Saturday, August 30, 2014

An Ella Fitzgerald Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 30 August

 

 

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The longest reigning monarch in history was Pepi II, who ruled Egypt for 90 years; 2566 to 2476 BC. The second longest was France's Louis XIV (pictured), who ruled for 72 years, 1643 to 1715.

Bewitched is an American TV situation comedy fantasy that was originally broadcast for eight seasons from 1964 and starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York (1964–1969), Dick Sargent (1969–1972), Agnes Moorehead, and David White and is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban housewife.

The Hundred Year War actually lasted 116 years (1337 to 1453) and between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France for control of the French throne.

The first person to defeat Australian boxer Daniel Geale, former IBF and former WBA (Super) Middleweight Champion, was fellow Australian boxer Anthony Mundine in May 2009.

The influence of ancient Rome on architecture is all around us. The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., is almost a dead-ringer for the Pantheon. And the original Penn Station in New York was modelled on the Baths of Caracalla.

In the TV series Star Trek, Vulcan’s blood is coloured green due to being copper based and his heart is located on the right side of the torso, in between the ribs and pelvis.

The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day.

The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17, 1903, was Bird of Prey.

The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol.

The peace symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee, and was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The symbol is a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament.

Quotables 30 August

 

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Friday, August 29, 2014

An Elke Sommer Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 29 August

 

Bonoba Monkey

The pygmy chimpanzee less and often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee is also known by Bonoba (pictured) and mainly found in the Congo Basin.

The board game of Articulate, originally released in 1992, includes a circular board 500 cards with 3,000 words and a timer.

Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings of 1888 were intended to decorate the bedroom of his friend and fellow painter, Paul Gauguin.

Vermont, admitted as the 14th state in the United States in 1791, was the first addition to the original 13 colonies.

Running for a total of eight seasons after debuting on October 29 1993, Diagnosis: Murder, a mystery/medical/crime drama television series starred Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes with the help of his son, a homicide detective played by his real-life son Barry Van Dyke..

American author Harriet Beecher Stowe’s most famous novel was Uncle Tom’s Cabin published in 1852.

Buddy Richard en el Astor by Buddy Richard was the first live album ever recorded on 10 December 1969 at the Teatro Astor (Astor Theatre) in Santiago and released by a Chilean artist on the RCA Victor, Warner Music Chile label.

The first-known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 BC.

People who suffer from anosognosia deny or do not know that they have relatively significant challenges such blindness or paralysis.

The House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, won England's 'War of the Roses.'

Quotables 29 August

 

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Thursday, August 28, 2014

An Elizabeth Young Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 28 August

 

Amalienborg

Amalienborg (pictured)  is the winter residence of the Danish Royal family and is located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Chiroptophobia is the fear of Bats which being nocturnal animals, are associated with various dangers and fears of darkness, with the centuries of prejudices and accompanying myths of Dracula and Halloween.

The 1970’s TV show featuring a gravel-voiced transvestite wearing a gold boxing gloves was The Aunty Jack Show being a Logie Award–winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973.

The headquarters of confectionary manufacturer Whittaker’s is based in Porirua, New Zealand and specialises in chocolate.

American businessman and writer Howard Schultz is credited with starting the chain of coffee houses known as Starbucks in 1987.

Marmolada is the highest mountain of the Dolomite Ranges in north-eastern Italy standing at 3,343 m (10,968 ft).

The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabres, hence the name "leathernecks."

The 1870s painting The Dance Class was painted by French artist Edgar Degas who was born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas on 19 July 1834.

The country with the internet top-level domain of .id is Indonesia.

James Callaghan preceded Margaret Thatcher as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Quotables 28 August

 

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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

An Elizabeth Taylor Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 27 August

 

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The real name of American actor Rock Hudson (pictured) was Roy Harold Scherer, Jr born in Winnetka, Illinois in 1925.

Machine Head was an iconic ‘70’s album by English hard rock band Deep Purple and released in March 1972.

The Kyzylklum Desert means Red Sand in Turkic languages and spans the three countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan covering about 298,000 km2 (115,000 sq mi).

The planet Neptune has 14 known moons and is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System.

American serial political drama television series The West Wing originally broadcast from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006 was set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where the Oval Office and offices of presidential senior staff are located, during the fictional Democratic administration of Josiah Bartlet played by Martin Sheen.

Zheng He was a Hui court eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral during China's early Ming dynasty commanding expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433.

Irenology is the study of Peace and aims at the prevention, de-escalation, and solution of conflicts by peaceful means.

Ansaru is an Islamist jihadist militant organisation based in the African country of Nigeria.

The Mona Lisa by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci is an oil painting painted on poplar wood and on permanent display at The Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.

Roman Polanski won the Best Director Oscar for the 2002 movie The Pianist, a WWII true story drama about Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman.

Quotables 27 August

 

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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

An Elizabeth Montgomery Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 26 August

 

Australasian grebe

The Australasian grebe (pictured) is a bird which is a widely distributed order of freshwater diving birds, some of which visit the sea when migrating and in winter.

The Charles V Wall was built by Spain in 1540 to keep the Barbary pirates out of Gibraltar, but ended up being used by the British to keep the Spanish out in 1704.

Bai Anqi, a Chinese swimmer who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics, is nicknamed "White Angel.

Australia, France and New Zealand are the only three nations to have played in every Rugby League World Cup between 1954 to 2013.

Hank Azaria played David the boyfriend of the NBC sitcom Friends character Phoebe Buffay played by Lisa Kudrow.

The Gove Peninsula is located in the Australian territory – The Northern Territory and was named after Pilot Officer William Gove, who was killed in action in 1943.

In Dunedin, Larnach Castle, built between 1871 and 1887, is one of only two castles in New Zealand.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, a Wisdom King is the third tier of deity after Buddhas and bodhisattvas and are viewed as the guardians of Buddhism.

The two accepted plurals of walrus are Walrus and Walruses.

American actor, comedian and professional skateboarder Jason Lee starred in the American television comedy series My Name Is Earl in the title character, Earl Hickey, from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009,

Quotables 26 August

 

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Monday, August 25, 2014

An Elijah Wood Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 25 August

 

Michel Roux

French-born chef and restaurateur Michel Roux (pictured), who went on to open the first restaurant to win three Michelin stars in Britain, Le Gavroche (The Urchin) at 43 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair, London, was awarded the North Africa Security and Order Operations Commemorative Medal whilst enlisted in the French forces in Algeria.

Written by British Masters of Wine Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding in collaboration with Swiss grape geneticist Dr. José Vouillamoz, the 2012 book Wine Grapes details the history of 1,368 varieties including Zinfandel's origins as a Croatian grape known as Tribidrag.

The Limestone Coast is a popular tourist region in the Australian state of South Australia with the area supporting farming, viticulture, forestry and tourism.

In the animated movie Ice Age: Continental Drift the voice of Manny the Mammoth is voiced by American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter and voice actor, Ray Romano.

Kettering Town goalkeeper Scott Endersby is credited with being the youngest footballer to play in the FA Cup proper at the age of 15 in 1977.

Between 2002 and 2006 Cynthia McKinney, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton tried to release sealed FBI files on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the 2013 movie Carrie, the title role was played by American actress Chloe Grace Moretz.

The first modern Olympiad was held in Athens in 1896. 484 contestants from 13 nations participated.

The famous ancient Greek statue Venus de Milo, created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, is on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

English engineer, mathematician and inventor Hertha Ayrton's 1902 candidature to be the first woman elected Fellow of the Royal Society was turned down on the basis that as a married woman she had no standing in law.

Quotables 25 August

 

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Sunday, August 24, 2014

An Elia Kazan Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 24 August

 

Goran Ivanisevic Wimbledon winner 2001

Wild card entry, Goran Ivanisevic (pictured), defeated Pat Rafter to win the 2001 Wimbledon singles title.

The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. has hosted an Inaugural ball under every U.S. President since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

The area of Pest makes up approximately two-thirds of the Eastern European capital city Budapest which became Budapest a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of west-bank Buda and Óbuda with east-bank Pest.

The Mesosphere is layer of the Earth’s atmosphere directly above the stratosphere and directly below the thermosphere and is usually located at heights of about 50 kilometres (164,040 ft; 31 mi) above the Earth's surface with the mesopause usually at heights near 100 kilometres (62 mi).

The Venetian Towers in Barcelonam, modelled on the Campanile of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, were designed by architect Ramon Reventós and built in the period 1927 to 1929, as part of the redevelopment of the area for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.

At over 400 years old, a Žametovka vine growing in Maribor, Slovenia, is believed to be the world's oldest grapevine still producing fruit.

1977 British television series, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small had ninety episodes aired over two three-year runs - the 1978 to 1980 first run was based directly on Herriot's books; the second 1988 to 1990 run was filmed with original scripts.

A vexatious litigant may be barred from using the courts in common law countries because they have previously undertaken frivolous litigation claims or procedures.

The Roman Theatre at Apamea in Syria is one of the largest surviving theatres of the Roman world with a seating diameter of 139 metres (456 ft) and an estimated capacity in excess of 20,000.

Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Neil Young's 2012 autobiography Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream reveals his love for model trains.

Quotables 24 August

 

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