'Shire reeve' had been transformed to 'sheriff' in England, long before it arrived in the US.
The Battle of Salamis was fought on the 28th (give or take) of September, about 2485 years ago (480B.C.) were the Athenian Fleet and the rest of their Greek Allies crushed the massive Persian Navy (with Pheonicians). While the Greeks of the West were fighting against slavery and domination by the huge Persian Empire, on the very same day the Greeks of Sicily (ironically more numerous than their forefathers on the Mainland) fought the Battle of Himera against the Carthagians (Pheonician Colonists) and in typical Greek style annihilated the enemy.
Isn't that a good thought? On the same day, all free Greeks fought against slavery and won!
BBB
Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead.
BBB, you just hit a nerve. My father, an amateur philatelist, actually owned a Black Victoria, supposedly the oldest postage stamp in existence, a stamp with a black silhouette of Queen Vistoria on it. I inherited it (along with the rest of his collection) when Dad died. I have absolutely no idea where it is now. Have moved several times since then and the whole collection has been lost somewhere in transition. That stamp by itself was probably worth several thousand dollars to a collector today.
Heinrich Himmler was a vegetarian, and famously was taken 'ill' after a visit to Achswittz... Thats odd for a man who was one of the main men responsiple for the Holocaust..
The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
Of the seven words in the english dictionary that do no rhyme, 4 of them are colours.
Purple, Indigo, Orange and violet.
Weird eh?
The only word in the English language which ends with the letters --mt is... [drum roll] d r e a m t.
The myth of the toppling penguins has been disproved by research. see here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1149900.stm
