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Peter Pan comes to London
The personification of eternal youth, the ultimate boy who wouldn't grow up, Peter Pan made his stage debut in London's Duke of York theatre today back in 1904, a story line which was later expanded to a novel ''Peter and Wendy'' published in 1911. He was the brainchild of Scottish journalist-turned-playwright J.M. Barrie who created the character based on his older brother David. Poor boy had died in an ice-skating accident just the day before his 14th birthday. Peter Pan is careless and forget…
Louis Pasteur
Today is the birthday of the famous French scientist Louis Pasteur, who is regarded as one of the founders of bacteriology. He was born on the 27th of December in 1822. In fact, pasteurisation, or in other words, the process of how milk is made safe to drink, is named after him. The scientist had won the Alhumbert Prize of the academy for experiment where he demonstrated that only in open flasks micro organisms could grow. He showed that without contamination in sterilized and sealed flasks bact…
Apollo 8 mission
Today is, of course, Christmas Eve and it's also, the anniversary of the first time men orbited the moon. Yes, the three brave astronauts of the Apollo 8 mission - Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders - spent Christmas Eve 1968 circling the Moon no fewer than ten times, and capturing the iconic Earthrise photo to share with the rest of us. They were supplied with the packaged turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce, but nothing by way of Christmas spirits, not even a bottle of champagne. A lunar…
Santa's workshop
I would like to share this video with whoever is interested in how the Christmas toys are produced in reality in the so called ''Santa's workshop''. The video is half an hour long, but even watching the first few minutes gives you a clear idea in what kind of conditions the toys, that most of us buy, are produced. Today more than 75% of our toys are made in China, as low labour costs attract more and more companies to the country. In this video you can hear workers telling about long working hou…
Miracle of the Andes
On 13 of October 1972, a plane carrying 45 people, including rugby players to a match in Santiago, Chile, crashed high in the snowy Andes. 27 passengers survived the crash but 8 of them were killed by an avalanche a few days later. Since the survivors had little food, they had to survive eating dead bodies of other passengers that had been preserved in the snow. More than two months later, long after everyone had given up hope, two men, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, walked out of the mounta…
The grand total
This year I got to travel and see places in the world I haven‘t been to before. My first trip this year was in January straight after my birthday. I went to Cape Verde for 10 days, islands in the West of Africa. It was my first time in the African continent and I was extremely impressed by the people, culture and food. I spent the first two days in the island of Sal, and then the rest of the days in the beautiful Boa Vista, the island which is known for its beautiful beaches. Santa Monica beac…
Masaccio
Today is the birthday of the famous Italian painter Masaccio, who's full name is Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Guidi. He was one of the great painters of the Renaissance born in 1401. He was the first painter to try to bring a three dimensional effect into his paintings and to use new techniques like ''vanishing point'' and ''linear perspective''. Michelangelo himself was inspired by him. Some of his famous works include ''The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden'', ''Madonna and the Child'' and ''…
The winter solstice
Today 21st of December is the day when the winter season begins according to astronomy. It is called the winter solstice or 're-birth' of the sun, which is the shortest day of the year with fewest hours of sunshine.However for meteorologists and climatologists the winter has begun. In different regions of the world the impact of the light from the sun changes because the earth is tilted. The astronomical seasons are based on the sun's position in relation to the earth. The different ancient monu…
The weird cat behaviour
Just came across this video I thought was quite interesting. Maybe some of you who have a cat are already quite used to their behaviour but I never had a cat. Maybe it was because I never really understood them. I had owned a dog, some hamsters and I currently have a rabbit, named Cleopatra. I had him for 3,5 years and at first I thought it was a female but then one day I discovered it wasn't, but it was already quite late to change the name. I always thought kitties are so cute but when they gr…
Biggest property deal ever: Louisiana Purchase
Today in 1803, the French flag that had flown just briefly over La Nouvelle-Orleans was replaced with the Stars and Stripes, and the Louisiana territory belonged to the United States. After belonging to Spanish for 40 years Louisiana was taken over by the French again under the secret treaty signed by Napoleon Bonaparte. In order to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans, James Monroe and Robert Livingston had flew to Paris. For a mere $15 million, the US had acquired 2,144,000 square kilometres …