23 April: Merry Wives of Windsor

On this date in 1597 Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor was first performed. Here are 10 things you might not know about it:

1. At least, it was if you subscribe to the theory that it was written to be performed at the Order of the Garter festival on this date. This theory arises from the fact that one of the characters, Mistress Quickly, gives a long speech describing the Order, and the mention in the play of a German duke, generally thought to be Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg, who was elected to the Order of the Garter in 1597. No-one actually knows for sure. The earliest definitely dated performance occurred on 4 November 1604, at Whitehall Palace.
2. What's it about? It's a comedy about the character of John Falstaff trying to swindle money from two ladies in Windsor. They are wise to him and submit him to various punishments. There is also a sub plot involving a young woman convincing her parents to let her marry the man she loves.
3. Key themes of Merry Wives include love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, social class and wealth.
4. Some critics believe this play to be one of Shakespeare's weakest, and that the portrayal of the Falstaff character is disappointing compared to his appearances in other plays. A possible explanation for this is that it was written very quickly.
5. There's a theatre legend that backs this up. The story goes that Elizabeth I loved the character of Falstaff so much that she commanded Shakespeare to write a play featuring him in love. There's also a legend that she commanded the play to be written in a fortnight.
6. It's the only one of Shakespeare's plays to be set in what would have been current day England at the time.
7. According to the Complete Public Domain Text, there are 23,788 words in the script.
8. A number of well known English language expressions have their origins in this play: The world is your oyster, the short and long of it, what the dickens and as luck would have it.
9. Antonio Salieri, Giuseppe Verdi and Ralph Vaughan Williams all wrote operas based on it.
10. Historical figures who saw the play included Samuel Pepys, who recorded in his diary that he'd seen it three times, despite the fact he didn't like it. Another, possibly, was Kaiser Wilhelm II who once joked that he was going to see a performance of 'The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha' in reference to the fact that the British royal family had changed their name to hide their German roots.

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22 April: Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

On this date in 1899, the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov was born. 10 quotes from him:

1. The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.
2. A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.
3. I think it is all a matter of love; the more you love a memory the stronger and stranger it becomes.
4. Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.
5. Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.
6. Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness.
7. Genius is finding the invisible link between things.
8. Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.
9. There is no science without fancy and no art without fact.
10. Perhaps, somewhere, some day, at a less miserable time, we may see each other again.

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21 April: Bulldogs

Today is Bulldogs are Beautiful Day. 10 facts about bulldogs:

1. Typically, these dogs are 14-15 inches tall and weigh approximately 50 pounds for males and 40 pounds for females. They come in a variety of colours and are known for their short snouts and wrinkled faces.
2. Bulldogs are descendant of the fighting Mastiffs the Romans brought to Britain. In Britain they were selectively bred to be used in the "sport" of bull baiting, which was popular from 1206, for over six hundred years, until it was banned in 1835. Their stocky bodies helped them resist being tossed by a bull; their wrinkles diverted blood away from their eyes; short snouts and an undershot lower jaw helped them hold on to the bull. They were, essentially, bull baiting machines.
3. When the so called sport was banned, there was no need for these dogs any more. In fact, the breed almost went extinct. The bulldog was saved by a few people who loved them, and began breeding them to have less of a fighting temperament so that they could be companion Dogs. The Kennel Club recognised the bulldog in 1873.
4. They are considered a national breed in Britain and during the two world ward were often used on propaganda posters. Winston Churchill was often called the “British Bulldog” because of his demeanour, and let's face it, he even looked a bit like one! They are the fourth most popular breed in America.
5. Famous bulldog owners include two US presidents: Calvin Coolidge had one named Boston Beans and Warren Harding had one named Oh Boy; Ozzy Osbourne, Pink, Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Adam Sandler, whose bulldog Meatball was the best man at his wedding.
6. So much inbreeding in the past has contributed to a variety of health issues that bulldogs can be prone to. Their short noses can result in breathing problems. They are prone to eating too much too quickly which is why they fart a lot. Owners need to groom them regularly, including wiping their face wrinkles, which can become infected. Most of all, they have problems breeding on their own. They often need artificial insemination and because they have such large heads, births are usually by C-Section. Their life expectancy is therefore 8-10 years, often less.
7. Despite their violent origins, today's bulldogs are good companion dogs and are good with children. They're more independent than most breeds. When solving problems, they do so on their own without looking to their owners for approval. They don't mind being left alone, either. In fact, they are the couch potatoes of the dog world and will probably sleep all day. They don't need as much exercise as other breeds and may even have to be coaxed out for a walk. If they've a mind to, however, they can run at speeds up to 15mph.
8. A bulldog named Bud was a passenger on America's first road trip. He accompanied two humans, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson and Sewall K. Crocker on the historic trip in 1903. Bud was supplied with a pair of goggles to keep the dust out of his eyes.
9. Bulldogs are popular as mascots for sports teams and universities. The University of Georgia has had a line of bulldog mascots dating back to 1956, all called Uga. Uga V appeared in a film and on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Uga IV was the first mascot invited to the presentation of the Heisman trophy. Yale, Drake University, and The Citadel are among the 15 or more US colleges which have bulldogs as mascots.
10. While they may not be fans of exercise and aren't great swimmers, some bulldogs do seem to have a talent for skateboarding. Two Guinness World Records for skateboarding dogs are, or have been, held by bulldogs. Otto the skateboarding bulldog attained the Guinness World Record for "Longest Human Tunnel Travelled Through by a Skateboarding Dog" in 2015 when he rode under the legs of 30 people in Lima, Peru. Another bulldog named Tillman scored a record in in 2009 at the X Games XV in California. He set the record for the fastest 100 meters on a skateboard by a dog – 19.678 seconds. Tillman loved surfing, as well, and appeared on the television show the Greatest American Dog and in the 2009 Rose Parade.

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20 April: 110

20 April is the 110th day of the year. 10 things you might not know about the number 110:

1. 110 is the lowest number, according to an online survey in 2014, not to be anyone's favourite number. The TV show QI subsequently took pity on it and adopted it as the show's favourite number in 2017.
2. It's the atomic number of Darmstadtium, a synthetic chemical element. Darmstadtium was first created in 1994 by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near the city of Darmstadt, Germany, after which it was named. The most stable known isotope, darmstadtium-281, has a half-life of approximately 12.7 seconds.
3. A person must reach the age of 110 to be considered a supercentenarian. According to the Bible, the figures Joseph and Joshua both died at the age of 110.
4. In athletics, there's a hurdle race of 110 meters for male athletes (women run 100m hurdles).
5. 110 is the phone number used to call police services in Iran, Germany, Estonia, China, Indonesia, and Japan. In Norway and Turkey, it's the number for the fire and rescue services.
6. Both towers of the former World Trade Center in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago all have (or had) 110 floors.
7. The International 110 is an American sailboat designed by C. Raymond Hunt as a one-design racer and first built in 1939.
8. 110 is also a cartridge based film format in photography which was introduced by Kodak in 1972. Only available online these days, they may have 12, 20, or 24 frames. Sometimes you might get an extra one.
9. Eleventy is a term sometimes used for 110. It's derived from the Old English word endleofantig, and may be used to signify the number 110 or as a word for an unspecified large number. Tolkien uses it in Lord of the Rings – Bilbo Baggins celebrates his eleventy-first birthday at the beginning. Eleventy is also used in the Irish TV series The Savage Eye by Dave McSavage playing an opiate user advertising life insurance. He uses "eleventy" as a comic way of quoting telephone numbers.
10. In numerology, 110 resonates with both independence and relationships. Someone with the number in their chart would be lonely by themselves but want independence within their relationships.

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19 April: The American War of Independence:

On this date in 1775 the American Revolutionary War started at Lexington Common. 10 things you might not know about the American War of Independence:

1. Complete separation from the British crown wasn't the aim at first. The colonists wanted to maintain their links with Britain but to have more autonomy. The Continental Congress petitioned King George III, denying that independence was the Americans’ objective, and appealing to him to protect the colonies. However, at this point British ministers, and the king, rebuffed the Americans. After that, the colonists began to believe that independence was the only option.
2. Support for the war wasn't universal. The term “spirit of ‘76” refers to the colonists’ patriotic zeal, and while it may have been true in the beginning when, on April 19, 1775, messengers on horseback, including Boston silversmith Paul Revere, fanned out across New England to raise the alarm – and thousands of militiamen answered the call. Later on, though, the novelty wore off; people realised how dangerous it was and the colonists were forced to entice men to enlist with financial rewards for short enlistment terms. By 1778 they were having to conscript men and they even changed their minds about allowing African-American slaves to fight.
3. Enslaved people fought on both sides. The British promised slaves their freedom and so many of them fought for the British as well.
4. It could almost have been described as a world war. While it did begin as a fight for America, happening largely in America, in due course, the French joined in on the side of the colonists. This led to conflicts in other parts of the globe where both France and Britain had interests such as the West Indies; and later on, Spain and the Netherlands joined in as well. This wider war continued for a time after the war in America ended in 1781.
5. There were colonists who sided with the British, too. About a fifth, while they may have supported autonomy, didn't want to sever links with Britain entirely. At the end of the war, many of them moved to Canada which remained closely linked to Britain.
6. It was during the American Revolutionary War that the first Submarine attack took place. The American Turtle, a submersible vessel shaped like a giant acorn, was built by David Bushnell in 1775. In 1776 it was used in an attempt to attach explosives to the hull of the British flagship Eagle, which was docked in New York Harbor. The Turtle was successful in approaching the ship without being seen, but was thwarted by the iron hull of the ship, and failed to attach the bomb, which exploded nearby, causing no damage to the British ship.
7. Some of the earliest patriot victories can be attributed to an extensive network of spies. They used invisible ink, ciphers, and code names. One of the networks was the Culper Ring which was so secretive that it was 150 years before the general public were made aware of it. Their agents were known by numbers rather than names. Now, the identities of most of the code names are known. General George Washington’s code name in the Culper Ring was Agent 711. However, there is one agent whose identity remains a mystery to this day – Agent 355, a woman.
8. Women were very involved in the war effort, not only in they ways you might expect, such as cooking, nursing and sewing uniforms. Some of them also got to fight. One woman, Mary Ludwig Hayes, started out carrying water to and from the battle field, but when her husband was incapacitated, legend has it that she took his place at an artillery canon during the Battle of Monmouth. Another woman, Anna Maria Lane, disguised herself as a man and joined the continental army.
9. The British were favourites to win at the start. The colonists had no regular army and weren't known for co-operating with each other, while Britain did have an organised army and arguably the best navy in the world, ferrying troops to wherever they were needed. When France joined in, however, the British Navy became distracted by skirmishes at sea with French ships. The tide finally turned in 1871 at Yorktown, Virginia. General Cornwallis’s British army was trapped by American and French troops and cut off from relief by the French navy. Cornwallis’s surrender effectively ended the war in America.
10. It's hard to know how many people lost their lives in the conflict because records weren't so accurately kept as they are now. Historians have had to rely on local town records to figure out how many casualties there were. Estimates are around 25,000 Americans and 27,294 British and British allies.

 

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18 April: Panama Canal Day

Today is Panama Canal Day, probably because it was on this date in 1978 that US Congress gave its approval for the treaty which would give control of the waterway back to Panama in 1999. 10 things you might not know about the Panama Canal:

1. It's 82 km/51 miles long and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It takes about 8 hours for a ship to pass through, but that's nothing compared to the 22 days it would take if you went the long way, down and around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and back up the other side, a distance of nearly 12,500 miles/20,000 km. Not only is rounding Cape Horn quite dangerous, but using the canal also reduces the carbon footprint for shipping companies.
2. A canal across the narrow isthmus of Panama was a pipe dream for explorers and mariners as early as the 15th century when a Spanish explorer called Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered just how thin the land bridge was. First of all, explorers set out to find out if there was a natural waterway the could use. After about 30 years searching, they didn't find one, so Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, ordered a survey to see if it was possible to build one. Back then, they concluded it simply wasn't possible.
3. It remained a dream for three centuries. A few other nations looked into the possibility but all came to the same conclusion as Charles V. By the Victorian era engineering had advanced quite a bit, so in 1881 a French company led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, a former diplomat who'd developed Egypt’s Suez Canal, actually started digging. Gustave Eiffel was hired to create locks for the canal. However, the company had bitten off more than it could chew. The project was beset by problem after problem, not least the tropical diseases which killed thousands of workers. The company went bankrupt in 1889, having spent the equivalent of $260 million and excavated more than 70 million cubic yards of earth. This caused a massive scandal in France which resulted in De Lesseps, his son and Eiffel being sentenced to prison and fined. Although the prison sentence was overturned, De Lesseps and Eiffel had lost the will for such projects. Eiffel retired from business and devoted himself to scientific research; Ferdinand de Lesseps died in 1894.
4. Meanwhile, the USA had been investigating building their own waterway in Nicaragua. However, Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, a French engineer who'd been involved in the French project, and presumably didn't want to see all his work go to waste, convinced America that Panama was a much better option due to dangerous volcanoes in Nicaragua. In 1902, America bought the French company's assets.
5. The canal is the reason Panama even exists as a country. At the time, Panama was part of Colombia. Colombia wanted nothing to do with the Americans building a canal through their land and refused to ratify an agreement allowing the canal to be built. The people of Panama wanted it, however, and so they revolted against Colombia and declared independence.
6. About 20,000 French workers died during the construction due to accidents and disease. By the time the Americans took over, there was a better understanding of tropical diseases and how to prevent them, but even so accident and disease cost the lives of about 5,600 workers.
7. The first ship to go through was the SS Ancon, an American flag cargo and passenger ship owned by Boston Steam Ship Company. She was used to ferry workers and construction material from New York to Panama during the building. The first boat to pay the toll was the Lasata, a pleasure boat owned by Morgan Adams of Los Angeles. His boat passed through on August 14, 1914. The toll is calculated according to the size and weight of the vessel. The smallest toll ever paid was 36 cents, by Richard Halliburton, who swam through.
8. The millionth vessel passed through in 2010. $1.8 billion in tolls are collected annually. It's an important part of the economy of Panama since they took control of it from America in 1999.
9. There are several sets of locks and an artificial lake called Lake Gatun. The lake is there to ensure there is always enough water for the canal and the locks prevent the lake from draining away into the oceans. It's a complicated process to navigate the canal and so ship's captains aren't allowed to do it themselves. Instead they take on board an official Panama Canal pilot to navigate it for them.
10. As ships got bigger, it became necessary to make the canal bigger to accommodate them. The original canal locks are 110 feet/33 meters wide and ten times as long. The term 'Panamax' ships was used to describe ships built to fit through the canal. In 2007, work began on a multi-billion dollar expansion of the Canal which was completed in 2016 so that now, ships three times as large as the Panamax ships can go through. Even so, there are some container ships, the ones which can carry 18,000 shipping containers, which still can't pass through the Panama Canal.

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17 April: 107

 On the 107th day of the year, 10 facts about the number 107:

1. 107 is the 28th prime number. It is a twin prime with 109. A twin prime is a number that is 2 more or less than another prime number.
2. Pronounced "one hundred and seven", it is the smallest positive integer with six syllables in English.
3. The London bus route 107 runs between Edgware Bus Station and New Barnet Station.
4. It's the atomic number of Bohrium, a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Bh. It is named after Danish physicist Neils Bohr, and doesn't occur in nature. It's very radioactive with the most stable isotope having a half life of just 61 seconds.
5. 107 is written as CVII in Roman numerals and 1101011 in Binary.
6. The 107% rule is a sporting regulation in Formula One racing qualifying sessions. During the first phase of qualifying, if the circuit is dry, any driver who is eliminated in the first qualifying session and fails to set a lap within 107 percent of the fastest time in that session will not be allowed to start the race without permission from the race stewards.
7. The A107 is an A road in London, England. It runs from Whitechapel to Hackney, and for much of its length is known as Mare Street.
8. It's the emergency telephone number in Argentina and Cape Town, and the telephone number for the police in Hungary.
9. The number 107 is associated with the Timbers Army supporters group of the Portland Timbers soccer team, in reference to the stadium seating section where the group originally congregated. The group is famous for its loud and exuberant support of the team.
10. In numerology, 107 is an efficient builder, and materially successful. Their works tend to be related to things like computer systems, roads, civic buildings, shopping centres, or political reform. It is independent and self reliant, and effective manager who gets things done.

 

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