31st August: The Scream recovered

On this date in 2006 Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream was recovered in a raid by Norwegian police, two years after it was stolen on August 22, 2004. 10 things you might not know about The Scream:

1. The original title of the painting was Der Schrei der Natur ("The Scream of Nature").
2. Munch has described how he was inspired to paint it: "One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked."
3. He liked his idea so much that he reproduced it several times, in different media, including a lithograph stone so prints could be made of it.
4. He even wrote a poem based on the idea, and hand painted the poem onto the frame of the pastel version of the work.
5. The scene has been identified as the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Osl Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. There was a slaughterhouse and a mental hospital nearby, where Munch's sister Laura Catherine was a patient.
6. Some historians believe that the red sky in the picture was inspired by the red skies caused by the eruption of Krakatoa ten years before Munch painted The Scream.
7. The 2004 theft wasn't the first time the painting had been stolen. On 12 February 1994, the same day as the opening of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, two men broke into the National Gallery, Oslo, and stole its version of The Scream, leaving a note reading "Thanks for the poor security."
8. The 1895 pastel-on-board version of the painting, owned by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, sold at Sotheby's for a record US$120 million at auction on 2 May 2012.
9. Cartoonist Gary Larson included a "tribute" to The Scream (entitled The Whine) in his Wiener Dog Art painting and cartoon compilation, in which the central figure is replaced by a howling dachshund.
10. The Ghostface mask in the Scream series of horror films is based on the painting. It was created by Fun World employee, Brigitte Sleiertin, as a Halloween costume, but was discovered by Marianne Maddalena and Wes Craven who used it for the film.

30th August: Frankenstein Day

Frankenstein Day Celebrates the birthday of author Mary Wollenstone Shelley (born in 1797) who wrote the book Frankenstein in 1818. Here are 10 things you might not know about the Frankenstein story:

1. The novel has a subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. Prometheus, in Greek mythology, was the Titan who created mankind.
2. We have dreary weather to thank for Frankenstein. Percy Shelley, Mary, Lord Byron, and John Polidori had gone on holiday to Switzerland, but the weather was so awful they stayed indoors reading most of the time, and then decided to have the competition to see who could write the best horror story. Lord Byron's story, although he only wrote fragments of it down, and didn't give it a title, and Polidori's story which evolved into The Vampyre, the first vampire novel were based on old vampire legends - so vampires, as well as Frankenstein, owe their literary existence to that contest.
3. The idea for the story came to Mary in a dream. The pressure to come up with a story for the forthcoming horror story contest had been getting to her - for days she was unable to come up with any ideas - and her anxiety was giving her nightmares!
4. It was, at first, going to be a short story, but Percy encouraged Mary to expand it into a novel.
5. It seems likely that Mary was exorcising some demons of her own in writing the book. Victor Frankenstein may have been based on Shelley, who sometimes used the name Victor as a pen name, and had dabbled in scientific experiments. The novel's themes of motherhood, creation and abandonment could well have arisen from the fact that three years before, Mary had given birth to Shelley's baby, which died less than two weeks later. While she was dealing with this, Shelley, instead of supporting her, had run off to have a torrid affair with her sister, Claire.
6. The first edition was published anonymously. Mary's name first appeared on the second edition. In 1831, a third edition was produced, the one most people read today. This edition had been revised by Mary in response to pressure to make it more conservative.
7. The novel was panned by the critics of the time, partly because it dealt with themes of creation and playing god; and possibly because, even though they didn't know who had written it, they knew the author was a woman. The general public, however, loved it, and the theatre adaptations that followed.
8. The novel is written in the form of letters between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville.
9. Although the monster is generally known as Frankenstein, in the novel the monster is never given a name.
10. The first ever Frankenstein film was produced by Edison's film company, in 1910, and was just 12 minutes long.

29th August: Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr)

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, US Poet and professor was born on this date in 1809. Here are 10 things he said:

1. Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
2. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
3. The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
4. Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.
5. The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.
6. To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.
7. A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.
8. The Amen of nature is always a flower.
9. We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.
10. Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

28 August: Bow Tie Day

The bow tie consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. It has gone from a high fashion item to symbolising stuffy conservatism and more recently, quirky eccentricity, unless worn for a formal occasion. The bow tie originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Prussian wars of the 17th century: Croat mercenaries used a scarf around the neck to hold their shirt collars together. The fashion was soon adopted (under the name cravat, derived from the French for "Croat") by the upper classes in France, and was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bow ties may be worn by professionals who need to look smart, but for whom wearing a dangling tie could cause inconvenience. Waiters, for example, don't want their ties dangling in people's soup. Bill Nye, a US television science programme host says: "If you're working with liquid nitrogen and your tie falls into it, it's funny in a way to the audience but it's also — pun intended — a little bit of a pain in the neck." 10 famous bow tie wearers:

1. Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate.
2. Erwin Schrödinger, the father of quantum physics.
3. Charlie Chaplin, renowned comic actor of the silent film era
4. Stan Laurel, comedian, typically wore a bow tie when in character.
5. Sir Robin Day (1923–2000), British television commentator and interviewer; his BBC News obituary said "With his thick horn-rimmed spectacles and trade mark polka-dot bow tie, he was the great inquisitor".
6. Steve Jobs, Apple Computer founder, wore bow ties in the 1980s.
7. Winston Churchill, British statesman, prime minister, Nobel Literature Prize laureate.
8. Frank Muir, British comedy writer and broadcast personality.
9. Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld
10. Manolo Blahnik, shoe designer.

27th August: Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn, the film producer, was born on this date in 1882. He is famous for vocal gaffes, ten of which are here:

1. I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.
2. Any man who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
3. A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad.
4. A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
5. If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive.
6. Colour television! Bah, I won't believe it until I see it in black and white.
7. That's the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg.
8. Go see it and see for yourself why you shouldn't go see it.
9. The scene is dull. Tell him to put more life into his dying.
10. Television has raised writing to a new low.

26th August: Horseshoe Day

It's Horseshoe day.

Since Horses became domesticated, working animals, humans have found it necessary to protect their horses' hooves from damage and wear. Horseshoes have become symbolic of luck and frequently appear as logos and on greeting cards for occasions when people are particularly keen to wish others luck, such as weddings. Traditional boxes of confetti will contain a proportion of horseshoe shaped pieces. 10 horseshoe superstitions:

1. Nailing one to the wall or door of a house is supposed to protect the home from evil. This practice originates from the legend of St Dunstan, an abbot of Glastonbury Abbey and Archbishop of Canterbury in the tenth century. He was also a smith, and the legend relates that the Devil once went to St Dunstan to ask for shoes for his own hooves because he had seen a galloping horse emitting sparks from its shoes and he wanted some of that power. When St Dunstan nailed a shoe to the Devil's hoof, it caused the Devil so much pain that he pleaded for the shoe to be taken off. St Dunstan agreed on condition that the Devil never entered any place with a horseshoe hung over the door. The orientation of the shoe on the door is significant. If hung with the open end uppermost, it holds on to the luck, but if hung with the open end down, the luck spills out, although some believe that upside down is best, because then the luck is released to work its influence on its surroundings rather than being held in the shoe; others believe that the luck simply drains away, rendering the lucky charm useless.
2. Nailing one to the mast of a ship is supposed to protect it from storms.
3. Some say that the horseshoe is only lucky if it has been found on the road and has actually been worn by a horse, especially a grey mare, and that the more miles it has travelled on the horse's foot, the luckier it is. In some versions of the legend, the shoe must, in addition, have been made by a bachelor of good character on St John's Eve in order to be lucky.
4. Yet another variation states that the horseshoe is only lucky for the person who actually owns it, that is, presumably, the owner of the horse it came from, who would have bought it from the smith. It confers no good fortune on someone who finds or steals it.
5. The Bohemians believed that picking up a horseshoe was unlucky, but that hanging up a horseshoe was a cure for madness.
6. If a found horseshoe has nails in it, it is luckier – the more nails the better, and the number of holes without nails symbolises, for a single person, the number of years that will pass before they marry.
7. As a means of warding off impending sickness from cattle, and in order that they may thrive during the summer, Transylvanian peasants place broken horseshoes in the animals' drinking-troughs on St. John's Day, June 24.
8. In Lincolnshire, not many years ago, there was a custom of "charming" Ash trees by burying horseshoes under them. Twigs from such a tree were believed to cure cattle which had been exposed to the glance of an evil eye. To effect a cure in such cases, it was only necessary to gently stroke the affected animal with one of these twigs.
9. In Tuscany a horse-shoe when found is placed in a small red bag with some hay, which the Tuscans consider also a luck-bringing article, and the twofold charm is kept in its owner's bed.
10. Other possible explanations for horseshoes symbolising luck include: Iron was a highly prized metal – in the time of the Crusades, it was so valuable that iron horseshoes were acceptable as payment of taxes in lieu of cash – so having one to spare to hang over the door would have been a sign of prosperity; iron was once seen as effective in repelling witches and supernatural beings, but is only effective if placed above the main entrance to the building as it has no power to expel the evil entities once they have got in; blood contains iron, so the metal was associated with life force and seen as the blood, or life force of the earth, or may have been connected with the protective blood sprinkled over the doors of Jewish houses at passover; at one time, each shoe was attached to the horse with  7 nails, and seven is a sacred number; people saw sparks generated by shod horses walking on cobbled streets and thought they were objects of power; it is all to do with the shape – it is shaped like a new moon, a horned crescent, an open hand, a female sexual symbol, a serpent or a boat the right way up; the shape even dates back to ancient Egypt, where it forms the hieroglyph for the mystical door of life; horses were sacred in many ancient cultures; smiths were seen as magic wielders because they worked with iron and fire, and would have been the ones to forge armour for the gods from volcanic fires. They were also credited with the ability to recognise the Devil, even when he was in disguise. So a house with a horseshoe outside could belong to a blacksmith and so the Devil knows he can't get up to any of his tricks there!

25th August: Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival takes place in London today. 10 things you may not know about Carnival:

1. The roots of the carnival date back to 1959 when race relations in the UK were at a low ebb. In response to the previous year's Notting Hill riots, Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian who was the editor of the The West Indian Gazette at the time, organised an indoor event to celebrate and showcase West Indian culture. Taking place at St Pancras Town Hall, the event featured the Mighty Terror singing the calypso Carnival at St Pancras, a Caribbean Carnival Queen beauty contest, the Trinidad All Stars and Hi–fi steel bands dance troupe. Claudia Jones came to be known as "the mother of the Notting Hill Carnival".
2. The carnival moved outdoors in 1966 when Rhaune Laslett independently decided to hold a cultural event in Notting Hill. Some of the performers who took part had also been involved in Claudia Jones's event in 1959.
3. Rioters in 1976 put the future of the carnival in jeopardy, giving the event enough bad press that the authorities considered banning it. Prince Charles was one of the few establishment figures who spoke out in support of keeping the carnival going.
4. The 1976 riots inspired the Clash song, White Riot.
5. Planning the carnival, and making the costumes, takes most of the year. Top Trinidadian designers and craftspeople design and create each costume all of which are connected by a common theme, and made by hand.
6. On the Sunday, the Trinidadian community stage a massive food fight where people throw Chocolate at each other.
7. The costumed bands are called Mas (Masquerade) Bands, each of which could comprise as many as 150 people.
8. It is now the second largest carnival in the world, (Rio de Janeiro being the first), and the largest street festival in Europe. About a million people attend, 20% of whom are tourists. There are over 40,000 volunteers, and 9,000 police officers involved as well.
9. As well as the Mas Bands there will be about 40 static music stages playing a variety of different music styles.
10. During the carnival, guests will munch their way through 1 ton of rice and peas, 400 goats, 30,000 corn on the cob, 15,000 deep fried plantains, 1 ton of curry chicken, 1 ton of Jamaican patties, 12,000 mangoes, and 16,000 coconuts. They will drink 25,000 bottles of rum, 70,000 litres of carrot juice, 800,000 cans and bottles of drink. 

24th August: Mount Vesuvius

On this day in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius Erupted destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum. Here are 10 facts about the event.

1. It seems rather coincidental that the disaster happened the day after Vulcanalia, the Roman festival to honour Vulcan, the god of volcanoes and fire (August 23). At this festival, people would build bonfires and sacrifice small animals to protect their crops from forest fires. No doubt the disaster would have suggested to the survivors that Vulcan had been extremely unimpressed with the previous day's sacrifices. The Emperor Domitian (who ruled from 81-96 A.D.) must have thought so, because he built a new altar to Vulcan on the Quirinal Hill and introduced the sacrifice of a bull-calf and a red boar to the sacrifices made on the Vulcanalia.
2. At least, historians have assumed it happened on this date because Pliny the Younger, who wrote the only surviving eyewitness account of the disaster, dated his letter "nonum kal. Septembres" which was interpreted as meaning "the ninth day before the Kalends of September", or eight days before September 1, i.e. August 24.
3. However, "nonum kal. Septembres" wasn't the standard way of writing the date, and more recently, the actual date of the eruption has been questioned by archeologists, who noticed that the victims were wearing warmer clothing than would have been expected in August, and the produce found stored in Pompeii (fresh Olives and dried fruit) suggested it actually happened in October. Further evidence came from the study of weather patterns - the prevailing winds in the area in August would have resulted in different patterns of ash fall. Also, a commemorative coin, which would not have been minted until late September, was found in the purse of one victim.
4. Had the residents of Pompeii had the scientific knowledge we have today, they would have known something was wrong because of the increased number of Earthquakes prior to the eruption. As it was, earthquakes were just a normal part of life for them and they would simply patch up any damage and carry on. Today, volcanologists are constantly monitoring the seismic activity and are confident they would be able to give several months' warning of an eruption on that scale.
5. According to legend, many years before the eruption, Hercules passed through the area while performing his labours. It was described as a "plain of fire" and the volcano as "a hill which anciently vomited out fire". Hercules pacified the giant bandits who lived there before moving on. It's possible that Herculaneum, the other town decimated by the eruption, was named after this legend.
6. The eruption released a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing.
7. 16,000 people died in the disaster. Most of them were anonymous citizens, but well known people who perished were Pliny the Elder (who was organising a rescue party), and Agrippa (a son of the Jewish princess Drusilla and the procurator Antonius Felix) and his wife.
8. Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger, survived - he declined to go on the rescue mission and stayed at home in Misenum, across the bay of Naples, writing his letters - although he did evacuate later in the day and helped his elderly and corpulent mother escape.
9. To this day, the type of eruption that happened that day, with clouds of ash rising for miles, is called "Plinian" after Pliny's description. He described the ash cloud coming out of the mountain as resembling a pine tree.
10. Vesuvius is still active - the only active volcano in Europe. It has erupted several times since 79AD, the most recent eruption being in March 1944. None of the subsequent eruptions were anything like as destructive, although in 1631, volcanic ash reached modern day Istanbul over 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) away.

August 23: The Little Mermaid

On this date in 1913 the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen was dedicated. Some things you might not know about Denmark's iconic statue:

1. The statue is 1.25 metres (4.1 ft) tall and weighs 175 kilograms (385 lb).
2. The sculptor was Edvard Eriksen, who was commissioned to produce it in in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg.
3. The inspiration was a ballet of The Little Mermaid fairytale which Jacobsen saw at Copenhagen's Royal Theatre.
4. The statue was modelled by two women. The head was modelled on ballerina Ellen Price, but she refused to model nude for the rest of the statue, so the body is modelled on Eline Eriksen, Edvard's wife.
5. From May to October 2010, the statue was on display in Shanghai for Expo 2010, the first time it had been moved, apart from for repairs, since it was installed in 1913.
6. There are thirteen replicas on display elsewhere in the world. Places where you might find a Little Mermaid replica include Solvang, California; Kimballton, Iowa; Piatra Neamţ, Romania; Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), Spain; and half-sized copies in Calgary, Canada and the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City.
7. The Little Mermaid is getting a sister. It has recently been announced that another replica is to be placed on the banks of the Han River in Seoul, South Korea as part of a cultural exchange.
8. It is often a target for vandals. It has been decapitated twice, slashed in the neck, had its arm cut off, blown off its base with explosives and had paint poured on it several times.
9. Less violent protests have seen it dressed in a Muslim head scarf and a burqa.
10. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. The City council have considered moving it out into the harbour to deter vandals, but for now, there it stays.

22nd August: Mona Lisa

On this date in 1911, The Mona Lisa was stolen from The Louvre. 10 things you might not know about Mona Lisa:

1. The name of the painting is actually a spelling mistake. It should be "Monna Lisa". "Monna" is a polite form of address in Italian, equivalent to "my lady" in English.
2. The subject of the painting is generally thought to be Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant - although over the years there has been speculation that it represented da Vinci's mother, his male lover or even da Vinci himself as a woman.
3. Mona Lisa has no eyebrows or eyelashes. While some historians believe that this was because women of the time thought them unsightly and used to pluck them, modern scans of the painting suggest that she was originally painted with eyebrows, but they've worn off when the painting was cleaned.
4. Napoleon had the painting in his bedroom for a time.
5. The Mona Lisa is painted on a wood panel, rather than canvas, which may explain why it is so well preserved for its age. The frame has been changed many times.
6. Visitors to the Louvre spend 15 seconds, on average, looking at the Mona Lisa.
7. When the painting was stolen in 1911, Pablo Picasso was a suspect and was questioned about the theft, as was French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be burnt down. In fact, the whole thing was an inside job - Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia did it. He simply hid in a broom cupboard after his shift and walked out with the painting under his coat. Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed the painting should be in an Italian museum, not a French one! After keeping it in his flat for a while he tried to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and that is when he was caught. The painting was returned to the Louvre in 1913.
8. The painting has also been vandalised several times. It had acid and a rock thrown at it by vandals in 1956, red paint sprayed at it in 1974 (while on display in Tokyo) by a disabled woman protesting about the museum's disabled access policy, and a terracotta mug was lobbed at it in 2009 by a disgruntled Russian woman who had been denied French citizenship. The first couple of attacks resulted in minor damage, but not the more recent ones, as Mona Lisa is now protected by bullet-proof glass, in a specially controlled environment in a room which cost 7 million dollars to build.
9. Members of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have claimed that, if you look at the painting under a microscope, it is possible to see letters and numbers hidden in the Mona Lisa's eyes, including "LV", da Vinci's initials.
10. The Mona Lisa is not insured because it is considered to be completely priceless.

21st August: Hawaii

Hawaii became the 50th US state in on this date in 1959. Here are 10 things you may not know about Hawaii.

1. It is unique among US states because: it is the only state not situated in North America; the only one completely surrounded by water, the only state which grows coffee, the only one to have royal palaces, the only state not to have a straight line in its state boundary, and it is the only state that is antipodal to inhabited land (Botswana).
2. Hawaii was a monarchy until 1893 when businessmen from America and Europe overthrew the monarchy. The last monarch was Queen Liliʻuokalani.
3. The first documented European to visit Hawaii was James Cook, who named the islands The Sandwich Islands, although he did note the native name as Owyhee.
4. Cook died in Hawaii, on his second visit there. He annoyed the native people by taking idols from their temples; the Hawaiians retaliated by stealing a ship's boat; Cook took the King of the Big Island hostage, holding him for ransom in order to get the boat back, but instead of returning the boat, the King's supporters fought back and killed Cook and four of his men.
5. Hawaii's flag has a British Union Flag in the top left corner.
6. The Hawaiian alphabet has just 13 letters, one of which is "okina", a glottal stop. About 2000 people speak Hawaiian as their native language.
7. Hawaii has the lowest percentage of white Americans of any state, and the largest proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the country (5.1 per cent).
8. It has the longest life expectancy of any US state (77.1 years for males, 82.5 for females).
9. Famous people born in Hawaii include Nicole Scherzinger, Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler and of course, President Barack Obama.
10. The oldest Roman Catholic Cathedral in the US to still be in continuous use, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, is situated in Honolulu.

20th August: H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft, US sci fi writer, was born August 20 1890. 10 H.P. Lovecraft quotes:

1. What a man does for pay is of little significance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument responsive to the world's beauty, is everything!
2. I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.
3. Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end.
4. The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination.
5. But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean.
6. But are not the dreams of poets and the tales of travellers notoriously false?
7. From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.
8. Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane.
9. Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.
10. The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.

19th August: National Aviation Day

National Aviation Day is celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright, born this day in 1871. Then on the same date in 1940, the new Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license number 1 to Orville Wright. Aviation has come a long way since Orville's day. Planes are much more complex and often need maintenance by precision engineers. These are 10 of the best engineers' responses to the problems pilots reported to them.

1. Something loose in cockpit. Something tightened in cockpit.
2. Left-inside main tyre (tire) almost needs replacing. Almost replaced left-inside main tyre.
3. Evidence of leak on right main landing gear Evidence removed.
4. Unfamiliar noise coming from No2 engine. Engine run for three hours. Noise now familiar.
5. Mouse in cockpit. Cat installed.
6. Target radar hums. Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
7. Number three engine missing. [not firing properly presumably] Engine found on starboard [right] wing after brief search.
8. Aircraft handles funny. Aircraft told to straighten up, fly right and be serious.
9. Whining sound heard on engine shutdown. Pilot removed from aircraft.
10. Noise coming from under instrument panel - sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer. Took hammer away from midget.

18th August: International Lighthouse Day

It's International Lighthouse Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about lighthouses:

1. The first documented lighthouse was the Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt, built around 280 B.C. It stood more than 350 feet tall until an Earthquake destroyed it in the 1300s. This lighthouse gives its name to the study of lighthouses: pharology.
2. The world's oldest working lighthouse, La Coruna, stands at the northwest tip of Spain. The Romans built it early in the second century A.D. It's also called the Tower of Hercules.
3. The oldest UK lighthouse was built by the Romans in about 183AD, in Dover. The oldest one to still be working is Flamborough Head lighthouse.
4. Keeping a lighthouse was an arduous task before the days of electricity. The lamp had to be lit at sunset and put out at dawn, and checked several times during the night, often involving climbing up to 200 steps. During the day, the keeper would have to clean and polish the lenses and the windows. In foggy weather they would have to operate a fog signal as well. Not to mention danger from storms - it wasn't uncommon for lighthouse keepers to die on duty - and mercury poisoning from the substance the lamps were floated in. Despite this, it was one of the first jobs that the US government made available to women in the 19th century.
5. Nowadays, most lighthouses are automated and not manned at all. In the US there is just one manned lighthouse, on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor, built in 1716. It was the first lighthouse to be built in the US; the British blew it up in 1776, but it was replaced in 1783 and still functions. It is kept manned largely for sentimental reasons.
6. The tallest lighthouse in the UK is Skerryvore, built in 1844 off of the west coast of Scotland, at 48 metres (157 ft). The shortest is believed to be Berry Head lighthouse in Devon at just 5 feet tall.
7. The country with the most lighthouses is the USA. The state with the most lighthouses is Michigan, with 115 around the Great Lakes.
8. The first lighthouse to be built at sea was the Smeaton Eddystone lighthouse, built in 1756-9, off the coast of Devon, UK, to warn mariners of the highly dangerous Eddystone Rocks. Before the lighthouse, sailors would hug the coast of France to avoid them, but that was almost as dangerous.
9. The Statue of Liberty is a lighthouse. It was the first one in the US to use Electricity. Despite its size and distinctive structure, the actual light in the torch was not very strong and efforts to make it brighter didn't work - so it was deactivated as a lighthouse in 1902.
10. There was an old Roman lighthouse known as the Tour d'Ordre at Boulogne, France which had 96 doors.

17 August: Mae West

17 August 1893 Mae West, actress and screenwriter was born. 10 Mae West quotes:

1. It's not the men in your life that matters, it's the life in your men.
2. I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
3. Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
4. When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.
5. I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.
6. Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
7. When women go wrong, men go right after them.
8. A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.
9. Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.
10. To err is human, but it feels divine.

16th August: Roller coaster day

Roller Coaster Day! 10 things you might not know about roller coasters.

1. The idea for roller coasters originated in Russia, where they made hills from ice with wooden supports in the 17th century, and they were known as "Russian mountains". The word for roller coaster in many languages is actually a translation of "Russian mountains", while in Russia they call them "American mountains".
2. Some historians say the first real roller coaster was built for Catherine the Great in the Gardens of Oranienbaum in Saint Petersburg in 1784. Others believe that the first roller coaster was built in Paris: The Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville (The Russian Mountains of Belleville) in 1817.
3. The first roller coaster in America was originally a train for moving coal down a mountain, which became a thrill ride when it was no longer needed for moving coal.
4. The tallest roller coaster in the world is Kingda Ka at the Six Flags Great Adventure park in the USA, at 456 ft (139 m). It also holds the record for the longest drop at 418 ft (127 m). The UK’s tallest coaster is Big One, at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
5. The longest is Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land in Japan, at 8,133 ft (2,479 m).
6. The fastest roller coaster is Formula Rossa at Ferrari World in the United Arab Emirates which reaches 149 mph (240 km/h).
7. The steepest is Takabisha at Fuji-Q Highland Japan which has a 121° drop.
8. The roller coaster that turns people upside down the most times (14) during the ride is The Smiler, at Alton Towers.
9. The oldest still operating roller coaster is Leap the Dips at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania, built in 1904.
10. In 2010, 102 roller coaster enthusiasts set the world record at Adventure Island in Essex, for the highest number of people riding a roller coaster in the nude.

15th August: Liechtenstein National Day

Today is Liechtenstein's National Day. 10 things you might not know:

1. Liechtenstein is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, that is, a country surrounded by other landlocked countries (the other is Uzbekistan).
2. It is the only country whose boundaries lie entirely within the Alps.
3. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan.
4. It hasn't had an army since 1868. After the Austro-Prussian War, Liechtenstein was no longer obliged to have an army and so the Government decided not to fund one. Their last soldier died in 1939, aged 95.
5. During the 1980s the Swiss army fired off shells during an exercise and mistakenly burned a patch of forest inside Liechtenstein. The incident was said to be resolved "over a case of white Wine."
6. There is very little crime. There is one prison, with hardly any inmates, because if any are sentenced to more than two years, they are transferred to Austria.
7. There is no airport in Liechtenstein. The nearest airports are in Switzerland (Zurich or St Gallen) or Germany (Friedrichshafen).
8. Liechtenstein was the last European country to give women the vote - on 1 July 1984.
9. Though small (160 square kilometres) it is very prosperous - Liechtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per person in the world when adjusted by purchasing power parity. In terms of of GDP per capita it is the richest German speaking country. Liechtenstein also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at 1.5%.
10. The low business tax rate and easy incorporation rules have meant that huge numbers of foreign businesses have registered "letter box companies" there, making Liechtenstein a country which has more registered companies (about 73,700) than citizens (the population is 35,000).

14th August: First printed, dated book

On this date in 1457 the oldest known exactly dated printed book was issued in Mentz. So some quotes about books:

1. If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison
2. Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher
3. Computers will never take the place of books. You can’t stand on a floppy disc to reach a high shelf Sam Ewing
4. I am reading a very interesting book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
5. Whenever I get a little money, I buy books, and if there’s any left, I buy food. Erasmus
6. Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. Groucho Marx
7. There’s nothing like going to bed with a good book - or a man who’s read one.
8. Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. Vera Nazarian
9. A great book should leave you with many experiences and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. William Styron
10. A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend. Laurence Peter

13th August: John Logie Baird (television)

John Logie Baird, Scottish Inventor, credited with inventing television, was born on this date in 1888. So today, 10 jokes and quotes about the goggle box.

1. Television? No good will come of this device The word is half Greek and half Latin. Charles Prestwich Scott (1846-1932)
2. There’s so much comedy on television - does that cause comedy in the streets? Dick Cavett
3. It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every 12 minutes you are interrupted by 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper. R. Serling
4. If it wasn't for those who invented electricity in what is aptly called the dim and distant past, we'd all be watching television by candlelight every night. Manchester Evening News
5. One thing in favor of real life--it takes your mind off all that suffering on television. Kelly Fordyce in The Wall Street Journal
6. Daytime TV: A plot by corporations to punish workers for staying home.
7. Viewer discretion may be advised, but it’s never really expected.
8. Opportunity often knocks, statistics still are showing, but the reason we don't hear it is: we've got the TV going. Stephen Schlitzer in The Lion
9. One of the earliest programmes to be screened in colour was The Black and White Minstrel Show.
10. Sex on Television can’t hurt you unless you fall off.

12th August Schrodinger's Cat

The scientist Erwin Schrodinger was born this date in 1887. He is famous for a thought experiment in which a cat in placed in a sealed box with a vial of poison which may or may not be released and which may or may not kill the cat. Schrodinger's idea was that, until you open the box and look inside, you don't know whether the cat is dead or alive, and so, as long as the box stays shut, it's both. 10 Schrodinger's cat jokes:

1. Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
2. Curiosity may have killed Schrodingers' cat
3. Life is a series of Schrodinger's boxes.
4. Schrodinger's parrot. "He's dead." "No, he's just resting."
5. Do you think Erwin Schrodinger ever actually owned a cat? Well, he did and he didn't
6. Wanted: Schrodinger's cat. Dead and alive.
7. Schrödinger gets pulled over for speeding. The cop opens the boot of the car. "Hey" says the cop. "Do you know you have a dead cat in here?" An angry Schrödinger replies "Well I do now."
8. Schrodinger was arrested for cruelty to animals. His fate is uncertain.
9. Schrodinger's cat: Think outside the box
10. Hi, I'm Schrödinger. This is my cat. And he's tired of your worn out jokes. When he hears them he gets depressed and crawls into a box and stays there for days just moping and won't eat or drink. Sometimes I'm afraid to look in the box, not knowing if he'd dead or alive inside. So cease the jokes. Seriously.