New York was called New Amsterdam by the Dutch who settled there in the 1620s at the southern tip of Manhattan island. The British changed its name to New York in 1664 when they took control.
There is another Amsterdam in New York state settled by Dutch immigrants in 1710, originally named Veedersburgh, but Angl-oAmerican residents changed the name of the city to Amsterdam nearly a century later.
A player who scores 100 runs in cricket is said to have made a ‘century’ or ‘ton’. Losing one’s wicket on a score of 99 is considered very unfortunate.
In Australian cricket there is particular superstition attached to the score of 87, known as ‘the devil’s number’. To be dismissed at 13 runs from a century is most unlucky.
In the 1957 Nevil Shute novel On the Beach, the captain of the submarine USS Scorpion places himself under command of the Royal Australian Navy when it appears that no higher echelon of the U.S. Navy survived World War III.
The actual USS Scorpion (SSN-589, Skipjack class) was one of two US Navy nuclear submarines to be lost at sea, along with USS Thresher (SSN-593, Thresher class). The Thresher class was later renamed the Permit class, after its second example, to retire the unlucky name. The Thresher losses led the Navy to implement the comprehensive SUBSAFE program, but this was not implemented on Scorpion due to mission pressures.
The Scorpion King is a shadowy figure in ancient Egyptian history, who may have been the first king in Egypt, in the 32nd century BC.
Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a main character in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West, in which he is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven and being imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha, he later accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India.
The highest mountain on territory claimed by Australia is Mount McClintock (3,490m) in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Mawson Peak (2,475m) on Heard Island is the highest mountain on undisputed Australian territory.
The highest currently-serving uniformed officer of the Royal Australian Navy is a vice admiral. The RAN works closely with the U.S. and NATO.
Akira Kurosawa’s movie Ran, an adaptation in part of King Lear, was the most expensive Japanese production at the time it was made.
The US$465,000 Lexus LFA Nurburgring is the most expensive Japanese car ever.
Weston Dressler, a slot back and former star with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, was recently cut by the Kansas City Chiefs. He turned down an offer from the Ottawa RedBlacks which would have made him the most expensive non-QB player in the CFL, opting instead to return to the Riders for a lower salary, just in time for the Labour Day Classic, tomorrow.
The Labour Day public holiday in NSW (‘Eight Hour Day’) falls on the first Monday in October. As the holiday long weekend also usually brings the commencement of daylight saving, it is considered an unofficial start to summer.
October was the eighth month of the year, which originally started after the end of winter, which was not divided into months. In the early Roman period, the monthless winter became January and February, which were added to the calendar at the beginning, pushing October down to the tenth month.
In Ancient Rome Janus was the god of doors, gateways, beginnings and transitions. The Romans named the month January in his honour.
The doors in the temple of Janus were kept open in times of war and were closed in times of peace. Roman history records only three occasions on which the doors were closed. The most significant of these was after the battle of Actium, which ushered in the Pax Augusta.
Janus was the two-faced god, hence his association with endings, beginnings and transitions, since he could look forward and backwards at the same time.
The Latin word for door is ianua, clearly related to the god Janus. It has given rise to the English term ‘janitor’.
In 1985’s The Breakfast Club, the janitor, Carl Reed’s picture is seen on the wall as “Man of the Year” in 1969
The Gregorian calendar reform of 1582 altered the mean length of the calendar year from 365.25 days (1 leap day in every 4 years) to 365.2425 days (97 leap days in every 400 years). This gave a much closer approximation to the actual length of the mean tropical year.
According to the IERS Bulletin of 2012 July 07, leap seconds, if needed, are introduced in UTC at the end of June or December.
The last leap second was introduced in UTC on 2012 June 30.
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html
ETA: IERS = INTERNATIONAL EARTH ROTATION AND REFERENCE SYSTEMS SERVICE