Allied Forces in the European Theatre of World War II?
• ... that the Minuscule 536 is one of the manuscripts purchased by philanthropist Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1814–1906)?
• ... that in 2003 Curtis Gatewood became the first college football recruit from Memphis to sign with Vanderbilt since 1997?
• ... that the top half of the Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light was part of another tower originally used at the Vidal Shoals near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan?
• 00:00, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the prototype Tracked Hovercraft high-speed train (remains pictured) was expected to reach 300 mph on its test track north of London, but had only broken 100 mph on a short portion before the program was cancelled in 1973?
• ... that approximately 6,000 years ago in central Oregon, Lava Butte exploded, and eventually created Benham Falls?
• ... that as a child, Jerry Kennedy, who later produced for legendary musicians such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, recorded several songs with Chet Atkins for RCA Records?
• ... that the Wayang Museum in Jakarta contains the tombstone of Jan Pieterszoon Coen?
• ... that after turning down an invitation to play with the Americans, Brandon Kozun scored the shootout winning goal for Canada to defeat the United States during round robin play at the 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships?
• ... that Lykke Friis, the current Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, was not a member of the party Venstre before becoming a minister?
• ... that while filming The Restorers, director Adam White stumbled upon the Red Tail Project, which led to the production of Red Tail Reborn?
• ... that, to promote their Glacier Mints (iconified by Peppy the polar bear), Fox's Confectionery used to exhibit a stuffed polar bear at public events?

9 January 2010

• 18:00, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the 1833 territorial division of Spain (map shown) into provinces has persisted with only small changes down to the present day?
• ... that Icelandic modernist Einar Bragi, one of the original Atom Poets, translated poetry from all major European languages?
• ... that the Jakarta History Museum was formerly used as the administrative headquarters of the Dutch East India Company?
• ... that same-sex marriage under United States tribal jurisdictions has been allowed in the Coquille Tribe of Oregon despite the state's defense of marriage amendment?
• ... that installation of about 25,000 pail closets in 19th-century Manchester, England helped clear the city's drains and rivers of up to 3,000,000 gallons of waste?
• ... that Uniontown, Washington, D.C.'s first "suburban" community, is part of the Anacostia Historic District?
• ... that Sarraounia is an award-winning film that depicts a real-life battle between French Colonial Forces and an African queen?
• ... that William Gurney Benham collected and arranged over fifty thousand quotations in one of his books?
• 12:00, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman (pictured) scored 12 double centuries during his Test career, the highest number by any batsman?
• ... that The Candidate was an 2009 Afghan reality TV show that pitted youth against each other in a mock presidential election?
• ... that semi-professional footballer Dean Clark made over one hundred appearances for Northwood F.C.?
• ... that the High Court of Andalusia is the highest court of not only Andalusia, but also the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla?
• ... that it is uncertain whether the brown and white American star-footed Amanitas are different species?
• ... that Obie Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson only took up acting after being laid off from his job as a traveling computer salesman?
• ... that Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, who founded and edited many of post-revolutionary Iran's independent newspapers, was arrested at his Tehran home in the aftermath of the 2009 Ashura protests?
• ... that the episodes of the anime series Baccano! do not tell the events in chronological order?
• 06:00, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial (pictured), the last of the great memorials to the missing of World War I, was unveiled just over a year before World War II broke out?
• ... that William L. Reilly's twelve-year tenure as president of Le Moyne College was the longest in the Jesuit school's history?
• ... that the archaeological finds from Steeple Langford include a Bronze Age palstave and a Romano-British painted pebble?
• ... that Clay Buchholz, a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, threw a no-hitter in only his second major league start?
• ... that the director of the 2009 film The French Kissers chose to use mostly untrained actors because he feared that professional actors would be too egotistical?
• ... that Barack Obama nominated former United Mine Workers official Joe Main to serve as the head of Mine Safety and Health Administration?
• ... that Time magazine described Aake Anker Ording, who initiated the international fundraiser United Nations Appeal for Children, as "Norway's tall, blue-eyed, idealistic U.N. Staffer"?
• ... that in 1122 Suero Vermúdez donated his private monastery at Cornellana to the Abbey of Cluny, but in 1128 gave it instead to the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, sparking a centuries-long dispute?
• 00:00, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (pictured) was married to Prince Louis of Hesse in an atmosphere described by Queen Victoria as "more of a funeral than a wedding"?
• ... that prior to the 10th century in Western art, no attempt was made to portray God the Father in terms of a human form?
• ... that while Stan Benjamin was a scout, the Houston Astros used his evaluation of Jeff Bagwell as the basis to make a trade for him on August 30, 1990?
• ... that as a result of the Scarman report into the 1981 Brixton riots, the independent Police Complaints Authority was established in 1985?
• ... that the Louisiana sheriff Elliot D. Coleman was one of the police bodyguards on duty at the time of the 1935 assassination of U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, Jr.?
• ... that Royal Marine Francis Harvey, the mortally wounded commander of HMS Lion's 'Q' turret, was awarded the Victoria Cross for ordering the magazine flooded, which saved the ship during the Battle of Jutland?
• ... that the Goose Creek Oil Field in Galveston Bay had the first offshore oil wells in Texas, U.S., and the removal of oil led to subsidence of the overlying terrain?
• ... that in June 2005, Intel threatened photo printing company FotoInsight with legal action over their use of the name "The 'INSIDE' format" saying it infringed their trademark "Intel Inside"?

8 January 2010

• 18:00, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Split Rock Lighthouse State Park in Minnesota has a clifftop lighthouse (pictured) on the North Shore of Lake Superior built without roads?
• ... that the Norwegian ocean liner SS Bergensfjord was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport in 1940 and used as a troop ship throughout the Second World War?
• ... that the oil in the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which killed upwards of 10,000 birds and numerous other creatures along the coast of California, U.S., came from the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field?
• ... that Swiss writer Dominique Caillat briefly worked as an international lawyer before turning to literature and the stage, which helped her receive a basic training in acting and directing?
• ... that Petalura hesperia dragonflies lay their eggs along stream margins because their larvae are semi-aquatic?
• ... that Slade's Case has been called a "watershed" moment in English law?
• ... that Frederick Brocklander became a Major League Baseball umpire during a 1979 strike and continued umpiring for 12 more years in the National League?
• ... that a skimmington, a custom in which victims were mocked and humiliated in a noisy public procession, occurred in England as late as 1917?
• 12:00, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the bronze Gniezno Doors, of about 1175, are the only Romanesque doors in Europe decorated with scenes from the life of a saint (his murder pictured)?
• ... that Ya'qub Bilbul, an Iraqi Jew who wrote in Arabic, is considered a pioneer of the Iraqi novel and short story?
• ... that five Fablok Luxtorpeda trains were constructed under the leadership of Klemens Stefan Sielecki?
• ... that the Xian H-6K, which made its first flight in 2007, has been described as "China's first proper strategic bomber"?
• ... that French team handball player Mariama Signate was selected into the all-star team at the 2009 World Women's Handball Championship in China?
• ... that the Kukaniloko Birth Site was speculated to be a Hawaiian Stonehenge?
• ... that Loren Singer's 1970 book The Parallax View, later made into the 1974 thriller starring Warren Beatty, allowed Singer to leave a job as a printing salesman?
• ... that the floral clock in Frankfort, Kentucky, has a face that is 34 feet (10 m) in diameter and is composed of more than 10,000 individual flowers?
• 06:00, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that sculptor Henry Kirke Brown's nephew, Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, created four works at Gettysburg Battlefield: a bust of Abraham Lincoln and statues of Generals Meade, Reynolds (pictured), and Sedgwick?
• ... that upon the death of Louisiana newspaper publisher Sam Hanna, his state's press association in 2006 renamed its "Best Regular Column" award in his honor?
• ... that it took six weeks for developer Garry Kitchen to write and complete the iPhone and Nintendo DSi video game Arcade Hoops Basketball?
• ... that during the recording process of Stone Sour's second album Come What(ever) May drummer Joel Ekman decided to leave the band following the diagnosis of his son's brainstem glioma?
• ... that Rev. Elias Bond (1813–1896) used proceeds from a Hawaiian sugar plantation to fund his church and a girls' seminary?
• ... that a previously undescribed species of coral called Pocillopora sp. was found off the coast of Puerto Ángel, Mexico?
• ... that Harlan Sanborn coached the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team to their lowest offense score ever with the team only scoring eight points during a game?
• ... that screenwriter Brad Falchuk tried to stand out in high school by wearing a tie every day and declaring himself a Republican?
• 00:00, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that extensive droughts have caused Washoe Lake (pictured) at Washoe Lake State Park in Nevada to dry up, most recently in 1992, 1994, and 2004?
• ... that Norwegian musicologist Christian Leden was the first person to record film in the northern Arctic?
• ... that disagreement over the relocation of a nursery during construction of the Washington Metro's Anacostia station required an Act of Congress to resolve?
• ... that Sir William Garrow, a barrister from the Regency England period whose work was largely forgotten for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, was recently cited in a 2006 Irish Court of Criminal Appeal case?
• ... that the Comerica Bank New Year's Parade, originally held for the Cotton Bowl Classic, is still held annually in Dallas even though the Cotton Bowl has moved to Arlington, Texas?
• ... that Sir Hugh Norman-Walker was forced to decline the appointment of the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man in 1973 because his wife would not take up the new post with him?
• ... that the palm Aiphanes chiribogensis is considered to be vulnerable to extinction because none of the seven known populations lie within Ecuador's network of protected areas?
• ... that author and anti-globalization advocate Tim Costello started his writing career in the back of his truck while traveling as a long-haul truck driver?

7 January 2010

• 18:00, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that The Langley Schools Music Project inspired Karen O (pictured) to incorporate an untrained children's choir into the song "All Is Love"?
• ... that the British monitor Lord Clive was stationed in the Thames Estuary in 1916 to shoot down approaching German Zeppelins with shrapnel shells fired by her 12-inch (305-mm) main guns?
• ... that Greek professor Albert Pattengill played on Michigan's 1867 baseball team, nominated "azure-blue and maize" as the university's colors, and was one of the founders of the Big Ten Conference?
• ... that Stubbe – Von Fall zu Fall is the most successful detective series produced by the ZDF?
• ... that coloratura soprano Alice Verlet gave a 1922 opera and song recital at Carnegie Hall accompanied on violin by a young Xavier Cugat, who later achieved fame as the "rhumba king"?
• ... that the European Court of Human Rights in Smith and Grady v UK found that the discharge of personnel from the British Army on the basis of sexual orientation was a breach of their right to a private life?
• ... that Red Tail Reborn, which chronicled the Red Tail Project's restoration of the P-51 Mustang, won regional Emmy Award recognition?
• ... that, although champion boxer Jack Dempsey refused a challenge from Billy Sandow to fight professional wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis, the Chicago Tribune predicted that Lewis would win in 38 minutes?
• 12:00, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Adolphe Clément, an orphan who had been apprenticed to a blacksmith, rose to become a leading French manufacturer of bicycles, pneumatic tyres, motorcycles, automobiles, aeroplanes and airships (example pictured)?
• ... that the underwater volcanoes of the Vance Seamounts are pocketed by multiple calderas, many of which have been almost erased by newer flows?
• ... that Rebbie Jackson felt that her brother Michael would "spin in his grave" if he thought that his children were going to appear in The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty?
• ... that Josef Hora was one of the seven Czech Communist writers who denounced the new Stalinist leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Klement Gottwald in 1929?
• ... that the Spanish Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park hosts at least 2170 plant species, 34 of them found nowhere else?
• ... that actor Leonid Kharitonov's lyrical singing in the war film, The Soldier Ivan Brovkin, made him an all-Soviet heart-throb in 1955?
• ... that Matford Vic, a two-time winner of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was purchased at one time for only £2?
• ... that 1930s NFL fullback "Iron Mike" Mikulak got his nickname because he wore a metal chest protector over his protuding sternum?
• 06:00, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Bette Davis, Roy Rogers, Frankie Avalon, Humphrey Bogart, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, Cary Grant and Tony Curtis all stayed at the Hotel Valley Ho (pictured) in Scottsdale, Arizona?
• ... that between 1926 and 1938, HMS Arpha served as a steam yacht for W E Guinness?
• ... that the 1950 Salad Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona, drew nearly 20,000 fans, setting a new statewide attendance record for football?
• ... that the Japanese Law for the Conservation of Cultural Properties provides for the existence of Living National Treasures?
• ... that Norwegian Christian Aug. Thoring tried several times to become mayor of Rogaland County, but lost out to Beint Bentsen in 1975, John S. Tveit in 1979 and Lars Vaage in 1983?
• ... that the eight volcanoes of the President Jackson Seamounts are heavily pocketed by 29 calderas and pit craters?
• ... that five houses with pilasters are preserved in the Manlius Village Historic District near Syracuse, New York?
• ... that ten married couples were candidates in the 2004 Wyre Forest Council election in Worcestershire, England?
• 00:00, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that a project aiming to lower the salinity of the Colorado River has triggered thousands of earthquakes in Colorado's Paradox Valley (pictured)?
• ... that two months after the final five Green Line stations on Washington, D.C.'s Metro opened, more than 30,600 riders per day boarded at the stations—three times as many as originally estimated?
• ... that World War II German fighter ace Heinrich Hoffmann was the first non-commissioned officer and first posthumous recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves?
• ... that the infant massage of preterm babies has been shown to have many benefits, including the gaining of extra body weight?
• ... that although SS Elisabethville was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport during World War II, she did not become an Empire ship until 1947?
• ... that Kevin Hopps, writer of the Spectacular Spider-Man episode "The Uncertainty Principle", kept in mind previous battle sequences in the series in order to "up the stakes"?
• ... that in 792 the Bulgarians captured the tent and treasury of the Byzantine emperor during a battle at the fortress of Markeli near modern Karnobat, Bulgaria?
• ... that 2004 Olympic gold medalist Rhi Jeffrey left competitive swimming just four months before the U.S. Olympic Trials for Beijing?

6 January 2010

• 18:00, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Lower Saxon Mill Road is 2,800 kilometres long and links over 300 historic mills (example pictured) across North Germany?
• ... that during the inter-war period, Helge Krog was known as a member of the "radical triumvirate" in Norway, along with Øverland and Hoel?
• ... that Liverpool businessman Sir William Bower Forwood raised money for the building of the Liverpool Overhead Railway and Liverpool Cathedral?
• ... that Lincoln Hall at Portland State University was used as classroom space for several years despite being condemned?
• ... that before making his major league debut, pitcher Alfonso Pulido drew comparisons to Fernando Valenzuela after winning 17 games in the Mexican League in 1983?
• ... that the body of Saint Eadnoth was stolen by the monks of Ely Abbey while the guards taking it to Ramsey Abbey were drunk?
• ... that Ukrainian mathematician Samuil Shatunovsky developed axiomatic theory independently from David Hilbert?
• ... that the pine trees for which the community of Pine Grove, Oregon, was named were cut down in 1957?
• 12:00, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the shores of Dal Lake in India (pictured) contain Mughal gardens Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh known as "the jewel of Kashmir valley"?
• ... that the British cargo ship Empire Builder was handed over to the Polish Government on completion in January 1942?
• ... that researchers finally collected a larva and an adult female Tonyosynthemis ofarrelli which match an earlier male specimen?
• ... that the Battle of Maryang San is regarded as one of the Australian Army's greatest victories of the Korean War?
• ... that the Polish–Czech Friendship Trail was closed to tourists outside the two countries until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993?
• ... that Temple Israel of Dayton, Ohio, was one of the founding members of the Union for Reform Judaism?
• ... that in 2008, Lund's former mayor Kjell Erfjord lost a vote to become board chairman of the Norwegian Missionary Society?
• ... that the Black-fronted Tern of New Zealand is known as the ploughboy or ploughman's friend for its propensity to eat worms and grubs in newly ploughed ground?
• 06:00, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Red Tail Project evolved after a United States Air Force P-51 Mustang (pictured) flown by the Tuskegee Airmen was passed through several owners for over 40 years?
• ... that the existence of Outer Temple, a body that is thought to be one of the ten Inns of Chancery and was disestablished in the 16th century, was only confirmed in 2008?^{[dubious – discuss]}
• ... that the Royal Indian Navy auxiliary patrol vessel Jamnagar was originally built for HH The Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar?
• ... that Theobald Burke, son of the pirate queen Grace O'Malley, was born at sea in 1567, shortly before his mother's fleet engaged in a battle with Barbary pirates?
• ... that from 1999 to 2003 the Cal Golden Bears had five consecutive Pac-10 Conference swimmers of the year; Marylyn Chiang, Haley Cope, and three-time winner Natalie Coughlin?
• ... that Woody Freeman, one of the Republicans defeated by Bill Clinton for governor of Arkansas, claimed he began a computer software business in 1985 with $3 in his account?
• ... that Blanche Cave, in Australia's Naracoorte Caves National Park, used to exhibit an indigenous man's mummified remains, which were stolen in 1861 and never returned?
• ... that the letters "IXL" in the IXL Historical Museum in Hermansville, Michigan, are a derivative of the words "I excel"?
• 00:00, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the crew of the Russian battleship Imperator Aleksandr II (pictured) refused to suppress the mutinous garrison of Fort Konstantin defending Kronstadt in August 1906?
• ... that as early as 1978 the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas, Lynn Lowe accused Bill Clinton of having been a draft dodger during the Vietnam War?
• ... that a massive general strike organized by the Argentinian F.O.I.C. meat-packers union secured the release of its jailed leadership in September 1943?
• ... that former Parliament of Norway member Inger Lise Husøy is currently the manager of the Norwegian Burma Committee?
• ... that Bryan Adams sang backing vocals on Glass Tiger's 1986 hit single "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)"?
• ... that Fritz Crisler developed the platoon system of American football in which separate squads play offense and defense and designed the winged football helmet used by the Michigan Wolverines?
• ... the H.W. Wilson Company considered Albert Payson Terhune's 1922 novel Further Adventures of Lad one "of the most useful books covering all classes of literature"?
• ... that when LeT militants barged into her home in Rajouri, Rukhsana Kausar started a counter-attack wielding an axe, and later drew praise from the President, Prime Minister and Home Minister of India?

5 January 2010

• 18:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the High Court of Singapore (Supreme Court Building pictured) is the sole court in Singapore exercising original criminal jurisdiction that may impose the death penalty?
• ... that the winemaking technique of ripasso involves adding the pomace of leftover grape skins from the fermentation of Amarone to Valpolicella to give the wine more body, color and flavor?
• ... that anti-nuclear activist Ole Kopreitan is known for spreading leaflets and selling campaign buttons from a cart in Norway's main street, Karl Johans gate?
• ... that while voicing the character of Doctor Octopus in the The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Reaction", Peter MacNicol chose to base it on late actor Laird Cregar?
• ... that the first child of European descent born along the Hudson River was born on Beeren Island near Albany, New York?
• ... that two sections of the British 1973 Sale of Goods Act were completely identical?
• ... that, according to the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, Eadred, abbot of Carlisle, tried to take the body of St Cuthbert to Ireland, but was thwarted by the weather?
• ... that prominent American Jewish leader Alan Solow called President Barack Obama "the first Jewish president"?
• 12:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that one way that winemakers determine physiological ripeness of some grape varieties is by watching the change in the stems from flexible and green (pictured) to hard and brown?
• ... that because of his race, U.S. President Barack Obama has been the subject of multiple assassination threats and alleged plots?
• ... that besides mechanical failures, fuel leaks and collisions, the passenger liner SS Iberia also suffered multiple fires and blackouts, and twice grounded in the Suez Canal, before she was finally decommissioned in 1972?
• ... that Quality Bicycle Products is the largest distributor of bicycle parts and accessories in the bicycle industry, with revenues of $150 million in 2008?
• ... that the video game Down in Flames is a simulation of dogfights between World War II fighters and feature such planes as P-47 Thunderbolt, PZL.23 Karaś and five variants of Messerschmitt Bf 109?
• ... that during the Italian occupation Tefik Mborja was, as General Secretary of the Albanian Fascist Party, included in the Albanian cabinet as an ex-officio member?
• ... that in A Letter to Lord Ellenborough, Percy Bysshe Shelley made an argument for tolerance of all published opinion, even when false?
• ... that John Cage caused a sensation at the 1963 Music Biennale Zagreb by crawling under the piano during his stage performance, despite promising not to?
• 06:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Ottonian jewelled Cross of Lothair of about 1000 AD has at its centre an ancient Roman cameo of the Emperor Augustus (pictured)?
• ... that Guillermo Algaze received the MacArthur "Genius" Award two years in a row?
• ... that Pro Bowl guard Jahri Evans attended Bloomsburg University not on an athletic scholarship, but rather an academic scholarship?
• ... that according to a BBC Radio 2 poll, The Gruffalo, which was adapted into a film in 2009, is the UK's favourite bedtime story?
• ... that Joseph K. Yamagiwa was a Research Bombing Analyst for the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey which took place in Washington D.C. and Tokyo?
• ... that the Jewel Box in St. Louis, Missouri, is a greenhouse but doesn't have a glass roof because of frequent hailstorms?
• ... that Haldanes is the first mid-sized supermarket chain to open in the UK for more than 20 years?
• ... that in the 1946 French legislative election the incumbent parliamentarian from French India, Deiva Zivarattinam, received only 18 votes?
• '00:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Mary Rose was a Tudor period warship that sank during the Battle of the Solent in 1545 and was salvaged (pictured) by maritime archaeologists 437 years later?
• ... that Michigan sprinter Clayton Teetzel coached the BYU basketball team to an 11–1 season and later coached the Utah State football team to an undefeated season outscoring opponents 164 to 0?
• ... that the music of the Russian band Lesopoval is inspired by the six years its co-founder Mikhail Tanich spent in a Soviet labor camp?
• ... that the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW800 has begun core testing even though its only application, the Cessna Citation Columbus, has been canceled?
• ... that Political Correspondent with The Irish Times Harry McGee described the Irish budget, 2010 as maybe "the most austere Budget in the history of the State"?
• ... that Lynn A. Davis stopped illegal gambling in Hot Springs in a 128-day career as head of the Arkansas state police?
• ... that the Persian cat breed has won the CFA International Cat Show's "Best of Show" a record ten times as of 2009?
• ... that the important Early Classic Mesoamerican city of Montana, in Guatemala, was a colony founded by the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in Mexico?

4 January 2010

• 18:00, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that 58 ships (one pictured) of the 16th-century navy of Henry VIII of England were illustrated in the Anthony Roll?
• ... that at age 36, Populist Party Chairman Marion Butler of North Carolina obtained his law degree from the University of North Carolina while serving in the U.S. Senate?
• ... that Reynier van Vlissingen, the Dutch Governor of Negapatam in India, surrendered to British forces in the 1781 Siege of Negapatam because the garrison had only one day of gunpowder remaining?
• ... that Riverside Theater in Jacksonville was the first theater in Florida, and the third in the United States, equipped to show sound film?
• ... that the Russian battleship Dvenadsat Apostolov served as the stand-in for the Potemkin during the filming of Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin?
• ... that the South American rice rat Oryzomys gorgasi is threatened by competition with the Black Rat?
• ... that only one of the thirty-nine DART Light Rail stations in Greater Dallas, Texas, is located underground?
• ... that at the 2008 Great Brook Run, English politician David Cameron ran through a muddy stream faster than a man dressed as Spider-Man?
• 12:00, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that because of its aquatic origin and resemblance to the vulva, the shankha (carved examples pictured) is linked with female fertility and is an integral part of Tantric rites?
• ... that Friedrich Nietzsche suggested the crest on the frontispiece of Richard Wagner's autobiography, Mein Leben, be composed of a vulture and the constellation The Plough?
• ... that in Cross v. United States, the United States Supreme Court established the principle that the Court of Claims could rehear Congressional reference cases?
• ... that The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, the 22nd album by Sparks and their first pop musical, was commissioned by Swedish national radio?
• ... that Blumea balsamifera is a flowering plant which belongs to the Asteraceae family and is used in the Philippines as a diuretic and treatment for the common cold?
• ... that the Democratic Association of Victoria, the first Australian socialist organisation founded in 1872, lasted only ten months?
• ... that in January 2009, a lorry burst through the stern doors of the fast ferry Stena Voyager while the ship was at sea?
• ... that in 1971, Cambodian army officer Um Savuth offered Richard Nixon his pet elephant as a gift?
• 06:00, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that as a Squadron Leader in 1936, future diplomat Charles Eaton (pictured) was arrested and held for three days in Koepang, Dutch Timor, while undertaking a clandestine mission for the RAAF?
• ... that The Irish Filmography is a reference source for nearly 2,000 films made from 1896 to 1996 in Ireland, about either Ireland or the Irish?
• ... that 1938–39 Oregon Ducks men's basketball team player Bobby Anet broke the NCAA Tournament trophy during the championship game, which Oregon won?
• ... that at 26 million years, the Taney Seamounts are almost as old as the seafloor they stand on?
• ... that Peter P. Dubrovsky, Russian diplomat, collected valuable manuscripts from destroyed libraries during the time of the French Revolution?
• ... that as a result of 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, the Court of Claims did not accept new Congressional reference cases until 1966?
• ... that the neo-romantic Chłopomania movement based in Young Poland's fascination with folk culture inspired Polish playwright Stanisław Wyspiański to marry a peasant wife in 1900?
• ... that fossilized remains of giant sea turtles have been found at an elevation of 7,696 feet (2,346 m) within Vega State Park in Colorado?
• 00:00, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei (pictured) made three secretive trips to Paris to prepare for his design of the Louvre Pyramid?
• ... that the Montserrat national football team has only won two matches in their history, both victories coming against Anguilla?
• ... that Giovanni Battista Calvi was an Italian military engineer who worked on many important Spanish defensive projects in the 1500s, to include those in the now British overseas territory of Gibraltar?
• ... that "Canonsburgh Comet" Leo Koceski, halfback for Michigan's 1948 national championship and 1950 Rose Bowl championship teams, was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame?
• ... that "Kashi", the name of an all natural, seven whole grain food company based in La Jolla, California, means "happy" in Chinese and "energy" in Japanese?
• ... that Pavel Antseborenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944 for detonating a live hand grenade to avoid capture, killing himself and several German troops in the process?
• ... that Jesse G. James' company West Coast Choppers earns 60% of its revenue from sales of T-shirts and other tie-in merchandise?
• ... that Wally Teninga played football for Michigan's undefeated 1947 and 1948 championship teams and later became vice chairman and chief financial officer of Kmart Corporation?

3 January 2010

• 18:00, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Mutzig's Château des Rohan (pictured) belonged to several families of noblemen and bishops of Strasbourg before being turned into a rifle factory after the French Revolution?
• ... that the song "La Cima del Cielo" recorded by Ricardo Montaner became his first number-one single in the Billboard Top Latin Songs chart?
• ... that the mechanism of the Winchester Model 1911, an autoloading shotgun made from 1911 to 1925, is so tricky that in 2005 four people shot themselves accidentally while clearing the weapon?
• ... that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater was said to have overseen the "cleanest mayor's election in modern times" in New Orleans?
• ... that the eastern Yorkshire peninsula Holderness is thought to have taken its name from Thurbrand the Hold, killer of Uhtred the Bold?
• ... that the Argentinian Labour Party, which played a major role in ensuring Juan Perón's 1946 election victory, was modelled after the British Labour Party?
• ... that North Carolina furniture maker Thomas Day employed both African-American slaves as well as white apprentices in his Caswell County workshop, though he was himself a free person of color?
• ... that between 19,500 and 50,000 Japanese military personnel are estimated to have surrendered during World War II, despite being prohibited from doing so?
• 12:00, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the Société Ramond gave the observatory on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre (pictured) to the French state because it could not afford the cost of its construction?
• ... that in 1997, Steve Carell played chef Yorgo Galfanikos in the ABC sitcom Over the Top?
• ... that Kevin Rockett is considered one of the pre-eminent authorities on the history of Irish cinema?
• ... that INFORM, a British charity providing impartial information on new religious movements, was established with the support of the Home Office and Britain's mainstream churches?
• ... that Alice Greenough Orr became a rodeo star after she found her preferred job of forest ranger largely unavailable to women during the era after World War I?
• ... that Roanoke, Virginia, television station WROV-TV was the first UHF station in the United States to shut down?
• ... that P. Munuswamy Naidu became the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency after the 1930 election?
• ... that Howard Yerges began his football career with the Ohio State Buckeyes and finished it as the quarterback of Michigan's 1947 "Mad Magicians" national championship team?
• 06:00, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Farnham Maxwell-Lyte (pictured) developed the "honey process" in photographic processing?
• ... that one local architectural historian disparaged the combination of two older houses into the current Van Rensselaer Lower Manor House in Claverack, New York, as a "growth"?
• ... that credit for describing the Jolthead porgy goes to both Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Schneider in 1801, though Bloch died in 1799?
• ... that the 1931 film Alice in Wonderland was the first talking picture to be based on Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?
• ... that current Philadelphia Eagles long snapper Jon Dorenbos is a professional magician who has performed in both Las Vegas and Hollywood?
• ... that hundreds of millions of Chinese Soft-shelled Turtles are raised every year in Asia's turtle farms?
• ... that the Genoese have contributed significantly to Gibraltar's architectural and culinary heritage?
• ... that despite being a clone of the Apple II, the Soviet Agat computer cost as much as twenty times the average monthly Soviet salary?
• 00:00, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the triskelion in MacLeod heraldry (pictured) originates from a mistaken belief that the clan's founder, Leod, was a son of a king of Mann?
• ... that American professional wrestler Jigsaw was trained by Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush?
• ... that the Maharishi University of Management stabbing drew international attention because it occurred at an institution with a founding principle of reducing crime?
• ... that Cheryl Cole debuted her song "Parachute" whilst performing a Latin dance with Derek Hough on the television special Cheryl Cole's Night In?
• ... that the first religious leader of Temple Israel in Columbus, Ohio, was Simon Lazarus, a clothing merchant who founded what would become Lazarus department stores?
• ... that Mamajuda Island in the Detroit River, which once contained a lighthouse, has since been eroded away to nothing more than a few boulders seen only during times of low water levels?
• ... that Ragnar Kalheim was one of the main architects behind the formation of the Socialist Electoral League in Norway?
• ... that with their extensive vineyard holdings in the Douro and many Port wine brands, the Symington Family Estates are considered a "Port empire"?

2 January 2010

• 18:00, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that the 1895 Michigan football team (player pictured) outscored its opponents 266 to 14 and clinched a claim to the Western championship of American football?
• ... that the 9th Bomber Regiment was tasked to lead groups of Soviet fighters and attack aircraft (over 2,000 aircraft in total) to their targets during 1941 because their pilots could not navigate on their own?
• ... that while recording swordfights for Barbarian, the video game's designer Steve Brown nearly took his eye out with the Web of Death, a move copied from the film Conan the Destroyer?
• ... that plans were shelved for the Southside Connector over concerns that it would pollute aquifers that were later found to be polluted inadvertently by the military?
• ... that as a consequence of Earl Rivers' reversion to Roman Catholicism in 1697, the name of the Lyon's Paw Hotel in Frodsham, Cheshire, England, was changed to the Bear's Paw?
• ... that Johan Kling, a Swedish filmmaker whose career started with making TV shows and McDonald's commercials, won the award for best Swedish film for his debut movie, Darling?
• ... that chef Aaron McCargo Jr. became host of the Food Network series Big Daddy's House as the grand prize for winning the fourth season of the reality series, The Next Food Network Star?
• ... that Spanish singer-songwriter Bebe received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Alternative or Urban Album for her second studio album titled Y.?
• 12:00, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that during its operational history 1874–1926 the Argentine Corvette Uruguay (pictured) was a gunboat, school ship, expedition support ship, and Antarctic rescue vessel, and is now a museum ship in Buenos Aires?
• ... that Margaret Formby, the daughter of Texas ranchers, was the founder of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth?
• ... that on December 26, 2009, Sarah Thomas became the first woman to officiate a Football Bowl Subdivision bowl game, when she served as line judge for the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl?
• ... that the view atop Mount Kaputar in Mount Kaputar National Park, Australia, encompasses about 1/10th of New South Wales?
• ... that Swedish history painter Johan Fredrik Höckert died of natural causes at the age of 40, only two years after becoming professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts?
• ... that the actress cast as Amy Pond, a companion character to the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who, had previously portrayed a soothsayer on an episode involving the Tenth Doctor?
• ... that between the years 2000 and 2009 in North Carolina, the deadliest tropical cyclone was Tropical Storm Allison?
• ... that the Little Zigzag River begins on Zigzag Glacier, flows down Little Zigzag Canyon, over Little Zigzag Falls, and enters the Zigzag River upstream of Zigzag, Oregon?
• 06:00, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

• ... that Sagittaria lancifolia (pictured) is also known as "duck potato" because of the large potato-like corms that form underground?
• ... that Matilda of Brandenburg might have had an affair with Henry IV Probus before their marriage?
• ... that Benigno Fitial, the current governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, once sued the Marianas Variety News & Views newspaper for defamation?
• ... that the 1894 Michigan football team played Chicago in a sleet storm as the grandstand was "packed with yelling collegians" and the carriage rooms "filled with society people"?
• ... that the flamboyant Louisiana Sheriff F.O. "Potch" Didier once spent seven days in his own jail upon conviction, after a sensational trial, of malfeasance in office?
• ... that after running aground at Sharpness, SS Stancliffe was cut into two separate sections and then sailed to Cardiff, Wales, in 1947?
• ... that, on the orders of King Edward the Elder and Ealdorman Æthelred, the English thegn Uhtred bought back land at Hope and Ashford in Derbyshire from the Vikings?
• ... that the Swaraj Party refused to form a government despite winning the 1926 election in Madras Presidency?
• 00:00, 2 January 2010 (UTC)