Landlocked Malawi has a 220-man Navy, consisting of a Namacurra-class harbour patrol boat , and twelve Buccaneer Legend-type rigid-hulled inflatable launches. The nation shares Lake Malawi with Mozambique.
William Kamkwamba (born August 5, 1987) is a Malawian innovator, engineer and author. He gained fame in his country when, in 2002, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family’s house in Wimbe (20 miles east of Kasungu) using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other windmills (the tallest standing at 39 feet) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi. He tells his story at TED conventions and in his autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (great read, btw).
William, Duke of Normandy, was given a special banner by the Pope to symbolize the Holy Father’s support of William’s 1066 invasion to claim the English crown. The banner appears in the Bayeux Tapestry.
http://www.genealogy.theroyfamily.com/exhibits/turstin-1045.jpg
At age 12 in 1959, Patty Duke appeared on TV’s “The $64,000 Question” and won $32,000. Her category of expertise was spelling. In 1962 it was revealed that the game show was rigged and she was called to testify before a panel of the United States Senate. That year, she won an Oscar for her supporting role in “The Miracle Worker”.
There has only ever been one Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, given the title by his brother King George VI when he abdicated in 1936.
“Put up your dukes!”
The use of ‘dukes’ meaning ‘hands’ is first referred to in print in the mid 19th century, in both England and the USA. The American soldier Samuel E. Chamberlain used it in his memoir My Confession, Recollections of a Rogue, circa 1859:
The Hand, used for measuring the height of horses, may be the oldest continyously-used unit of measurement in the world. On surviving Ancient Egyptian cubit-rods, the royal cubit is divided into seven palms of four digits or fingers each. Five digits are equal to a hand, with thumb; and six to a closed fist. The royal cubit measured approximately 525 mm, so the length of the ancient Egyptian hand was about 94 mm. compared to today’s standardized hand of 101.6 mm…
You know what they say about the size of one’s hand…
In play:
The 1973 thoroughbred Triple Crown winning racehorse Secretariat stood about 16.2 hands (66 inches, 168 cm) tall and weighed 1,175 lb (533 kg), with a 75-inch girth.
All thoroughbred race horses celebrate their birthday on the same day. On January 1, a two-year old begins racing as a three-year old.
On January 1, 1966, a twelve-day New York City transit strike began. Ira Levin used it to incorporate real time and events in his thriller Rosemary’s Baby, having Rosemary and her husband Guy watching the walkers from their window and chanting “Walk, you people, and be quick about it.”
In England, January 1 was celebrated as the New Year festival, but from the 12th century to 1752 the year in England began on March 25.
On an episode of Criminal Minds, genius Spencer Reid, giving information on the history of Halloween, said it started with the Celtic New Year festival of Samhain, which he pronounced phonetically: SAM han.
Apparently the genius didn’t bother to google the word and get the correct pronunciation: SO-ween.
The Celtic cross is a symbol used today in many contexts, both religious and secular. The Celtic cross is like a traditional cross but with a ring around the intersection of the stem and arms. The whole cross is often decorated with ornate Gaelic patterns.
Irish legend says that the Celtic cross was first introduced by Saint Patrick, who was attempting to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. Some of these pagans worshiped the sun, so it is said that Patrick combined the Christian cross with the circular pattern of the sun as a way to associate light and life with the Christian cross in the minds of his converts.
In addition to Samhain (November 1st), the other major Celtic festivals are Imbolc (February 1st), Beltane (May 1st) and Lughnasadh (August 1st).
Boston Celtics Hall of Famer John “Hondo” Havlicek was a seventh-round selection by the Cleveland Browns in 1962, and was invited to the training camp as an offensive end – a position known nowadays as wide receiver.
It is alleged that a New York paper reported the settlement later with the headline “Sick Transit’s Glorious Monday”.
In Play:
In 1964, Cassius Clay (Later Muhammed Ali) won the world heavyweight championship with a seventh-round TKO over Sonny Liston, who failed to answer the bell.
In 1824, there was no clear winner in the Electoral College, so for the second time the President was chosen by the House of Representatives. Henry Clay threw his support behind John Q Adams, resulting in Adams becoming President, even though Andrew Jackson had won the plurality in the Electoral College.
Adams then appointed Clay as his Secretary of State, leading to allegations of a “corrupt bargain” being made by Andrew Jackson and his supporters.
Andrew Jackson’s most significant act came after his term of office. Ex-president Jackson dedicated his life to the single-minded goal of driving the Cherokees down the Trail of Tears, so white men could have the recently discovered gold on Cherokee lands in Georgia.
The only two fictional characters to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are Kermit the Frog and Big Bird, each with an individual star and one with The Muppets. Michael Jackson has two stars, one as an individual artist and one with the Jackson Five.
Thee is no scientific difference between frogs and toads. Warty species of frog tend to be called toads but the distinction between frogs and toads is based on informal naming conventions concentrating on the warts rather than taxonomy or evolutionary history