BTW, the "Most Useless of Facts" site is great!

Click here to hear the pronounciation.

They've got the longest .com domain in the world: www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com

Click here for their own website.

This appeared in a newspaper, and I believe EVERYTHING I read!

P.S. Welsh is cool!

Welsh is cool indeed. We once did a group project about Great Britain in highschool, and my part, for some reason, was Wales. We made a couple of posters, and on one of them, I wrote a little about that village. One of my sources had the complete translation for the name, but all I can remember now is that "Llan" means "Church".

My best wishes for the New Year to everyone who's a part of this community (a double best wish to everyone who continues to participate in this thread!). I sincerely mean it, even though my sarcasm may not speak clearly enough on certain days. Eh, perhaps sarcastic and deadpan humor is what's helped me through all the anti-moderator sentiment that arises from time to time.

Here's the deal. This is gonna be educational if it works, a big huge backfire if it doesn't. All you have to do is take the number of the current post, apply it to the historical year of the same number, and mention something about that year. You dudes have proven you can figure out which post number you are on by correctly guess which post starts a new page, so I figure you won't have a problem. It only gets hairy when 10 people want to post something about 1620 or 1849. Ok, understand? Let's see who can come up with the best P.C. or not so P.C. facts from the various years in recent history.

I will start. The year 1611.

Crap. Why did I get this year:

"In 1611 the first of the huge (16 inch tall) pulpit folios known as The King James Bible came off the printing press. A typographical error in Ruth 3:15 rendered the pronoun 'He' instead of the correct 'She' in that verse. This caused some of the 1611 First Editions to be known by collectors as 'He' Bibles, and others as 'She' Bibles."

Maybe more importantly for the English people, the British started growing cannabis in Virginia in 1611. You know, one of those King James Bibles was probably printed on hemp paper.

About 1612, early French explorers reported that the Iroquois popped popcorn in a pottery vessel with heated sand and used it to make popcorn soup.

01/04/1612 - Henry L. Spieghel, reknowned Dutch merchant/writer, died at age 62.

This is just so exciting.

I am sure it will keep this thread alive.

So here I go:

12/28/1613 - Ludolf Backhuysen, world reknowned Dutch painter & cartoonist is born.

12/28/1614 - Joan Blaeu, Dutch cartographer/publisher (Atlas Major), died at age 77

12/28/1615 -Ceslav Vanura, composer, was born.

THERE!

The year 1616:

(Hopefully I didn't steal another date from Chris... )

The first blacks in the North American colonies came on a Dutch ship which landed in Jamestown, Virginia. The Dutch traded the 20 Africans for food and rations. Each having names such as Pedro, Isabella and Antoney, the English suspected that the slaves had been stolen from a Spanish slave ship headed for the West Indies. The English also suspected that the Africans had been baptized as Christians, as was the Spanish custom. As a result, the English took them as indentured servants.

The Mayflower arrived off the coast of North America, at Plymoth. The ship carried 100 pilgrims leaving England for religious reasons, as England wasn't too friendly toawrds Puritan beliefs at the time. Upon arriving, the pilgrims set up a government based on The Mayflower Compact, a document drawn up during the time the pilgrims sailed to America.

Also at the time, Francis Bacon proposes that the scientific method should replace the traditionally used method of deductive reasoning. This leads to the formation of the principals of the scientific method.

______
NP: Baraka

In 1622, a hurricane overruns a Spanish fleet bound from Havana to Cadiz, sinking the prize galleon Atocha. Five men are rescued, but 260 drown off the coast of the Florida keys.

The loss of the 1622 treasure fleet was a disaster for the Royal Treasury. The Crown was forced to borrow even more to finance the Thirty Years War. The Atocha had to be found!

In 1623 in England, the practice of criminals being able to escape their pursuers by claiming sanctuary in a church by grasping the ring of the door knocker called a Hagoday was ended.

Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire is victorious in wars against the Protestants in Germany. Charles I becomes king of Britian.

Charles I becomes King on the death of his father. Although born in Scotland, Charles had no interest in the country and dealt with Scottish affairs with even less tact than his father, causing discontent.

New Amsterdam, later called New York, is founded on the tip of Manhattan Island.

Orlando Gibbons, English musician, dies

Famous Peal of Bells installed in the Gate of Salvation, Kremlin, Moscow

Heinrich Schutz:"Cantiones sacrae"

Francesca Caccini (1587-ca. 1640) - Daughter of Giulio Caccini, composes
La liberazione di Ruggiero dallisola dAlcina (1625) - billed as a ballet, but had all the trappings of an opera.

Well, PeterK...YOU made the RULES, right?

1629: George Mongol invented the computer.
That's right. The computer. But since he had the only one, his internet CD orders never arrived. The townspeople burned him, his computer, and his house to the ground. They stirred the ashes, and burned him again.

There. Isn't THAT FUN?

NP: Citizen Kane Herrmann

har har...hardee har har...

No entry for 1631 at UselessKnowledge, and I don't know any other source.

Did you know?

• On the average, a healthy person farts 16 times a day.
  
• Hey guys, don't be fooled by girls who tell you that they never fart. Everyone farts, including girls. In fact, females fart just as much as males.
  
• Many animals fart too. Cats, dogs, and cows. Elephants fart the most.
  
• People fart the most in their sleep.
  Farts that contain a large amount of methane & hydrogen can be flammable.

FARTING!

EVERYONE has a fart story!

Yes, Marian...your research is correct. I fart in my sleep. But that is only because I spend all of my waking hours holding them IN!

PS: The Duke was later treated for third degree burns upon his buttocks.

Marian...this is a bad mark on your "Pet Owner" card.