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November 14

Costello's, c. 1940

Costello's (also known as Tim's) was a bar and restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, from 1929 to 1992. The bar operated at several locations near the intersection of East 44th Street and Third Avenue. Costello's was known as a drinking spot for journalists with the New York Daily News, writers with The New Yorker, novelists, and cartoonists, including the author Ernest Hemingway, the cartoonist James Thurber, the journalist John McNulty, the poet Brendan Behan, the short-story writer John O'Hara, and the writers Maeve Brennan and A. J. Liebling. The bar is also known for having been home to a wall where Thurber drew a cartoon depiction of the "Battle of the Sexes" at some point between 1934 and 1935; the cartoon was destroyed, illustrated again, and then lost in the 1990s. A wall illustrated in 1976 by several cartoonists, including Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne, is still on display at the bar's final location. (Full article...)

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April 14

Tamil is a Dravidian language related to Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, among others. As one of the few living classical languages, it has an unbroken literary tradition of over two millennia, with the earliest writings having been dated to circa 500 B.C. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, is agglutinative and the writing is largely phonetic. It is spoken by a majority of people in Tamil Nadu and northern and north-eastern Sri Lanka, while a significant emigrant population lives in Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of the world. It is officially recognised in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and South Africa. (more...)

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March 14

Suzanne Lenglen was a French tennis player, who dominated the women's game from 1919 to 1926, winning 25 Grand Slam titles. A flamboyant player, she was the first female tennis celebrity, and one of the first international female sport stars, named La Divine (the divine one) by the French press. Prior to Lenglen, female tennis matches drew little fan interest but she quickly became her sport's greatest drawing card. Tennis devotees and new fans to the game began lining up in droves to buy tickets to her matches. Temperamental, flamboyant, she was a passionate player whose intensity on court could lead to an unabashed display of tears. But for all her flamboyance, she was a gifted and brilliant player who used extremely agile footwork, speed and a deadly accurate shot to dominate female tennis for seven straight years. Her excellent play and introduction of glamour to the tennis court increased the interest in women's tennis, and women's sport in general. (more...)

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February 14

Mary I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from July 6, 1553 (de jure) or July 19, 1553 (de facto) until her death. Mary, the fourth and penultimate monarch of the Tudor dynasty, is remembered for her attempt to return England from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. To this end, she had almost 300 religious dissenters executed; as a consequence, she is sometimes known as Bloody Mary, which has since entered the English language as a synonym for a witch. Her religious policies, however, were in many cases reversed by her successor, Elizabeth I. (more...)

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January 14

Lake Burley Griffin is a large lake in the centre of the Australian federal capital city of Canberra. It was created in 1963 after the Molonglo River, which runs through the city centre, was dammed. It is named after Walter Burley Griffin, the architect who won the design competition for the city of Canberra. The lake is located in the approximate geographic centre of the city, according to Griffin's original designs. Numerous important institutions, such as the National Library of Australia lie on its shores, and Parliament House is a short distance away. Its surrounds are also quite popular with recreational users, particularly in the warmer months. Though swimming in the lake is uncommon, it is used for a wide variety of other activities, such as rowing, fishing and sailing. (more...)

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December 14

A 1905 poster for the opening run at the Abbey Theatre

The Abbey Theatre, also known as the National Theatre of Ireland, is located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on December 27, 1904 and, despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has continued to stage performances more or less continuously to the present day. The Abbey was the first state-subsidised theatre in the English-speaking world; from 1925 onwards it has received an annual subsidy from the Irish Free State. In its early years, the theatre was closely associated with the writers of the Celtic revival, many of whom were involved in its foundation and most of whom had plays staged there. The Abbey served as a nursery for many of the leading Irish playwrights and actors of the 20th century. In addition, through its extensive programme of touring abroad and its high visibility to foreign, particularly North American, audiences, it has become an important part of the Irish tourist industry. (more...)

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November 14

Jonathan Swift's first major work, A Tale of a Tub, was composed between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. It is probably his most difficult satire, and possibly his most masterful. The Tale is a prose parody which is divided up into sections of "digression" and "tale". The "tale" presents a consistent satire of religious excess, while the digressions are a series of parodies of contemporary writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and medicine. The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity. From its opening (once past the prolegomena, which comprises the first three sections), the book is constructed like a layer cake, with Digression and Tale alternating. (more...)

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October 14

A path in a U-valley, Rondane National Park

Rondane National Park was the first national park in Norway, established on December 21, 1962. The park contains a number of peaks, with the highest being Rondslottet. It is an important habitat for herds of wild reindeer. The park was extended in 2003, in Oppland and Hedmark. Rondane lies just to the east of Gudbrandsdal and two other mountain areas, Dovre and Jotunheimen are nearby. As well as being known for its beauty, Rondane is the setting for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. (more...)

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September 14

The Holy Prepuce is purported to be the foreskin of Jesus christ. It has been decreed a holy relic.

The Holy Prepuce (or Holy Foreskin) is one of the various relics purported to be associated with Jesus Christ. Orthodox Christian belief has it that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven at the end of his earthly life. This would mean that Jesus's foreskin (removed at his circumcision) would be one of the few physical remainders of Jesus left behind on Earth. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess it, sometimes concurrently. Various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it. The abbey of Charroux claimed to possess the Holy Foreskin during the Middle Ages. It was said to have been presented to the monks by none other than Charlemagne, who in turn is said to have claimed (per the legend) that it had been brought to him by an angel. Other claimants at various points in time have included (at least) the Cathedral of Le Puy en Velay, Santiago de Compostela, the city of Antwerp, and churches in Besançon, Metz, Hildesheim, and Calcata. (more...)

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September 6

The Warsaw Uprising was an armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. It started on August 1, 1944 as a part of a nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest. The Polish troops resisted the German-led forces until October 2. An estimated 85% of the city was destroyed during the urban guerrilla war and after the end of hostilities. The Uprising started at a crucial point in the war as the Soviet army was approaching Warsaw. Although the Soviet army was within a few hundred metres of the city from September 16 onward, the link between the uprising and the advancing army was never made. This failure and the reasons behind it have been a matter of controversy ever since. (more...)

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August 14

Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games in the world. At first sight it appears to be a race game with players moving their tokens around the squares at the edge of the board according to the roll of the dice. However, the conditions for winning are actually based on the acquisition of wealth through a stylised version of economic activity involving the purchase, rental and trading of real estate using play money. It is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single seller. (more...)

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July 14

Éire is the name given in Article 4 of the 1937 Irish constitution to the twenty-six county Irish state that was created under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and which had been known between 1922 and 1937 as the Irish Free State. The name Éire is the dative form in modern Irish Gaelic of the name for the goddess Eriu, a mythical figure who aided the Gaels conquer Ireland as described in the Book of Invasions. Since 1949, the term Republic of Ireland has generally been used in preference to Éire, to clarify that the state rather than the whole island is under discussion. (more...)

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June 14

Chemical structure of Acetaminophen

Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol, is a popular drug that relieves headaches and other minor aches and pains, and lowers fever. It is thus an analgesic and an antipyretic. It is used in numerous cold and flu medications and is a major ingredient in many prescription analgesics. It is remarkably safe in standard doses, but because of its wide availability, deliberate or accidental overdose is not uncommon. Unlike other common analgesics such as aspirin and ibuprofen, Acetaminophen has no anti-inflammatory properties, and so it is not a member of the family of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Prior to the creation of acetaminophen, the only antipyretic agent available was cinchona bark, which was also used to create the anti-malaria drug quinine. (more...)

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May 14

A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a two-dimensional figure with three vertices and three sides which are straight line segments. Elementary facts about triangles were presented by Euclid in books 1-4 of his Elements in around 300BC. In Euclidean geometry, the sum of the angles α + β + γ is equal to two right angles (180° or π radians). This allows determination of the third angle of any triangle as soon as two angles are known. (more...)

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April 14

Paul Charles Morphy known as "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess", was generally considered to have been the strongest chess master of his time and an unofficial World Champion. He was also the first American since Benjamin Franklin to have been recognized as the pre-eminent world figure in an intellectual field, as well as the first recorded chess prodigy in history. (more...)

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March 14

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of fantasy and horror fiction, noted for giving horror stories a science fiction framework. Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, but his works have become quite important and influential among writers and fans of horror fiction. His early fantasies were greatly influenced by the stories of Lord Dunsany, but later took on a darker tone with the creation of what is today often called the Cthulhu Mythos. Much of Lovecraft's work was directly inspired by his nightmares, and it is perhaps this direct insight into subconscious fears that helps to account for their continuing popularity. (more...)

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