Did you know
From New World Encyclopedia
Christmas Island
Christmas Island was uninhabited until the late nineteenth century and so has many unique species of fauna and flora that evolved independently of human interferenceCivil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended prior to passage to explicitly include women's rightsBiome
The British Empire was known as "the empire on which the sun never sets"Lee Falk
Lee Falk's comic strip character 'The Phantom' inspired the costumed image of what has today become known as the "superhero."George Steinbrenner
George Steinbrenner changed the manager of the New York Yankees twenty times during his first twenty-three seasons.Potawatomi
Potawatomi were forced to walk a "Trail of Death" from their homelands in Indiana to an Indian Reservation in KansasHades
In Greek mythology Hades has been used to refer both to the "underworld" or Hell and the deity that rules the deadPrisoner of war
To be entitled to prisoner of war status, the captured service member must have conducted operations according to the laws of warOratory
Cicero suggested that the best orator should be the best human being, understanding the correct way to live, acting upon it by being active in politics, and instructing others through speeches, through example, and through making good laws.Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein is considered the greatest scientist of the twentieth century and was named "Person of the Century" by TIME magazineAncient economic thought
Discussions of economics have existed since ancient times but it was not a separate discipline until the nineteenth centuryWillie Mays
Willie Mays is the only Major League player to have hit a home run in every inning from the first through the sixteenth. He finished his career with a record 22 extra-inning home runs.Scientology
Before establishing the Church of Scientology, founder L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction authorNobel Prize
Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, though he was nominated for it five timesSurgery
The term "surgery" comes from the Greek "cheirourgia," meaning "hand work"Agricultural technology
The Industrial Revolution led to advances in agricultural technology that greatly increased food production allowing large numbers of people to pursue other types of workZanzibar
The archipelago of Zanzibar was a separate state which united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania and still enjoys a high degree of autonomy within the unionRock art
The many possible meanings of prehistoric rock art include records of hunts, religious practices, and astronomical calendarsWorld Cup
The host nation for the World Cup final tournament is automatically qualified to play in the tournamentAjivika
Ajivika was an ancient Indian philosophical and ascetic movement that did not believe in karma or the possibility of free willStanford University
Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who created New York’s Central Park, designed the physical plan for Stanford UniversityLiteracy
One of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals was to achieve universal primary education, a level of schooling that includes basic literacy and numeracyRobert Joffrey
Robert Joffrey started his career in dance with tap dancing but was quickly guided to balletOtis Chandler
Although Otis Chandler made the LA Times great he did not want to become its publisher and he did not want his sons to take over its leadership when he retired.Gunter Grass
Gunter Grass' first novel "The Tin Drum" is regarded as a key text in European magic realismMoai
Scientists have come up with several theories to explain how the Moai of Easter Island "walked" from the quarry to their stone platformsFlorence
Florence, well known for art and architecture, is considered the birthplace of the Italian RenaissanceBureaucracy
Max Weber saw the ideal of bureaucracy as a means for achieving maximum efficiencyHammurabi
Hammurabi, first King of the Babylonian Empire, is best known for his laws - the Code of Hammurabi - which were inscribed on a large stele for all to seeOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden initially denied involvement in the infamous September 11, 2001 attacks on the United StatesWovoka
Wovoka, also known as Jack Wilson, was a Paiute shaman who received a vision of peace and instructions on how to perform the Ghost DanceXiuzhen
Xiuzhen means “to practice and learn the way of the truth” and is the principal technique in the Taoist quest for immortalityFrancisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lima, which he named la Ciudad de los Reyes (the City of Kings), to serve as the capital of Peru on January 18, 1535Victorian era
The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented population increase in EnglandMinoan eruption
The volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Thera (Santorini) in the second millennium B.C.E. was one of the largest volcanic events in recorded historyPluto
Pluto, considered the solar system's ninth planet since its discovery in 1930, was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006Cyberspace
The term "cyberspace" was coined by science fiction writer William GibsonEmanuel Swedenborg
Swedenborg was a successful scientist and inventor before his spiritual awakeningMurder
In some jurisdictions if the victim survived longer than "one year and a day" the perpetrator could not be tried for murder