At one stage during the Hundred Years War, the King of France obtained a cease-fire to enable him to make a pilgrimage to see Saint Thomas Becket's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral.
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| The former spot of the shrine of Thomas Becket, By ABrocke |
Cattle branding was practiced 4,000 years ago. Old tomb paintings show Egyptians branding their fat, spotted cattle around 2700 BC.
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| Coleridge in 1795 |
Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, was born on October 21, 1833. Nobel was a Swedish chemist and millionaire, who invented dynamite and established almost 100 arms factories. The Nobel Prizes came about when a brother of Nobel died and a French newspaper mistakenly printed Alfred's obituary under the headline: "The merchant of death is dead." Desperate to leave a positive legacy, he decided to bequeath his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes "to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.
For more October 21st anniversaries, including the patenting of Portland cement, the first Japanese kamikaze attack and the publication of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, check out OnThatDay.
The name "reptile" comes from Latin and means "one who creeps". All living reptile species are cold blooded, have scaly skin, and can lay eggs on land.
Reptiles come in four varieties: turtles and tortoises; crocodilia (including alligators); lizards and snakes; New Zealand tuatara.
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| Wikipedia |
Nearly all reptiles are incapable of running and breathing at the same time. This is one of the reasons why they are ambush predators. Komodo dragons can only dash 30 feet (10m) before having to rest for breathing.
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| The Battle of Trafalgar J. M. W. Turner |
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