The color of deepest mourning among
medieval European queens was white rather than black
"Solstice" comes from Latin, meaning "
sun came to a stop"
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird was the first to demonstrate a working
television
Détente usually refers to the easing of relations in the
Cold War
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
Whales are the largest mammals, the largest vertebrates, and the largest known animals in the world.
Toby Winema Riddle, one of few
Native American women to be so honored, received a military pension by congressional act acknowledging her role as a key participant and mediator during peace and war
Despite the meaning of "judo" being "the gentle way," it is very demanding and injury can easily occur
Northern Paiute shaman,
Wovoka, received instructions on how to perform the
Ghost Dance as a way to achieve peace
Joseph Smith, Jr. published the first edition of the Book of Mormon in 1830 in Palmyra, New York
At summer
solstice, an observer standing within the Stonehenge stone circle will see the sun rise directly above the Heelstone
Tourism and the tea industry constitute the two most significant contributors to Darjeeling's economy
The Cayuga were one of the original five tribes that formed the
Iroquois Confederacy
The civilization of Ancient Egypt was one of the oldest and longest lasting human civilizations
The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem ever written
The first woman to serve in the United States Senate was Rebecca Latimer Felton, aged 87, who served for one day
For over two millennia, the Tuareg operated the trans-Saharan caravan trade connecting the great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara to the northern
Mediterranean coast of Africa.
Florence, well known for art and architecture, is considered the birthplace of the
Italian Renaissance
Romanticism, popular from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century, emphasized emotion and imagination in contrast to
reason that was the focus of the Enlightenment
The British Empire was known as "the empire on which the sun never sets"
In 1742, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius created a temperature scale which was the reverse of the modern Celsius scale
The basilisk may be killed by gazing at its own reflection in a mirror.
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, 1535
Edward Albee's most famous play is "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"
Paul-Henri Spaak was nicknamed "Mr. Europe"
Robert Morrison was the first
Protestant missionary to China, baptizing ten converts over a period of 27 years
The Great Pyramid was the world's tallest building for four millennia
Distance education has been around at least since
Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in
Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s.
The twentieth century composer John Cage is best known for his composition 4'33", whose three movements are performed without a single note being played
The internet was first conceived of in the 1946
science fiction short story, "A Logic Named Joe"
Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques" in reference to
Mecca and Medina
Alcoholics Anonymous created the first 12-step program which is the model for similar addiction recovery groups
Lüshi chunqiu, an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 B.C.E., was intended as a guide for the ruler who would eventually unify
China
Imhotep is considered the founder of Egyptian medicine
Baba Yaga's "cabin on chicken legs" may be based on real buildings.
Until the
Renaissance, 'philosophy' and 'science' were considered the same discipline.
