Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Jacques Clément
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Henry Moore
Henry Moore was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. He is best known for his reclining figures and his monumental works inspired by ancient Mexican carvings and African tribal masks. His reclining figures, mother and child tableaux, and helmet head pieces remain his most recognizable works.
Monday, July 29, 2024
Highest percentage population of foreign-born residents
Vatican City has 100% foreign-born residents, but leaving that out, the countries with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents are UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait. Immigrants account for 88% of UAE's population, as of 2017.
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Miguel Indurain
Miguel Induráin is a Spanish cyclist who has won the Tour de France five times, the fourth person to do so. He is the only person to have won the titles consecutively, 1991-1995. His nickname is the "Big Mig."
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Friday, July 26, 2024
The Rainbow
The Rainbow is a 1915 novel by D.H. Lawrence which tells the story of three generations of an English family in the Midlands. It was banned in Britain for its frank treatment of sexuality. Women in Love was a sequel to this novel.
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Battle Of Lundy's Lane
The Battle of Lundy's Lane was the bloodiest battle of the War of 1813. It took place a mile west of Niagara Falls in 1814. Neither side won a decisive victory, but the Americans' advance into Canada was and they had to retreat to Ft. Erie. The American general Winfield Scott was wounded. There is a memorial in Drummond Hill Cemetery, Ontario.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
The Gross Clinic
The Gross Clinic is one of the best known works by Thomas Eakins (1844-1916). He was an American painter who was a standard bearer for the Realism movement. In the painting is depicted Dr. Samuel D. Gross, a teacher and surgeon at the Jefferson Medical
College in Philadelphia, engaged in a teaching demonstration of a
surgical procedure for the medical students seated behind him. Five other doctors operate on a patient's infected thigh. The 1875 painting was considered extreme and controversial.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Pratibha Patil
Pratibha Patil was elected President of India in 2007, becoming the first woman president, and served until 2012. Patil’s presidency was relatively quiet, but it was not without controversy, especially for her use of government funds. She was criticized for the large number of trips she took overseas, often accompanied by relatives.
Monday, July 22, 2024
Ocarina
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Tar Heel
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Brazil's geography
The northernmost point of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to its own southernmost points. Also, Brazil's easternmost point is closer to Senegal than it is its own westernmost point.
Friday, July 19, 2024
Len Elmore
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Potiphar
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Harris Treaty
The Harris Treaty was a 1958 agreement that provided for the opening of five ports to U.S. trade, in addition to those opened in 1854 as a result of the Treaty of Kanagawa; it also exempted U.S. citizens living in the ports from the jurisdiction of Japanese law, guaranteed them religious freedom, and arranged for diplomatic representation and a tariff agreement between the United States and Japan.
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Picasso's 90th birthday
In October 1971, on the occasion of Picasso's 90th birthday, a selection
of works from the French public collections was presented in the Grande
Galerie du Louvre. This may mark the first time a living artist's work was displayed in the Grand Gallery, but sources are not entirely reputable.
Monday, July 15, 2024
White Night Riots
The White Night riots were a series of clashes that occurred between gay activists and citizens and the violent, homophobic San Francisco police. After the lenient sentence given to Dan White for the assassination of Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone, gay activists marched to city hall and repulsed police trying to repel them, eventually burning several squad cars. In retaliation and against their chief's orders, SF police went to the Castro district and attacked civilians there.
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Twinkie Defense
The "Twinkie Defense" was first used by Dan White, the murderer of San Francisco politician Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone, suggesting that his diet of Coke and junk food was a symptom and evidence of his depression, which implied his irrational mind at the time, despite his clear premeditation of the attacks. Later this phrase was used to imply a defense of a sugar high that causes irrational actions, bot stands as a symptom of depressed thinking. White was sentenced to eight years and later killed himself.
Saturday, July 13, 2024
War Of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession lasted from 1701 to 1714. It arose out of the disputed succession to the throne of Spain following the death of the childless Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. The war was primarily a struggle to determine whether the vast possessions of the Spanish Empire should pass to the House of Bourbon or to the House of Habsburg, both of which had dynastic claims, or whether they should be partitioned to preserve the balance of power in Europe. Philip of Anjou, he grandson of Louis XIV, the king of France, was the Bourbon claimant. England, Holland, the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia decided to support Archduke Charles, the younger son of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I.
Friday, July 12, 2024
Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. This occurred nine months before the Rosa Parks case, but Colvin's wasn't widely publicized because she was an unmarried pregnant teen. She was one of four plaintiffs in Browder vs. Gayle, which which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional.
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Svalbard
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe. It lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. No one is required to have a visa or residence permit on Svalbard. Regardless of citizenship, persons can live and work in Svalbard indefinitely. The Svalbard Treaty grants treaty nationals equal right of abode as Norwegian nationals. The sun doesn't set for five months in summer. It is the home of the Global Seed Vault.