30th November: St Andrew's Day

You probably know that St Andrew was one of the Apostles, the brother of Simon Peter and that he is patron saint of Scotland. Here are some lesser known facts:

1. Andrew is also the patron saint of Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Barbados, Luxembourg, Greece, Amalfi in Italy, Esgueira in Portugal, Luqa in Malta, Parañaque in the Philippines, Patras in Greece, fishermen, sailors, golfers, spinsters, and fishmongers. He was also the patron saint of Prussia and of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
2. He is invoked against gout and stiff necks.
3. He is said to have founded the See of Byzantium (Constantinople) in AD 38 and the Georgian church.
4. There is a cave in Romania called St Andrew's cave, where he is said to have preached.
5. A Cypriot legend says that St Andrew was shipwrecked in Cyprus, and that as he came ashore, a healing spring gushed out of the spot where he placed his staff, healing the ship's captain, who had been blind in one eye.
6. According to the apocryphal book, the Acts of Andrew, he performed a number of miracles including healing, raising the dead, calming storms and defeating armies just by crossing himself. He's also said to have caused an illegitimate embryo to die, and to have rescued a boy from his incestuous mother, which involved God sending an Earthquake to help them escape.
7. He was martyred by crucifixion, but insisted he was not worthy to be crucified on the same sort of cross as Jesus, and so he was bound to an X shaped cross, or saltire, instead.
8. According to legend, a monk called Regulus was told in a dream to rescue the bones of St Andrew and take them "to the ends of the earth" for protection. He managed to get his hands on a kneecap, an upper arm bone, three fingers and a tooth, and set sail with them to the edges of the then known world. The association of Andrew with Scotland began when Regulus was shipwrecked on the coast of Fife and built a shrine there.
9. Later on, in 832 AD, Óengus II was about to go into battle against a much larger army of Angles, and was praying for victory. He vowed that if he won the battle, he would make Andrew the patron saint of Scotland. Legend has it that on the morning of the battle, an X shaped cloud appeared in the sky, which was taken as a sign. Óengus went into battle, won, and kept his promise. This is the origin of the Scottish flag - a white cross on a blue background.
10. In Scotland and Northern England there is a superstition which says that placing a cross of Saint Andrew on the fireplace stops witches from flying down the chimney.

29 November: CS Lewis

C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis, author of the Narnia books, was born on this date in 1898. 10 CS Lewis quotations:

1. I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes.
2. You came of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,” said Aslan. “And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.
3. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
4. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
5. We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
6. There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'
7. We are what we believe we are.
8. The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
9. The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.
10. Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.

28 November: Red Planet Day

The planet Mars, fourth from the Sun, is referred to as the "Red Planet" because it appears red in colour. Red Planet Day commemorates the launch of the Spacecraft Mariner 4 on November 28, 1964. The 228 day mission of Mariner 4 brought the spacecraft within 6,118 miles of Mars on July 14, 1965.

Could the Galle Crater be proof that a) there's a god,
b) He knew we'd go look at Mars and
c) He has a sense of humour? 

1. There have been 40 missions to Mars, as of September 2014, but only 18 of them were successful.
2. The Romans and the Greeks named the planet after their gods of war, because of its blood-red appearance. Other cultures named it for its colour, too - the Egyptians named it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one," while ancient Chinese astronomers dubbed it "the fire star." It looks red because the dust and rock on its surface are rich in Iron.
3. Ancient civilizations knew about Mars, but it wasn't until 1610 that it was observed with a Telescope, by Galileo Galilei.
4. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and they were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. He nearly gave up looking for Martian moons, but his wife told him not to give up. The very next day he discovered Deimos and then Phobos six days later. He named the moons after the sons of the Greek war god Ares — Phobos means "fear," while Deimos means "rout."
5. Phobos is gradually spiralling toward Mars, drawing about 6 feet (1.8 meters) closer to the red planet each century. Within 50 million years, Phobos will either smash into Mars or break up and form a ring of debris around the planet.
6. Mars has seasons, although they last much longer than the ones on earth. It is also the only other planet to have polar ice caps.
7. Mars has the highest mountain in the solar system (Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, about three times as tall as Mount Everest) and the deepest valley (Valles Marineris, named after the Mariner 9 probe that discovered it in 1971, which is as deep as 6 miles (10 km) and is about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) long, to the width of Australia. Mars is also home to the solar system's biggest dust storms which can last for months and cover the entire planet.
8. Mars is the only planet in the solar system to have carbon dioxide snow clouds.
9. Before probes actually landed on Mars, popular belief held that there had to be life there. In fact, in 1900, a prize was offered to anyone who could make contact with an extra-terrestrial being, but the rules stated that contact with a Martian wouldn't count, as that would have been too easy!
10. In astrology, Mars rules the sign of Aries and is associated with action, raw energy, desire and survival instincts.

27th November: Cauliflower

Today is Chou-fleur (Day of Cauliflower) in the French Revolutionary Calendar. 10 things you might not know about cauliflower:

1. The white head of a cauliflower is made up of undeveloped flower buds.
2. It is white because the leaves shield it from the Sun and inhibit the development of chlorophyll.
3. The leaves are usually thrown away, but they are edible too.
4. White is the most common colour, but there are varieties whose heads are Green, Orange and even purple.
5. The earliest written record of cauliflower dates back to the second century, when Pliny wrote about it.
6. The name cauliflower means cabbage flower.
7. Menon, a food writer of the 18th century, suggested serving it in a rich sauce made with veal, ham and cream, or as part of a stew of sweetbreads, mushrooms and foie gras.
8. Cauliflower requires slightly acidic, clay-like soil that is rich in minerals and regular watering for successful growth.
9. The Romans grew cauliflower, but there are no records of how they used it.
10. According to Mark Twain, Cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.

26 November: Charles Schultz

Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, was born on this date in 1922. 10 quotes:

1. It seems beyond comprehension that someone can be born to draw comic strips, but I think I was.
2. All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.
3. No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it.
4. Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
5. Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
6. In the Book of Life, The answers aren't in the back.
7. Be yourself. No one can say you're doing it wrong.
8. For one brief moment victory was within our grasp! And then the game started!
9. Happiness is waking up, looking at the clock and finding that you still have two hours left to sleep.
10. Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask why me? Then a voice answers nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.

25th November: Day of the Pig

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, 25 November was the Day of the Pig, so here are 10 things you may not know about pigs:

1. There are estimated to be a billion pigs alive on the planet at any one time, making them one of the most numerous large animals. More than half of these animals live in China.
2. By contrast, there is only one pig living in Afghanistan, in Kabul Zoo. There used to be two, but one died.
3. A pig's snout is 2,000 times more sensitive to smell than the human nose.
4. The Latin name for the domestic pig is Sus scrofa, although some authors call it S. domesticus, reserving S. scrofa for the wild boar.
5. The pig's reputation for being dirty is entirely unfounded. In the right conditions, they are very clean indeed. They will not use their eating or sleeping place as a toilet, and they will bathe in water. It's true they sometimes like to wallow in mud, but this is to keep them cool (despite the term "sweat like a pig" pigs cannot actually sweat very much) and mud makes a very good sunscreen.
6. A pig has four toes on each foot, but only walks on two of them. The other two toes are for balance and rarely touch the ground.
7. There is an Olympic Games specially for pigs. The Pig Olympics includes pig racing, pig swimming, and "pigball" a game rather like football. The pigs which take part are specially bred "pig-letes".
8. European regulations require farmers to provide mental stimulation for their pigs, as they have been found to be highly intelligent (more intelligent than a three year old human child) and Dutch scientists have developed a video game especially for pigs.
9. In Hannibal's time, pigs were used against Hannibal's war Elephants. The elephants were found to be terrified of the sound of a pig squealing, and would run away, often trampling their own troops in the process. Being a war pig was not pleasant for the pig, though, for making the pigs produce the noise meant setting them on fire or piercing their feet.
10. Pigs are omnivores, meaning they will eat practically anything, including each other, and there have been cases recorded of pigs eating humans - an Oregon farmer was eaten by his pigs in 2012. It's not known whether the pigs killed him or if he died of natural causes and then became lunch for the hogs.

24th November: Toulouse Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on this date in 1864.

1. He came from a family of aristocrats (descendants of the Counts of Toulouse and Lautrec and the Viscounts of Montfa)
2. His real name was Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa.
3. Henri's parents were first cousins.
4. He fractured his legs at 14 and the breaks did not heal properly. As a result, his legs stopped growing, so as an adult he was only 1.22 m (4 ft 6 in) tall but had a normal adult-sized body.
5. He spent some time in London, and while there became a friend and supporter of Oscar Wilde.
6. He invented a cocktail called "The Earthquake": (in a wine goblet, 3 parts Absinthe and 3 parts Cognac, sometimes served with ice cubes or shaken in a cocktail shaker filled with ice).
7. An alcoholic, he carried a cane in which he could conceal alcoholic drinks.
8. One of Lautrec's paintings, Ambassadeurs – Aristide Bruant, inspired the look of Tom Baker's incarnation of Doctor Who.
9. His career spanned less than 20 years, but during that time, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and any number of lost works.
10. He once said, "Love is when the desire to be desired takes you so badly that you feel you could die of it."

23rd November: Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid (William H Bonney), born 23rd November 1859 - or was he?

1. In truth, nobody knows for sure exactly when and where Billy the Kid was born. 23 November was the date given in one book about him, but other historians say there are no records to prove it.
2. At the height of his notoriety, Billy the Kid was using the name William H Bonney, but he had other names. He was born William Henry McCarty, and was also known as William Antrim for a while, Antrim being his step-father's name. Why he adopted the name of Bonney in 1877, nobody really knows.
3. His mother died of TB when he was 14 and he was taken in by neighbours who owned a hotel and he worked for them to earn his keep. The hotel manager liked him, saying he was the only young man ever to work there and never steal anything.
4. He was, however, accused of stealing from a later employer. At 15, he was working at a cheese factory and stole some cheese, and was arrested. He was later found to be in possession of some stolen goods and put in prison - but he escaped by climbing up the chimney.
5. There is only one authentic photograph of Billy the Kid in existence. In 2011, it was sold at auction for $2.3 million, the seventh most expensive photograph ever.
6. This photograph was the reason for a long-standing myth that Billy the Kid was left-handed. In the picture, he appears to be holding his gun in his left hand and wears a holster on his left hip, so it was concluded that he was left-handed. However, scrutiny of the picture in later years show it was a picture of Kid's reflection in a mirror, so in fact, the gun and holster were on his right side.
7. There is another myth that he killed 21 men, one for each year of his life, but in actual fact, he only killed about eight.
8. He went from best employee at a hotel at 14 to fugitive and killer by 17, when he killed for the first time. Some say that he turned to crime because he enjoyed reading crime novels. If he was alive now, no doubt they would be blaming computer games! Experts say it is more likely that his first thefts were out of necessity - food, because he was hungry - and that he was basically a nice kid who fell in with the wrong crowd.
9. He was convicted of the killing of Sheriff Brady and sentenced to death - but again he escaped, killing two of his guards, hacking his leg irons off with a pickaxe and riding out of town on a horse, singing. Two days later, the story goes, the horse came back to town two days later, without him.
10. His freedom was short-lived. Three months later he was shot by Sheriff Garrett, when the sheriff recognised his voice when he asked "Who is it?" in Spanish in a dark room.

22nd November: Thomas Cook: Travel quotes

Thomas Cook, English travel agent, was born on 22 November 1808. To celebrate his birthdate, 10 quotes about travel:

1. All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost. JRR Tolkien
2. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Mike Lancelot
3. In America there are two classes of travel - first class, and with children. Robert Benchley
4. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. St Augustine
5. Do not stand by the waterside watching the ship go by when you have a first class ticket in your pocket. Vicky Wall
6. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. TS Eliot
7. Science may create a vehicle to take you anywhere you want to go, but only myth will give you a reason for going. J.E. Hoke
8. To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive. Robert Louis Stevenson
9. Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travellers don’t know where they’re going. Paul Theroux
10. Travelling in the company of those we love is home in motion. Leigh Hunt

21st November: Voltaire

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), the French writer and philosopher was born this date in 1694. 10 Voltaire quotes:

1. I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
2. The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
3. Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
4. It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
5. Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
6. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
7. Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
8. It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
9. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
10. God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

20th November: Edwin Hubble

Edwin Hubble the astronomer was born on this date in 1889. Some things you may not know about him:

1. As a young man, Hubble was a keen sportsman. He excelled at Baseball, football, Basketball, and athletics. He led the University of Chicago's basketball team to their first conference title in 1907, won seven first places and a third place in a single high school track and field meet in 1906, and set the state high school record for the high jump in Illinois.
2. The only subject at school he didn't get good grades for was spelling.
3. Although his fist love was astronomy, he studied law at university because that's what his dying father wanted him to do. He also took courses in literature and Spanish as well as a few science courses. A career in law didn't interest him at all, so he became a teacher for a while and then, at 25, set out to become a professional astronomer.
4. When the US entered World War I, Hubble rushed through his PhD dissertation so he could volunteer, and rose to the rank of Major, although his division never saw any actual combat.
5. His discovery that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the earth, implying the universe is expanding (Hubble's Law) had previously been noted by Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest/astronomer, but his paper hadn't been so well publicised. Some scientists think that Hubble's Law should really be called "Lemaître's law".
6. Hubble discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati on August 30, 1935.
7. As well as the Hubble Space Telescope, also named after him are a crater on the Moon and Asteroid 2069 Hubble.
8. He never won a Nobel Prize. This was because astronomy was not, in his day, classed as a branch of physics, but as a completely separate science. He campaigned for astronomy to be classed as physics so that he and his colleagues might become eligible for a Nobel Prize. Only after his death did the Nobel Committee agree that astronomical work would be eligible for the physics prize. It's likely that if he had not died suddenly in 1953, he would have won the prize that year - but Nobel Prizes cannot be awarded posthumously.
9. A famous quote by Edwin Hubble goes: "Equipped with his five senses man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science".
10. After his death, no funeral was held, and nobody knows where he is buried, because his wife never told.

November 19: Indira Gandhi

Today, 10 quotations from Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, born on this date in 1917.

1. There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.
2. Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.
3. You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
4. People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.
5. The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
6. You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and vibrantly alive in repose.
7. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
8. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.
9. Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.
10. Martyrdom does not end something, it is only a beginning.

18 November: W S Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck "W.S." Gilbert, the lyricist half of the team of Gilbert and Sullivan was born on this date in 1836.

1. He was educated in France, and as a child, would write his diary in French so that the servants could not read it.
2. Gilbert's first career ambition was to join the Royal Artillery, but the Crimean war had ended and so he would not have been able to get the commission he wanted so he became a civil servant instead. He served in the Militia, a volunteer defence force in his spare time, and reached the rank of captain.
3. He was an assistant clerk in the Privy Council Office for four years and hated it. Then he inherited some money and used it to train as a barrister, but he only managed to get about five clients a year - so he started writing comic poems, stories and reviews to supplement his income.
4. He was a war correspondent for The Observer during the Franco-Prussian war.
5. Gilbert's first theatre productions were pantomimes, co-produced with Charles Millward. The first theatre production he wrote by himself was a pantomime called Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack.
6. His first collaboration with Arthur Sullivan was in 1871, when John Hollingshead commissioned them to work on a holiday piece for Christmas, Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, at the Gaiety Theatre. The production was a great success, but it was four years before the two men worked together again, on Trial By Jury, which was also the start of the collaboration with Richard D'Oyly Carte.
7. Gilbert had a reputation for being prickly, bad-tempered and misanthropic, and for micro-managing the cast and crews for his productions, refusing to work with actors who challenged him. On the other hand, he was known for acts of extra-ordinary kindness.
8. Gilbert and Sullivan often disagreed over subjects for operas; Sullivan complained that Gilbert's plots were too repetitive, too "topsy-turvy" and not realistic enough. They would frequently fall out, and D'Oyly Carte would have to stage performances of their older works while they worked things out, which they generally did after a few months.
9. It all ended finally over an argument about a carpet. D'Oyly Carte purchased a new carpet for the theatre and charged the cost of it to Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert contested it as a maintenance expense that he should not have to pay for - Carte refused to change the accounts, and Gilbert stormed out and went on to sue him, and withdraw the performance rights to his libretti, vowing to write no more operas for the Savoy. Eventually, Tom Chappell, the music publisher responsible for printing the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, upset that there were no more profits to be made from the partnership, stepped in to mediate, and within two weeks had succeeded. However, the next two operettas they wrote were not nearly as successful as previous ones, and so that was the final end of it.
10. Gilbert died from a heart attack he suffered when diving into a lake to save a young woman who had got into difficulties during a swimming lesson.

17th November: Peter Cook

Actor, comedian and writer Peter Cook would have been 77 today. 10 Peter Cook quotes:

1. I am very interested in the Universe - I am specialising in the Universe and all that surrounds it.
2. I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly.
3. One of the ways to avoid being beaten by the system is to laugh at it.
4. Everything I've ever told you, including this, is a lie.
5. I go to the theatre to be entertained... I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction... I can get all that at home.
6. I would much prefer to be a judge than a coal miner because of the absence of falling coal.
7. I've always been after the trappings of great luxury. But all I've got hold of are the trappings of great poverty.
8. I've always wanted to be an expert on tadpoles. I've always fancied being a tadpole expert. It's a wonderful life if you become and experty tadpoleous, as they are known in the trade. You get invited to all the smart parties and social gatherings.
9. I saw an advertisement the other day for the secret of life. It said "The secret of life can be yours for twenty-five shillings. Sent to Secret of Life Institute, Willesden." So I wrote away, seemed a good bargain, secret of life, twenty-five shillings. And I got a letter back saying, "If you think you can get the secret of life for twenty-five shillings, you don't deserve to have it. Send fifty shillings for the secret of life."
10. We've all got royal blood in our veins, you know. It's the best place for it in my view.

16 November: Oklahoma's daft laws

Today is Oklahoma Admission Day it became the 46th state on this date in 1907. 

Like many places, Oklahoma has a number of laws that probably made sense at the time they were passed, but which seem completely daft in the 21st century. For example, there is a law that says your mode of transport must be tied up when left unattended - which made sense when most people rode horses into town, but now means that you must tie up your car before leaving it! Here are 10 things you are not allowed to do in Oklahoma, or in parts of it.

1. Bring an Elephant into Tulsa's downtown area.
2. Carry a bowl of fish on a public bus, or tissues in the back of your car.
3. Be a cat lady - it is illegal to own more than two adult Cats.
4. Wear boots in bed - or put boots on the hind legs of a farm animal.
5. Open a soda bottle without the supervision of a licensed engineer.
6. Take a bite out of another person’s Hamburger.
7. Drink out of bird baths, or wash your clothes in them.
8. If you're a woman, you must not do your own hair without a licence or gamble naked.
9. Make faces at Dogs.
10. If you own a bar, you must not serve Water unless you serve a Peanut in a shell with it, or allow any of your customers to pretend to have sex with a buffalo.

15 November: Sir William Herschel - Uranus

This date in 1738 was the birth date of Sir William Herschel, famous for discovering Uranus. 10 facts about the seventh planet:

1. Uranus is the only planet named after a Greek god rather than a Roman god, that is, the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. He was the father of Cronus (the Greek equivalent of Saturn), and the grandfather of Zeus (the Greek equivalent of Jupiter).
2. It is also unique because it is the only planet in the solar system to rotate on its side, like a rolling ball rather than like a spinning top. This means its poles are where the other planets have their equators, and in the course of a Uranian year (84 earth years) each pole gets 42 years of continual sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.
3. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered using a Telescope. Although it is visible to the naked eye (but only just) it was so dim that everyone thought it was a distant star until William Herschel noticed it while looking for double stars, and realised it must be a planet.
4. Originally, Herschel named the newly discovered planet the "Georgian Star" after the English King, George III. This didn't go down so well outside Britain, and so for a long time it was known as "Herschel", until the name Uranus was universally adopted in 1850.
5. The name had been suggested as a possibility 100 years earlier. The scientist Martin Klaproth was a supporter of calling the planet Uranus, and he was so sure it would catch on eventually that he named the element he had just discovered after it - uranium.
6. The planet is made up of frozen water, ammonia and methane, while its atmosphere consists of hydrogen and Helium. Although Neptune is further away, measurements have shown that Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system.
7. Scientists believe that extreme temperatures and very high pressure compress carbon atoms into diamond, and that on Uranus, there are hailstorms where each stone is a diamond, and that there could be diamond icebergs floating in a sea of liquid diamond!
8. Uranus has rings - thirteen of them have been observed, most of them very narrow. Scientists think the rings are much younger than the planet and are the result of high speed impacts of moons. Talking of moons, Uranus has 27, named after characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The five main satellites are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. The moons are relatively small. The largest of them is only half the size of our moon.
9. William Herschel was a composer and musician as well as an astronomer. He played the oboe in the Hanover Military Band, as did his father and brother. He could also play the violin, harpsichord and organ, and composed 24 symphonies, some concertos and some church music.
10. The astrological symbol for Uranus includes a letter H, the first letter of Herschel's surname. In astrology, the planet is associated with Electricity, the colour electric blue, genius, individuality, unconventional and progressive ideas, discoveries, sudden and unexpected changes, freedom of expression and the nervous system. It rules the sign of Aquarius and the eleventh house.

14 November: Great White Whale Day

 In 1851, one of the world's greatest novels, Moby Dick, was published, which is why today is Great White Whale Day. 10 things you may not know about whales:

1. There are over 80 different species of whale. They range in size from the blue whale, the largest animal known to have ever existed at 30 m (98 ft) and 180 tonnes (180 long tons; 200 short tons), to pygmy species such as the pygmy sperm whale at 3.5 m (11 ft). Technically, Dolphins and porpoises belong to a branch of the whale family although most people view them as something separate.
2. Whales are the Hippopotamus's closest living relatives.
3. The shape of a whale's spout can help identify which species it is.
4. Whales are born tail first, to minimise the risk of drowning.
5. Whale milk is so rich in fats that it is the consistency of toothpaste. The female feeds her young by squirting the milk into its mouth. A baby blue whale may drink over 100 gallons of milk a day.
6. Scientists have found that baleen whales possess an organ that no other animal on earth has - the size of a grapefruit and located on their chins. They don't know what this organ is for, but are speculating that it has something to do with filtering out the vast amounts of water (sometimes as much as their own body weight) that they take in while feeding.
7. Female humped back whales have best friends. They reunite with their friends each year, and feed side by side, just hanging out together.
8. Whales in captivity have been known to try and communicate with humans by imitating human speech, and wild whales take a great interest in music played underwater, sometimes even seeming to dance to it.
9. Whales have been known to adopt other creatures. For example, a pod of sperm whales were observed to have a deformed bottlenosed dolphin hanging out with them. It seems likely the dolphin was rejected by its own kind because it couldn't keep up with them, and latched on to the slower moving whales for social contact. Scientists aren't sure why the whales were so happy to let the dolphin join their group. Beluga whales have been known to carry planks and other flotsam around like surrogate calves.
10. When whales die, their massive bodies sink to the bottom of the sea, and become mini eco-systems for scavengers, Bacteria, crustaceans who live among the bones, and finally organisms that live off the nutrients produced by the breakdown of the carcass. Scientists have observed around 185 different species living off the body of a single whale, for several years.

13th November: Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on this date in 1850. Here are 10 quotes:

1. No man is useless while he has a friend.
2. Wine is bottled poetry.
3. Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
4. Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
5. You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.
6. Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.
7. The cruellest lies are often told in silence.
8. You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.
9. I am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered.
10. If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.

12th November: Happy Hour Day

10 things you might not know about Happy Hour:

1. Today is Happy Hour Day, say many websites; because, they say, the first happy hour took place on this date in 1745, at a pub in Ireland. However, none of them say which pub it was or any more information than that.
2. Other sources like Wikipedia say that happy hours didn't start in Ireland at all, but in the USA. The first happy hours were social events on US Navy ships during the first world war, where sailors could get together for a smoke.
3. Happy hours connected to alcohol started during the prohibition. People couldn't get a drink with their meal in a restaurant, so they'd go to a speakeasy for a few cocktails before dinner.
4. Happy hours are actually banned in 23 US states, including Massachusetts, Illinois, North Carolina and Utah.
5. Other states are more relaxed - Pennsylvania, for example, doubled the duration of happy hours from two to four hours in 2011, and in 2012, Kansas re-instated them after a 26 year ban.
6. Happy hours may have started in Ireland, but they have been illegal there since 2003.
7. The original meaning of "happy hour" was pleasant times, and as such has been around for centuries. Shakespeare used the term in King Henry V: "Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour That may give furtherance to our expedition..."
8. You know you're getting old when "happy hour" means a nap.
9. Happy hour is an excuse to eliminate that little bit of Blood that made it into your alcohol stream today.
10. Happy Hour is a 1986 song by The Housemartins, which reached number 3 in the charts.