Tag Archives: blog

history, memes

December Quiz Questions

1 Comment

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

British History

  1. In what year was the Battle of Culloden?
  2. How many monarchs reigned during the 19th century?
  3. Who, in 1835, produced durable silver chloride camera negatives on paper and conceived the two-step negative-positive procedure used in most non-electronic photography up to the present?
  4. Charles Dodgson is remembered as an early photographer, but what else is he famous for?
  5. In what year was slavery abolished in the British empire?
  6. What links playing cards in 1588; windows in 1696; candles in 1709; wallpaper in 1712?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history

December 1925

1 Comment

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

5. Peter Paul Rubens’ portrait of Saint Teresa of Ávila was found in Berlin after being hidden for 200 years.

8. Born. Sammy Davis Jr, American singer, dancer, musician and actor (d.1990)

10. The 1925 Nobel Prize recipients included George Bernard Shaw (Literature).

11. Pope Pius XI promulgated Quas primas, an encyclical introducing the Feast of Christ the King.

13. Born. Dick Van Dyke, entertainer, in West Plains, Missouri

28. Born. Milton Obote, 2nd President of Uganda, in Apac (d.2005)

30. The historical epic film Ben-Hur was released in the United States.Ben-Hur chariot race

31. The first attempt at a worldwide New Year’s celebration was made via international radio. The United States sent out musical entertainment and New Year’s greetings from the consuls general of various foreign countries in New York. Evening listeners for participating stations across the United States heard a radio announcer in London say, “This is 2LO calling America and sending New Year’s greetings. We have received word that the American stations are broadcasting this program and we hope that it is being relayed successfully.”

history

What Happened in 1825

1 Comment

So here’s our last instalment of things that happened in ..25 years of yore.

Some Notable Events in 1825

9 February. After no presidential candidate receives a majority of United States Electoral College votes following the 1824 election, the House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President.

24 February. Died. Thomas Bowdler, English physician responsible for the Family Shakespeare and other emasculated works (b.1754).

4 March. John Quincy Adams is sworn in as the sixth President of the United States.

May. The Australian city of Brisbane is founded.

4 May. Born. Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (d.1895).

7 May. Died. Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (b.1750).

26 May. Two Unitarian Christian bodies, the American Unitarian Association, and the British and Foreign Unitarian Association are founded, coincidentally, on the same date.

6 July. A new Combinations of Workmen Act in the UK makes trades unions legal according to narrowly defined principles.

6 August. Bolivia gains its independence from Spain as a replublic at the instigation of Simón Bolivar.

18 August. Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor issues a £300,000 loan with 2.5% interest, through the London bank of Thomas Jenkins & Company, for the fictitious Central American republic of Poyais. His actions lead to the Panic of 1825, the first modern stock market crash, in England.

27 September. The world’s first modern railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opens in England.Stockton and Darlington Railway

25 October. Born. Johann Strauss, Junior, Austrian composer (d.1899).

26 October. The Erie Canal opens, providing passage from Albany, New York to Buffalo and Lake Erie.

Unknown Date. Hans Christian Ørsted reduces aluminium chloride to produce metallic aluminium.

Unknown Date. The first horse-drawn omnibuses established in London.

Unknown Date. London becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from Beijing.

.

memes, science

November Quiz Answers

1 Comment

Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Physical Science & Mathematics

  1. What are the three states of matter? Solid, liquid and gas
  2. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? Marie Curie
  3. Who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun? Nicolaus Copernicus
  4. Which is the largest planet in the solar system? Jupiter
  5. In mathematics, what is the mathematical constant approximately equal to 3.14159 known as? Pi
  6. What subatomic particle has its name taken from James Joyce’s work Finnegans Wake? Quark

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

1 Comment

Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat (opening)
TS Eliot

There’s a whisper down the line at 11.39
When the Night Mail’s ready to depart,
Saying “Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
We must find him or the train can’t start.”
All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster’s daughters
They are searching high and low,
Saying “Skimble where is Skimble for unless he’s very nimble
Then the Night Mail just can’t go.”
At 11.42 then the signal’s nearly due
And the passengers are frantic to a man –
Then Skimble will appear and he’ll saunter to the rear:
He’s been busy in the luggage van!

He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
And the signal goes “All Clear!”
And we’re off at last for the northern part
Of the Northern Hemisphere!

Find this poem online at Famous Poets and Poems

amusements, memes

Ten Things

2 Comments

This year our Ten Things column each month is alternating between composers and artists a century at a time from pre-1500 to 20th century. As always, there’s no guarantee you will have heard of them all!

Ten Composers Born in 20th Century

  1. Philip Glass
  2. John Cage
  3. Olivier Messian
    Olivier Messian
  4. György Ligeti
  5. John Rutter
  6. Judith Weir
  7. Constant Lambert
  8. Benjamin Britten
  9. Dmitri Shostakovich
  10. Luciano Berio