A Lady Writing

A Lady Writing is a 1665 painting by Johannes Vermeer.  He is particularly renowned for making masterful use of light in his work. Almost all his paintings are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft; they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women.  He died poor and not very well known, and only 35 known works are attributed to him.

Arts in the Olympics

At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, poetry was an official event.  Modern history's first written work to win an Olympic gold medal was "Ode to Sport," a prose poem by Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach.  There were also medals in sculpture, painting, and music.  Hilariously, Hohrod and Eschbach did not exist; they were pseudonyms for Pierre de Coubertin, the man who founded the modern Olympics.  The 1948 London Olympics were the final artistic competitions at the games.

Upper Volta

Burkina Faso gained full independence from France on August 5, 1960, as Upper Volta.  It changed its name to Burkina Faso in 1984.

Ludlow Massacre

The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War.  Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people were killed, including miners' wives and children.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer best known for his work Images à la sauvette ("The Decisive Moment"), and his philosophy that there is an elusive instant when, with brilliant clarity, the appearance of the subject reveals in its essence the significance of the event of which it is a part

Cassini map

The Cassini Map or Academy's Map is the first topographic and geometric map made of the Kingdom of France as a whole. It was compiled by the Cassini family, mainly César-François Cassini (Cassini III) and his son Jean-Dominique Cassini (Cassini IV) in the 1700s.  The map was, for the time, a real innovation and a decisive technical advance. It is the first map to be based on a geodesic triangulation. Four generations of the Cassini carried out the work, taking more than 6 decades to complete.  Poor Cassini IV was imprisoned by the National Assembly for being royalist, but they still availed themselves of his map.

Amish beards

The distinctive Amish chinbeard comes from a command in Leviticus 19:27, but the lack of mustache is probably derived from an intention to avoid association with the military connotations of a mustache prevalent in British and German armies of the late 19th century.

Jacques Clément

Jacques Clément was a Jacobin friar who assassinated Henry III of France in 1589 by stabbing him.  He did this in retaliation for Henry III's ordering the killing of Henri I, the Duke of Guise, by his bodyguard, the Forty-Five.

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.

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.

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."

Fanon

A fanon is a striped scarf or cape worn by Eastern bishops.  The Pope has his own Papal fanon, white with gold stripes.  It can also mean the tabs hanging down from a bishop's mitre.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ocarina

An ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument shaped like a gourd.Its name comes from the Italian for "little goose." In America it is sometimes known as "sweet potato" or "potato flute."

Tar Heel

Tar Heel is a nickname applied to the state and inhabitants of North Carolina, as well as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's athletic teams. The origin of the name is unknown and disputed, but most experts believe its roots come from the fact that tar, pitch and turpentine created from the pine forests were one of North Carolina's most important exports early in the state's history. North Carolina was nicknamed the "Tar and Turpentine State" because of this industry.

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.

Len Elmore

Leonard Elmore was an NBA player for five different teams 1974-84, mostly with the Indiana Pacers, later an announcer. Elmore received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1987 and began his law career as a prosecutor, serving as an Assistant DA in Brooklyn.  Not to be confused with Elmore Leonard!