1 March: Jordanhill Railway Station

On this date in 2006 English-language Wikipedia reached its one millionth article: Jordanhill Railway Station. Here are 10 facts from that article at time of writing:

1. Jordanhill Railway Station is located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland.

2. Coordinates 55.8826°N 4.3246°W to be exact.

3. It opened on 1 August 1887 as part of the Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway, but was not fully built until 1895.

4. It’s five stops and eleven minutes' journey time from Glasgow Central on the Argyle Line.

5. It was built on the site of a former brick and tile works.

6. It is managed by ScotRail.

7. On 15 January 1898, J. Johnstone, a member of the Whiteinch Harriers running club, was killed while attempting to run across the line west of the station. A small lead memorial stood on the spot for many years.

8. In the 2002/2003 financial year, 85,861 people boarded trains at Jordanhill station, and 94,613 disembarked. This meant Jordanhill was the 1,029th busiest station in the United Kingdom.

9. The car park is very small with just 11 spaces. The station is not permanently staffed but does have a ticket machine.

10. Both platforms have a wheelchair ramp.

29 February

10 weird and wonderful things that happened on February 29:

1. In 46 BC the first Leap Year day happened. The Romans added an extra day to make their calendars agree with the Earth's orbital period.

2. In 1904 Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenber Sr., was born near Hamburg, Germany. As if being a leap year baby wasn’t enough, he got saddled with all those names!

3. In 1984 Lisa Dluchik was born in Swindon. Her mother, Suzanne, was born on 29 February 1956. The odds of a mother and daughter sharing a Leap Year birthday are two million to one.

4. In 1968 Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell announced the discovery of the first Pulsar, a star which emits regular radio waves.

5. In 1692 the inciting incident of the Salem Witch Trials occurred. Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam, two young girls from Salem, Massachusetts, accused three local women of using witchcraft to torment and bewitch them.

6. In 1288, a law came into effect in Scotland whereby it became a crime for a man to refuse to marry a woman who made a proposal to him. If he refused, he was required to pay a fine.

7. In 1996, the first Euro coins were struck at Pobjoy Mint, Isle of Man.

8. In 1984, a Swiss court ruled that the villagers of Zermatt own the Matterhorn.

9. In 1504, Christopher Columbus used a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile Jamaicans. He told them he would cause the moon to disappear if his crew didn't get help with food and supplies. That night, as Columbus knew from his almanac, there was a total lunar eclipse. The following day, the natives gave in.

10. In 2000, Sir Elton John stormed out of the opening of his new Broadway musical show, Aida, after 15 minutes complaining that his songs had been ruined.

28 February: 59

Today is the 59^th day of the year. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 59:

1. 59 is the atomic number of Praseodymium, a chemical element with the symbol Pr. It is a soft, silvery, malleable and ductile metal, valued for its magnetic, electrical, chemical, and optical properties. It develops a green oxide coating when exposed to air.

2. The Queensboro Bridge in New York City is also known as the 59th Street Bridge. There’s a song inspired by it, The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), which was released by Simon & Garfunkel and Harpers Bizarre.

3. Had the Titanic not sunk, she would have docked at White Star pier 59 in New York City.

4. There are 59 species of eagle in the world.

5. In business, the "59-minute rule" is an informal rule whereby if a person leaves work an hour early, they’d have to use leave, but they can get away with leaving 59 minutes early. Often invoked the day before a holiday.

6. Only 59% of the Moon's surface is visible from the Earth.

7. One day on Mercury lasts about 59 Earth days.

8. 59 was a symbolic number worn on badges by feminist activists in the 1970s. It represented the claim that a woman earned 59 cents to an equally qualified man's dollar.

9. The highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica was 59 degrees Fahrenheit (Vanda Station on January 5, 1974).

10. In numerology, people influenced by 59 are curious, adventurous and interested in many different things. Their interests can change on a whim, and their main focus on the future is what their next new experience is going to be.

27 February: Constantine the Great

Constantine the Great was born on this date around the year 280AD. Here are some facts about him:

1. He was born in Naissus (now Niš, Serbia), and given the name Flavius Valerius Constantinus.

2. His father, Constantius Chlorus, was a Roman general who served under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. His mother was Helena, a woman of humble birth and a Christian who later became a saint, credited with converting Constantine.

3. His conversion to Christianity is also credited to events at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. The battle was against his rival Maxentius. The story goes that Constantine saw a vision of a cross in the sky and heard a voice say “in hoc signo vinces” (“in this sign, you will conquer”). He interpreted this a sign from God and had his army paint crosses on their shields and banners.

4. For much of his early life, he was held hostage by the Emperor Diocletian in the East of the Empire. He managed to escape and crippled several Horses on his ride to his father who was in Britain, in York. His father died in 306 and his son Constantine was acclaimed “Augustus” or senior emperor of the Western Roman Empire by his soldiers.

5. In 313 AD, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which granted religious tolerance to Christians. They were now free to worship in public without being thrown to Lions!

6. Constantine presided over the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. He was the chair of the meeting discussing whether or not Jesus Christ was the Son of God. That meeting produced the Nicene Creed.

7. Constantine was not baptised as a Christian until the age of 65, just before he died.

8. His behaviour towards his wives wasn’t always very Christian. He divorced his first wife, Minervina, so he could marry Fausa. He had his son by her, Crispus, executed. His second marriage turned so sour in the end that he had Fausta executed as well. He didn’t marry again until just before he died.

9. He established a new capital of Rome in Turkey, in Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople which means "City of Constantine" in Greek. Today the city is known as Istanbul.

10. Constantine died on May 22, 337 AD, which happened to be Pentecost. He’d taken steps to secure the succession by appointing his three sons, Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans, as co-emperors ruling different regions of the empire. However, in spite of his best efforts, Constantine’s death led to power struggles and conflicts among his sons and other claimants to the throne. Charlemange, Henry VIII, Philip II of Spain, the House of Habsburg, the House of Stuart, all claimed they were descendants of Constantine.

26 February: Fats Domino

Fats Domino was born on this date in 1928. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. Fats Domino was born in New Orleans and was given the name Antoine Domino Jr. His family was of French Creole background, and Louisiana Creole was his first language.

2. Domino learned to play the Piano in about 1938, taught by his brother-in-law, the Jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett.

3. He left school at 14. Sources differ as to whether his first job was as an assistant to an ice cream man or working in a bedspring factory! Either way, he was playing in bars in the evenings.

4. When he was 19, he offered to play at a Barbecue held by his sister at her house. One of the guests was a band leader called Billy Diamond, who offered Domino a job on the spot. It was Diamond who gave him the nickname “Fats”, partly after pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, but also because he ate a lot.

5. His first hit song was called The Fat Man, and is cited as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies.

6. His biggest hit was Blueberry Hill with five million copies sold. However, it was almost never released. Producer Dave Bartholomew didn't believe it was Fats' style and also thought it had already been recorded too many times. It was taking too long to record, he thought, and wanted to scrap it altogether. However, Imperial boss Chudd disagreed. He had Bunny Robyn, the sound technician, piece together a final version from the many takes they’d recorded, and released it in 1956 as a B-side to Honey Chile. In no time, it had reached number one.

7. When Domino appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, his band were hidden behind a curtain and they were only allowed to perform one song, thanks to racism (“we can’t have too many black faces on TV, you know”) and prejudice against the style of music. Nevertheless, Blueberry Hill sold a million copies the day after Fats appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. The following year, Perry Como had Fats and his band on his show and this time, he performed more than one song with his band on stage with him.

8. Fats Domino had eight children and all their names began with the letter A – Antoine III, Anatole, Andre, Antonio, Antoinette, Andrea, Anola, and Adonica.

9. When he was 77, he lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. He’d chosen not to evacuate because his wife, Rosemary, was in poor health.

10. Domino died on October 24, 2017, at his home in Harvey, Louisiana, at the age of 89, from natural causes.

25 February: Frederick Name Day

Today is the name day for people called Frederick, which is a masculine given name meaning "peaceful ruler". 10 famous people called Frederick, Fred or Freddie:

1. Frederick the Great: aka Frederick II, King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772. One of many royal personages who have the name, including 9 kings of Denmark, 2 of Sweden and several Holy Roman Emperors.

2. Frederic Chopin: Polish composer.

3. Fred Astaire: American film and Broadway stage dancer.

4. Freddie Mercury: Zanzibarian-born musician, lead singer of rock band Queen.

5. Freddie Starr: English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor born Frederick Leslie Fowell.

6. Frederick Dinenage MBE: British author, broadcaster and television presenter. His television career has spanned nearly 60 years, including the long-running children's programme How.

7. Freddie Flintoff: Nickname of cricketer Andrew Flintoff.

8. Fred Flintstone: the main character from the animated sitcom The Flintstones

9. Fred Rogers: host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

10. Fred Jones: fictional character in the American animated series Scooby-Doo, leader of the teenage mystery solvers and their Great Dane companion, Scooby-Doo.

24 February: 55

Today is the 55^th day of the year. 10 facts about the number 55:

1. The address of The Élysée, the official residency of the French Republic president, is 55 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in Paris.

2. +55 is the code for international direct dial phone calls to Brazil.

3. 55 is the atomic number of Caesium (Cs). It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of 28.5 °C (83.3 °F), which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at or near room temperature.

4. 55 metres is a sprint event in track and field. It is a relatively uncommon non-championship event for indoor track and field. It's a metrification of the 60-yard dash, which is about 5 inches shorter than 55 metres.

5. 55 Days at Peking is a 1963 American epic historical war film dramatising the siege of the foreign legations' compounds in Peking during the Boxer Uprising.

6. In the United States, the National Maximum Speed Law prohibited speed limits higher than 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) from 1974 to 1987.

7. Orphan 55 is the third episode of the twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 12 January 2020.

8. Kasabian and Mac Miller both released songs called 55. I Can't Drive 55 is a song by Sammy Hagar, and Ol' '55 is a song by Tom Waits.

9. 55 Tufton Street is a four-storey Georgian-era town-house in Westminster, London, owned by businessman Richard Smith. The building hosts pro-Brex-shit and climate science denial think tanks and is therefore in part responsible for everything that’s wrong with the UK these days.

10. The essence of the number 55 in numerology is independence, self-sufficiency, aloneness, curiosity, and self-determination. It is witty, keen to explore new things, and adventurous with a focus on expression of personal freedom.

23 February: National Toast Day

Today is National Toast Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about toast:

1. The word toast comes from the Latin torrere 'to burn'.

2. Archaeologists have found evidence that humans were eating toast 30,000 years ago in ancient Egypt.

3. The toasting process is also known as the Maillard reaction which occurs at about 310 degrees Fahrenheit when the Sugars in Bread turn Brown and crunchy.

4. In Britain in olden times, toast was something you put in a drink. One of the first reference to toast in print is in a recipe for Oyle Soppys (flavoured Onions stewed in a gallon of stale Beer and a pint of oil) dating back to 1430. In Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff says: "Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in't."

5. The world record for eating a slice of toast was set by Anthony Falzon in Malta on the 30th of August 2014. He managed to eat a single slice of toast in 8.47 seconds.

6. The first toaster was invented in Edinburgh in 1893. However, this machine could only toast one side of the slice at a time.

7. French toast is neither French nor toast. It dates back to ancient Rome where they would moisten old bread with the juices from cooking and add Eggs for protein. French in this context is from an old word meaning to slice or separate something. In France they call the dish pain perdu, which translates as lost bread. It’s not toast because it’s the eggy coating that is browned rather than the bread. National French toast day is on November 28.

8. Toast is part of a traditional English breakfast. It is often eaten with Baked beans. Another common toast meal is to cut the toast into strips and dip them in to a soft boiled egg. The strips of toast are known as “soldiers”.

9. The average household in the United States spends about 35 hours a year making toast.

10. In 1835, New York Magazine came up with the reason why toast always lands Butter side down. When a slice of toast slips out of someone’s hand it will be at an angle. With less than six feet to the ground, it will only have time to do a half turn before hitting the floor.

22 February: Thinking Day

Scouts and Guides celebrate Thinking Day today. Here are 10 quotes about thinking:

1. A moment's thinking is an hour in words. Thomas Hood

2. The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane. Nikola Tesla

3. Our most important thoughts are those that contradict our emotions. Paul Valery

4. On a day like today I am stung by the splendour of a sudden thought. Robert Browning

5. Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself. Plato

6. It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about. Dale Carnegie

7. Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. Henry Ford

8. When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. Winnie the Pooh

9. The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

10. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done. Bruce Lee

21 February: WH Auden

W. H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden, poet, was born on this date in 1907. 10 facts about him:

1. The WH stands for Wystan Hugh.

2. His father was a doctor and his mother a trained missionary nurse.

3. Both his grandfathers were Anglican clergymen and his mother a devout member of the church, so as a child, Auden attended church regularly and sang in the choir. He credits his love of the English language to church services. That said, as a teenager he lost interest in religion altogether.

4. In 1925, he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, with a scholarship in biology, but switched to English in his second year. He attended lectures by JRR Tolkien. On Old English Poetry.

5. He was versatile. Auden published about four hundred poems, including seven long poems. He wrote in a wide variety of styles (eg limericks, haiku, ballads and epics) and about a wide variety of subjects from the corns on his feet to the cosmos. He also wrote more than four hundred essays and reviews about literature, history, politics, Music, religion, and many other subjects. He collaborated on plays with Christopher Isherwood and on opera libretti with Chester Kallman.

6. He served in the Spanish Civil War. His experiences inspired him to write a poem, Spain, which George Orwell said was “one of the few decent things that have been written about the Spanish Civil War.”

7. By the time the second world war broke out he was living in the United States. He’d gone there with Christopher Isherwood on the back of the success of their plays. Although Auden kept his British citizenship his reputation at home suffered as a result of this “defection”. He did offer to return to Britain to serve in the war but was told only qualified people of his age (32) were required.

8. He was married to a woman called Erika Mann from 1935 until she died in 1969. It was, however, a marriage of convenience and they never lived together. Auden married her at the request of her father, Thomas Mann, so she could escape Nazi Germany, where she faced persecution for being a lesbian. Auden also helped arrange for Erika’s lover, Therese Giehse, to marry the writer John Hampson, so they could both leave Germany. Auden was gay and the love of his life was Chester Kallman, who he met in America.

9. Prior to his death, he prohibited any of his private letters from being released to the public. He told his friends to burn any personal letter of his they came across.

10. Auden died at 66 of heart failure at the Altenburgerhof Hotel in Vienna in 1973.

20 February: Love Your Pet Day

Today is Love your pet day, so here are ten quotes about pets:

1. Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem. AA Milne

2. Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. John Grogan

3. Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. George Eliot

4. Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. Anatole France

5. Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet. Colette

6. Pets are humanising. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life. James Cromwell

7. Pets have more love and compassion in them than most humans. Robert Wagner

8. I think having an animal in your life makes you a better human. Rachael Ray

9. The whole glorious history of animals with people is about joy and connection. It’s about loving this creature and letting this creature love you. Jon Katz

10. The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude. Robert Brault

19 February: The Sounds of Silence

On this date in 1964 Simon and Garfunkel completed work on the original version of Sounds of Silence. 10 facts about the song:

1. The song was written by Paul Simon when he was 21 years old. It took him six months to perfect the lyrics.

2. At that time, Simon would often take himself off to the bathroom to play compose songs, because the acoustics were good in there. He had a habit of turning the lights off and the taps on. He found it soothing.

3. It has been speculated that the song was about the Assassination of John F Kennedy as it was recorded soon after; it has also been suggested it was about the Vietnam War. It wasn’t, but many people felt it made a powerful anti-war song.

4. Simon and Garfunkel themselves say it’s about the inability of people to communicate with each other.

5. In January 1966 The Sounds of Silence had a one-on-one battle with The Beatles' We Can Work It Out for the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

6. The original version wasn’t released as a single in the UK, although the Irish band The Bachelors had a hit with a cover of it.

7. 50 years after its original release, in 2015, a cover version was released by American heavy metal band Disturbed.

8. In 1999, BMI named it the 18th most-performed song of the 20th century. In 2004, it was ranked No. 156 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. However, its popularity wasn’t universal as Blender magazine voted it the 42nd worst song ever.

9. The song appears in the film The Graduate. director, Mike Nichols, put it on as a work track and was going to replace it, but as the film came together it became clear that the song was perfect for the film.

10. A parody appears in a 1994 episode of The Simpsons called "Lady Bouvier's Lover", entitled "The Sound of Grampa".

18 February: 49

Today is the 49^th day of the year. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 49:

1. The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49° north of Earth's equator. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is often used to refer to the border between the USA and Canada, although parts of the US are above it and parts of Canada are below.

2. 49 is the atomic number of indium (In). It is a silvery-white post-transition metal and one of the softest elements.

3. A 49er was someone who participated in the 1849 California Gold Rush, and more recently, a member of the American football team, the San Francisco 49ers.

4. In English football, Arsenal had a 49-game unbeaten run between May 2003 and October 2004 until they lost to Manchester United, a national football record.

5. 49 is the code for international direct dial phone calls to Germany.

6. A 49 is a party after a powwow or gathering of Native Americans, held by the participants. It is also a type of song sung on these occasions. A 49 is typically held in an isolated place and features drumming and singing.

7. Highway 49 is a song by Howlin' Wolf, written by Big Joe Williams. Allegedly, at the junction of US Highway 49 and 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, legendary bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in return for fame and success. The song tells that story.

8. During the Manhattan Project, Plutonium was also often referred to as "49". 4 was for the last digit in its atomic number, 94 and 9 for the last digit in Pu-239, the weapon-grade fissile isotope used in nuclear bombs.

9. In London, the number 49 bus runs between Northcote Road, Clapham, and White City.

10. In numerology, a person influenced by this number is conscientious and focussed. They can be idealistic, but if their ideas turn out not to be practical, pragmatism takes priority. These people are compassionate and their goals may well be humanitarian. They interact well with people, but can at times be so focussed that they miss social cues.

17 February: Alison Hargreaves

British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves was born on this date in 1962. 10 things you might not know about her:

1. She was born and grew up in Derbyshire, England. Her mother was a teacher and her father a scientific officer. Both her parents were mathematicians. Alison was the middle child of three.

2. She was just 5′2″ tall.

3. Her parents were avid hill walkers, so from the age of six, she was walking with them.

4. At 13, she took up rock climbing and began seeking out rock faces to climb all over England.

5. At 16, she got a job in a climbing shop, owned by Jim Ballard, who was almost twice her age. She left home to live with him at 18. Her parents were disappointed and never got along with him. The couple married in 1988 and moved to Spean Bridge, in the Scottish Highlands in order to be closer to the Mountains.

6. Jim, however, was violent and controlling. In 1987 she wrote in her diary, 'JB beat me up again, thumped and kicked me in snow.'

7. Finding the money to finance Alison’s passion wasn’t easy. In 1933, she and Jim sold their house and spent some time travelling in Switzerland and living in an old Land Rover.

8. She was the first climber to climb all the six great North Faces of the Alps in one season. When she climbed the Eiger, she was six months pregnant. She had originally wanted to climb in Alaska, but although her doctor told her the medical risks of climbing while pregnant were minimal, making such a huge expedition might be frowned upon. Her son, Tom, also became a climber. He died in 2019 while ascending Nanga Parbat.

9. Hargreaves failed in her first attempt to climb Everest. The threat of frostbite meant she had to turn back just 1,500 feet from the summit. “I was feeling great, but I wasn't prepared to lose any digits over it,"she said. On May 13, 1995, Hargreaves finally became the first woman, and only the second human being in history, to reach the 29,028-foot summit of Mount Everest solo without supplemental Oxygen.

10. A few months later, she reached the summit of K2, again without supplemental oxygen. Sadly though, she and the rest of her party perished in a terrible storm on their way back down. Hargreaves was 33 years old.

16 February: Miranda, Moon of Uranus

On this date in 1948 Miranda, a moon of Uranus, was discovered. 10 things you might not know about Miranda:

1. Miranda was discovered by Gerard Kuiper on 16 February 1948 at McDonald Observatory in Texas using the McDonald Observatory's 82-inch (2,080 mm) Otto Struve Telescope.

2. The moon was named for the character Miranda in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. All the moons discovered before it were named after Fairies. Miranda was the first moon to be named after a human.

3. It’s also known as Uranus V.

4. It is the smallest (470 km in diameter) and the innermost (129,000 km from the planet surface) of the moons of Uranus.

5. Its orbital period is 34 hours, and, like our own moon it is tidally locked with the planet, meaning the same side is always facing the planet.

6. Pretty much everything we know about Miranda comes from the flyby of Uranus made by Voyager 2 on 25 January 1986.

7. Miranda is the least dense of Uranus's round satellites, which suggests a composition of more than 60% water ice. It has been speculated that methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide or nitrogen may also exist there in small concentrations.

8. All the main geographical features of Miranda are named after people or places in Shakespeare plays.

9. Verona Rupes, named for the Italian city where the plot of Romeo and Juliet takes place, is the highest cliff in the solar system, 5 to 10 km (6.2 miles) high.

10. It also has some rather rare features called coronae. The only other body in the solar system known to have them is Venus. They are oval shaped features thought to be caused by the swelling up of warm materials underneath.

15 February: Galileo Galilei

Born on this date in 1564 was Galileo Galilei. 10 facts about him:

1. While it may seem strange to us for a person’s given name and surname to sound so similar, back when Galileo was born, people would generally only use one name, occasionally supplemented with their occupation, town of origin, father’s first name or traditional family name. The name Galileo actually means “of Galilee”.

2. Galileo’s father Vincenzo was a musician and composer. He played the lute, and apparently some of his compositions can still be purchased as modern recordings on CD today. Hence Galileo himself learned a lot about Music as he was growing up. He could play the lute, too, and was also well versed in art, considering a career as a painter at one point.

3. He also considered the religious life. As a boy, he studied at a monastery and decided he wanted to become a monk. However, his father didn’t want that life for his son and eventually intervened by taking him out of that school.

4. When Galileo started university he was studying medicine, but soon realised he was much more interested in maths and began studying that instead. He never completed his studies, though, as in 1585, financial constraints meant he had to drop out. However, he continued to study on his own, supplementing his income by giving private lessons. He became a teacher at the university in 1589.

5. His family weren’t well off, and as well as supporting himself, Galileo found himself having to support his siblings. His younger brother Michelangelo became a musician but not an especially successful one and often borrowed from his older brother to support his musical projects. Galileo also found himself having to pay the dowries his father had promised for his sisters. It may be that his inventions, such as the thermoscope and military compasses, were inspired by a need to make money. He also made money by teaching students about Astrology and how to cast horoscopes. At the time, such knowledge would have been in great demand. As well as family support, Galileo wasn’t keen on the university dress code for teachers and often refused to wear the required formal robes, for which his pay would be docked.

6. While he didn’t actually invent the Telescope – Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey is generally credited with that – but he did make improvements to Lippershey’s designs. Back then, telescopes were used for looking at things on Earth, such as sailors using them at sea. Galileo was the first person to think of looking at the Sky with them. Until Galileo looked at the Moon with a telescope and observed the mountains and craters, it was generally believed that the moon’s surface was smooth.

7. Galileo never married but he did have a lover called Marina Gamba, and had three children with her, two girls and a boy. Concerned that his illegitimate girls would never find husbands due to the stigma, he put them both in a convent where they stayed all their lives. Galileo’s son, Vincenzo, born in 1606, studied medicine at the University of Pisa, married well in spite of being born out of wedlock, and lived in Florence.

8. Galileo’s observations led him to support the 1543 theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Sun is the centre of the universe and the Earth and other planets revolve around it. The Catholic Church, however, declared Copernicus’s theory heresy and while they didn’t forbid Galileo from studying Copernicus’ ideas, he wasn’t allowed to hold or defend them. Never one for doing as he was told, Galileo published a book about it anyway in 1632: Dialogue of the Two Principal Systems of the World. It was presented as a discussion between friends about the ideas of Ptolemy and Copernicus, but the book was seen as supporting the Copernican model and Galileo was sentenced to life in prison.

9. However, the sentence was commuted to house arrest, so he spent his final years at Villa Il Gioiello (“the Jewel”), his home in the town of Arcetri, near Florence. Although he wasn’t allowed to see friends, he had plenty of visitors including philosopher Thomas Hobbes and poet John Milton. He was forbidden from publishing books as well, but nevertheless managed to smuggle out a manuscript for a book called Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences, about physics and mechanics, which was published in The Netherlands in 1638.

10. When Galileo died in 1642 at the age of 77, the Vatican refused to allow his remains to be buried alongside family members in Florence’s Santa Croce Basilica. He had to be buried in a side chapel instead. About 100 years later his reputation had improved and his remains were moved to the main basilica, although a few of his body parts went missing in the process. The middle finger of his right hand has been housed at various museums in Italy since the early 1800s.

14 February: Cupid

Happy Valentine's Day to those who celebrate. Here are 10 facts about Cupid:

1. Cupid is the Roman god of love, desire, and attraction. His Roman equivalent is Eros, and he has also been compared to the Hindu god Kama.

2. He is the son of Venus, and his father is thought to be either Vulcan or Mars.

3. These days he is usually portrayed as a chubby cherub with wings and a bow, but originally he was pictured as a young man with wings and a bow. It is probably the Victorians who popularised the former image and its association with Valentine’s Day.

4. In one tale, the boy Cupid steals honey from a beehive and gets stung. When he runs to his mother crying about how a creature that small shouldn’t be allowed to cause so much pain, Venus reminds him that he, too is small and yet delivers the sting of love.

5. Cupid has two, perhaps even three, types of arrow in his quiver. One is the familiar golden-tipped arrow which causes anyone it hits to fall in love; but he also has arrows tipped with Lead, which cause the opposite, revulsion. In one myth, Cupid shot Apollo with a Gold arrow, so he fell madly in love with the nymph Daphne, but then launched a leaden arrow at Daphne so she would find him repulsive. The Kingis Quair, a 15th-century poem attributed to James I of Scotland, suggests there is also a Silver arrow that causes a temporary attraction, a crush, perhaps, which is easily cured.

6. There’s one myth in which Cupid takes centre stage rather than simply appearing on the sidelines and causing other people, or gods, to become inflamed with lust. Venus was insanely jealous of a beautiful mortal called Psyche, and sent Cupid to cause her to fall in love with a hideous monster. Cupid, however, fell in love with Psyche himself and married her. However, possibly to throw Venus off the scent, there was a condition – that Psyche could never see his face. Psyche eventually became so curious to know what her husband looked like that she peeked. Cupid was furious and stormed off. Psyche roamed the world looking for him until they were reunited and Psyche became immortal.

7. Many believe that the story of Beauty and the Beast is a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth.

8. In some depictions of Cupid, the character is wearing a blindfold. Love is blind, after all.

9. In others, he’s seen riding a Dolphin.

10. When Christianity came along, Cupid was cast by religious puritans as a "demon of fornication", whose main purpose was to tempt people into sin and vice.