Scientists have come up with several theories to explain how the Moai of
Easter Island "walked" from the quarry to their stone platforms
Morse code has been in use for more than 160 years — longer than any other electronic encoding system
The word "thesaurus" comes from a Greek word meaning "treasury"
David Glasgow Farragut was the first full admiral in the United States Navy
The European Recovery Program was named the Marshall Plan for the U.S. Secretary of State
George C. Marshall
The Great Rift Valley is such a significant physical feature on the
earth that it is clearly visible from space
Diwali, or the "Festival of Lights," is a
Hindu celebration signifying the triumph of good over evil
Genghis Khan believed that Heaven had commissioned him to establish a world empire
The region once occupied by Yugoslavia is often described as "the crossroads between East and West"
Robert K. Merton coined the expression "self-fulfilling prophecy"
Chemosh was the supreme
Moabite deity who was believed to bring victory to his people when they honored him properly, but allowed their enemies to prevail when they fell into sin
Most world religions include teachings on the nature of forgiveness
As original members of the
Iroquois League, or Haudenosaunee, the Mohawk were known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door" who guarded the Iroquois Confederation against invasion from that direction
Adolf Eichmann's defense for his crimes against humanity during the
Holocaust - that he had abdicated his
conscience in order to follow the "Führerprinzip" - inspired the
Milgram experiment
Legend says that if the six resident ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the Tower and the British kingdom will fall
In some cultures, adultery was defined as a crime only when a wife had sexual relations with a man who was not her husband; a husband could be unfaithful to his wife without it being considered adultery.
During his time as United States vice-consul to
Yucatan, Edward Herbert Thompson purchased the plantation that included the site of the ancient
Mayan city of
Chichen Itza
Kitty Wells' 1952 recording of "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" led to the introduction of female stars in the male-dominated
country music genre
Unlike most successful Broadway composers, Cole Porter wrote both the lyrics and the
music for his songs
Auden was one of the first prominent critics to praise
J.R.R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings
The Battle of Kursk, in which the Soviet Red Army defeated
Hitler's German troops, was a turning point in
World War II, giving the Soviets the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front
The Spanish term "Negrito" (little black) refers to pygmy populations in Asia
The term
guerrillla, from the Spanish "small war," was first used to describe the resistance in
Spain against
Napoleon
Polygyny, the
marital practice in which a man has more than one wife simultaneously, is the most common form of
polygamy
There was no formal scientific definition of "planet" until 2006
The American educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, carried out research that showed that a "decade of dedication" is more important than
giftedness in achieving success in a given field of learning
Portia Simpson-Miller was
Jamaica's first female Prime Minister
During his reign Aurangzeb expanded the
Mughal Empire and enacted a series of edicts based on
Sharia (Islamic law) in
India
The name "Emma" was introduced to
England by Emma of Normandy, who was the wife of King Ethelred the Unready of England and then of King
Canute the Great of
Denmark
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the
United States, serving from 1961 until his
assassination in 1963