1 September: Alberta

On this date in 1905 Alberta entered the Confederation as a province of Canada. 10 things you might not know about Alberta.

1. Alberta is one of only two landlocked provinces in Canada, along with Saskatchewan (which, incidentally, entered the union on the same day). Alberta is bounded by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south. It’s the fourth-largest province in Canada, covering an area of 661,000 square kilometres (255,000 square miles), which, for context, is about the same size as the American state of Texas and more than twice the size of Italy. Alberta’s forests alone cover roughly 35 million hectares, about the size of Germany.

2. Alberta is home to 4.3 million people, and an even larger number of cattle. Alberta has the largest population of wild horses in Canada, but one creature you won’t find there is a Rat. Alberta is reportedly the largest rat-free inhabited land area in the world. It’s even illegal to have one as a pet. Beavers also live here. The longest beaver dam in the world is here, in Wood Buffalo National Park, allegedly visible from space.

3. A few million years ago, you’d find Dinosaurs here, too. Though the world’s largest dinosaur is still here in a town called Drumheller. Made of fibreglass, I might add! It’s a T Rex, 26 metres high, which back in the day would have been one of the largest living dinosaurs in the area, weighing up to 10 tonnes and measuring 12m long; but there was an even bigger one called the Edmontosaurus (after Alberta’s capital) which weighed up to 14 tonnes and was 14m long. The oldest dinosaur fossil found in Alberta is estimated to be over 110 million years old. There’s another dinosaur named after the state itself, the Albertosaurus.

4. Alberta was named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, who in turn was named after Prince Albert. She was married to the Marquis of Lorne, Canada’s Governor General from 1878-1883. Lake Louise was also named after her.

5. The highest point in Alberta is Mount Columbia at 3,747 meters tall, while the highest settlement is the aforementioned Lake Louise. There are 600 lakes and 245 rivers; the longest river is The longest river is the Athabasca which flows 1,538 kilometers from the Columbia Icefield to Lake Athabasca; but the largest river by water flow is the Peace River.

6. Edmonton is the capital, but the largest city is Calgary. Other notable towns include Vegreville, home to the world’s largest pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg); Mundare, home to the world’s largest kubasa (Ukrainian sausage); Beaverlodge, where there is a 1,500lb beaver; and Vulcan, which although it existed long before Star Trek, nevertheless has embraced the inevitable and is home to a 31-foot Starship Enterprise replica with a plaque in English, Vulcan and Klingon.

7. The oldest national park in Canada is located in Alberta. Banff National Park was established in the year 1885 as Canada’s first National Park. There are also 6 UNESCO world heritage sites in the province. One of these is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, where Indigenous peoples drove buffalo over a cliff in order to kill them for food.

8. Symbols of Alberta include: an official tartan (green for the forests, gold for the wheat fields, blue for the sky and lakes, pink for the wild roses which are Alberta’s official flower, and black for petroleum); the Great Horned Owl is the provincial bird; rough fescue, the official grass of Alberta; the lodgepole pine is the official tree; the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep is the official mammal; the bullhorn trout the official fish; the official gemstone is ammolite, which is only found here; and the official stone is petrified wood. Since 2005, there’s an official song, Alberta, written for the centennial of the province in 2005.

9. Another symbol is a white cowboy hat, which has become associated with hospitality in Calgary. It started as a symbol of the Stampede rodeo; a Jewish immigrant called Morris Shumiatcher was the first to make pure white hats for participants in the rodeo to wear. in due course became an item that was presented to visiting dignitaries by means of a “white hatting” ceremony. An eclectic bunch of celebrities have been presented with white hats including: the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Ozzy Osbourne, Queen Elizabeth II, William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Pavarotti, Oprah Winfrey and Mickey Mouse. Even Vladimir Putin has one. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh had three, and got a bit grumpy when presented with the third. "Not another one," he grumbled. "You must give out dozens of these things. I can always use it for carrying water around or to put flowers in when I get home". You don’t have to be royalty or famous to get a white hat, though. Any tourist or group can now book a white hatting ceremony for when they arrive at the airport. They are expected to provide their own white hats, though, and recite: "I/we, havin' pleasured ourselves in the only genuine cowtown in Canada, namely Calgary, Alberta and havin' been duly exposed to exceptional amounts of heart warmin', hand shakin', foot stompin', down home, country style Western Spirit, do promise to share this here brand of Western Hospitality with all folks and critters who cross our path". The one leading the oath adds, "On the count of three, raise your hat and shout a big ole' Calgary 'YAHOO!!!'"

10. Famous people from Alberta include: actors Nathan Fillion, Evangeline Lilly and Michael J Fox; and James Gosling, creator of the Java programming language.

31 August: Named storms

On this date in 1954 Hurricane Carol, the first major named storm, hit New England, killing 70. 10 facts about named storms in the UK.

1. The Met Office in the UK has been naming storms since 2015. The practice has been around since the 1950s in America.

2. In order to be given a name, a storm must be big and liable to cause a lot of damage. If it doesn’t merit an amber or red warning, it doesn’t get a name.

3. If you’ve ever wondered why some UK storms have rather unusual names, it’s because the Met Office works in partnership with Met Éireann in Ireland and KNMI, the Dutch National Weather Forecasting Service, with all three contributing names.

4. The convention is usually for the storms to get named in alphabetical order, alternating between male and female names. That said, if a significant enough storm originates elsewhere, in Spain, for example, it will keep the name it was given there, even if it doesn’t fit the UK system. Storm Jorge is one example.

5. A list of storm names for the coming year is published in September, covering the period up to the end of August the following year.

6. In 2023-24, some storms were named after heroes who helped others during previous severe storms.

7. So who decides which names get included on the list? The general public are invited to submit names and the most popular suggestions get used. (Which begs the question why Stormy McStormface has never been used!)

8. There are some names which are automatically ruled out. Names beginning with Q, U, X, Y, or Z will never be used, because there simply aren’t enough of them. Names that are too difficult to pronounce will be ruled out as well, as will brand names or those that could be considered controversial or political.

9. If you want to suggest a name for a storm, email nameourstorms@metoffice.gov.uk or use the online form.

10. Reasons given for names which appear on recent lists include: Fionnuala: "My daughter's name... Good strong name! What you'd expect from a storm"; Wubbo a tribute to Wubbo Ockels, the first Dutchman to fly through space; Stevie: inspired by a girl named after the Stevie Nicks song Dreams, which includes the line: “Thunder only happens when it’s raining”; Oscar: after a Cat described as “a good boy, but crazy when he gets the zoomies”; and Dave: “My beloved husband who can snore three times louder than any storm!”

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

30 August: Bigfoot

On this date in 1990, an episode of Northern Exposure first aired, in which Bigfoot was discovered. Here are 10 things you might not know about the mythical monster, Bigfoot.

1. What does Bigfoot look like? Bigfoot is said to be 7 to 9 feet (about 2 to 2.75 meters) tall and covered in Brown, Black, Red, or sometimes even White fur or Hair. Its feet are about 13 inches long (0.3 meters). Hence the name Bigfoot. Evidence for the existence of the creature often takes the form of footprints in mud. People who claim to have seen Bigfoot at night report that it has red, Green or Yellow glowing Eyes.

2. What does Bigfoot sound like? Some people have claimed to have recorded the sounds Bigfoot makes, which include howls, screams, moans, grunts and whistles. Native American legends mention a creature they call Midnight Whistler, which makes a sound like the whistle of a steam train. Some people have claimed to have heard Bigfoot communicating using a rudimentary form of language, or by knocking wood with their fists or sticks, or by hurling rocks. It has also been suggested that Bigfoot may produce infrasound, because some people who say they’ve seen one report that they felt disorientated or anxious, and lost time, similar to the reports from people who claim to have been abducted by aliens.

3. There is even a report detailing what Bigfoot smells like. According to Michael Rugg, the owner of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum: "Imagine a Skunk that had rolled around in dead animals and had hung around the garbage pits."

4. This kind of creature is known as Bigfoot in parts of North America, but there are other names for similar creatures in other parts of the world, including Sasquatch, Witiko, Wendigo, Yeti, Abominable Snowman, Skunk ape, Grassman, Fouke Monster and Wood Booger.

5. So how did these legends start? Native American legends about such creatures have long existed. The Tsul ‘Kalu, for example, which is said to have been able to read minds; one even married a Cherokee girl and it was believed this marriage was to blame for everything that went wrong for the tribe thereafter. In modern times, an early report was from Jerry Crew was a bulldozer operator for a logging company in 1958. He found a set of large, 16-inch (41 cm) human-like footprints in the mud in Humboldt County, California. At the same time, other strange things happened around the camp, like huge oil drums being moved with no explanation. The logging workers started calling the unknown culprit "Bigfoot." Humboldt County now brands itself as the Bigfoot capital of the world.

6. The most famous evidence is a short video film known as the "Patterson-Gimlin movie" after the men who shot the film. The film shows a large, ape-like creature walking through a wood. Some say it was simply a bloke in a gorilla suit (I watched it, and admit it did look to me just like that!) That said, others have tried to disprove that theory by getting people to put on gorilla suits and walk around. They claim none of those people move exactly like the creature in the film.

7. A poll in 2020 suggested that about 1 in 10 American adults believe Bigfoot to be "a real, living creature". Some of that 10% make it their mission in life to prove it to the rest of us. The Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (or AIMS) is one such organisation. There’s even a name for the activity of looking for evidence of the creature’s existence: "Squatching", "Squatchin'" or "Squatch'n". Whether it exists or not, there’s actually a law in Washington which states that killing a Bigfoot is illegal, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or five years in prison.

8. Why, then, has nobody found one? Even a dead one? Perhaps, say the believers, they bury their dead. Some have even claimed to have found Bigfoot burial grounds. Uprooted and bent trees in some forests could be, according to them, be Bigfoot marking his territory.

9. Assuming Bigfoot doesn’t exist, how can the mysterious sightings be explained? Hoaxes involving blokes in gorilla suits is one explanation, of course. Others include incidences of mistaken identity – what people actually saw was a Bear standing on its hind legs, or a primate that had escaped from a circus, a zoo, or from being someone’s exotic pet. Others have said that a large, extinct ape species, Gigantopithecus blacki, isn’t actually extinct at all, but migrated across the Bering land bridge with other animals many years ago. No fossils of this ape have been found in the Americas, though, which tends to discount that theory. Shamans wearing furs or forest hermits have also been offered as explanations, and of course, pareidolia, the tendency to observe human-like faces and figures within the natural environment.

10. It has been suggested that Bigfoot has a pet of sorts. There is another legendary creature called a Chupacabra (which literally means “goat sucker”) which is said to be a kind of vampire which preys on livestock and forest animals. The legend is that Bigfoot uses Chupacabras rather as we use hunting dogs to help them catch prey. Needless to say, no evidence has been found that this might be the case.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

29 August: John Locke Quotes

John Locke, philosopher, founder of the school of empiricism, was born on this date in 1632. Some quotes:

1. The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves.

2. What worries you, masters you.

3. Who lies for you will lie against you.

4. Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.

5. Don't let the things you don't have prevent you from using what you do have.

6. There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

7. A sound mind in a sound body, is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.

8. Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you.

9. Try all things, hold fast that which is good.

10. He that will make good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it to recreation.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

28 August: Jack Vance Quotes

Jack Vance, US sci-fi author who wrote The Dying Earth was born on this date in 1916. 10 Jack Vance Quotes:

1. I am indulging the exotic whims of a beautiful princess and must not be distracted.

2. Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic!

3. Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.

4. Good music always defeats bad luck.

5. While we are alive we should sit among coloured lights and taste good wines, and discuss our adventures in far places; when we are dead, the opportunity is past.

6. An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

7. The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.

8. A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.

9. I become drunk as circumstances dictate.

10. What is peace? Balance three iron skewers tip to tip, one upon the other; at the summit, emplace and egg, so that it too poises static in mid-air, and there you have the condition of peace in this world of men.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

27 August: Lyndon B Johnson Quotes

This date in 1908 was the birthdate of Lyndon B Johnson. 10 quotes from him.

1. Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

2. Until justice is blind to colour, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the colour of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

3. Lincoln was right about not fooling all the people all the time. But Republicans haven't given up trying.

4. Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.

5. The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.

6. We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.

7. You aren't learning anything when you're talking.

8. If we must disagree, let's disagree without being disagreeable.

9. Doing the right thing is not the problem. Knowing what the right thing is, that's the challenge.

10. Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

26 August: Hydrogen

This date in 1743 saw the birth of Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, French chemist and nobleman who stated the first version of the law of conservation of mass, recognised and named hydrogen. 10 things you might not know about hydrogen.

1. Its symbol is H and its atomic number is 1. It is described as a colourless, odourless, tasteless, flammable gaseous substance.

2. Its melting point is −259.16 °C, −434.49 °F and its boiling point is −252.879 °C, −423.182 °F. The very low melting and boiling points are due to weak forces of attraction between the molecules.

3. It is the lightest and most abundant chemical element in the universe, making up 75% of normal matter. That said, on Earth it’s only the third most abundant element. On Earth, most of it is tied up in compounds like hydrocarbons, so it’s present in all living things, and also of course, in water.

4. The name hydrogen is derived from Greek words meaning “maker of Water.”

5. Possibly the first thing scientists discovered about it was that it created water when burned, hence the name. Henry Cavendish discovered this sometime between 1766 and 1781, and in 1783 Antoine Lavoisier repeated the experiment and gave the gas its name. The first scientist to produce liquid hydrogen was James Dewar in 1898, who achieved the low temperatures needed by inventing the vacuum flask. He also produced solid hydrogen the following year.

6. In normal conditions, hydrogen is a gas and exists as a diatomic molecule, which means two hydrogen atoms bound together, hence it has the formula H_2. (dihydrogen) which in turn gives us the formula for water, H₂O, one of these diatomic molecule bound to a single molecule of oxygen.

7. Hydrogen fuels the stars. Our Sun converts 600 million tons of hydrogen to Helium every second, losing 4 million tons as pure energy. Abundant as it is, the universe will eventually run out of the stuff, ushering in the “Dark Era.” But not for about 10¹⁴ years. Hydrogen fuel cells powered the Apollo spacecraft, producing Electricity and drinking water for the astronauts simultaneously.

8. It’s lighter than air, and so people soon figured out you could fill balloons with it and use them to fly. German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin took this idea still further and by 1900, had developed Zeppelins as passenger aircraft. Hydrogen was used in the Hindenberg, which caught fire over New Jersey on 6 May 1937. That disaster put an end to hydrogen being used in airships carrying passengers, although it’s still used in weather balloons.

9. Hydrogen can diffuse through solid metals, embrittling steel and even leaking through intact metal containers over time. Leaks can lead to hydrogen fires, which are tricky to spot because hydrogen burns with an invisible flame in daylight. They have to be detected using UV light.

10. Industrial uses include making ammonia for agricultural fertiliser using something called the Haber process, so we no longer have to ship tons of bird poo from islands off Peru. Hydrogen is used in the production of plastics and pharmaceuticals, for removing sulphur from oil during the refining process, and in food production to make fats, such as Margarine. It’s used as a protective atmosphere for making flat sheets of Glass, and as a flushing gas during the manufacture of Silicon chips.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

25 August: 237

Today is the 237^th day of the year. 10 fun facts about that number.

1. 237 Coelestina is a main belt asteroid discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa in 1884 in Vienna and named after Coelestine, wife of astronomer Theodor von Oppolzer.

2. London bus number 237 runs from Frampton Road to White City Bus Station.

3. + 237 is the telephone dialling code for Cameroon.

4. Biggy 237 is a TV show in Cameroon based on the Big Brother franchise. “Biggy” was likely borrowed from Big Brother Naija, formerly known as Big Brother Nigeria, in which contestants called Big Brother “Biggy” and the number is probably because of the Cameroon dialling code.

5. The A237 is a road in south London which connects Mitcham Common and Coulsdon.

6. In 1992, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers used to DJ at a club in Manchester before forming the band. They were known by the alias "237 Turbo Nutters" based on their house number and their fondness for raves.

7. 237 is number of the hotel room in The Shining which is haunted by past traumatic events and into which the character Danny is lured.

8. A documentary about The Shining and interpretations of the film is called Room 237.

9. The year 237 was a common year starting on Sunday known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Perpetuus and Felix.

10. In numerology people influenced by 237 are likely to be creative and to enjoy mixing with other creative people. They are romantics and deep thinkers, especially in the fields of science and spirituality.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

24 August: Saint Bartholomew

24 August is the Feast Day of St Bartholomew. Here’s all you need to know.

1. Bartholomew was one of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus after the Baptism in the Jordan River. He was originally from Cana in Galilee and is sometimes equated with a disciple John mentions in his gospel, Nathaniel.

2. The name Bartholomew comes from the Aramaic, "son of Tolmai" or "son of the furrows".

3. After the Ascension, it’s said he was a missionary in numerous places including Mesopotamia, Parthia, Lycaonia, Ethiopia, India and Armenia, the latter being the first state to become officially Christian in 301, allegedly as a direct result of Bartholomew’s missionary work. Hence he is a patron saint of Armenia.

4. One version of his story says he was executed in Armenia because he converted the local king, Polymius, to Christianity. Polymius's brother, Prince Astyages, ordered Bartholomew's torture and execution. However, there is no record of a king of Armenia at that time with the name Polymius.

5. One thing the records agree on is the manner of Bartholomew’s death – flayed and skinned alive. Hence in art, he is often portrayed holding his own Skin and often wrapping it around himself; and holding the knife that was used to skin him. He is a common feature in medieval manuscripts, rather appropriately, as these were often made from the flayed skin of animals.

6. Because of the way he died, he is patron of people who work with skin, such as Glove makers, bookbinders, butchers, leather workers, shoemakers, tanners and trappers. He’s also invoked against skin diseases.

7. In the early days of the study of human anatomy, pictures of Bartholomew could also serve as an anatomical diagram with muscles, veins and tendons accurately depicted where his skin had been removed.

8. The modern day artist Damian Hurst was inspired by him, too. His piece Exquisite Pain depicts Saint Bartholomew in accurate anatomical detail with his flayed skin draped over his right arm, a scalpel in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. He’s holding scissors because the movie Edward Scissorhands was another inspiration for Hurst.

9. Saint Bartholomew’s fair, which took place in Smithfield, London around this time of year is named for him, as is St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, a teaching hospital located in the City of London.

10. 24 August isn’t the only day Bartholomew is celebrated. The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates him on 11 June. 25 August is a celebration of the transfer of Bartholomew's relics, and on 30 June he is venerated as one of the 12 Apostles.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

23 August: King Louis XVI

This date in 1754 was the birthdate of King Louis XVI of France, who reigned from 1774 to 1793 and was married to Marie Antoinette. 10 facts about him.

1. He was never supposed to be king. Like Henry VIII, he had an older brother who died young.

2. Because he wasn’t first in line to the throne, the young Louis was virtually ignored by his parents and grandfather while his older brother was with praise and gifts while being groomed for kingship. King Louis XV, his grandfather, called his grandson "ungainly" and "dimwitted", even though he was actually very intelligent.

3. After the death of his elder brother in 1761, and his father in 1765 aged just 36, Louis became the new dauphin at the age of 11 and his kingly education had to begin. His tutors, however, weren’t that good, teaching him that being timid and shy was a great attribute for a king, as was never letting on to anyone what you might be thinking about.

4. Louis was 15 when he married the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. The marriage was arranged for political reasons. The marriage got off to a bad start when Louis decided he was going to organise the Firework display to end all firework displays as part of the celebrations. He ordered piles of fireworks to be set up on a wooden podium in the middle of Paris. People crowded in to get the best view. The wooden podium caught fire and people fled. 130 people lost their lives in the stampede to get away from the fire. It was here that Louis showed he wasn’t a cruel and heartless king: he met with the families of the victims personally and supported them financially. He did care, and wanted to be liked; he just didn’t know how.

5. Louis and Marie Antoinette had no children for several years, leading to rumours that the king couldn’t “get it up”. There was speculation he suffered from a condition that made the required marital relations very painful for him, if not impossible. In the end, Marie Antoinette’s brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, concerned that the Austria-France alliance was in danger, decided he needed to go to Versailles in person and get to the bottom of the problem. He showed up incognito as the Comte de Falkenstein and stayed for a while. The story goes that Joseph was blunt enough to ask Louis what he and Marie Antoinette actually did when they were in bed together. Joseph wrote that Louis told him that he "introduces the member," but then, "stays there without moving for about two minutes." Then he’d get up and leave. So it seems as well as not teaching him how to rule a country, or the health and safety around fireworks, his teachers didn’t teach him how to do sex properly, either. Presumably Joseph gave him a few pointers and Marie Antoinette got pregnant soon after, although now the rumours circulated that Louis wasn’t actually the father of her kids.

6. Louis became king aged 19, in 1774. He did try and do some good stuff. He signed the 1787 Edict of Versailles (also known as the Edict of Tolerance), giving non-Catholics civil and legal status and freedom of religion in France.

7. He also tried to get France out of debt by introducing new taxes. Needless to say, that didn’t go down well and most of his efforts were blocked by the nobles.

8. Some may dispute that he was a caring sort on reading the following fact. One of his favourite pastimes was shooting Cats. It’s possible Louis developed a dislike for cats because his grandfather Louis XV loved them and let them roam and breed all over Versailles. So whenever Louis XVI came across a cat in the grounds, he’d shoot it. He didn’t stop to consider that it might be someone’s pet and at least once shot a female courtier's beloved moggy by mistake. To be fair, when he realised what he’d done he was most apologetic and even bought the lady a new cat.

9. When the revolution happened, Louis and his family were held in the Tuileries in Paris. While there, Louis came up with an escape plan. They would sneak out at night disguised as servants and flee to safety in Austria, where they would regroup and return in due course to take back the throne. The plan went well to start with. They got out of the Tuileries and made it as far as a small village near the Austrian border before it all went pear-shaped. The story goes that a local man recognised the king because his face was on all the money and shopped him. So the family was captured and returned to a more secure prison in Paris.

10. Louis had made a fatal mistake, because he wrote a manifesto on why he should be kept on as king and left it behind in the Tuileries when he left. Needless to say, it didn’t go down well with the revolutionaries who merely saw it as evidence of treason to be used to condemn him at his trial. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Just before he was executed he pardoned those who had signed his death warrant and proclaimed his own innocence. His execution marked the end of 1,000 years of continuous French monarchy.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

22 August: Mohave Desert

On this date in 1826 the American explorer Jedediah Smith and his crew set out from the Great Salt Lake, Utah, to cross the Mohave Desert, the first Europeans to do so. They arrived in San Diego the following November. 10 things you might not know about the Mohave Desert.

1. It is named after the indigenous Mohave people, and is sometimes spelled Mojave, which is the Spanish version of the name.

2. It covers an area of 54,000-square-miles (140,000 km2) over four American states: California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

3. The Desert contains various Silver, tungsten, Iron and Gold deposits, and has been an important centre for mining. Some of the mining towns, such as the silver and copper-mining town of Calico, are now ghost towns. There’s also an abandoned rail depot at Kelso, California.

4. That said, there are also some thriving metropolitan areas on its edges, including St. George, Utah and Lancaster, California; but probably the best known city in the area is Las Vegas.

5. The Mohave is known for extremes of temperature, meaning it is very hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. It gets about five inches of precipitation a year.

6. One of the unique living things the extreme climate has given rise to is the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) which is endemic to the desert and doesn’t grow anywhere else. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because U2 named one of their albums after it. The tree is said to have got its common name from some Mormons who crossed the desert in the 19^th century. The trees were landmarks to them, helping them find their way, and they were reminded of the Biblical story in which Joshua keeps his hands reached out for an extended period of time to enable the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan (Joshua 8:18–26 if you want to look it up).

7. The Mohave has played a part in military history. During World War II, large portions of the desert were used for training soldiers in desert warfare, and today, Edwards Air Force Base and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake are located here.

8. The highest point is Charleston Peak, 11,918 feet (3,633 meters) above sea level. The lowest is Death Valley at 282 feet (85.5 meters) below sea level, also the lowest place in North America, which has contributed to making the valley one of the hottest and driest places on Earth.

9. Being a desert, it doesn’t have much in the way of rivers, but there are two significant ones which flow underneath it: the Mojave River and the Amargosa River. There are also some lakes, the Manix, Mojave, and the Little Mojave lakes, which although fairly large are shallow.

10. It’s a popular place for filming music videos. Bodies by Robbie Williams, Breathless by The Corrs, Desert Rose by Sting and That Don't Impress Me Much by Shania Twain among them.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

21 August: Venetian blinds

This date in 1841, the Venetian blind was patented by John Hampton of New Orleans, Louisiana. 10 things you didn’t know about Venetian blinds.

1. Venetian blinds are a type of window covering made up of horizontal slats connected by cords or tapes, allowing them to be adjusted for Light control and privacy.

2. Despite the name, they didn’t originate in Venice. In fact, the ancient Egyptians used a precursor to the blinds we use today, by tying reeds together, and in ancient China they did the same thing with Bamboo.

3. They are called Venetian blinds because Venetian merchants first introduced them to Europe, most likely from Persia. Venice at the time was a trade hub, so the name derives from the traders who made them popular.

4. They were called “Les Persienes” in France. France was the destination of choice for many freed Venetian slaves, who went into the business of shipping blinds to France.

5. The patent issued in 1841 was for the device that changed the angle of the slats, which is still used today.

6. In 1982, Atari produced a joke video “game” called Venetian Blinds, which was never intended for public release but eventually did find its way into game collections. Essentially, the game consists of the player raising and lowering a Venetian blind using the joystick. When the blinds are raised, they reveal a detailed sunset behind a green valley. Bad Game Hall of Fame stated that it was "honestly something of a stretch to even call it a 'game.'"

7. Venetian Blind is a 1959 suspense novel by the British author William Haggard about a rich Englishman with a second home in Venice, who is in the negative gravity business, and the plot revolves around him trying to uncover a traitor who is leaking the secrets of negative gravity to the Germans.

8. Venetian blinds are actually a death trap. Between 1996 and 2012, 184 children in the US were strangled by them.

9. One of the largest orders for Venetian blinds ever placed was to the Burlington Venetian Blind Co., of Burlington, Vermont, which supplied blinds for the windows of the Empire State Building in New York City.

10. Other common types of Window blind include panel blinds, which originated in Japan, and roller blinds, which consist of fabric wrapped around a roller.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

20 August: Cerium

Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius, was born on this date in 1779. He is credited with identifying the chemical element cerium. 10 things you might not know about this element.

1. Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58.

2. It is a soft and ductile silvery-white metal which tarnishes in air and reacts with water. Pure cerium may ignite if scratched with a knife.

3. Its Melting point is 1068 K (795 °C, 1463 °F)

4. Its boiling point is 3716 K (3443 °C, 6229 °F).

5. It’s the most abundant of the rare-earth metals and the 25^th most abundant element overall. It’s actually more plentiful than lead or tin. Its estimated abundance in the Earth's crust is 68 ppm.

6. Cerium occurs in minerals such as bastnasite, monazite, and many others. It also is found among the fission products of Uranium, Plutonium, and thorium.

7. Cerium was discovered in Bastnäs in Sweden by Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger in 1803. In the same year, Martin Heinrich Klaproth also discovered it, quite independently, in Germany.

8. It was Jöns Jakob Berzelius who named the element, after the asteroid Ceres, which had been discovered two years earlier. The asteroid, in turn, was named after the Roman goddess Ceres, goddess of agriculture.

9. It has no biological role, but isn’t particularly toxic, either, except with intense or continued exposure. Percentage Amount in the Human Body: 0.00006%

10. Its uses in industry include grinding and polishing glass, for precision optical lenses, flat-screen TVs, and mirrors. It’s also used in lighter flints, Catalytic Converters and self-cleaning ovens.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/