June 17th: International Violin Day

International Violin Day is celebrated on the birthday of violinist and composer Igor Stravinsky. Here are a few things you might not know about violins.

1. The word violin comes from the Medieval Latin word vitula, meaning stringed instrument. The word "fiddle" used for a violin is generally when the instrument has been specifically tuned to play folk music - but it is used informally for a violin whatever is played on it. An old Italian term for the violin is "kit"; A maker of violins and other stringed instruments is called a luthier.
2. The violin was invented in the 1500s by Andrea Amati, an Italian luthier who was asked to build a lighter alternative to the lyre. He went on to found the Cremonese School Of Violin Making, where the most famous violin maker of all, Antionio Stradivari became a pupil in the late 1600s. He made significant structural changes to enhance the sound and extend the range of the instrument, although violins today don't look much different from Amati's original.
3. A violin is constructed from 70 separate pieces of wood, usually spruce or maple.
4. Violin strings used to be made of sheep gut (commonly known as catgut), which was stretched, dried, and twisted. Other materials violin strings have been made out of include: solid steel, stranded steel, or various synthetic materials, wound with various metals, and sometimes plated with silver. It's even possible to make violin strings out of human hair - you can see this being done here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=motpXYar4vk.
5. Violins come in different sizes. The smallest standard size is a 1/64 violin which is just the right size for a three year old child to play. Most children start playing on a 1/32 or 1/16 and gradually increase the size to a full sized violin. The smallest ever measures just under 2"/about 50 millimetres. The largest was built in Germany and is 4.27 metres tall and 5.22 metres wide and sounds 3 times lower than a conventional violin.
6. The bow of a standard sized violin is usually 75 cm (30 in) long and weighs about 60 g (2.1 oz). The ends are called the tip and the frog. They are traditionally strung with hair from the tail of a grey stallion although they can be made from synthetic materials, too. The wood for the bow is usually brazilwood. Violin bows typically contain 150 to 200 hairs.
7. If you play the violin for an hour, it burns about 170 calories - that's the equivalent of a medium glass of Wine or two thirds of a Snickers bar.
8. Playing the violin is good for the Brain, too. If a violinist is placed in an MRI machine, it shows the area of the brain devoted to their left fingers is two or three times larger than in a non-violinist's brain. Violinists also have more connections between the two sides of the brain, resulting in better co-ordination between each hand.
9. The most expensive violin to date is the Lady Blunt, which Stradivarius made in 1721. It was named after Lady Anne Blunt, Lord Byron’s granddaughter, who owned it for 30 years. It has had several owners since then, the current one being an anonymous person who bought it for £9.3 million at an auction to raise money for victims of the 2011 tsunami. There is some competition, however. A violin made by Giuseppe Guarneri in 1741 is up for sale at $18 million. The most expensive violin bow was sold in November 2015 for £200,000.
10. Finally, some violin playing records. Ben Lee from Sussex is the fastest violin player ever. He played the tune Bumblebee in 58.515 seconds - an average of 15 notes per second. A more wacky one is held by Christian Adam - he holds the record for cycling backwards playing a violin. He managed 60.45 kilometres in 5 hours 8 seconds back in 1963 on St. Gallen highway in Switzerland, before the highway was open. I don't know if there is a record for playing the violin on roller skates, but the first try should be easy to beat. In 1759, Joseph Merlin of Huy, Belgium, who invented roller skates, skated into a ballroom to show off his invention, playing a violin. Sadly, he hadn't yet figured out how to stop. He crashed into a full-length mirror, breaking his violin.

16th June: Sussex Day

Sussex Day: Today is the county day for the English county of Sussex. It is a relatively recent celebration, having been suggested by Worthing resident Ian Steedman in 2006. This date was chosen because it is the feast day of the patron saint of Sussex, St Richard of Chichester. Here are ten more facts about Sussex:

1. The name Sussex comes from Old English and means land (or people) of the South Saxons. The South Saxons were a tribe from Germany who migrated to southern England in the 5th and 6th centuries.
2. It may well have been the first place in England to be populated by man. The oldest hominid remains yet found in Britain were discovered at Boxgrove near Chichester in 1993 - a leg bone about half a million years old.
3. Until 2000 there was just one city in Sussex - Chichester. Brighton and Hove was granted City status in 2000. Other well known places in the county include Hastings, Eastbourne, Crawley and Horsham. Gatwick Airport is also here.
4. Famous people who come from Sussex include Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hammond Innes, Leo Sayer, The Cure, The Levellers and astronaut Tim Peake. There have also been a lot of literary figures who have spent time in the county (perhaps because it is one of the most sunny and least rainy places in Britain). These include: William Blake (who wrote Jerusalem here), Alfred Tennyson, Oscar Wilde (who wrote The Importance of Being Earnest whilst living in Worthing in 1895 and named the hero Jack Worthing), Rudyard Kipling, Ezra Pound, John Galsworthy, Harold Pinter, H.G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Conan Doyle and AA Milne (the Winnie the Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest).
5. The Sussex dialect is alleged to have an especially large number of words for mud.
6. The county's motto is in dialect. It's We wunt be druv, which means "we will not be pushed around" and reflects the people's reputation for being independent. Its flag was adopted in 2011 and consists of six gold martlets (or heraldic swallows) on a blue background. There is an anthem, Sussex by the Sea, composed by William Ward-Higgs in 1907 and a county flower, the round-headed rampion, also known as the "Pride of Sussex", adopted in 2002.
7. Traditionally, Sussex has been divided into East Sussex and West Sussex. In olden times it was divided into four rapes, which in turn were split into several hundreds. At the time of the Norman Conquest, there were four rapes: Arundel, Lewes, Pevensey and Hastings. The rape of Bramber was created later in the 11th century and the rape of Chichester was created in the 13th century.
8. Talking of the Norman Conquest, Sussex was also where the Battle of Hastings. Other historic events which happened in the county include King Canute trying to stop the tide from coming in, England's first land based casino opening in Brighton in 1962, the National Trust buying their first property, the Clergy House in Alfriston in 1896 and Abba winning the Eurovision song contest in 1974.
9. Chichester Cathedral is the only one in the country to have an almshouse hospital attached (which is still operational) and a free standing bell tower. Another unique feature is a Marc Chagall stained-glass window. Arundel's Catholic Cathedral was built in 1868 and designed by Joseph Hansom - who also designed the first taxi.
10. Three United States counties (in Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia), and a former county/land division of Western Australia, are named after Sussex.

June 15th: Arkansas

Arkansas Admission Day: Arkansas became the 25th state on this day in 1836.

1. The official nickname of Arkansas is The Natural State. This is based on the fact that it has over 600,000 acres of lakes and 9,700 miles of streams and rivers, six national parks, seven national scenic byways, three state scenic byways, and 50 state parks. There are two-and-a half million acres of national forests, and 18.8 million acres of forested land in total, which is more than the area of the entire country of Switzerland. The population of Arkansas is less than that of New York City.
2. The name Arkansas means “south wind” and is derived from 'akansa', a word used by some Native Americans to describe the Quapaws, an early tribe in the area. When talking about Arkansas be careful to pronounce the name of the state correctly, because it is illegal to say it wrong. “Ar-kan-saw” is the right way, with the final S silent. The pronunciation was determined by the General Assembly of 1881, based on the French custom of not pronouncing a plural s.
3. Other wacky laws in Arkansas include: no flirting on the street or walking a cow down Main Street after 1pm on a Sunday or keeping an alligator in your bath or keeping Squirrels as pets except in October, November and December. It is legal for men to beat their wives once a month. Even mother nature can fall foul of the law. Dogs mustn't bark after 6pm in the capital of Little Rock, and the Arkansas River may not rise higher than the Main Street Bridge in Little Rock.
4. Mount Magazine is the state's highest point at 2,753 feet above sea level, and the lowest point is along the Ouachita River and is 54 feet above sea level.
5. It's a good place for minerals. The Magnet Cove region contains 102 varieties of minerals alone, and the state is also home to the US's only active diamond mine (although there have only aver been two, the other being in Colorado). The Arkansas diamond mine produced the three largest diamonds ever found in the US including the Strawn-Wagner, found in 1990 by Shirley Strawn. This diamond is considered to be the first perfect diamond ever discovered. The mine is now a tourist attraction where visitors can try their hand at mining their own diamonds and can view the Strawn-Wagner, which is on permanent display there.
6. Naturally the diamond is the official state gem of Arkansas; it also has an official state mineral (bauxite) and an official state rock (quartz crystal). Other official symbols include a state bird (mockingbird), a state flower (apple blossom), tree (pine tree), insect (Honey Bee), butterfly (Diana Fritillary Butterfly), fruit (vine ripe pink tomato), mammal (White-tailed Deer), beverage (Milk) and musical instrument (fiddle). The state motto is Regnat populus (the people rule).
7. Talking of ruling, Arkansas has produced one president so far - Bill Clinton. Other famous people who come from there include Johnny Cash, General Douglas MacArthur, Scott Joplin and John Grisham. Freeman Owens, the first person to successfully add sound to film, and Hattie Caraway, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate in November 1932 are also Arkansas natives. The first Walmart supermarket opened here in 1962.
8. Arkansas produces more Rice than any other state, and Pine Bluff is known as the world centre of archery bow production. Alma claims to be the Spinach Capital of the World, and Hope the Watermelon Capital of the World.
9. Arkansas has its own Bigfoot monster - the Boggy Creek Monster or the Fouke Monster, which is seven feet tall and wanders around the Fouke area killing livestock. While we're in the Twilight Zone, the Ozark Valley is home to a phenomenon called The Dover Lights. These are flickering lights in the sky in various colours above the valley. Nobody knows what causes it, but naturally legend has come up with an explanation - they’re lights carried by the ghosts of Spanish Conquistadors searching for their lost Gold.
10. Annual contests taking place here include the World Cheese Dip Championship in Little Rock and the World Championship Duck Calling Contest in Stuttgart.

14th June: Kiss Day

Kiss Day is celebrated today in South Korea. So pucker up and read what some famous people have said in the past about Kissing:

1. A kiss, when all is said, what is it? 'Tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear. Edmond Rostand
2. Is not a kiss the very autograph of love? Henry Finck
3. A kiss is a rosy dot over the 'i' of loving. Cyrano de Bergerac
4. A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted. Billie Holiday
5. Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you. Joey Adams
6. Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. Albert Einstein
7. How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart. William Butler Yeats
8. His kisses left something to be desired - the rest of him.
9. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. Ingrid Bergman
10. The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr

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13th June: St Anthony of Padua

Today is the feast day of St Anthony of Padua. Here's all you need to know:

1. This saint's name at birth was Fernando Martins de Bulhões. He is also known as Anthony of Lisbon, since he was born in that city.
2. He left his wealthy and noble family at the age of fifteen to become a monk with the community of Canons Regular at the Augustinian Abbey of Saint Vincent on the outskirts of Lisbon. His family and friends used to visit him a lot which distracted him from devoting his life to God, so he asked to be moved to the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra.
3. Inspired by tales of Franciscan monks being beheaded in Morocco, he left the Canons Regular and joined the Franciscan Order. It was at this point that he took the name of Anthony after Saint Anthony the Great. He set sail for Morocco (sounds like a death wish to me!) on a mission but rather than getting his head cut off he became ill and had to sail back to Portugal. He looked so ill that the convent he'd been assigned to rejected him. He ended up living in a hermit's cell.
4. Anthony was known for his preaching. Most of the time, he attracted huge crowds to listen to his sermons but on one occasion he had a tough crowd of heretics who refused to listen to him, so he famously went to the water and preached to the fish. The fish listened to him to glorify God. It was claimed when Anthony's body was dug up thirty years after his death, that his tongue was the one part of him that hadn't rotted away and looked as if it was still alive - a sign he'd been a gifted preacher.
5. He is best known as the patron saint of lost things. “St. Anthony, please look around; something is lost and must be found,” is the prayer to say when you've lost something. This patronage started in Bologna when one of Anthony's students stole his annotated book of psalms. When Anthony prayed for the book's return, the thief was moved by God to give it back. The book in question is said to be preserved in the Franciscan friary in Bologna.
6. Other things he is patron of include: lost people, lost souls, American Indians; amputees; animals; barrenness; Brazil; elderly people; fishermen; harvests; horses; mail; mariners; oppressed people; poor people; Portugal; shipwrecks; starvation; travel hosts (because he was placed in charge of his abbey's hospitality); travellers; Watermen and Cemetery workers.
7. One of Saint Anthony's miracles was to get a Horse, which hadn't eaten for three days, to bow down before the sacrament before eating the food placed nearby.
8. In 1231, he went down with a disease called Ergotism, which is basically food poisoning from eating fungus infested grains. This disease is also known as St Anthony's Fire. He went on a retreat to get well, but died on the journey back to Padua aged just 35. According to legend, when he died, children cried in the streets and the bells of the churches rang of their own accord.
9. Anthony was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 30 May 1232, less than a year after his death.
10. His attributes in art include fish, a white lily stalk representing purity and a flaming heart representing his fervour.

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12 June: Charles Kingsley Quotes

This date in 1819 saw the birth of Charles Kingsley, clergyman and author whose books include Westward Ho! and The Water Babies.

1. We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
2. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.
3. There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.
4. Pain is no evil, unless it conquers us.
5. Do noble things, not dream them all day long.
6. Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.
7. Feelings are like chemicals, the more you analyze them the worse they smell.
8. Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book.
9. Never, if possible, lie down at night without being able to say: I have made one human being at least a little wiser, or a little happier, or at least a little better this day.
10. Do as you would be done by.

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11 June: George II

On this date in 1727 George II acceded to the throne of Great Britain. Here are a few things you may not know about George II.

1. He was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain - he was born and brought up in northern Germany.
2. He might never have been king were it not for the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Acts of Union 1707, which excluded Catholics. About fifty Catholics who were higher up the line of succession were knocked out by this, leaving his grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, next in line to the throne. When she died, his father George I, Elector of Hanover was next in line after the death of Queen Anne.
3. Despite being born in Germany and being heir to the British throne, he spoke only French up to the age of four when he learned German. He learned English and Italian later.
4. He came from a broken home - his father, who would become George I and his mother, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, cheated on each other and in 1694 their marriage was dissolved. She was denied any access to her children after that. It was probably for this reason that George I didn't want his son to have an arranged marriage. He wanted him to have a say in who he was to be married to. Negotiations involving Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden fell through. The next possibility suggested was Caroline of Ansbach. George went to her family's summer residence in disguise, using the name "Monsieur de Busch" to check her out. He liked what he saw and the couple married in Hanover in 1705.
5. There was an attempt on his life while he was still Prince of Wales. A would-be assassin attempted to shoot him in his box at the Drury Lane Theatre in December 1716. The assassin missed and killed a guard instead. He was apprehended.
6. George II didn't get on with his father. Possibly the elder George didn't like the fact his son seemed to be more popular than he was. Things came to a head at the Christening of George's second son, Prince George William. George I took it on himself to appoint the Duke of Newcastle, who his son didn't like, as one of the baptismal sponsors for the child. George and the Duke had a row at the christening which resulted in George and Caroline being banished from court while their children remained with the king. Prince George William died when he was three months old.
7. George didn't get on all that well with his son and heir, either. Frederick, Prince of Wales, had been left behind in Germany when his parents went to England and so Frederick and George never even saw each other for 14 years. George left Caroline, not Frederick, in charge of his affairs when he went abroad. Frederick died before his father, according to some sources, after being hit by a cricket or tennis ball. His son became George III when George II died.
8. George II was the last British monarch to lead an army into battle, at Dettingen in 1743.
9. George wasn't the least bit interested in literature, art or science - he much preferred hunting and Playing cards, so he donated the royal library to the British Museum in 1757.
10. On October 25 1760, he drank a cup of hot chocolate, went to the toilet and while he was in there, suffered an aneurysm which ruptured the right ventricle of his heart. He was 76. He was buried next to his wife Caroline and the coffin sides between them were removed to let their remains mingle.

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