Portal:United Kingdom/Did you know
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The Did you know section of the United Kingdom portal is updated every month. Future facts can be obtained from Template talk:Did you know. Please ensure they relate to the United Kingdom in some way, and have not been included in Portal:United Kingdom/Did you know before.
Contents |
[edit] Archive
This is an archive of the items that have appeared in the Did you know section on the United Kingdom Wikiportal.
For previous archives see /2005, /2006 and /2007.
[edit] January 2008
- ...that the Elizabethan Sir John Thynne built the great house at Longleat and founded the family which became Marquesses of Bath?
- ...that the English historian Sir Raymond Carr also writes about fox hunting?
- ...that London's St James's Club (1857-1978) was claimed to be the only gentlemen's club with a room devoted solely to backgammon?
- ...that as well as being the only contemporary anthology of 17th century Scottish Gaelic verse, the Fernaig manuscript is written in a form of English orthography unique to the author?
- ...Englishman Christopher Merret wrote the first description of the méthode champenoise used to make sparkling wine, long before it was documented in Champagne?
[edit] February 2008
- ...that Herbert Armitage James (pictured), who was headmaster of Rugby School for 14 years, had one of the best stamp collections in England?
- ...that award-winning biographer Jenny Uglow described her dictionary of women's biographies as "a mad undertaking, born of a time when feminists wanted heroines and didn't have Google"?
- ...that Sir George Everest, after whom Mount Everest was named, is buried at St Andrew's Church, Hove, despite being born in Wales, dying in London and having no apparent connection with the church or town?
- ...that Donald Cameron ('Taillear Dubh na Tuaighe') ("Black Tailor of the Axe") got his nickname after killing the rival Scottish Highlands clan chief in battle with a Lochaber axe?
[edit] March 2008
No DYK entries for this month
[edit] April 2007
- ...that Chorley Old Hall, the oldest inhabited country house in Cheshire, consists of two ranges, one medieval (c.1300) (pictured), the other Elizabethan (mid-16th century)?
- ...that Edward Cocker's Arithmetick was such a popular textbook of mathematics that over 100 editions were published over a period of more than a century?
- ...that Scottish footballer John Cushley was a modern languages graduate, who acted as a Spanish translator when Celtic F.C. attempted to sign Real Madrid striker Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1964?
[edit] April 2007
- ... that Runcorn Town Hall (pictured) was originally built as Halton Grange, a mansion for Thomas Johnson, a local soap and alkali manufacturer?
- ... that on every May 1, the hamlet of Ickwell celebrates May Day with dancing around a Maypole and with the crowning of a May Queen?
- ... that the Transition Towns movement inspired Totnes, England to introduce their own town-wide currency redeemable only in local shops?
- ...that the endowment by Edmund Meyrick, a Welsh cleric and philanthropist who died in 1713, is still awarding scholarships to students at Jesus College, Oxford after nearly three centuries?
[edit] See also
[edit] Archive and upcoming
- /2005
- before October · October · November · December
- /2006
- January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December
- /2007
- January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December
- /2008
- January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December
