What happened to JFK’s sister? JFK’s sister, Rosemary Kennedy, was permanently incapacitated by a failed lobotomy in 1941, leaving her with the mental age of a two-year-old. Rosemary Kennedy was the third of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy and his wife Rose Fitzgerald. They are known as the Kennedy family, and Rosemary was […]
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What was the gold standard? The gold standard was a system that tied the value of a country’s currency to a fixed amount of gold. It is often said that it ended in 1971, because that was when the United States stopped converting dollars into gold for foreign governments and central banks, which was the
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Why is Savile Row in central London famous for tailors? It became the centre for high-quality, custom-made men’s suits in the 19th century, as famous tailoring houses established themselves there and drew others in. Henry Poole & Co began in 1806, but it did not move onto Savile Row itself until 1846, which is when
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Why is Boxing Day called Boxing Day? Boxing Day is most likely called Boxing Day because of the tradition of wealthy families giving boxes of gifts, money, or leftover food to their servants and tradespeople. However, it could also come from churches giving charitable boxes to people in their congregation. It could be a combination
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Why do we write Xmas for Christmas? The “X” isn’t an X from the Latin alphabet; it is from the Greek alphabet, and it is “chi”, the first letter of the Greek word Christos, meaning Christ. I didn’t actually know until I started researching this topic today that some people think Xmas is an attempt
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When did people start using surnames? People started using surnames at different times in different countries. In Europe, surnames started in the 11th century. I am from the UK, so I am going to begin by looking at the origin of surnames in Europe and then look at other parts of the world. The word
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Was Dracula a real person? Yes and no. There was a real person behind the legend of Dracula. He was a 15th century prince who ruled Wallachia, called Vlad III. However, he was not a vampire, and he definitely did die. Vlad III was born Vlad Dracula, and it is from him that we have
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When did the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list start? The FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list started on March 14th, 1950. The first person on the FBI’s most wanted list was an accused murderer called Thomas James Holden. He was part of a gang that had been involved in robbing trains, banks, and payroll
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What is the tragedy of the commons? The tragedy of the commons is the idea that if anybody can use a finite resource as much as they want, they will usually overuse it and destroy it. That is human nature. The common that the tragedy of the commons refers to is common land that most
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What is a Stirling engine? A Stirling engine is an engine that uses the expansion and contraction of a gas when heated and cooled to carry out mechanical work. A Stirling engine works on the principle that gases expand when heated and contract when cooled. When thermal energy is applied to a gas, the molecules
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