Sunflower is the only flower with flower in its name! “Helianthus” is the scientific name of Sunflower, Helia for Sun and Anthus for Flower. Sunflowers are the symbol of faith, loyalty and adoration. They follow the movement of the sun across the sky from east to west, and this process is known as heliotropism. A sunflower that I had (from a McDonald’s giveaway in 1974) grew 1½ inches a day for a few days.
Twilight is the time between day and night when there is light outside, but the Sun is below the horizon.
There are three types of twilight:
Civil twilight
Nautical twilight
Astronomical twilight
I have to admit that I did not know this. So I Googled it, and this is what I found:
Civil twilight is the brightest form of twilight. As the sun sets, it transitions to nautical twilight, and then to astronomical twilight. In the morning, the process is reversed.
The length of twilight depends on latitude. Equatorial and tropical regions will have shorter periods of twilight than locations in higher latitudes. In fact, in the days before an equinox, a polar region will experience a period of civil twilight that lasts for a few days.
The United Kingdom has a legally enforced “lighting-up time”, defined as from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise, during which all motor vehicles on unlit public roads (except if parked) must use their headlights. It was enforced nationally starting from 1907 and included hose-drawn carts and bicycles; by the 1920s, service stations would display cardboard clock-face displays, set to the lighting-up time for the day.
Lighting-up times were formerly commonly displayed in national and local newspapers in the UK and announced on national and local radio stations, but with the spread of street lighting this is no longer done.
On the evening of the Fifth of June, 1944, Radio Londres broadcast the following message:
Within hours over 150,000 Anglophone soldiers had parachuted into, or landed on the beaches of, Normandy.
In Tom Clancy’s novel Red Storm Rising, Iceland is seized by the Soviet Union with a division of paratroopers, but the soldiers come by sea and not by air.
In contrast to his son’s expensive war, G.H.W. Bush’s Desert Storm operation expended less than $3 billion in air-related ordnance. This included about 300 Tomahawk missiles at $2.8 million a pop and over 5000 Maverick air-to-surface missile, with prices ranging from $64,000 for the cheap AGM-65B up to $269,000 for the AGB-65G.
Operation Tomahawk was an airborne military operation by the 187th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) as part of Operation Courageous in the Korean War. Operation Courageous was designed to trap large numbers of Chinese and North Korean troops between the Han and Imjin Rivers north of Seoul, opposite the South Korean I Corps. Jumping from over a hundred C-119 Flying Boxcar transport aircraft, the team acheived it’s objectives, mostly due to the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army having retreated before they got there.
Operation Pedro (or Peter) Pan was a program that ran from 1960 to 1962 and airlifted more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children to the U.S. Their parents were anxious to avoid potential indoctrination by Fidel Castro’s Cuban government; rumors also stated that children would be taken from their parents and sent to work camps in the Soviet Union. The Catholic Welfare Bureau and the U.S. State Department spearheaded the program and placed children in foster homes or temporary camps. Some were reunited with family in the U.S., some weren’t, and most never went back to Cuba.
The U.S. Secretary of State is responsible for accepting the resignations of top Federal officials. When President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August 1974, he addressed his resignation letter to then-Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger.
Every Canadian Prime Minister except Macdonald and Thompson has resigned the office. (Macdonald and Thompson died in office. )
That’s the way it is supposed to be. The Canadian prime minister serves at Her Majesty’s pleasure, meaning the post does not have a fixed term. Once appointed and sworn in by the governor general, the prime minister remains in office until he or she resigns, is dismissed, or dies.
York Minster is the common name for the Cathedral of York, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The cathedral was declared complete and consecrated in 1472,
Some residents of York argued that the recently discovered bones of Richard III should be re-interred in York Minster, since he was a member of the Yorkist family.
Instead, he was re-interred in Leicester Cathedral, not far from where he had been lying for over 500 years.
In 2016, cremation overtook interment the most common method of “body disposal” in the U.S. One cremation emits as much carbon dioxide as a 1,000-mile car trip.
According to this article, the state of Washington has the highest rate of cremation, at 76.4 percent. Second is Nevada at 75.6 percent. The state with the lowest rate is Mississippi, at 20.9 percent.
By contrast, in Japan 99% of the dead are cremated.
A number of techniques have been devised to overcome the problem of the ashes (“cremains”) of pilots who have “gone West” being drawn back into the cockpits of airplanes. Often an act that is intended as graceful and tasteful ends with the use of a vacuum cleaner.
Walter Mondale was the first Vice President of the United States to have an office in the West Wing. His predecessors had offices in the Old Executive Office Building, at the U.S. Capitol (where the Vice President has always had a ceremonial office in his role as President of the Senate) or in their private homes or apartments.
The word “Capitol” is of uncertain origin.
The US Capitol is believed to have been named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, which was the site of the most important temple to Jupiter, the Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini (“Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitoline”). The Romans evidently believed in using the best butter when describing Jove.
However, it is not clear why the Capitoline Hill in Rome is so named.
One theory is that it reflects that Jupiter was the head of the gods.
Another theory refers to the ancient legend that when the Romans were building the first temple to Jupiter on the Hill, somewhere around the 6th century BC, they uncovered an old skull (“caput” for a “head”).
So maybe the US Capitol Hill is ultimately named after millennial old human remains. Or a pagan god.
The Capitoline is one of the legendary Seven Hills of Rome. In imitation of sorts, Boston originally was claimed to be the city of three hills, although they’re hardly distinguishable today. The name of Tremont Street downtown remains. Beacon Hill was largely taken down for landfill, Mount Vernon Hill is hidden by buildings, and Pemberton Hill no longer exists either. Some accounts list five hills, including Copp’s Hill and Fort Hill, which are also now landfill.