A city proper is a locality defined according to legal or political boundaries and an administratively recognised urban status that is usually characterised by some form of local government. Cities proper and their boundaries and population data may not include suburbs.
According to this, the 4 largest cities in the world are in Asia: Shanghai, Karachi, Beijing, and Delhi. Lagos, the 5th largest, is in Africa. São Paulo is the 12th largest city in the world, and the largest in South America. Mexico City is the 19th largest in the world, and the largest in North America. London, at 22, is the largest in Europe.
In response to an acquaintance complaining of being tired of living in London, Samuel Johnson commented: “Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
The City of London has a smaller population than Spearfish,South Dakota. Three different numbers are given for various interpretations of Urban, Greater and Metropolitan London, with only the largest of those exceeding the legitimate city-proper populations of Istanbul and Moscow, which are now the two largest cities in Europe. Arguably, a small fraction of Istanbul’s population lives in Asia, but in any case, to call London the largest city in Europe requires a pre-meditated attempt to justify calling it the largest.
The German V-1 flying bomb, nicknamed the ‘buzz bomb’ by Allied forces, was an early cruise missile used in WWII. The first V-1 attack was launched on London on 13 June 1944, one week after D-Day. At its peak use over 100 buzz bombs a day were launched by the Germans. An approximate total of 12,000 V-1s were launched between 13 June 1944 and 29 March 1945 when the last usable V-1 site was overrun by Allied forces - an overall average of over 40 per day during that time span.
There is V-1 buzz bomb displayed in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
The onomatopoeic word “buzz” seems first to have been used by Shakespeare, in a context in which it is interpreted to be the sound of Hamlet sleeping, and failing to be fully aroused from sleep when told that a group of actors have arrived. Corresponding roughly to a snoring yawn.
The words “hack” (hired literary drudge) and "hackneyed (trite due to overuse) both derive from “hackney” (work horse, or to ride such a horse). “Hackney” in turn derives from a place near London where horses were kept several centuries ago. That place-name is of uncertain origin, although the “-ey” derives from the fact that Hackney once was a sort of island in marshy terrain.
Indeed, Dolly Parton is the most honored female country performer of all time. Achieving 25 RIAA certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts, a record for a female artist. She has 41 career top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career charted singles over the past 40 years.
She also recently denounced North Carolina’s “bathroom bill,” stating “I just know if I have to pee I’m gonna pee. I don’t care where it’s gonna be.”
Dolly Parton’s first crush was on Johnny Cash. She first laid eyes on the Man in Black as a young teen singing at Nashville’s Grand Ole’ Opry. “I was sitting in the audience and that’s when I first knew about sex appeal,” Parton told Nightline. “He had this tick when he moved his shoulder… and it was still sexy. It still got to me.”
The Bayeux tapestry, an embroidered cloth 230 ft long and 20 in tall, was created around 1070 and depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It shows Halley’s comet and is thought to be the first known depiction of the comet.
Predicting astronomical events has been a theme of the development of mathematical techniques for thousands of years.
Thales supposedly predicted a solar eclipse. The French mathematician Alexis Clairaut was called “la nouvelle Thales” when he predicted a sighting of Halley’s Comet. The young Carl Gauss achieved great fame by predicting where the first observed asteroid, Ceres, could be sighted when it re-emerged from the glare of the Sun.
On 1 March 1504, there was a total lunar eclipse. Christopher Columbus, stranded with his crew on Jamaica but armed with an almanac, predicted that eclipse, awing the natives and saving his voyage.
The Danag is an ancient Philippines vampire that is initially believed to have been a good friend to humans before it got a taste of their blood and decided to feast upon them. It is believed that the Danag helped Filipinos to cultivate taro before eventually turning on them. The story goes that a woman one day accidentally cut her finger and the Danag licked her blood. Unfortunately, it decided that it liked the taste of blood and proceeded to suck the woman’s body dry.