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.

Aubrey holes

The thing I learned today is that Aubrey holes, named after a 17th-century antiquarian, are 56 cremation pits that line the inside ring of Stonehenge. It is possible that their placement was used for astronomic calculations.

John O'Groats

The thing I learned today is that John O'Groats is a village on the northeast coast of Scotland.  It is mentioned in the phrase "from Land's End to John O'Groats," meaning a great distance, as the distance between those two towns (875 miles) is the longest distance between two inhabited points in the UK.  It is named for Jan de Groote, a Dutchman who settled there.

The Shard

The thing I learned today is that Europe's tallest building as of June, 2014, is called the Shard, named for its resemblance to a shard of glass. Completed in November, 2012, it is located in London and is commercial real estate. 

The Securitate

The thing I learned today is that the Securitate (from Department of State Security, or DSS) was the brutal secret police of Communist Romania from 1948 to 1991.

The kuna

The thing I learned today is that the unit of currency of Croatia is the kuna.  As of mid-2014, the kuna is worth about one-fifth of a dollar.  The word kuna means "marten" in Croatian!

The Iskar River is the longest in Bulgaria, at 230 miles. A tributary of the Danube, it flows near eastern Sofia, the capital.

Mary I of England, the daughter of Catharine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, was known as 'Bloody Mary' Tudor for her persecution of Protestants.

Bonn, the capital of West Germany until 1990, is located on the Rhine river.

Frederic Chopin Airport, located in Warsaw and named after its resident composer (who left the city in 1831, never to return). It was formerly called Okecie Airport. It is the busiest airport in Poland.

SHAPE

SHAPE is Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, the military headquarters of NATO, located in Casteau, near Mons, Belgium.  SHAPE's commander is titled Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), and is always a U.S. four-star general officer or flag officer who also serves as Commander, U.S. European Command.

Josef Hoop

Franz Josef Hoop was a diplomat and political figure from Liechtenstein who served as Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 1928 to 1945. Hoop is best known for his efforts to retain Liechtenstein's neutrality and independence during World War II. Serving for seventeen years, he is the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history.

The Blorenge, which rhymes with orange, is an 1,840-foot hill in Wales.

Bohemia is a historical region that occupies about 2/3 of the present-day Czech Republic. So if you're living a hedonistic, bohemian lifestyle, you should Czech yourself before you wreck yourself.

King Ine, the 8th century ruler of Wessex, is known for the code of laws he issued, the first Anglo-Saxon royal laws after King Aetherbert of Kent's earth 7th century law. They were known as the Dooms of King Ine, from the Old English word for judgement.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Basque Country, Spain, was designed by Frank Gehry. It opened in 1997 and features lots of curved surfaces. In 2007 it was chosen as one of the Twelve Treasures of Spain.

The Storting is the parliament of Norway, which was first constituted in 1814.

A mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple time named after a region and sub-ethnic group, the Mazurs from Mazuria.

Aldo Moro was a two-time Prime Minister of Italy who was kidnapped off the streets of Rome by the Red Brigades in 1978 and killed by them.

Aberdeen is known as "The Granite City" because of the amount of the rock found in the vicinity.