8th July: Eat a Vegetable You've Never Heard of Day

Today is eat a vegetable you've never heard of day. Here are 10 suggestions of vegetables you may not have heard of:

Romanesco Broccoli

1. Fiddleheads: The furled fronds of baby ferns. They are only found in New England, and are not cultivated. People in New England eat them a lot in salads. 
2. Yardlongs: Or Chinese long beans. Basically very long, green beans, although despite their name they are only about half a yard long. They are native to south east Asia and perfect for stir fries.
3. Cassava: A root vegetable similar to a potato, except it has more fibre and potassium, but more calories.
4. Zucchini Blossoms: The flower of the courgette plant, which are gold in colour and can be eaten stuffed with Ricotta cheese.
5. Romanesco broccoli: a cousin of the cauliflower, which looks like a fractal pattern. It tastes mild and sweet, and is high in Vitamin C.
6. Okinawan purple sweet potato: Looks like a normal Potato until you cut or peel it and reveal the purple flesh inside. It is found in Asia and Hawaii and is high in vitamin C, folate, Potassium, calcium, phosphorus and antioxidants, and tastes sweet and nutty.
7. Dandelion greens: Apparently Dandelion leaves can be eaten in salads, or boiled. It tastes slightly bitter and is rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, calcium, Iron, potassium and manganese.
8. Samphire, also known as salicornia, sea asparagus or sea beans, looks like a cross between Asparagus and cactus. It's crunchy and slightly salty and can be eaten raw or steamed.
9. Oca is a root vegetable from South America, but it is also popular in New Zealand. There are different varieties with varying tastes. A particularly popular variety is the apricot oca, which tastes of Apricots.
10. Nopales: Popular in Mexico, these are a type of cactus - with the spines removed, of course.

7th July: Robert A. Heinlein's birthday

Author Robert A Heinlen was born on 7 July 1907 - here are 10 Heinlein quotes:

1. Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
2. Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
3. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
4. Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.
5. Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.
6. No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.
7. How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.
8. The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
9. Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
10. Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.

6th July: Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader among Tibetans and head of the Tibetan Government in Exile was born on this date in 1935. He was proclaimed the tulku (rebirth) of the thirteenth Dalai Lama at the age of two and was enthroned as Tibet's Dalai Lama at 15, one month after the People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet. He is the first Dalai Lama to travel to the West. 10 things you may not know about the Dalai Lama.

1. The name Dalai Lama is a combination of the Mongol word dalai meaning "ocean" and the Tibetan word for guru, teacher or mentor.
2. The previous Dalai Lama died in 1933. Four years later, a search party was sent out to find his reincarnation. It is said that the embalmed head of Dalai Lama 13 turned to face north east, which was an indication as the direction in which they should look. Further clues came through the Regent's visions and dreams of a distinctive looking house in the region of Amdo - the one in which the 14th Dalai Lama was then living.
3. The name given to him at birth was Lhamo Thondup, and his family were farmers and horse traders. The test to determine that they had found the right person was to show the child a selection of items, some of which had belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. When the boy correctly identified those items, saying, "It's mine! It's mine!" they knew their search was over. Lhamo Thondup became Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, but was not officially enthroned until he was 15.
4. His eldest brother, Thupten Jigme Norbu, had been recognised at the age of eight as the reincarnation of the high Lama Taktser Rinpoche.
5. The Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet was assisted by the CIA. They helped him get to India, where a few years earlier, the then Prime Minister had discouraged the Dalai Lama from seeking political asylum because of the effect it would have on the peace of the area.
6. The Dalai Lama promotes vegetarianism whenever he can. His dietary preference would be to eat no meat, but his doctors have advised him that he should eat meat on alternate days for the sake of his health. When eating with non-vegetarians, he will decline the vegetarian menu and eat meat along with his hosts. Tibetan monks were not traditionally vegetarian as meat was the most commonly available food in Tibet in ancient times.
7. The position has been a political as well as a religious one since the 1630s. The current Dalai Lama has been no exception - he set up his government in exile in India where he worked tirelessly to help the Tibetan refugees, preserve their way of life and to protect their human rights, although he retired from political life in 2011.
8. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
9. Previous incarnations were not as clean living. The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, for example, was known to enjoy wine, women and song.
10. The current Dalai Lama may be the last. He has said that he will take a view, when he is about 90, as to whether the institution of Dalai Lama should continue. As of 2011, he was undecided as to whether he wanted to incarnate again or not.

5th July: Wimbledon

The Wimbledon Championships are drawing to a close, so before they do, here are 10 things you might not know about Wimbledon:

1. The first Wimbledon was in 1877. At that time, it was a men's singles championship only (the women's competition was introduced in 1884). 22 players took part, and there were just 200 spectators who had paid the princely sum of one shilling (5p) for their tickets. The first winner was Spencer Gore, who beat William Marshall in the final.
2. The Wimbledon Tennis Club has a resident hawk, Rufus, who visits about once a week throughout the year to frighten Pigeons away. During the tournament, he visits every day and flies around for an hour before the gates open.
3. Wimbledon has a lot of balls. 54,250, to be exact. This is the number which is used during the championships. They are stored at a regulation 68 degrees F, and are replaced after every 9 games. Since 1986, the balls have been yellow. After use the balls are either sold to other tennis clubs, or spectators can buy a pack of three for £2.50. Of ball boys and girls, there are 250, chosen from about 750 applicants from all over the world.
4. During the championships, the audience will consume 300,000 cups of Tea and Coffee, 250,000 bottles of Water, 200,000 glasses of Pimm's, 190,000 Sandwiches, 135,000 Ice creams, 100,000 pints of draught Beer and Lager, 32,000 portions of fish and chips, 25,000 bottles of Champagne, 15,000 Bananas 28,000 kg, 12,000 kg of poached salmon and smoked Salmon, and of course, (112,000 punnets) of English Strawberries and 7,000 litres of dairy cream, served up by around 1800 catering staff. Wimbledon is the largest single annual sporting catering operation in Europe.
5. The longest match ever was between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut in 2010. It lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes and was played out over three days. The shortest match ever played in Wimbledon history was the 1881 final in which William Renshaw defeated John Hartley in just 37 minutes.
6. Martina Navratilova has won the Wimbledon Women Singles title a record 9 times. If you count her performances in doubles matches, too, she has a record 20 titles, as does Billie Jean King. Willie Renshaw and Pete Sampras jointly hold the record of winning the Wimbledon Men Singles 7 times. Renshaw won it six times in a row from 1881-86.
7. Martina Hingis became the youngest player to win a Wimbledon title, at the age of 15 years, 282 days, by winning doubles championship in 1996. The youngest male winner was Boris Becker at the age of 17 years, 227 days in 1985. At the same time, he became the first German to win, and the first unseeded player to win.
8. No married woman has won the Wimbledon Singles Championship since 1981, when Chris Evert Lloyd did it.
9. The first player to be disqualified was Tim Henman in 1995, when he hit a ball in anger which happened to strike a ball girl.
10. The grass on the courts is mowed to a height of exactly 8mm.

4th July: US Independence Day

Everyone knows July 4^th is US Independence Day, but what you may not know about it is:

1. Calvin Coolidge, 30^th President, was born on this date in 1872. Other famous Americans born on Independence Day are Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter; Stephen Forster, a composer whose songs include Camptown Races and Oh Susannah; Rube Goldberg, a political cartoonist, famous for drawings of convoluted machinery, a kind of US Heath Robinson; Abe Saperstein, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team; Gloria Stewart, the actress who played the old Rose in Titanic; Abigail Van Buren, agony aunt famous for her “Dear Abby” column; Ann Landers, another agony aunt – these two were both born on 4 July 1918; Leona Helmsley, the millionairess who famously said that only the little people pay taxes; Bill Withers, blues singer; Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran whose life story was told in the film Born on the Fourth of July, in which he was played by Tom Cruise (who was born on the 3^rd of July).
2. In 1826 on this date, two former presidents died: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the third and fourth presidents respectively. Jefferson died at one pm, Adams a few hours later. Jefferson’s last words were "This is the Fourth?"  And Adams’ "Thomas Jefferson still survives." James Monroe, the 5th President, died on this date in 1831.
3. Other observances on this date include Hillbilly/Redneck Day, a celebration of US working classes; Barbecue day (I wonder why!); Firecracker day (again, I wonder why!); Barbecued spare ribs day; Filipino-American Friendship Day Public holiday in the Philippines in which American institutions are honoured; Freedomfest in Arkansas; Independence from Meat Day, a vegetarian awareness day; National Country Music Day; National Toe Jam Day, the day of the year when the average American is most likely to see his neighbour's bare feet; National Huckleberry Festival; National Paralysed Veteran's Day; Oceanfest New Jersey; Providence Day 1636, Rhode Island; Sidewalk Egg Frying Contest Arizona; Tom Sawyer Fence-Painting Day, a fence painting contest to re-enact the fence painting incident in the book by Mark Twain; World’s Greatest Lizard Race Annual New Mexico sports day for lizards and Iguanas.
4. Most if not all of the above are connected in some way with Independence Day. Some observances that are likely not are: The lighting of the Baal fire in Northumberland, UK; Bullion's Day, the feast of the translation of St Martin of Bullion's relics; Family Day Lesotho; Fighter's Day Yugoslavia; Fisherman's day Marshall Islands; the King's birthday in Tonga; Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod begins in Wales.
5. Across the pond in England, on the first Independence Day, George III wrote in his diary, “nothing of importance happened today”. Two hundred years later, the sovereign of England was mush less dismissive. Queen Elizabeth II went over to join in the celebrations and congratulate the former colony on 200 years of independence.
6. It is probably not entirely coincidental that the following events took place on this date: 1827 Slavery abolished in New York; 1836 Wisconsin Territory formed; 1845 Texas Congress voted for annexation to US; 1863 Boise, Idaho was founded (now the capital of Idaho); 1868 North Carolina was readmitted to the Union; 1894 The Republic of Hawaii was established; Sanford B Dole was the first president; 1946 Manuel Roxas became the first President of the Philippines as the US granted the islands their independence; 1973 Treaty of Chaguarramas was signed establishing the Caribbean Community; 1994 The United States opened its embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The US flag that we know today has not always looked exactly as it does. Updated versions, adding stars for new states, were unfurled in 1959 and 1960, (Alaska and Hawaii respectively) and the date chosen for their unveiling was, of course, the fourth of July. In 1994, US hamburger chain McDonalds were celebrating the opening of their first outlet in Kuwait and queues 7 miles long to sample their wares. In 2004 The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York.
7. In 2006, Space Shuttle Discovery launched – the only time a shuttle has launched on Independence Day.
8. In 1796 The first Independence Day celebration was held in the Western Reserve (Conneaut) by Moses Cleaveland and his survey party. Independence Day was not an official paid federal holiday until 1938.
9. The legal separation of the colonies from Britain actually took place on July 2^nd when Congress voted for it. Only then did they start work on the Declaration of Independence which was approved two days later. John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on the third of July: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” He was right, he just got the date wrong as July 4 was the date on the final declaration so that was the date people celebrated.
10. There is some dispute among historians as to whether the Declaration was actually signed on the fourth of July, although there are documents written by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin suggesting that it was. Many believe the signing did not take place until August 2^nd.

3rd July: First edible, cultivated strawberry was exhibited.

On 3 July 1806, a horticulturist named Michael Keen exhibited Britain's first cultivated strawberry at a show in Isleworth, Middlesex. Here are 10 things you may not know about strawberries:

1. The strawberry had been around for far longer than that – garden strawberries had been grown in France since the 1700s, and even before that, the wild variety were extremely popular. There are references to them in ancient Rome, where they were taken for medicinal purposes, and they appear in 15^th century illustrated manuscripts produced by monks. It was believed that the entire plant, not just the berry, was a remedy for depression.
2. The species name for the strawberry plant is Fragaria ananassa, and it is part of the rose family.
3. The fruit is not technically a berry at all. It is a fruit, and a unique one because the strawberry is the only fruit to have its seeds on the outside. The average strawberry has about 200 seeds. An acre of land can produce about 20Mg (20,000kg) of strawberries.
4. They are a healthy food too, rich in Vitamin C – in fact, a bowl of strawberries contains more Vitamin C than an Orange. Folium, potassium and fibre are among its other benefits. They are low in fat, cholesterol and sodium.
5. In mythology the strawberry is the symbol of Venus and of Freya, both goddesses of love. The Greeks believed that strawberries originated when the goddess Aphrodite, distraught at the death of her mortal lover Adonis, wept tears which fell to the ground as small red hearts. Strawberries are, as a result, often associated with passion and seduction. In France, strawberries are considered an aphrodisiac. French newlyweds were served a traditional breakfast of strawberry soup with sour cream, sugar, and borage to celebrate their love. It is believed in many cultures that if two people share a double strawberry they will fall in love.
6. The Cherokees believe that strawberries were created to mend a rift between the first man and first woman. They had argued and the woman went off in a huff. The Great Spirit was worried – he wanted the couple to stay together and populate the earth. The Great Spirit began creating tasty fruit to place in the woman's way. He tried gooseberries, Apples and Blackberries, but it was the strawberry that made her stop in her tracks. As she gorged herself on them, first man was able to catch up with her and make amends. The fact that all the yummy strawberries had put her in a much better mood helped his cause considerably. Strawberries from then on represented love, forgiveness and good luck, not only to the Cherokee, but to many of the other tribes as well. Many held strawberry dances, to invoke the coming of spring and the first fruits of harvest. Some of these still take place today.
7. Another strawberry myth says that when Norse children die, their spirits hide in strawberries, which are picked and taken to heaven by Frigga, Oden’s wife.
8. In Christian art, strawberry fruit and flowers symbolise righteousness and spiritual merit, and would often be carved in wood and stone in churches. The leaves are trifoliate, so Christians took this to symbolise the Holy Trinity like the shamrock does. Before Christianity, pagan tradition held that the leaves represented the three manifestations of the Goddess, virgin, mother and crone. In Victorian flower language, the berry symbolises perfection and “sweetness in life and character.” Because the berry is often found hiding beneath the leaves, it also represented modesty.
9. A Slovakian story called “Strawberries in Winter.” tells of a beautiful girl whose father died, and her step-mother and step-sister made her do all of the housework while the mother invited prospective husbands around for the step-sister. However, the young men found the girl doing the housework much more beautiful than the one they were supposed to be paying court to, so the step-mother decided the beautiful girl must be got out of the way. She sent her out to gather strawberries in the middle of the winter in the hope that she would freeze to death and no longer be a burden to them. The Council of Seasons took pity on her, however, because she was so beautiful and sweet, and gave her as many strawberries as she needed. When the step mother and sister decided to go looking for the fruit in winter themselves, they were rude to the council, and the council, guessing that they were the tormentors of their sweet, beautiful friend, made sure they perished in an ice storm.
10. There is a museum in Belgium entirely dedicated to the strawberry.

2nd July: World UFO Day

It's World UFO Day - because today was the day in 1947 that a UFO allegedly crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. 10 things you may not know about the Roswell Incident:

1. In the days immediately following the incident, the US military said the debris that had been found belonged to a weather balloon. There was a press conference showing the debris which appeared to be foil, rubber and wood. It's possible it was no ordinary weather balloon, though, as a top secret project named Project Mogul was being conducted at the time, which involved sending microphones up to extremely high altitudes to try and detect sound waves from Soviet nuclear tests.
2. Another experimental programme of the time, which may have had some bearing on the UFO claims was Operation High Dive, in which dummies were dropped from very high altitudes to see what the effects would be on the human body (fyi, not good). Some witnesses who said they saw alien bodies may actually have seen crash test dummies which had fallen from the sky.
3. People seemed to have accepted these explanations at the time and nothing more was heard about UFOs in Roswell until 1978, when, during an interview with physicist and ufologist Stanton T. Friedman, Major Jesse Marcel, who was involved with the original recovery of the debris in 1947, expressed his belief that the military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft.
4. It wasn't until 1980 that people started writing books about it. The first was The Roswell Incident by Charles Berlitz and William Moore. Many more books followed with differing scenarios, new witness accounts and new theories.
5. One of these books was called Crash at Corona, as the authors pointed out that the ranch where the debris was found was actually geographically closer to Corona, another New Mexico town.
6. Joe Nickell and James McGaha used the Roswell incident to illustrate a phenomena they called the "Roswellian Syndrome", the means by which modern myths come about. The stages are as follows: Incident: The initial incident and reporting of it, before anybody has any theories about it; Debunking: Immediately after, a rational explanation is put forward: the object was a weather balloon, later confirmed by the military to be a balloon from Project Mogul. Submergence: The news story ended with the identification of the weather balloon. Most people forget all about it, apart from a few UFO enthusiasts or people with active imaginations - who eventually start asking questions, and making public their beliefs. Mythologizing: The story snowballs into an elaborate myth as reports are exaggerated, events are misremembered and turned into folklore. There may even be deliberate hoaxes which add to the effect as people believe them. Reemergence and Media Bandwagon Effect: Publication of books, TV shows and other media coverage follow and the snowball gets even bigger.
7. Even some prominent UFO believers think the Roswell incident had nothing to do with aliens, and if the military admitted they didn't know what the some of the objects were, it probably meant they were Soviet spy satellites.
8. The Roswell incident, it is alleged, led to the setting up of a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, The purpose of this committee, called Majestic 12 (or MJ-12, or Majic 12) was to investigate reports of UFO sightings.
9. The 1995 footage of an alien autopsy, at first said to have been taken by a US military official shortly after the Roswell incident, was actually made by a video entrepreneur in London, Ray Santilli, who admitted it was a reconstruction, presumably to show off his video-making ability. He went on to say, though, that it was based on a real film, mostly lost, and included some of the few original frames which has survived.
10. Finally, a few things Roswell is famous for besides UFOs. It is the administrative capital of Chaves County; one of the world's largest mozzarella factories, Leprino Foods, is based there (aliens made from cheese, anyone?) and the singer John Denver and the actress Demi Moore were both born there.

1st July: Madeira Day

Madeira consists of a group of islands 400km north of Tenerife. It was part of Portugal but has its own government as of 1 July 1976. Some facts about Madeira that you may not know:

1. The population is around 270,000, most of whom live on the main island of Madeira. The other, smaller islands are Porto Santo, the Desertas Islands and the Savage Islands.
2. The region was discovered by accident when, in 1418, two captains under service to Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven off course by a storm. They found Porto Santo first, and gave it that name, which means "holy harbour", as they were so thankful to God for providing them with a safe place to anchor. As explorers tend to do, they returned the following year to claim it for their country. This time, they noticed what they thought was "a heavy black cloud suspended to the southwest" but on further investigation, it turned out to be the larger island of Madeira.
3. Although Madeira island is a small place (740.7 km2/286 sq mi) it has the largest Firework display at New Year, officially recognised by Guinness World Records in 2006.
4. The name Madeira means Island of Wood, after the forests that covered it before settlement.
5. The capital, Funchal, is named for the fennel that grew there.
6. The History Channel rates Funchal Airport as the 9th most dangerous airport in the world. In the late 20th century, it would probably have ranked even higher - it had a very short runway which was not only subject to unpredictable air currents but dropped sharply off a cliff. After a fatal crash in 1977, the runway was realigned and extended out into the sea, a platform supported by columns. Not only was this safer (although it is still the second most dangerous airport in Europe, after Gibraltar) but it enabled larger planes to land, bringing more tourists.
7. The Patron saint is Nossa Senhora do Monte.
8. The island is mountainous and has several microclimates, meaning parts of it are very rainy while other parts are very dry. To solve this problem the people built a network of aqueducts, called levadas, which still carry Water today, and also provide hydro-electric power. Some of the levadas have paths alongside which are popular, and not too taxing, walking routes, while others are quite treacherous.
9. The highest point on the island is Pico Ruivo at 1,862 m (6,109 ft).
10. There is a romantic tale of two lovers, Robert Machim and Anna d'Arfet, who fled from England to France in 1346, and like the two captains, were driven off course by a violent storm. Their ship crashed along the coast of an island, which may have been Madeira; the town of Machico, was named after the boy in the tale.

30th June: Meteorite Day

On this date in 1908 a large meteorite crashed in central Siberia, causing the most powerful explosion in human history. So today is meteroite day, and also Sky Day. So here are 10 things you may not know about meteorites:

1. Meteorites are only the objects that impact the Earth. If it stays out in space, it's a meteoroid; if it burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, it's a meteor.
2. While meteorites are falling to Earth all the time, most of them fall into the sea or in uninhabited areas. Only between five and ten a year find their way into the possession of scientists for study.
3. Most meteorites come from Asteroids, presumably debris from collisions, but some are believed to come from the Moon and even Mars.
4. Meteorites are always named for the places they were found, usually a nearby town or geographic feature.
5. It is illegal to buy or sell meteorites in South Africa.
6. 94% of meteorites are made of space rock, while about 6% are made of metal, usually Iron. Some of the rocky ones contain traces of organic matter such as amino acids.
7. The oldest meteorite whose fall can be dated precisely (to 19 May 861), was called Nōgata. It landed in Japan.
8. The largest Meteorite ever found on Earth was Hoba, discovered in Namibia, Africa in 1920. It measures 2.7m wide, 2.7m deep, 0.9m high and weighs 60 tonnes.
9. There are no proven historical cases of people being killed by meteorites. The first modern case of a human hit by one occurred on 30 November 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama. A 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) stone meterorite crashed through Ann Hodges' roof while she was sitting in her living room. It bounced off her radio and hit her. She was badly bruised.
10. Fragments of asteroids (presumably we can't call them meteorites under the definition above) have been found on the Moon. 

29th June: Feast Day of St Peter

St Peter, the Fisherman who became a disciple of Christ, the one who denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed, the first pope, and gatekeeper of Heaven is celebrated today. Some things you may not know about St Peter:

1. Although the women saw the empty tomb first, Saint Peter was the first to go inside.
2. Saint Peter is patron of Wolves, Bakers, Bridge builders, Butchers, Fishermen, Harvesters, Locksmiths, Cobblers, Masons, Net makers, Shipwrights and Stationers.
3. If you have Frenzy, Foot problems or Fever; want to live a long life or enjoy good weather, then St Peter is the person to invoke.
4. In art, Saint Peter is shown as an elderly, bearded, balding, thick-set man with keys hanging from his belt. Traditional art never shows him in the role popular culture has given him, namely as the gatekeeper to Heaven, although he is often shown at the right side of God.
5. When Peter knew he was to be executed by crucifixion, he asked to be crucified upside down, because he believed he wasn't worthy to be executed in the same way as Jesus.
6. In the 1960s, some bone fragments were found in debris from excavations from under St Peter's Basilica in Rome. After forensic tests showed them to be of a 61 year old man from the first century, Pope Paul VI declared that they were probably relics of Saint Peter. They were not seen in public, though, until last year when Pope Francis revealed them during a Mass in Saint Peter's Square.
7. Peter appears in ancients texts other than the Bible. The gnostic gospels of Thomas and Mary show him complaining bitterly about Mary Magdalene, a mere woman, being allowed to listen to Christ's teachings!
8. The Orthodox Church have given him the title Coryphaeus, which translates as "Choir-director", or lead singer.
9. Saint Peter shares his feast day with St Paul...
10. ... but there are other days in the church calendar dedicated to him. January 16 is Veneration of the Precious Chains of the Holy and All-Glorious Apostle Peter Day, celebrating the incident in the Book of Acts when chains miraculously fell off him in prison; The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter is on 22nd February.

28th June: Insurance Awareness Day

Today is Insurance Awareness day in the US. Why this should be is unknown, but it was probably devised by insurance companies. Today, here are 10 amusing extracts from insurance claim letters:

1. Unless I get my money soon, I will be forced to live an immortal life.
2. I thought the side window was down, but it was up as I found when I put my head through it
3. Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.
4. The accident happened because I had one eye on the lorry in front, one eye on the pedestrian and the other on the car behind.
5. First car stopped suddenly, second car hit first car and a haggis ran into the rear of the second car.
6. I blew my horn, but it did not work, as it was stolen.
7. In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
8. I consider that neither car was to blame, but if either one was to blame, it would be the other one.
9. The guy was all over the road, I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
10. I had been driving for forty years, when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.

27th June: Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born on 27 June 1880. Knowing that she was deaf and blind from an early age, the following 10 quotes are inspiration indeed:

1. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.
2. Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
3. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
4. Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
5. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
6. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
7. Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.
8. What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.
9. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
10. One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

26th June: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

On this date in 1284, According to legend, the Pied Piper reappeared in the German town of Hamelin. He had rid the town of Rats but the townspeople refused to pay him, so he piped away 130 children and sealed them in a cave on Koppenburg Mountain.

1. Hamelin is a real place - it's in Lower Saxony in Germany. One of its big tourist attractions is a re-enactment of the Pied Piper tale each summer.
2. When the piper lured the rats into the river, they didn't all drown. One was left alive.
3. Not all the children vanished forever, either. Depending on which version of the story you are listening to, up to three children were left behind - one who was lame and couldn't keep up; one who was deaf and couldn't hear the music, and one who was blind and couldn't see where to go. This child, or children, were able to tell the adults what happened when they came out of church and found the other children gone.
4. What actually became of the children varies according to the version of the tale, as well. They may have been drowned, like the rats, or taken through a portal to another world which may or may not have been a pleasant one. In some versions the townspeople eventually pay up and get their children back.
5. There may have been an element of truth in the tale. Hamelin's church had a stained glass window depicting the piper and children dressed in white; and it is thought to have been created to commemorate a real life tragic event. There is also a written evidence in the town's records from the 14th century which states, "It is 100 years since our children left."
6. So if the tale is based on fact, what really did happen to all those children? Naturally, theories abound: they died of plague; they were killed in an accident - a landslide, or drowning in the river; they were recruited by a pagan sect and went away to love in the forest, where they disappeared down a sinkhole; they left to take part in a pilgrimage or crusade and never came back; the piper was a paedophile or white slave trader; the people had more children than the town could support, so the superfluous children were deliberately sold off or invited to emigrate.
7. Research into family names has offered some evidence for the emigration theory. Family names from the village of Hamelin in the 13th century crop up with surprising regularity in parts of Poland.
8. There is a street in the town where singing and music are forbidden by a very old law, presumably out of respect for the lost children, who were last seen on this street before they vanished. Whenever there is a parade or procession involving music, the bands must stop playing as they pass this street and not start again until they enter another street.
9. A building in the town with an inscription about the legend has become known as "The Rat Catcher's House". Today, the house is a restaurant with a Pied Piper theme.
10. June 26th is marked in Hamelin as "Rat Catcher's Day", a holiday for pest exterminators. 

25th June: Antonio Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia

Today is the birth date of Antonio Gaud¡ (1852), Spanish architect famous for his unique and highly individual designs. He designed the still unfinished Sagrada Familia, Barcelona. 10 things you may not know about Gaudi's magnum opus:

1. It's not a cathedral. Although it is the size of one, it's a Basilica, and not, as a cathedral must be, the seat of a bishop. Barcelona has an actual cathedral as well, The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St. Eulalia.
2. Gaudi wasn't the original designer - when construction began in 1882, the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar was in charge, and he had in mind a more traditional Gothic design. He resigned in 1883, and Gaudi took over.
3. Gaudi dedicated 40 years of his life to the Sagrada Familia. It would have been more if he had not been run over by a tram in 1926. At that time, 15 to 25% of the work had been done. He was even buried in its crypt.
4. The Sagrada Familia is still not finished. No-one is quite sure when it will be completed. Some estimate 2026, which would be the centennial of Gaudi's death, but others say it will be more like 2028 or even 2041. When Gaudi was asked about the extremely long time the building would take to complete, he commented, "My client is not in a hurry." It was consecrated in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI, so the finished parts can be used for religious services.
5. Its full title, The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, includes the word "Temple" which indicates the construction was entirely funded by donations. Nowadays an admission fee is charged to tourists who want to go inside, and those fees are used to continue the construction. As the Sagrada Família is the most visited monument in Spain with 3 million visitors every year, that's quite a lot of money.
6. When complete, the building will have 18 towers (representing the Apostles, the Virgin Mary and the tallest, Christ himself) and three grand façades: the Nativity façade to the East, the Passion façade to the West, and the Glory façade to the South. So far, there are eight towers and two completed façades. The tallest tower is 560 feet tall. Gaudi was adamant that it should not reach 984 feet above sea level, because then it would be taller than the mountain of Montjuic, and Gaudi believed that the highest point in the city should be something that was made by God Himself.
7. Gaudi was inspired by nature, and this is reflected in his design. The building does not have straight lines or angles, and the pillars are intended to taper and branch out like trees. Two of the pillars are supported by stone animals, a turtle and a tortoise, representing the sea and the land respectively.
8. The church is a UNESCO heritage site.
9. The organ was installed in 2010. It has 26 stops (1,492 pipes) on two manuals and a pedalboard. However, the size and shape of the church are such that it poses acoustic challenges - so it is planned to install several more organs around it. They will be designed to either be played separately, or simultaneously with the major one, from a single console. When this happens it will effectively be an organ with 8000 pipes.
10. Construction ground to a halt during the Spanish Civil War and didn't start again until the 1950s. Although the building itself wasn't damaged during the war, anarchists did destroy some of the plans and models of what they saw as a conservative religious icon.

24th June: Feast Day of St John the Baptist

Because today is his feast day, here are 10 things you may not know about John the Baptist:

1. The story of John the Baptist is related in the Qur'an as well as in the Bible. He is described there as being kind, gentle and humble as well as showing wisdom way beyond his years. Islamic mystics in particular revere him as a prophet.
2. Although the relics of St John are believed to be in a basilica in Alexandria, nobody is sure what happened to his head. Several places claim to possess it, including Umayyad Mosque in Damascus; San Silvestro in Capite in Rome; the Residenz Museum in Munich; Amiens Cathedral in France (brought home by Wallon de Sarton from the Fourth Crusade in Constantinople); Antioch in Turkey, and the parish church at Tenterden in Kent, where it was preserved up until the Reformation. One interesting claim is that John's head was brought to Halifax, West Yorkshire, which has John's head on its coat of arms, The name of the town is said to derive from "halig" meaning holy and "fax" meaning face, which suggests to some scholars that early religious settlers brought a "holy face" with them.
3. Three places claim to possess John's right hand, the one which baptised Jesus: the Serbian Orthodox Cetinje monastery in Montenegro, Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and the Romanian skete of the Forerunner on Mount Athos. Only one place claims to have his left hand: the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. John at Chinsurah, West Bengal, where each year on "Chinsurah Day" in January it blesses the Armenians of Calcutta.
4. He is said to have appeared in Pennsylvania, USA, to Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints, so he is an important figure in the Mormon religion.
5. The gnostics claim that John never ate locusts, because he was a vegetarian, but would have eaten Honey cakes or manna.
6. The Eastern Orthodox Church dedicates every Tuesday to John the Baptist.
7. John is the patron saint of Jordan, Puerto Rico and its capital city, San Juan, Newfoundland, French Canada, Porto in Portugal, Charleston in South Carolina  and Penzance, Cornwall.
8. He is also the patron of candle makers, farriers, roads and road workers, leather workers, wool workers and health spas.
9. His emblem is a lamb, and he is invoked for the protection of lambs.
10. The feast day is steeped in folklore. If it rains on St John's Day, it will also rain during harvest. Herbs picked on this day, especially Saint John's wort, will have extra healing power. People who go looking in lonely places may find hidden treasure on this day, and it is the best day to cut divining rods.

23rd June: Richard Bach's birthday

Author of Jonathon Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach, was born on this date in 1936. Here are 10 things he said:

1. Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.
2. You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.
3. Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.
4. If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were.
5. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.
6. Listen to what you know instead of what you fear.
7. Bad things are not the worst things that can happen to us. Nothing is the worst thing that can happen to us!
8. The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.
9. In order to live free and happily you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.
10. True love stories never have endings.

22nd June: Doughnuts were invented

Although National Doughnut Day is in early June, I'm doing doughnuts today because they were invented on this date in 1847, by a 16 year old sailor who disliked the cakes he was served aboard ship because they were raw in the middle. He came up with the idea of punching a hole in the middle with a pepper pot, and when it worked, went home and told his mother the technique.

1. The first doughnuts were made by Dutch settlers in the US. They called them oliekoeks (a Dutch word literally meaning "oil cake").
2. Having said that, archaeologists have found fossilized remains of a similar food in ancient Native American settlements.
3. It is thought that the first doughnuts were made by mistake when a cow accidentally kicked over a pot of oil which landed in the pastry.
4. Americans eat 10 billion doughnuts a year. The US town with the most doughnut shops per person is Boston. However, America as a country has less doughnut shops per person than Canada, even though the Canadians only eat one billion doughnuts a year.
5. The largest doughnut ever made was an American-style jelly doughnut. It weighed 1.7 tons, was 16ft wide and 16inches high. It was made in Utica, New York, USA on January 21, 1993.
6. The records for eating doughnuts are 29 in six minutes, and the fastest time for eating one is 33 seconds.
7. Doughnuts were distributed to American troops in both world wars, to give them a taste of home. They were handed out by female volunteers who came to be known as "doughnut girls" in World War I and "doughnut dollies" in World War II.
8. The first machine for making doughnuts was invested by Adolph Levitt, a refugee from Russia, in 1920.
9. Why do doughnuts have holes? Apparently so they cook more evenly. In the world of business, nothing is ever wasted - "doughnut holes", little balls of deep fried dough, are also sold as snacks.
10. Dunking doughnuts became popular in 1934 when Clark Gable was seen doing it in a film called It Happened One Night. However, he wasn't the first person to dunk a doughnut, according to legend. It was an actress called Mae Murray who accidentally dropped a doughnut into her coffee.