The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, better known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. It included tribal peoples from American territories, including Apaches from the Arizona territory and Tlingit from what was then called the Alaska district, put on display in so-called “living exhibits” that recreated their native villages.
The largest “living exhibit” was the Philippine village, a 47-acre site that for seven months in 1904 housed more than 1,000 Filipinos from at least 10 different ethnic groups. The biggest crowd-drawers were the so-called primitive tribes – especially the Igorots, whose appeal lay in their custom of eating dog. While they usually ate dog only on rare ceremonial occasions, during the fair, they were fed the animals on a daily basis.
Mexico City was the third North American city to host the summer Olympics, in 1968, after St. Louis in 1904 and Los Angeles in 1932. It was a controversial choice because of the city’s high altitude, 7,200 ft / 2,200m. The altitude was an advantage in explosive events such as short-distance running, jumping, throwing and weightlifting; the long jump record set by Bob Beamon stood for 23 years and is still the second best legal jump in history. However, the thin air was disastrous for endurance events; the winning marathon time was 10 minutes longer than in previous Olympics, and 18 out of 75 contestants did not finish.
Kenyan distance runner Eliud Kipchoge currently holds the official world record for the men’s marathon, at 2 hours, 1 minute, 39 seconds, set at the 2018 Berlin Marathon.
Kipchoge has actually run the marathon distance in a faster time – in 2017, he ran a 2:00:25, in a “Breaking2” event sponsored by Nike on the Monza auto racing track in Italy. However, as that event featured techniques, such as alternating pace runners, which are not sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations, it was not recognized as an official world record.
In 1982 Neil Young was recording an album that would become “Trans”, a techno-rock album inspired by the band Devo. An extensive tour preceded the release of the album. On this tour, in the city of Berlin, he and his band performed a song called “After Berlin”, which was intended for the new album. It didn’t make the final track listing. He only performed it that one time, and this performance can be seen on his VHS/DVD release “Neil Young in Berlin”.
Just like a young boy running down the road
I’m singing out the same old song
I can’t go back the way I used to go
The road goes on and on
Won’t you help me make my way on home
After Berlin.
The third solo album released by Lou Reed was called Berlin. It was a ‘concept’ album, telling the story of a young couple’s struggle with drug addiction and abuse. Upon its release in 1973, it was not well received. (Rolling Stone called it a ‘disaster.’)
But in 2012, the album was ranked 344 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Lyricist Yip Harburg had never been in Paris before writing the words of the song “April in Paris” and did not know that April weather there is usually cold and rainy.
Christian churches calculate Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox. The earliest possible Easter date in any year is therefore March 22. The latest possible Easter date in any year is April 25.
The word “Easter” is derived from the pagan holiday of Eostara, which occured at the vernal equinox, which was the middle of the Pagan Year. The beginning of Spring was Imbolc, celebrated on February 1st, and beginning of summer was Beltane, celebrated on May 1st.
Ēostre, Eostara, or Ostara was a Germanic goddess who, in some languages, is the namesake of the festival of Easter. The Old English Ēostre continues into modern English as Easter and whose root word means ‘to shine’. The modern English word east also derives from this root.
One of the reasons Jehovah’s Witnesses give for not celebrating Easter is that it is based on a pagan holiday. They give the same reason for not celebrating the winter solstice holiday of Christmas, though the original Celtic pagans had no winter solstice holiday, later borrowing Yule from the Norse pagans.
The Christian denomination known as Jehovah’s Witnesses traces its origins to the 1870s Bible Students Movement. The name was adopted in 1931 to distinguish themselves from other Bible Student groups. Jehovah’s Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature such as ‘The Watchtower’ and ‘Awake!’, and for refusing military service and blood transfusions.
The Tetragrammaton “YHWH” or הוה in Hebrew, is the four-letter biblical name of the God of Israel. While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form yahweh is now accepted almost universally. But some construe it as Jehovah.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s second oldest university. It was established in 1918 during the Ottoman Empire, 30 years before the State of Israel, and 6 years after the Technion, which is the oldest university in the country.
Of the three countries on the island of Great Britain, Wales is the smallest, with an area of 8,005 square miles. In comparison, England’s area is 50,337 square miles and Scotland’s is 30,415 square miles.
Patagonian Welsh (Welsh: Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a variety of Welsh language spoken in Y Wladfa, the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, Argentina, specifically in the province of Chubut. The Welsh people first arrived in Patagonia in 1865. They had migrated to protect their native Welsh culture and language, which they considered to be threatened in their native Wales.
The highest point in Argentina is a mountain called Aconcagua, the summit of which is 22,831 ft above sea level. This is the highest mountain outside of Asia, and is also the highest point in both the Southern and Western hemispheres.
The lowest point in Argentina is Laguna del Carbón, which is a salt lake that is 344 feet below sea level. This is also the lowest point in both the Southern and Western hemispheres.
Although Aconcagua is South America’s highest peak as measured from sea level, the highest peak both there and in the world as measured from the earth’s center is Ecuador’s Chimborazo. The difference is due to the spin-induced bulge of the planet at the equator, a line which gives that country its name.