31st May: Heath Robinson

William Heath Robinson was born on this date in 1872. He is an artist famous for drawings of ingenious, complicated and makeshift contraptions.

1. The term "Heath Robinson", meaning an absurdly complicated, and often cobbled together, machine with a simple function, was officially included in the dictionary in the early 20th century.
2. Heath Robinson really wanted to be a landscape painter, but, making no money at that, went into book illustration like his father and brothers. The books he illustrated included Don Quixote, The Water Babies, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Arabian Nights, Tales from Shakespeare and Andersen's Fairy Tales.
3. He wrote three children's books: The Adventures of Uncle Lubin, Bill the Minder and Peter Quip in Search of a Friend. It is in the first of these books, which were also illustrated by him, that his fantastic machines started to appear.
4. He has an American counterpart in Rube Goldberg, a US artist who also drew complicated machines for achieving simple tasks.
5. Heath Robinson had a cat called Saturday Morning.
6. He achieved fame through his drawings for The Sketch and The Tatler with cartoons poking fun at modern living and the use of machines to perform simple tasks. These included machines for removing warts, making pancakes, throwing water at serenading cats (the multimovement tabby silencer) and stretching spaghetti to make it go further.
7. With the outbreak of World War I, he became even more popular, because "he took a stand against war by taking the piss out of Germany's horrendous war machinery" (Robert Endeacott). Popular cartoons of that time included a method of training German ski troops to do the goose step on the frozen steppes of Russia, and German troops sending flying kettles to pour hot water into the allied trenches. At the same time as making subtle anti-war statements, he raised morale in the UK by making people laugh.
8. An early code-breaking machine at Bletchley Park in 1943 was called "Heath Robinson". It had a convoluted network of tapes and spools, logic circuits and counter racks. It was a challenge to load and use, but was a direct precursor to Colossus, the world's first programmable computer.
9. Geoffrey Beare, a biographer of Heath Robinson, has suggested that the artist had an understanding of chaos theory long before it was published by scientists. Beare's evidence for this was a series of drawings called "Consequences" which depict chains of unlikely cause and effect sequences, for example, "How a Sermon may be cut short by the mere falling of an Autumn Leaf".
10. David Langford's farce novel The Leaky Establishment is set at a nuclear research facility on "Robinson Heath".

May 30th:Fabergé Eggs

This date was the birtdate of Peter Carl Fabergé in 1846, creator of Fabergé eggs, elaborately decorated and extremely valuable eggs. 10 facts about Fabergé eggs:

1. The whole thing started when Tsar Alexander III decided he wanted to give his wife, Empress Maria, an Easter Egg in 1885, and commissioned Fabergé to produce one. This one, known as the "Hen Egg" was made from gold. The outer shell was enamelled in white. Inside, a yellow gold yolk opened to reveal a multicoloured golden hen. Inside this was a tiny replica of the imperial crown made from diamonds, with a small ruby pendant.
2. Empress Maria loved it, and so Alexander appointed Fabergé as "goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown" and commissioned an Easter egg most years after that. His son, Nicholas II, continued the tradition. He would have two made - one for his wife and one for his mother.
3. 65 eggs are known to have been produced. 57 have survived to the present day, but there are photographs of some of the missing ones.
4. The imperial eggs were quite famous, and 14 were made for other private (and rich) clients, the Rothschild family and the Duchess of Marlborough among them.
5. In the run up to Easter, the form that year's egg would take was a closely guarded secret. Even the Tsar would have no idea. The only requirement was that every one had a surprise inside.
6. It all came to an end with the Russian Revolution. The major clients were killed, and the Fabergé company was nationalised. The Fabergé family fled to Switzerland.
7. In 1927, Stalin had many of the eggs sold off so he could get his hands on foreign currency.
8. The most expensive of the eggs is called the Rothschild Egg, made in 1902 for Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, as an engagement gift for her brother's fiancée. It was also a clock, and every hour, a diamond studded cockerel would pop up out of the top of the egg, flap its wings, nod its head and crow for fifteen seconds. It was sold in 2007 at Christie's, for £8.9 million, which made it a record breaker three times over. Not only was it the most expensive Fabergé egg ever, but also the most expensive timepiece and the most expensive Russian object. The buyer was Alexander Ivanov, the director of the Russian National Museum.
9. Since the Russian Revolution, the largest number of Fabergé eggs to be together in one place was 26 - in 1989, when the eggs were loaned for an exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art.
10. Carl Fabergé was known for his wit and for not suffering fools gladly. On one occasion, a foppish prince was boasting to Fabergé about an honour he had received from the Tsar, saying that he had no idea what the award was for. Instead of congratulating the prince as expected, Fabergé replied, ‘Indeed, your Highness, I too have no idea what for’.

29th May: Mount Everest Day

Mount Everest day celebrates the anniversary of the 1953 British expedition to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain. Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to reach the top of the world on this date.

1. It was 11.30am local time when they got to the top, and after taking photographs and burying some sweets and a small cross on the summit, they turned back, returning in time to send word to England so that the Queen heard about it on the morning of her coronation.
2. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world at 8,848 metres or 29,029 feet above sea level and the highest point from the centre of the Earth. This is the figure officially recognised by Nepal and China, but there has dispute about this over the years. If you include the height of the snow and ice at the top, the height varies and is almost impossible to measure accurately.
3. The British first became aware of the humongous mountain during a survey beginning in 1802, intended to chart the world's highest mountains. Until 1847, Kangchenjunga was believed to be the highest peak, until Andrew Waugh and John Armstrong spotted a peak that seemed to be higher, which they named "Peak B". Bad weather prevented them from verifying this, and it was not for another two years that James Nicholson returned to take more measurements, but he contracted malaria and didn't finish either, but his calculations were used by Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician, who in 1856 concluded that Peak B, which had now been renamed Peak XV, was indeed the highest in the world.
4. While it would have been the preference to use the local name for the mountain, there were several different ones, including Deodungha (Darjeeling for "Holy Mountain" and Comolungma ("Holy Mother" in Tibet), Sagarmatha ("Goddess of the Sky" in Nepal) and Shenmu Feng ("Holy Mother Peak" in Chinese). Rather than choose one of these, Waugh decided to offend everyone equally by giving the mountain a new name, Everest, after his predecessor Colonel Sir George Everest. Sir George was opposed to having the mountain named after him, especially since it wasn't possible to write it in Hindi, or for local people to pronounce it. Nevertheless, in the English speaking world, the name stuck.
5. Everest is in the Himalayas, right on the border of Tibet and China - the international border crosses the actual summit point.
6. Now Everest was established as the world's highest mountain, people started attempting to climb it, usually thwarted by altitude sickness and bad weather. In 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine gave it a go, but never came back. Mallory's body was found on the North Face in 1999 - there is speculation that he might have made it to the top 29 years before Hillary and Norgay, only to perish on the way down. It was Mallory who uttered the famous words, "Because it is there" when asked why he wanted to climb Everest. It was an exasperated response to a journalist who had been bothering him rather than his actual reason.
7. In 1933, a millionairess called Lady Houston, funded an expedition which tried to plant the British flag on the summit from an aeroplane.
8. In 1975, Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the summit. In 1988, Jean Marc Boivin became the first person to descend by paraglider, and Davo Karnicar was the first to ski down in 2000. A year later, Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind climber to ascend. Jordan Romero is the youngest person to climb Everest, aged 13, in 2010. The oldest person to achieve the feat was Yuichiro Miura, at the age of 80. There are two men, Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi, who have climbed Everest 21 times each. Since 1978, there has been an ascent every year.
9. No-one has stayed on the summit for an entire day. The record stay is 21 and a half hours by Babu Chiri Sherpa.
10. Since 1922, 219 people have lost their lives in pursuit of the summit. 58 of these people made it to the top but didn't live to tell the tale. 120 of them are still lying on the mountain. "A mountain without danger is not a mountain," commented Reinhold Messner (first to make a solo ascent in 1980) in 2004.

May 28th: Tonic water

On this date in 1858 Erasmus Bond patented tonic water. 10 things you may not know about tonic water:

1. Although it was patented in 1858, tonic water existed way before that and was drunk in tropical places because the quinine in it helped prevent malaria.
2. The Brits in colonial India added gin to make it taste better and that is where Gin and tonic originated.
3. Quinine tastes quite bitter. The Quechua people in Peru, who used to take quinine as a muscle relaxant to stop them shivering in the cold, would add sweetened water to the ground up bark of the cinchona tree (which quinine is extracted from) to make it more palatable and this was the earliest tonic water.
4. A litre of modern tonic water contains 83mg of quinine. To effectively prevent malaria you need at least 2100mg daily. That's about 25 litres of gin and tonic a day.
5. Quinine turns fluorescent in Ultra violet light. So a gin and tonic will glow in UV light, even in direct sunlight.
6. A can of tonic water has 124 calories; 32g of sugar and 44mg of sodium. It contains no fat, no protein and no vitamins.
7. As with any drug, quinine can have unpleasant side effects, which is why tonic water contains such a small amount these days. For most people it is perfectly safe, but a small number of people are particularly sensitive to it. There is a rare condition which doctors call "gin and tonic purpura", in which the quinine causes a drop in the blood platelet count, internal bleeding and even kidney damage. It is also possible to develop allergies to it.
8. Because quinine is sometimes cut with heroin, drinking a glass of tonic water can get you into trouble if you have to take a drug test, as its presence in someone's system is interpreted as evidence that someone may have been using drugs.
9. Tonic water can ease muscle cramps. Again, that's because of the quinine in it.
10. If you get a Hangover after a night drinking gin and tonic, the gin may not be to blame. Since the 1980s, tonic has been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is more likely to cause a headache than the alcohol!

May 27th: Buttercup Day

Today is Buttercup Day - 10 things you didn't know about buttercups:

1. The name “buttercup” is said to derive from an old belief that the Yellow colour of Butter comes about because the Cows eat the yellow buttercups. This is not true. In fact, buttercups are poisonous to cows and other grazing animals; they taste nasty and cause blisters in the mouth, so animals won't eat them unless there is absolutely nothing else to eat. The toxins are degraded by drying, so hay containing dried buttercups is safe for animals to eat.
2. Excessive handling and crushing of the plants will irritate human skin, too, a fact that beggars in the olden days took full advantage of. They would rub the plants on their skin, to bring out blisters so that passers by would take pity on them and be more likely to part with their cash.
3. Picking a buttercup in order to play the children's game of holding the flower under the chin to ascertain whether or not someone likes butter does no harm, though. This is also a myth. Scientists have discovered that the yellow flowers are simply highly reflective so are likely to cause the characteristic yellow glow whether the person likes butter or not.
4. Another butter-related tradition is observed to this day on May Day in parts of Ireland. They used to rub buttercups onto cows' udders to promote Milk production.
5. The buttercup belongs to the genus Ranunculus, which includes about 2,252 different species. The genus name derives from “rana”, the late Latin word for “little frog”, because many of the species grow near water, where Frogs are found. in North America they are called "Coyote’s eyes" thanks to a myth where a coyote throws its eyes up in the air, but before it can catch them again an eagle swoop down and steals them, so the coyote fashioned new eyes from buttercups.
6. In the language of flowers, a bouquet of buttercups means, “I am dazzled by your charms.”
7. The yellow colour of these flowers can represent more than butter. It is also the colour of Gold. There is a fairytale which explains how buttercups came to be: a miser was carrying a sack of gold across a field when some Fairies stopped him and asked for alms. He refused them, so the fairies cut a hole in his sack. The gold trickled out over the field. The fairies turned each of the gold pieces into flowers - hence buttercups.
8. Buttercups have a dark side. Some traditions believe yellow is an evil colour, so the plant must have an evil side. As well as their toxicity, it was once believed that holding a tall buttercup flower against one’s neck on the night of a full moon, or even just smelling the flower, caused insanity. ‘Crazyweed’ is an old folk name for the plant. Victorians believed it stood for ingratitude and childishness.
9. Pagans associate buttercups with the Sun – partly due to the colour, but also because the flowers follow the sun as it moves across the sky. They are also associated with the element of fire. Witches use them as an ingredient for prosperity spells and spells for business success. A handful of Buttercup or Marigold petals added to a cauldron and stirred aids scrying the future. Buttercups are said to be good for healing the inner child and childhood memories.
10. Other uses for this plant include pouring it on the ground to bring worms to the surface – a technique popular with fishermen in the nineteenth century, and the production of yellow dye from the flowers.

May 26th: John Wayne

Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway. So said John Wayne, born 26 May 1907. 10 things you might not know about John Wayne:

1. He got the nickname “Duke” when, as a child, he was often seen around town with his pet dog, named Duke, and a local fireman started referring to him as “Little Duke”. The name stuck, partly because the young lad preferred to be called “Duke” rather than by his real name, “Marion”.
2. His middle name was originally Robert, but was changed to Mitchell when his parents decided they wanted to call their next son Robert.
3. One of his early jobs was working in an ice cream parlour.
4. He wanted to join the Navy, but was turned down and went to university to study law instead. His prowess at football netted him an athletic scholarship, but his football and law careers were cut short by an injury in a body-surfing accident.
5. His love of football no doubt influenced his decision to work at the film studio – he was paid in football tickets!
6. In 1930, he was offered his first starring role in a film called The Big Trail, a pioneering big budget movie to be shot on location outdoors with new widescreen cameras. For that, he needed a screen name. Anthony Wayne, the director suggested, after “Mad Anthony” Wayne, a civil war general. Too Italian sounding, said the studio chief, how about John instead? The newly named future star was not even present at this discussion.
7. He was married 3 times. All three of his wives were of Hispanic descent.
8. He owned a yacht called Wild Goose.
9. Wayne is the only actor to appear in every edition of the annual Harris Poll of Most Popular Film Actors, and the only deceased actor to appear on the list after his death.
10. His last film was The Shootist, about an ageing gunslinger dying of cancer. In a tragic case of life imitating art, Wayne himself died from cancer three years after this film.

May 25th: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Born this date in 1803: Ralph Waldo Emerson, US writer and philosopher. Today, 10 Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes:

1. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
2. What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.
3. The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.
4. What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.
5. Children are all foreigners.
6. The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
7. Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.
8. Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.
9. Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
10. It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

May 24th: Queen Victoria

Victoria, Queen of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 (when she was 18), and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death in 1901. Her reign lasted 63 years and seven months. Today would have been her birthday. Here are 10 things you may not know about Queen Victoria:

1. When Victoria was born, there was a succession crisis. King George III only had one grandchild, Princess Charlotte, but she died in 1817. The then Prince of Wales and his two eldest brothers were married, but estranged from their wives, who were both past child bearing age anyway - so the pressure was on for the unmarried sons to marry and produce heirs. Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, and his brother the Duke of Clarence, got married on the same day. Although Clarence had two children, they died young, leaving Victoria as the sole heir to the throne.
2. Victoria's relationship with her mother was fraught. Her mother, also called Victoria, Duchess of Kent, was an ambitious woman who wanted to be the power behind the throne. To this end, she and her attendant (and possibly lover) Sir John Conroy, devised the "Kensington System", a set of rules which included the young Victoria never being left alone and strict controls over who she was allowed to meet. The purpose was to make Victoria weak and dependent on her mother and Conroy. It didn't work. Victoria refused point blank to have Conroy as her personal secretary, and as soon as she reached 18, demanded an hour alone and that her bed be removed from her mother's bedroom. William IV died just a month after Victoria's 18th birthday. He had previously expressed a wish that he would live to see her turn 18, because he didn't want the Duchess as Regent.
3. Victoria was the first sovereign to live in Buckingham Palace.
4. Technically, Queen Victoria should have been Queen Alexandrina, as that was her first name, and Victoria was her middle name. The official papers drawn up at the beginning of her reign referred to her as Queen Alexandrina, but she had them changed.
5. Even though she was Queen of England, as a young unmarried woman she was still obliged to live with her mother. At least in Buckingham Palace, her mother could be assigned rooms as far away from the Queen as possible, and the Queen could refuse to see her. The only way to get rid of her mother completely, she was advised by the then Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, would be to get married which she was surprisingly reluctant to do - given that she had already met Albert - describing it as a "schocking (sic) alternative."
6. Prince Albert wasn't the only husband considered for her. Naturally, the pressure was on to marry her off so she could start producing heirs. Her mother and uncle were in favour of Albert, who was their nephew (Victoria's cousin) but William IV would have preferred her to marry Prince Alexander of the Netherlands. Having met them both, Victoria's assessment of Albert was: "extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful." Alexander, though, was described by her as "very plain".
7. During her reign, there were a number of assassination attempts on Victoria. In 1840, Edward Oxford shot at her in her carriage but missed; in 1842, John Francis aimed a gun at her carriage but it failed to go off. Victoria deliberately rode out again the next day to provoke Francis into trying again - he did, but was again failed and was arrested; John William Bean shot at her with a pistol loaded with paper and tobacco and with not enough charge to do any damage; in 1849 William Hamilton fired at her and missed; in 1850 she was physically attacked by Robert Pate who hit her with his cane, resulting in bruises and a damaged bonnet; in 1872 Arthur O'Connor threatened her with a gun but it wasn't loaded; and Robert Maclean shot at her at Windsor railway station. Assassination attempts tended to have a positive effect on Victoria's popularity and she said that it was worth getting shot at "to see how much one is loved".
8. Despite having nine children, Victoria hated being pregnant. She thought breast feeding was disgusting and that newborn babies were ugly, especially when they had no clothes on.
9. Queen Victoria was an avid diarist - all through her adult life, she would write an average of 2500 words a day in her journal. After her death, her youngest daughter, Beatrice, transcribed and edited many of the journals, burning the originals. One wonders what she may have been covering up...
10. Victoria gave money to famine relief. She donated £2,000 to help alleviate the Irish potato famine, a lot of money in those days, and more than any other individual gave. She did not, however, support votes for women.

23rd May: Henry VIII's first divorce

On this date in 1533 Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn. 10 things you might not know about Henry VIII and his six wives.

Catherine of Aragon

1. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was originally married to his older brother, Arthur, who died aged 15. Henry took on all his brother's responsibilities, including the strategic marriage. They were betrothed when Henry was just 11.
2. Before their daughter Mary, the future Queen, was born, Catherine had a stillborn girl, a boy that lived just 7 weeks, and a miscarriage.
3. Henry did not limit himself to six wives - he had mistresses as well, and had an illegitimate son by one of them, Henry FitzRoy, who died aged 17. He also had an affair with Anne Boleyn's sister, Mary.
4. The motivation for divorcing Catherine appeared to be firstly because she had failed to produce a male heir, and also because Anne Boleyn was refusing to become his mistress.
5. It wasn't a divorce as such, but an annulment, as Henry used Biblical laws to argue that he should never have married his brother's wife in the first place. Catherine was banished from court and given the title "princess dowager" as his brother's widow.
6. His second marriage soon went sour as Anne was not submissive enough. Intelligence and independence had made her attractive as a lover, but as a royal wife, these qualities were not so desirable. Also, the same problem as with Catherine - she didn't produce any male children, just one girl, Elizabeth. She miscarried several male children, though. Rather than have all the hassle of another divorce, Anne was accused of having affairs, which amounted to treason, and she, her brother and four other men, her supposed lovers, were executed in 1536.
7. Henry's next wife, Jane Seymour, was one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting, with whom he had been having an affair. She did produce a son, the future Edward VI, so she might have been a keeper - but she died from childbirth complications. Henry didn't hang about - he started looking for another wife almost immediately.
8. Instead of going for a lady-in-waiting this time, Henry went for a strategic marriage. The Earl of Essex suggested Anne of Cleves as a suitable match. Henry  asked for a portrait of her, liked the look of her in the picture and agreed to marry her without even meeting her first. However, reality didn't live up to his expectations. She wasn't well educated enough for him, and it seems as if, when it came to it, he just didn't fancy her and this marriage was annulled because it was never consummated. Henry must have liked her, though, as rather than execute her, he gave her a couple of houses and the title of "The King's beloved sister." They actually remained friends and Anne was a welcome visitor at court.
9. The next wife, Catherine Howard, was Anne Boleyn's cousin and had been her lady-in-waiting. Although Anne of Cleves had agreed to the annulment of her marriage, she was said to have been jealous of Catherine and disliked her intensely. Catherine was executed in 1542 for having affairs. It was suggested at the time that Henry could re-marry Anne of Cleves, but he quickly refused.
10. The final wife, Catherine Parr, was a wealthy widow and a distant cousin to Henry. She helped bring up his children, Edward and Elizabeth, and helped reconcile Henry with his daughters. Henry almost got rid of her, too, though, as her religious views were different to his and they would argue, and it was thought he already had his eye on a potential wife number seven. He got as far as getting a warrant for her arrest - but she talked her way out of it, saying that she only picked arguments with Henry to take his mind off the pain caused by the ulcers on his leg. Catherine Parr survived the experience of being married to Henry VIII and went on to marry again after he died.

22nd May: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes, was born on this date in 1859. Here are 10 things you may not know about him:

1. Technically, his surname is simply "Doyle", not "Conan Doyle". Conan, along with Ignatius, is his middle name.
2. Doyle was a qualified doctor as well as an author, and wrote stories while studying. Twice he tried to set up medical practices which didn't attract many patients, allowing him time to write.
3. He served as a ship's doctor on two vessels, the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and the SS Mayumba in 1881.
4. Doyle was a keen sportsman. He played Football and was goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club, using the name A.C. Smith. He played cricket, too, for Marylebone Cricket Club, and although as a bowler, he only ever took one first-class wicket, it just happened to be against W.G. Grace. He was also captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club, East Sussex in 1910.
5. He didn't just write fiction. He supported political causes, such as reform of the Congo Free State, and wrote pamphlets to support them. He believed that he was knighted, not for services to literature, but because of an essay he wrote justifying the UK's involvement in the Boer War.
6. Not all of his fiction had Sherlock Holmes in it, either. He wrote about another character called Professor Challenger, and stories about the mystery of the Mary Celeste.
7. He also took on legal cases - he investigated two cases which he believed to be miscarriages of justice, leading to two men being exonerated of the crimes they were accused of. His work indirectly led to the establishment of the Court of Appeal in 1907.
8. Doyle's interest in spiritualism is believed to have started after the deaths of several members of his family. Although taken in by hoaxes on occasion, such as the Cottingley Fairies, he continued to believe. An American historian called Richard Milner believes that Doyle was behind the Piltdown Man hoax in 1912, his motive being to get revenge on the scientific community for debunking one of Doyle's favourite psychics. According to Milner, there are encrypted clues in the publication The Lost World that point to Doyle's involvement in the hoax.
9. His belief in the supernatural was so strong that he was willing to lose friendships over it. He was convinced that his friend Harry Houdini had supernatural powers and wrote about it. Houdini tried to convince Doyle that the things he did were purely and simply illusions, but Doyle wasn't having any of it. They very publicly fell out after that.
10. The epitaph on his gravestone reads: "Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/ Knight/ Patriot, Physician, and man of letters".

May 21st: Elizabeth Fry

On this date in 1780 (two days after Dark Day!) Elizabeth Gurney was born. At 20, she married Joseph Fry and became Elizabeth Fry. She is best known for prison reform. Since 2002, she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note. Here are 10 things you may not know about Elizabeth Fry:

1. Her father and husband were both bankers, and on her mother's side is related to the Barclays, who founded Barclays bank.
2. Although most famous for prison reform, she also founded a homeless shelter and a school for nurses. The latter inspired Florence Nightingale, who chose nurses trained at Fry's school to go with her to the Crimean War.
3. Elizabeth Fry found time to do all her humanitarian work despite having eleven children!
4. She was also a Quaker minister.
5. Elizabeth Fry was the first woman to give evidence to Parliament when, in 1818, she spoke to a House of Commons committee about conditions in British prisons.
6. During her lifetime, she had some high profile and influential admirers who took interest in her work, including Robert Peel, the King of Prussia and Queen Victoria.
7. On the £5 note, she is shown reading to prisoners at Newgate prison, and the design includes a key, recognising the fact that she was awarded a key to the prison in recognition of her work.
8. In 2002, on Elizabeth Fry's birthday, the then new £5 note was temporarily suspended by the Bank of England because the serial numbers could be rubbed off the varnished paper.
9. There is a Terracotta bust of her in the gatehouse of HMP Wormwood Scrubs and a stone statue of her in the Old Bailey.
10. When she died in 1845, over a thousand people attended her funeral. Seamen of the Ramsgate Coast Guard flew their flag at half mast, something they had only ever done for reigning monarchs before. Then, the Lord Mayor of London proposed an asylum, the Elizabeth Fry Refuge, in her memory to be built in Hackney.

20th May: Shoe Superstitions

My research threw up two footwear related anniversaries for today. In 1310 Shoes were first made for both right and left feet, and Moccasins were patented in 1825. Looking for information related to shoes, I came across any number of superstitions related to shoes, many of which even seemed to contradict each other.  Here are 10 shoe related superstitions:

1. A common superstition regarding shoes is the one about not putting shoes on the table, not even brand new ones still in their box. The type of misfortune this can attract includes death by hanging, family feuds, quarrels with your partner, loss of your job, or your soul falling off the table and into hell when it climbs onto the table to get the shoes. If you forget and put shoes on the table you can ward off the bad luck by putting the shoes back on the floor before putting them on.
2. Burning old shoes in some cultures brings bad luck - in others burning your shoes brings good fortune, especially if you put salt and pepper in them first. If you're unlucky enough to have had a Voodoo curse put on you then burning your shoes will break the spell. Wafting the smoke through your house will get rid of evil spirits. Breathing in the smoke is said to cure toothache; smoking the ashes in a pipe cures asthma; putting the ashes in water and drinking it cures backache; mix the ash with lard to make salve for sores.
3. You can use your shoes to find out who you will marry. Put a four leaf clover in the heel of your left shoe and you will marry the first man (or woman) you meet. If you can't find a four leafed clover a piece of fern in the toe works just as well. Or, before you go to bed, put the heel of one shoe against the instep of the other, and make the last thing you say before going to sleep, "Hoping this night, my true love to see, I place my shoe in the form of a T" and you will dream about your future spouse.
4. Once you've met the person of your dreams, and have had sex with them, taking a piece of sheet from the bed you did it in, wash yourself with it, and wear it in the toe of your shoe and they will stay faithful to you. Or, you can take a lock of their hair, put it in a piece of cloth, fold it towards you and put that in your shoe, to ensure that they will follow you anywhere.
5. Practitioners of Voodoo use shoes to solve murders, specifically shoes belonging to a baby who is less than a year old; a little girl if the victim was a woman, and a boy if it was a man. After the burial, they would dig down into the grave, close to the heart of the victim, but without touching the coffin. A handful of dirt from the bottom of the hole would be placed in the baby shoe, which would be burned at midnight. with an invocation to the spirit of the victim. They would then dig another hole at the grave and bury the ashes. Within days, the murderer would supposedly reveal him or herself.
6. Throwing shoes at people who are setting out on a journey is supposed to be lucky. A less painful way of ensuring nothing bad happens on your trip is to drop an old shoe outside your front door as as you leave.
7. Wear old shoes for luck on Friday 13th.
8. If your shoelaces come undone while you are walking around it means someone is thinking or talking about you. If it's the right shoe, they are saying nice things; if it is the left, they are speaking evil of you.
9. It is unlucky to give shoes as a gift, because it means that person will walk out of your life.
10. If a groom buckles his bride's left shoe on their wedding day, she will be in control of the marriage.

May 19: Dark Day

Dark Day: On this date in 1780, parts of New England and Eastern Canada experienced an unexplained darkening of the daytime sky. It wasn't an eclipse, but it got so dark that birds went to roost and nocturnal frogs started coming out. Some people thought it might be Judgement Day. Those who worked for Abraham Davenport, a member of the Connecticut Legislature were disappointed if they thought they might get the day off work. He famously commented, "I am against adjournment. The day of judgement is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought." Here are 10 darkness quotes:

1. Maybe you have to know darkness before you can appreciate the light. Madeleine L’Engle
2. God created night but man created darkness.
3. It’s better to light one candle than to grumble about the dark.
4. Even in darkness, a keen spirit discovers light.
5. Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is dark.
6. People are like stained glass windows; they sparkle and shine when the sun is out but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.
7. The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. Sir Edward Grey (1914)
8. Darkness is caused by things coming between you and the light Mark Shirey
9. When it gets dark enough you can see the stars. Lee Salk
10. The darkest hour only has 60 minutes.

May 18th: Omar Khayyám

This date in 1048 saw the birth of the poet Omar Khayyám, whose philosophy of life seemed to be, don't worry, be happy and drink lots of wine - so here are 10 quotes by him.

1. Drink wine. This is life eternal. This is all that youth will give you. It is the season for wine, roses and drunken friends. Be happy for this moment. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
2. The moving finger writes, and having written moves on. Nor all thy piety nor all thy wit, can cancel half a line of it.
3. Drinking to the moment is better than weeping for it.
4. Dead yesterdays and unborn tomorrows, why fret about it, if today be sweet.
5. When you have planted the rose of Love into your heart your life has not been in vain.
6. Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why: drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.
7. Living Life Tomorrow's fate, though thou be wise, Thou canst not tell nor yet surmise; Pass, therefore, not today in vain, For it will never come again.
8. When once you hear the roses are in bloom, Then is the time, my love, to pour the wine.
9. The day on which you are without passionate love is the most wasted day of your life.
10. Cast off thy care, leave Allah’s plans to him – He formed them all without consulting thee.

17th May: International Chocolate Day

Today is International Chocolate Day - a good excuse to eat chocolate and read 10 things you may not know about chocolate.

1. It's not entirely certain whether the word "chocolate" comes from the Aztec word for "bitter water" or the Mayan word for "hot water". It is known that both civilizations consumed chocolate as a drink. The Mayans liked it hot and bitter while the Aztecs drank it cold and added spices, chilli peppers, vanilla and honey. Archaeologists have found evidence that cacao beans were fermented to produce an alcoholic drink.
2. Chocolate is made from the cacao bean. The cacao bean naturally contains almost 300 different flavours and 400 separate aromas. To make a pound of chocolate, you'd need 400 of them. White chocolate isn't technically chocolate at all because it doesn't have any cacao in it.
3. Cacao trees can live to be 200 years old - but only produce marketable beans for 25 years. The trees need a tropical climate - 75% of the world's cacao trees grow within 8 degrees of the equator. Today, most of the world's chocolate is grown in Africa - 66%. Cote d'Ivoire is the single largest producer of cocoa, providing roughly 40% of the world’s supply.
4. The Aztecs weren't able to grow cacao in the Mexican highlands where they lived, so to them, it was an imported luxury, while the Mayans could grow the trees in their gardens. Cocoa beans were often used as currency - with forgeries sometimes made from painted clay. You could buy a turkey for 20 beans.
5. The cacao crop was so important to the Mayans that chocolate became almost a religion. They used chocolate at baptisms and marriages, and as a substitute for blood in some ceremonies (is that where Alfred Hitchcock got the idea of using chocolate syrup in the Psycho shower scene, I wonder?) Kings would be buried with jars of chocolate. The notorious Mayan human sacrifices were frequently for the purpose of ensuring a good cacao harvest. The victim would have to drink a cup of chocolate mixed with blood so that his or her heart would turn into a cacao pod.
6. According to Aztec legend, the god Quetzalcoatl brought cacao to earth, but wasn't supposed to give it to the humans. He was cast out of heaven for doing so. The legend says that as he was cast out, he vowed to return one day as a fair-skinned bearded man who would save the earth.
7. Never feed chocolate to your dog! Chocolate is poisonous to dogs, cats and probably birds. The reason? Chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine which dogs and cats cannot digest quickly enough. If your dog scoffs your chocolate supply, take it to the vet (the dog, not the chocolate!) Cats cannot taste sweet food, so they're unlikely to be attracted to the chocolate in the first place.
8. The people who eat the most chocolate are the Swiss, who eat 22lb each every year. Australians eat 20lb and in Ireland people eat 19lb a year.
9. Dark chocolate is good for you. Research has found that it increased blood flow to the brain and so improves memory, attention span, reaction time and problem solving skills; improves vision in low contrast conditions and lowers blood pressure. One study concluded that women who eat chocolate have a better sex life (although I wonder if they actually eat chocolate because of the good sex life - because they have a really nice partner who buys them lots of chocolate...)
10. The biggest chocolate sculpture ever made was a 4,484 lb, 10 foot high Easter egg, constructed in Melbourne, Australia.

16th May: The first Academy Awards

The first academy awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929. It was at a private dinner for just 270 people (now it's estimated that 700 million people watch it around the world). Tickets cost $5 (equivalent of $65 today). The ceremony lasted just 15 minutes. Here are 10 things you may not know about the Oscars:

1. An Oscar statuette's vital statistics are - 34cm (13 and a half inches) tall, five and a quarter inches is the diameter of the base, and it weighs 3kg (eight and a half pounds). It depicts a knight standing on a film reel and holding a sword. The reel has five spokes, which represent the five original branches of the Academy (writers, technicians, producers, actors and directors). They are made from gold plated britannia metal although the first ones were gold plated bronze. During World War II they were made out of plaster because of the metal shortages.
2. The designer of the statue was Cedric Gibbons, who was the Chief Art Director at MGM. He persuaded actor/director Emilio Fernandez to pose nude for his design. Gibbons went on to win 11 of the statuettes himself for design.
3. The youngest Oscar winner was Tatum O'Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon in 1973, when she was ten. The oldest is Christopher Plummer who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Beginners in 2010. He was 82. The oldest person ever to be nominated was Gloria Stuart, who was 87 when nominated for playing the old Rose in Titanic in 1997.
4. The most nominated films are Titanic and All About Eve with 14 each. The most Oscars to be won by a film is 11, which has been achieved by three films: Ben-Hur, Titanic and Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.
5. Katherine Hepburn is the actress who has won the most Oscars - she won four. Meryl Streep has been nominated the most times for acting awards - 16. The male actor to receive the most nominations is Jack Nicholson with 12. However, the person to receive the most nominations ever is a composer - John Williams, who has been nominated 49 times. The person who won the most is not an actor, either - it's Walt Disney, who won a whopping 32.
6. Songs from stage musicals are not eligible for a Best Song Oscar.
7. In 2000, 55 Oscars were stolen. 53 of them were returned or found, but two of them are still out there.
8. The first winner was Emil Jannings, who won Best Actor for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. It was 34 years before the first black actor won - Sidney Poitier, for Lilies Of The Field in 1963, although the first black actress winner was a few years before that - Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for Gone With The Wind in 1940.
9. Since 1950, winners are required to sign a form promising not to sell their Oscar without offering it to the Academy first for a measly one dollar. However, pre-1950 winners have no such restriction, and Harold Russell sold his in 1992 for $60,500. He used the money to pay his wife's medical bills.
10. The opening of a sealed envelope to find out the winner dates from 1941, and was introduced because the year before, the LA Times had broken the embargo and published the names of all the winners before the ceremony.