Saturday, May 30, 2015

Trivia Bits 30 May

 

June Avril Leaving the Moulin Rouge

 The 1892 painting of a can-can dancer June Avril Leaving the Moulin Rouge (pictured) is by French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

David Letterman's last show on NBC was on Friday, June 25, 1993 after which he moved to CBS in August 1993 to host "The Late Show with David Letterman."

The official residence of the Australian Governor General in Sydney is Admiralty House Kirribilli on the northern foreshore of Sydney Harbour and adjacent to Kirribilli House, which is the Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister.

The Apollo 11 plaque left on the Moon says, Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. / WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.

Air New Zealand’s inaugural international flight departed Auckland under the banner of Tasman Empire Airways Limited, or TEAL – the flying boat, carrying just nine passengers touched down in Sydney's Rose Bay nine hours after departure on 30 April 1940.

The surname of Roseanne Barr’s character in the sitcom Roseanne, an American sitcom that was broadcast from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, is Conner and the show revolved around the Conners, an Illinois working-class family.

Kuttanad in Kerala, India, known for its picturesque vast paddy fields and its geographical peculiarities, is the country's only region below sea level and one of the few places in the world where farming is carried out below sea level.

Founded in 1982, WAPL - Water Polo Australia Ltd - is the governing body of water polo in Australia and are responsible for administration of the national men's, women's, and junior teams, the Australian National Water Polo League, and development of the sport in Australia.

The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.

Medieval pilgrims on the Way of St James would join up at the French Basque town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port before crossing the Pyrenees.

Quotables 30 May

 

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Friday, May 29, 2015

Trivia Bits 29 May

 

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The South Australian town of Coober Pedy was the setting for the 2006 Australian drama film Opal Dream (poster pictured) starring an ensemble cast including Vince Colosimo, Jacqueline McKenzie, Christian Byers and Sapphire Boyce.

The US state of California has a coastline on San Pablo Bay a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay and is approximately 10 mi (16 km) across and has an area of approximately 90 sq mi (230 sq km).

The entrance to Port Phillip Bay is known as The Rip also known as The Heads is a dangerous stretch of water in Victoria, Australia, connecting Port Phillip and Bass Strait.

In Russian Orthodox bell ringing, bells traditionally are rung exclusively by tolling, i.e., moving only the clapper so that it strikes the side of the bell, and never by pealing, i.e. swinging the entire bell until it sounds.

The more common name for the medical term cerumen is earwax, a yellowish waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and other mammals.

The Republic of Macedonia claimed independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and is a landlocked country bordered by Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.

Popularly remembered in Greek mythology, legendary King Midas had the power to turn whatever he touched into gold.

British Peer Henry Paget styled Lord Paget and Earl of Uxbridge, known as "the dancing Marquess", inherited his peerage at the age of 23 and spent so much on clothes, jewelry and parties that he went bankrupt with debts of £544,000 at the age of 28.

A purple Valiant was driven by Bruno Bertolucci, Ted Bullpit’s son-in-law, in the Australian sitcom that screened from 1980 to 1984, Kingswood Country.

In Australian history, The Lambing Flat Riots were a series of anti-Chinese riots on the Burrangong goldfields near Young, New South Wales during which the Chinese were expelled and their camps destroyed.

Quotables 29 May

 

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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Trivia Bits 28 May

 

Edwin Starr 

The Vietnam War protest song War, originally recorded by the Temptations, was Motown artist Edwin Starr's (pictured) only number-one hit in 1970 which featured on his War & Peace album released 01 January 1970.

Dated to 1180 being constructed during Norman times as part of the Southampton town walls, The Bargate is a medieval gatehouse in the city centre of Southampton, England, and is and was used for defence, tax collection and later as a courthouse.

Founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese, the pioneering electronic music group Tangerine Dream come from Germany, have released more than one hundred albums with their name Tangerine Dream, inspired by the line tangerine trees and marmalade skies from The Beatles' track Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Ross Milinger played Jonah Baldwin, who had a teddy called Howard, in the 1993 American romantic comedy film Sleepless in Seattle.

North of Saintes Maries de la Mer, France, The Pont de Gau Ornithological Park is a 150 acre nature reserve that harbours thousands of resident and migratory birds including the formerly nearing extinction pink flamingos now well established in the area.

In the sport of curling, the target which must be touched to score is called the house, a circular target marked on the ice.

Sheep is the common name for many species of wild and domesticated ruminant mammals of the genus Ovis of the Bovidae, or cattle, family.

The Skyscraper Museum in New York City, USA was forced to close temporarily as its space was commandeered as an emergency information centre after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Published by Jonathan Cape in 1936, English children's adventure novel by Arthur Ransome Pigeon Post, winner of the first ever Carnegie Medal for children's literature, is the only Swallows and Amazons book that does not feature some sort of sailing adventure.

On 25 July 1909, Louis Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel from France to England in 36 minutes and 30 seconds.

Quotables 28 May

 

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Trivia Bits 27 May

 

 Leadbeater’s possum

The endangered Leadbeater’s possum (pictured) is only found in the wild in the mountain ash forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne.

English model, photographer and author Pattie Boyd was the first wife of both Beatle’s member George Harrison and also Eric Clapton.

In Venezuela, they are called caribes, Piranhas are freshwater fish that inhabit South American rivers and are known for their sharp teeth, powerful jaws, and voracious appetite for meat.

The California grape and wine industries were started by Count Agoston Haraszthy de Moksa, who planted Tokay, Zinfandel, and Shiras varieties from his native Hungary in Buena Vista in 1857.

The then longest running variety show on TV, the last Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV was June 6, 1971 after first telecast on June 20, 1948.

Ronald Bass, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of 1988 American drama film Rain Man, taught himself to read by the age of three.

Formed in 1889 by John D. Rockefeller as part of the Standard Oil trust, the Amoco Corporation chemical and oil company, originally Standard Oil Company (Indiana), merged with British Petroleum (BP) in 1998.

The key technology for xerography was first developed by Professor O. Vonwiller at Sydney University in 1907.

Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer Bjork was a member of the Icelandic band The Sugarcubes formed in 1986 whose 1987 single Birthday was a hit on US and UK indie stations.

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes excessive sleepiness and frequent daytime sleep attacks a disorder that from which Sleepy of Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarves suffered.

Quotables 27 May

 

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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Trivia Bits 26 May

 

Thurston Howell III

American radio, television, film, and voice actor Jim Backus’ character in the 1964 American sitcom Gilligan’s Island was Thurston Howell III (pictured) who was so wealthy that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and several changes of clothing with him for what was intended to be only a three-hour boat tour in Hawaii.

Central Fire Station at Hill Street in the Museum Planning Area, the oldest existing fire station in Singapore, had only four portable water pumps when it was completed in 1908

In Kalgoorlie is Australia's largest open cut gold mine, officially named the Fimiston Open Pit, opened in 1893, the Super Pit is more than 3.5 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide and produces over 850,000 ounces of gold annually.

In 1890 Luther Burbank crossed oxeye field daisy and Japanese daisy to produce perhaps the quintessential chrysanthemum - The Shasta Daisy.

Happy Birthday was the first song to be performed in outer space, sung by the Apollo IX astronauts on March 8, 1969.

The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and is often regarded as the national animal of China although traditionally it is the dragon.

With a gate every 19kms along its length, the so-called 'dingo fence' in Australia is the longest fence in the world, and is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China

The country of Brazil has a national flag with twenty seven stars whose position in the flag reflect the sky over Rio de Janeiro on November 15, 1889, represent the union's federated units — each star representing a specific state, plus one for the Federal District.

Decimal currency was introduced into Australia on 14 February 1966 replacing the Imperial currency of pounds, shillings and pence.

Quotables 26 May

 

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Monday, May 25, 2015

Trivia Bits 25 May

 

Paton Bridge  kiev 

The longest of the Kiev bridges, the 1,543 metres long Paton Bridge (pictured)  over the Dnieper River, constructed in 1953 was the first fully welded steel construction of such length at that time.

Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench made her professional stage debut in the 1950s, and for much of her career as a leading light of Shakespearean theatre, she and husband Michael Williams ran a household that included her daughter and three of their four parents.

Gannets are seabirds that have a maximum lifespan of up to 35 years and are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills.

Operating in Australia, The Pacific, South and South East Asia, and Africa, The Fred Hollows Foundation is a non-profit aid organization based in Australia founded in 1992 by eye surgeon Fred Hollows and focuses on treating and preventing blindness and other vision problems.

ASP is the International Air Transport Association’s abbreviation for the airport of Alice Springs.

Aborigines are the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, the first of whom reached the continent approximately 60,000 years ago and by 1788, when European occupation began, there were about 600 territorially defined groups, subsisting on hunting and gathering, with a population of 300,000 – 1 million.

The kiss that is given by the bride to the groom at the end of the wedding ceremony originates from the earliest times when the couple would actually make love for the first time under the eyes of half the village!

The musical term meno means less, as in meno mosso - less quickly.

With the tournament running from 23 June until 4 July, Australian tennis player Frank Sedgeman won the men’s singles final at Wimbledon in 1952 when he defeated Jaroslav DrobnĂ˝ (Egypt) 4–6, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2

In the 1959 hit Pink Shoe Laces, Dooley’s hat band is Purple - And a big Panama with a purple hat band – and the song was a hit for American rock and pop singer Dodie Stevens who recorded this million selling 1959 song which made her a star when she was only 13 years old.

Quotables 25 May

 

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Sunday, May 24, 2015

Trivia Bits 24 May

 

Puerto Rican Spindalis

The Puerto Rican Spindalis (pictured) is the national bird of Puerto Rico and often participates in mobbing, a behaviour in which it attacks predators to defend hatchlings.

Succeeding John Gorton as Prime Minister of Australia in 1971 was William McMahon who was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia.

Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares.

First performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds in February 1892, farce Charley's Aunt written by Brandon Thomas has been the basis of at least six different films, as well as the successful 1950s Broadway and West End musical, Where's Charley.

A seaport on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf, 223 km (139 mi) north of Adelaide, the South Australian town of Port Pirie is the site of the world’s largest lead smelter operated by Nyrstar.

On the shores of Lake Erie in Vermilion, Ohio, USA, Vermilion Lighthouse is a replica of the 1877 iron lighthouse that was forged from recycled smooth-bored cannons that had been obsolete after the American Civil War.

A line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., the iPad was first released on April 3, 2010.

The opera Tosca, an opera in three acts composed by Giacomo Puccini, premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900.

According to popular culture, the US city of New York was so nice that it was named twice.

The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bony plate shaped like a necktie in the centre of the thorax (chest) connecting to the rib bones via cartilage forming the rib cage helping to protect the lungs, heart and major blood vessels from physical trauma.

Quotables 24 May

 

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