8 January: The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins was born on this date in 1824. Here are ten things you might not know about his most famous novel, The Moonstone. Warning: potential spoilers.

1. It’s not actually about a moonstone. The moonstone in the book is a Yellow Diamond, the Tippoo diamond, which was taken from India by a corrupt army officer called John Herncastle. Three Hindu priests dedicated their lives to recovering it.

2. The inspiration behind the diamond comes from two famous real life diamonds, the Orloff diamond, set in the Russian Imperial Sceptre, and the Koh-i-Noor, part of Queen Victoria’s Crown Jewels.

3. Herncastle leaves the diamond in his will to his niece, Rachel Verinder, who wears it at her 18^th birthday party. It later goes missing from her room. Various people are suspected of taking it, including some Indian jugglers who called at the house; a servant named Rosanna Spearman who later committed suicide, and Rachel herself. Rachel suspects her cousin Franklin Blake. Despite the best efforts of Sergeant Cuff, a renowned Scotland Yard detective, the mystery remains unsolved at the end of the party.

4. Sergeant Cuff is based on a real life detective called Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

5. The final solution is only arrived at a year later through letters and testimonies of the various characters, and a re-enactment.

6. In the epilogue, it is revealed that the Moonstone has been returned to India and placed where it belongs, in the forehead of a statue of an Indian god.

7. Wilkie Collins’s working title for the book was The Serpent's Eye.

8. The story first appeared as a serial in a magazine, All the Year Round between 4 January and 8 August 1868, courtesy of Collins’s close friend, Charles Dickens. It was published in three hardback volumes on 16 July 1868, dedicated to Collins’s mother.

9. It is considered by many to be the first detective novel. TS Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe." Dorothy L. Sayers said it was "probably the very finest detective story ever written".

10. It has been adapted for film, radio, and television many times and there has even been a Marvel comic of it: issue #23 of the "Marvel Classics Comics" series.

7 January: Darts

The British Darts Organisation was founded on this day in 1973. Here are ten things you might not know about darts:

1. The game of darts originated in Medieval England. One theory is that it was a game designed to keep soldiers amused so they wouldn’t wander off, and which had the bonus of helping to improve their aim. The first darts were arrowheads thrown at an empty Wine barrel.

2. An old name for a dartboard is "butt"; the word comes from the French word but, meaning "target" or "goal".

3. As time went on, cross sections of tree trunks replaced the empty wine barrels. The wood used was usually elm, with scoring segments painted on. There were drawbacks to that, however, as the wood needed soaking every so often to soften the wood and close up the holes.

4. In 1935, a chemist called Ted Leggatt and a pub owner called Frank Dabbs came up with a better idea. They made dartboards from sisal fibres compressed into a round shape and bound with a metal ring. The best dartboards are still made from sisal fibres from Eastern Africa, Brazil, and China.

5. In 1908, darts was illegal because it was considered to be a game of chance. A Leeds landlord was arrested for allowing the game to be played in his pub, and set about proving that darts was, in fact, a game of skill. For his day in court, the landlord brought along a well known darts player called William Annakin, who duly scored three 20s on a dartboard set up in the court room. To prove the point (ha ha), a court clerk was asked to try and repeat this score and failed miserably. The charges were dismissed and darts was officially declared a game of skill.

6. Darts vary considerably. They can be made from brass, nickel, Silver, or tungsten, and weigh anything from 18 to 50 grams. Each weight and material offers the player a slightly different throwing experience.

7. A regulation board is 451 mm (17.8 in) in diameter and is divided into 20 radial sections.

8. The numbers around a dartboard are in that order for a reason. There are thousands of possible permutations of numbers but this one was devised by a craftsman called Brian Gamlin. The higher scoring numbers are flanked by lower scores, which means inaccuracy is penalised. A millimetre can be the difference between a high scoring 20 or a 1 or a 5.

9. John Lowe (aka Old Stoneface) was the first player who managed to get a perfect score in the classic 501 game, in 1984. He hit the triple 20 for 6 times in a row. Then, he scored on the triple 17, double 18, and finally, triple 18.

10. Champion dart players have nicknames. Phil Taylor, possibly the best player ever, having won the World Championship 16 times, is known as “The Power”. Other monikers include: Eric Bristow (The Crafty Cockney), Trina Gulliver (The Golden Girl), Dennis Priestley (The Menace), Peter Wright (Snakebite), Bob Anderson (The Limestone Cowboy), Tony David (The Deadly Boomerang), Beau Greaves (Beau 'n' Arrow) and Mark Webster (The Spider).

6 January: Sherlock Holmes Day

Today is Sherlock Holmes Day. 10 quotes from Sherlock Holmes:

1. There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

2. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognises genius.

3. My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.

4. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

5. You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.

6. Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.

7. What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.

8. To a great mind, nothing is little.

9. You see, but you do not observe.

10. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

5 January: Wassailing

Wassailing is an old British tradition celebrated around Twelfth Night, usually on 5 or 6 January. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. The word Wassail comes from the Old English ‘was hál’, meaning ‘be hale’ or ‘good health’.

2. These words were used when drinking Toasts, and by the 14^th century, wassail had come to mean the drink used for the toast, especially spiced ale or Cider.

3. There were two distinct forms of wassailing. One would involve going from door to door, singing, offering drinks from a wassail bowl and receiving gifts or treats. This doesn’t happen much nowadays, but it’s thought to be a precursor to the modern tradition of carol singing. This form of wassailing is thought to be the premise behind the song “We wish you a merry Christmas” dating back to when wealthy people would give gifts of food, such as “figgy pudding” to those less fortunate. It wasn’t always benign: sometimes it would be crowds of rowdy youngsters who would demand treats and if they didn’t get them, would vandalise the house of anyone who refused. “We won’t go until we get some” is suggestive of that.

4. The type of wassailing still common today takes place in orchards, particularly those growing Apples or Pears. People gather in the orchards to sing and generally make noise. They might bang pots and pans or even let off shotguns. The purpose of this is twofold: firstly to wake up the trees and second to scare away any evil spirits lurking in the branches.

5. It’s a tradition especially common in cider producing areas like Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, where the ceremony will include drinking to the health of the trees and a good harvest. Wassailing is also a traditional event in Jersey, Channel Islands where cider (cidre) made up the bulk of the economy before the 20th century.

6. There are traditional songs for the occasion, including ‘The Gloucestershire Wassail Song’ (Wassail! Wassail, all over the town, our toast it is white and our ale it is brown’); ‘The Wassailer’s Carol’ (‘Here we come a-Wassailing among the leaves so green’); and Gower Wassail. English band Blur recorded ‘The Gloucestershire Wassail Song’ as ‘The Wassailing Song’ in 1992.

7. Some of the wassail drink would be sprinkled over the trees. The biggest tree would get wassail poured over its roots. Pieces of toast soaked in cider were placed in the forks of branches.

8. There might be a wassail King and Queen, who lead the procession from orchard to orchard and lead the singing. It would be the Wassail Queen who would place the cider soaked toast in the branches of the trees, lifted up by the crowd.

9. A Somerset folktale tells of the Apple Tree Man, the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside. In the tale a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard and is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who tells him the location of some buried Gold.

10. There’s even a wassailing tradition in London where the Bankside Mummers and the Holly Man ‘bring in the green’ and drink to the health of the people and the River Thames.

4 January: Doors

On this date in 1967 The Doors released their self-titled debut album The Doors. 10 things you might not know about doors:

1. The oldest door in the world was discovered in Zurich, Switzerland during excavations around the town hall. The door is estimated to be five thousand years old and measures 153cm (5ft) high and is 88cm wide.

2. The oldest door in the UK is 900 years old and can be found in Westminster Abbey. The oak door was built built during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042 – 1066).

3. The largest door in the world is in Florida, USA. This one dates back to 1965 and is located at the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre. These doors are 465 feet high and take 45 minutes to open and close.

4. The largest moving object in the average home is the garage door.

5. It’s highly likely all the doors in your home open inwards. This isn’t accidental, it’s all for various safety reasons. If a door opens outwards, the hinges would have to be outside, where they would be relatively easily removed by burglars. Also, a door opening outwards, especially directly onto a pavement, could hit a passer by in the face. In places where there is a lot of Snow, the doors need to open inward so people don’t get trapped in their houses. That said, the front doors of public buildings do open outwards because that makes it easier for large numbers of people to get out quickly if there’s a Fire.

6. There is a village in India where none of the buildings have doors. It’s called Shingnapur and there are no doors or locks there because the inhabitants believe they are protected by Shani, the god of Saturn, who once appeared in a dream to the village chief, asking that a slab of rock be erected in his honour and that he would dwell in the village henceforth and protect it. Once the slab was in place, the people believed they no longer needed doors because their god was protecting them and removed them all.

7. The Romans had a god of doorways, Janus, for whom the month of January was named. When the Romans built a new building there would be a ceremony inviting Janus and his entourage in, and making them welcome.

8. Front doors in some towns in Ireland are very colourful. This began on the death of Queen Victoria when people were ordered to paint their front doors Black for mourning. People in Ireland painted their doors bright colours instead as an act of rebellion.

9. Sometimes, when space is at a premium, there are sliding doors, which move along a track fixed to the wall. There are even doors which slide inside a cavity in the wall (such as the drawing room door at Tyntesfield). The latter are called pocket doors.

10. Dreaming about a door means there is a new opening in your waking life. Dreaming of a locked door represents a missed opportunity.

3 January: New Hampshire

The US state of New Hampshire was founded in 1776. Here are ten things you might not know about New Hampshire:

1. The state was given its name by Captain John Mason, who named it after the county of Hampshire in England. It has several nicknames: The Granite State; Mother of Rivers; White Mountain State and Switzerland of America.

2. New Hampshire was the first state to declare independence from England, six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed.

3. The highest point is Mount Washington at 6,288 feet (1,918 m). It was at the observatory here that the fastest ever wind speed in the Northern Hemisphere was recorded, 231 miles per hour on April 12, 1934.

4. New Hampshire has the shortest coastline of any state which isn’t landlocked. Its coastline is just 13 miles long.

5. The capital is Concord, and the motto is Live Free or Die, which is taken from a statement written by the Revolutionary General John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington.

6. State symbols include: State bird, the purple finch (which isn’t actually purple but a pinkish colour); State Flower, The purple lilac (which presumably is purple); State Tree, The white Birch; State insect’ the ladybird (or ladybug as they call it over the pond); State Amphibian, The red-spotted Newt; State Animal, The white tailed Deer; State Gem, Smokey Quartz; State Mineral- Beryl; State Rock, Granite; and State Sport, Skiing.

7. In a presidential election year, New Hampshire is the first state to hold a Presidential Primary election. Until the 1992 elections, no candidate ever won the Presidency without first winning in New Hampshire.

8. The first women’s strike in the US occurred in New Hampshire in 1828 when about 400 mill girls walked out of the Dover Cotton Factory. Sadly, it wasn’t successful. The company merely advertised for new workers to replace them, and so they had to give in.

9. New Hampshire adopted the first legal lottery in the twentieth century United States in 1963.

10. Famous people from New Hampshire include: The first American in space, Alan Shepherd, and the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe; writers Dan Brown, Willa Cather and Jodi Picoult; actor Adam Sandler; Mary Baker Eddy who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist; Sarah Josepha Hale who wrote the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”; and one former president, Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States.

2 January: World Introvert Day

Today is World Introvert Day, so here are ten quotes to celebrate:

1. I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone. Lord Byron

2. I always regret the plans I made when I was in a 5 minute extroverted mood. Unknown

3. Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it. John Green

4. People always tell introverts to be more talkative and leave their comfort zones, yet no one tells extroverts to shut up and make the zone more comfortable. Unknown

5. Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell. Criss Jami

6. I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel. Audrey Hepburn

7. Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again. Anais Nin

8. Introverts live in two worlds: We visit the world of people, but solitude and the inner world will always be our home. Jenn Granneman

9. Introverts enjoy people-watching. Extroverts enjoy people watching. Jomny Sun

10. Introverts dislike small talk, but we are fluent in the language of ideas and dreams. Michaela Chung