Something New Every Day

Here are some random facts I have learned this week.

• The meaning of "Fennicisation": to alter a word from another language to make it more like Finnish.  What Anglicization is to English.  (encountered at Aardvarchaeology)

• The first time a Gatling gun went into action with the British army was at the outset of the Zulu War during The Battle of Inyezane on 22nd January, 1879.  It was manned by a royal navy crew under 19-year-old Midshipman L.C. Coker. ( Morris, Donald R (1962): The Washing of the Spears; The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation: pg. 422)

• There are just two pairs of nesting bald eagles in all the Adirondacks, and one of these is directly above my cousin Tigerhawk's family place!

• Henry John Burnett was the last man hanged in Scotland (1963): (courtesy Executed Today)

• "Alevromoutzouromata", which is Greek for "people throw flour at each other", is a major event just before Greek Orthodox Lent in the in the port town of Galaxidi: (courtesy of Jungle Trader)

What else have you learned?