Trivia Bits 07 August

 

• The Grand Opera Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Aida was first performed at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo on 24 December 1871, conducted by Giovanni Bottesini.
• It was on the section of Endeavour Reef of the world’s largest coral ridge is James Cook’s ship Endeavour thought to have run aground in 1770.
• A paddlewheel is used to propel vessels over water.
• In English, the initials of the car company BMW stand for Bavarian Motor Works.
• Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 10 years - from 1997 to 2007.
• The principles of Greek geometrician, Euclid, are still widely used today with his most influential text being Elements - a mathematical and geometric treatise consisting of 13 books written in Alexandria c. 300 BC.
• The main food of the Giant Panda is bamboo.
• Scheherazade stayed alive by telling a series of stories to Shahryar and is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.
• Sharing a border with the Canadian province of Saskatchewan are the two US states of Montana and North Dakota.
• The coastal town of Esperance is in the Australian state of Western Australia.