The New Zealand parliament buildings in Wellington were strengthened and refurbished from 1992-1995 with the aim of making them able to withstand an earthquake of up to 7.5 on the Richter Scale. A system of base isolation was devised to separate Parliament House and the Parliamentary Library from their original foundations and place them on lead-rubber bearings.
General Arthur Wellesley commanded the British forces against Napoleon during the Peninsular War (1808-1813) against Napoleon. With the help of George Scoville – who broke Napoleon’s supposedly unbreakable code – he defeated the French to great acclaim and was given the title “Duke of Wellington.”
One reason for the spread of the misconception that Napoleon was unusually short is because when superstar Little Person “General Tom Thumb” (ne’ Charles Stratton) was in London he brought the house down at a reception when he met the elderly Duke of Wellington while dressed as Napoleon. Photographs and drawings of Thumb as Napoleon (such as this one) were widely circulated.
Charles Sherwood Stratton was born in Bridgeport, CT, he died in Bridgeport, CT, and he is buried in Bridgeport, CT’s Mountain Grove Cemetery.
Rookwood Cemetery is situated about 17 km west of the Sydney CBD. It is said to be the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere, and covers an area of 286 hectares. It is estimated that about one million people have been buried at Rookwood.
Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Queens, New York City, NY. With about 3 million burials, it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States; it is also one of the oldest cemeteries in the United States. It covers 365 acres, which converts to 147.7 hectares - nowhere near as big as the Aussie’s Rookwood Cemetery.
The name Calvary is a transliteration of the Latin word calvaria, as used in the Vulgate version of the Bible. It has the same meaning as the Greek word *κρανιον *(kranion), namely a ‘skull’.
Martin Luther translated the bible into German in 1534 (including the Apocrypha). His New Testament translation was completed by 1522. Luther did not translate from the Latin Vulgate, for that would have been a translation of a translation, but rather he translated from the Greek New Testament, known as Textus Receptus. Martin Luther continued refining the German translation up until his death in 1546. Luther did work on the version that was printed the year of his death.
Martin Bryant (born 7 May 1967) is an Australian mass murderer who pleaded guilty to murdering 35 people and injuring 23 others in the Port Arthur massacre, a shooting spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania on 28 April 1996. He is currently serving 35 life sentences plus 1,035 years without parole in the psychiatric wing of Risdon Prison in Hobart, Tasmania.
Bryant’s rampage held the record as the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman until 2011 when Anders Breivik shot and killed 69 people at a summer camp on a Norwegian island following his killing of 8 others in a car bombing in Oslo.
NFL running back Cullen Bryant (William Cullen Bryant) scored the first-ever touchdown for the Rams (Los Angeles, or St. Louis, or even Cleveland for that matter) when in Super Bowl XIV his 1-yard 1st quarter TD gave the Rams an early 7-3 lead over the eventual winners, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cullen Bryant was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1951. He died of natural causes at the young age of 58, in 2009.
Louis XIV was King of France for 72 years and 110 days, one of the longest reigns in history. As his son and grandson had both predeceased him, he was succeeded by his five-year old great-grandson, Louis XV.
Louis XV (reigned 1715 - 1774) was the last French King of Quebec and other Canadian territories.
The Man in the Iron Mask, Eustache Dauger, died during the reign of Louis XIV.
The Église Saint Eustache is a magnificent Gothic church in the first arrondissement in Paris, built between 1532 and 1632. It was the church where Louis XIV took his first communion, and also where the requiem for Mozart’s mother was held.
Gothic is an extinct East Germanic language. It does not have any descendants in modern languages. However, JRR Tolkein recited the Lord’s Prayer in Gothic when first confronted with a tape recorder by an interviewer.
During her trial for heresy, which began 21 Febrary 1431, Jeanne d’Arc, la Pucelle d’Orléans, was repeatedly asked to recite the Lord’s Prayer, and repeatedly answered that she waould only if the Bishop heard her in confession. One of the main charges against Jeanne was her wearing of men’s clothing, which she needed in prison to avoid rape by her jailers. On 30 May 1431 she was burned at the stake, the primary charge being her apparel.
Mark Twain’s last novel, completed when he was 61 years old, was Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte, recounts the life of Joan of Arc.
Jeanne d’Arc was canonised on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. She is the patron saint of France.
The patron saint of Australia is Our Lady Help of Christians.
Besides Joan of Arc, patron saints of France include Martin of Tours, Saint Remigius, and Thérèse of Lisieux.
The story of Joan, the young peasant girl who saved France, is one of the most amazing true stories in all of history. Put at the head of the French army (though originally probably intended as a sort of “mascot”), she showed great skill as a strategician, insisted on fighting on after gravely wounded by an arrow, and inspired the French soldiers with her magnificent faith and charisma. Although Orléans had been under siege for more than six months, the English were driven off a week after Joan the Maid arrived.
Faith in Joan built from a prophecy making the rounds that a virgin from Lorraine would save France. The original source of this prophecy is unclear; it has been attributed to Merlin but doesn’t appear in Monmouth’s writing.