Beer

BEER IN HISTORY

Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks. One theory is that it was discovered in Mesopotamia in about 8000BC. After some barley bread crumbs fell into water and started fermenting, someone tasted it, enjoyed it. They then began experimenting with different brews, made with different combinations of barley grains and water often with inebriating consequences!

The ancients considered the origin of beer divine, and was thought to be the spirit of the grain. In some places the brewing of the beverage was so sacred, that male brewers were kept isolated from their womenfolk. Otherwise, it was believed, the magic change of grain into spirit would not take place. Beer was not only drunk but a sacrificial ceremony was performed whereby it was poured into the ground to appease the gods so that they would bless the growing of the crops.

There was a hymn to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer; the hymn not only praised her, it provided directions for brewing beer.

The Sumerians of Mesopotamian made types of bread specifically for fermentation. Around 20 different types of a fermented drink were made from barley, wheat and honey. The resulting beer was drunk warm and because of the thick sediment it was drunk through reed straws from a communal bowl. Brewing was a privilege set aside for kings and because of its sacred nature takes part in temples.

Ancient Mesopotamian beer has been recreated by archeologists who describe it as flat, lukewarm, sour, milky-looking and sometimes a bit cloying.

Then oldest evidence of beer-drinking is a picture on a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet. It contains the following advertising slogan, “Drink Ebla – the beer with the heart of a lion."

By 3000 BC there were at least six different types of beer in Egypt.

An ancient Egyptian document lists 17 distinct types of beer, with names like "joy-bringer" and "heavenly."

The ancient Egyptians brewed beer from wheat and barley, which they grew on the fertile flood plain of the River Nile. Their beer was made from old barley bread mixed with plenty of water, men standing inside a vat trampled the bread and water mixture with their feet. After mixing, date juice flavored with ginger, honey and myrtle was added. The fermenting beer was stored in uncovered jars in the sunshine and the final beverage looked like muddy soup. Then it was strained and left to stand in clean jars made from clay.

The picture below shows a funerary model of a bakery and brewery, from the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt, c2009–1998 BC.

By Keith Schengili-Roberts - Wikipedia Commons

The rich Egyptians drunk mainly beer, as it was safer than water from the Nile since the alcohol it contained acted as a mild disinfectant. Peasants and workers were allocated a daily allowance of two jugs of weak beer. If they required anything else to drink they had to make do with river water.

The ancient Egyptians believed that mixing half an onion with the foam from beer gave you eternal life.

Egypt was the first country to have a beer tax, imposed by Cleopatra in the first century BC to discourage public drunkenness.

A 3,900-year-old poem honoring the Babylonian goddess Ninkasi contains an ancient beer recipe, which happens to be the oldest known written recipe.

According to the Code of Hammurabi of Babylon, a tavern-keeper or merchant who diluted or overcharged for beer should be put to death.

One ancient Chinese commentator wrote “People will not do without beer. To prohibit and secure total abstinence from it is beyond the power even of sages. Hence, therefore, we have warnings on the abuse of it.”

Around 250BC, many years before the Romans came to Britain, beer was being brewed by the Picts in Scotland. The beverage was made from heather and had hallucinogenic properties.

The word “beer” comes from the Latin word “bibere,” which means “to drink.”

The beer that the first Anglo-Saxons drank was a brew of water and honeycomb in a clay pot, with the addition of herbs for flavoring.

The Vikings believed that a giant goat named Heiðrún, whose udders provided an endless supply of beer, awaited them in Valhalla upon their death.

“Church ales” became popular in thirteenth century Britain. These were an early type of church fair where men and women would sell and drink ale either in the churchyard or the church itself, to raise funds for the fabric or for some other good intention.

The phrase “small beer” meaning something of little importance was originally applied in the 15th century to inferior or low-alcohol beer.

Henry VIII gave his ladies in waiting a daily allowance of a gallon of ale each day for breakfast. The English king attempted to ban the brewing of continental style beer, as he preferred the stronger "hop-less" English ale. However despite his attempts, beer made from hops rather than traditional English ale became the preferred drink for royalty and commoners alike at every meal.

Bavarian Beer was originally hallucinogenic, containing Henbane, until adding Henbane to beer was banned in 1516.

The Reinheitsgebot, instituted in Bavaria in 1516, is a beer “purity law” that remains today in revised form. The original laws permitted beer to be made only with barley, hops and water, later acknowledging yeast and permitting wheat.

Beer was ranked alongside bread as the most important staple in 16th century Ireland, and some workers were granted a daily allowance of 14 pints.

The first beer brewed in the New World was made in 1587 at Sir Walter Raleigh's colony in Virginia. However the colonists were not happy with the brew and sent requests to England for better beer.

The Pilgrim Fathers planned on heading further south to a warmer climate than Plymouth Rock, but because they ran out of beer, they headed for the closest land.

The beer served to US pioneers was warm, served at 55-65F (13-18C). It had a wispy head and patrons had to knock it back in a hurry before it got too flat.

The ‘Yard of Ale’, which originated in 17th-century England, is made up of two and-a-half pints of beer or 1.42 liters.

In 1814 the rupture of a beer vat in London caused a wave of 323,000 gallons of beer which demolished several streets and killed eight people.

Most beers couldn’t withstand the six month trip from Great Britain to the British colonies in India, where the climate was too hot to brew. In response, a brewer heavily hopped and aged their beers, making them pale, and able to survive the journey. The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" to describe these beers was in an advertisement in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser on August 27, 1829.

Fuller's India pale ale Wikipedia

Louis Pasteur developed pasteurization for beer more than 20 years before he did it for milk.

Newcastle Brown was launched in 1927 by the North East England brewer Jim Porter. His father was a master brewer and, after leaving the army, Porter went to work at the Newcastle Breweries where, three years previously, he had set about creating a brand new bottled ale. The result, a strong, malty brown ale, scored an immediate success with the judges of the International Brewing Championships where it won the prize for best bottled beer.

The Prohibition law, forbidding the sale of intoxicating liqueur including beer, took effect in the US on January 16, 1919 after an amendment to the 18th U.S. Constitution.

National Beer Day is celebrated in the United States every year on April 7, marking the day that the Cullen–Harrison Act was enacted. The act legalized the sale in the United States of beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight), thought to be too low to be intoxicating, effective April 7, 1933. Upon signing the legislation, Franklin D Roosevelt made his famous remark, "I think this would be a good time for a beer."

This led to the Eighteenth Amendment the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933, officially ending prohibition.

By 1935, technology had advanced to a stage where drinks could be put in cans and on January 24, 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of New Jersey introduced the first canned beer, Krueger Cream Ale. The new, three-piece steel and tin cans containing this drink had no pull tab; they were opened by a special kind of tool called a church key.

This new method of packaging beer was an instant success and other breweries quickly followed as they noted that the new cans were more cost effective, easier to handle and took up less space than bottles.

The Felinfoel Brewery in Wales was the first brewery outside the US to sell beer in cans.

British breweries donated free beer to soldiers during World War II, but after D-Day, there was no room for it on the ships going across the English Channel. Spitfire mechanics and pilots worked together to modify pylons to carry beer kegs and deliver brews to the troops. Flying high enough chilled it.

Samuel Adams is the brand name for beers produced by the Boston Beer Company, which was founded in 1984 by Jim Koch and Rhonda Kallman in Boston. The brand name of Samuel Adams was chosen in honor of Founding Father Samuel Adams, an American revolutionary patriot. Paul Revere, not Samuel Adams, is featured on each bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager, allegedly due to Samuel Adams' bad looks.

At the age of 27, Indian born entrepreneur Karan Bilimoria founded Cobra Beer in a little apartment in Fulham, London. While a student at Cambridge, Bilmoria had noticed regular lager was too gassy and ale too bitter to go with curry in the city’s Indian restaurants. He came up with a concept in 1989 for a beer designed to accompany food – in particular, Indian food and curry.

As of November 2014, Cobra had a market share of over 45% of all licensed Indian restaurants within the United Kingdom. It is sold at more than 98% of licensed curry houses, and is available at all the main supermarkets.

By Misiokk -  Wikipedia Commons

In 2020, Anheuser-Busch InBev had the largest beer market share in the world, controlling about a quarter of beer volume sales. Second and third placed Heineken and Carlsberg accounted for 12 and 6 percent of the beer market share, respectively.

BEER RECORDS

Legendary pro wrestler and Princess Bride star, Andre the Giant, set the world record for number of beers consumed in a single sitting by drinking 119 12oz beers in six hours in 1976. It was one of the few times Andre got drunk enough to pass out, which he did in a hallway at his hotel.

Steven Petrosino of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania downed 1 liter of beer or 33 ounces in just 1.3 seconds in 1977 which makes him the World Beer Speed Drinking Champion, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Nobody has beaten his record since. 

Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke was the one-time world record holder for the fastest drinking of a yard (2.5 pints) of beer. In 1955 he drunk a yard of beer in under 11 seconds.

The world record for downing a yard of ale is 4.9 seconds by Peter Dowdeswell, of Northampton, England - he also set the record of 55.6 seconds for drinking eight pints of beer upside down.

The world’s most expensive beer is Scottish brewery BewDog's limited edition The End of History. Costing US$765 for 650ml the blond Belgian-style beer is made using nettles from the Scottish Highlands and fresh juniper berries as flavoring agents. 

The most expensive beer in the U.S. is Samuel Adams' Utopia. It costs $200 per 700ML, is released every two years and is banned in 13 states.

Brewmeister Armageddon, is a 65 per cent proof Scottish-made brew launched in 2012. A 330ml bottle costs £80 ($115) and is as potent as ten pints of normal lager. It's ingredients include crystal malt, wheat, flaked oats and Scottish spring water. When it was launched it was marketed as the world's strongest beer.

At 67.5 per cent proof, Brewmeister’s Snake Venom beer took over Armageddon's mantle of the world’s strongest in October 2013. The Scottish brewery Brewmeister put a warning label on its Snake Venom beer, advising consumers to drink only one bottle per sitting.

John Evans of Britain balanced 275 glasses of beer on his head at the Haifa Beer Festival in Israel on August 15, 2013. The glasses were stacked in 15 layers, with 18 glasses in each layer. Evans had to balance the glasses for at least 10 seconds in order to set the record. He was able to do so, and he even managed to walk a few steps with the glasses balanced on his head.  This feat earned him a place in the Guinness World Records.

The world's largest beer festival is Oktoberfest. Held annually in Munich, Germany, it runs  from late September to the first weekend in October with more than 6 million people from around the world attending the event annually

FUN BEER FACTS

Stouts were created to be known as strong beer—not just dark. Its name in the 14th century meant “proud” or “brave.”

Carlsberg created Special Brew in honor of Winston Churchill.

In 1956 the US government placed beer near an atomic explosion to see whether it would still be drinkable. Turns out, in the event of a nuclear war, beer is still safe to drink.

In 1996, the Scottish & Newcastle brewery in Edinburgh brewed 1,000 bottles of Tutankhamun Ale. Costing £50 a bottle, it was prepared with the recipe and directions that was found in Queen Nefertiti’s Temple of the Sun in Egypt by University of Cambridge archaeologists.

In 1999, the world’s first beer academy opened in Herk-de-Stad, in the Belgian province of Limburg.

The ‘beerbrella’, comprising a small umbrella designed to shield a glass of beer from the sun, was patented in the US in 2003.

International Beer Day (IBD) is a celebration on the first Friday of August founded in 2007 in Santa Cruz, California by Jesse Avshalomov. The day, which has grown from a small localized event at the founders’ local bar, has since expanded to become a worldwide event.

April 7th is National Beer Day in the US because this is the date in 1933 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the law that lifted Prohibition.

In late 2010 Australian microbrewery Nail Brewing produced Antarctic Nail Ale made with water melted from a block of Antarctic ice. Only thirty bottles were produced, with the first bottle auctioned for A$800 on November 3, 2011, and a second selling, on November 19, 2011, for A$1,850 at a fund-raising event in Sydney.

The number one beer drinking state in the US in 2021 was North Dakota, with 45.8 gallons per year per adult. Utah came in at the bottom of the barrel, with 20.2 gallons per capita consumed.

Beer was a soft drink in Russia until 2013. In 2011, president Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that made beer an alcoholic beverage, allowing the government to control its sale and consumption. The law came into effect on January 1, 2013.

Russian beer

Coming in behind tea, beer is the second most popular beverage in the world. 

The number one beer in the world based on market share is Snow beer. Not heard of it? That's because hardly any of it is sold outside China. Over 10,100,000,000 liters of the beer were sold in 2017, which was twice the amount of Budweiser sold worldwide. Snow beer, which is cheap and contains just 120 calories, commands almost 30% of the Chinese beer market.

Gambrinous means 'being full of beer'.

The foam on a beer is called 'barm.'

Zythology is the study of beer and the process of making beer.

In Great Britain alone, 93,000 liters of beer are said to be lost each year in facial hair.

In Nebraska, It is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup.

Every year, Bavarians and their guests drink 1.2 million gallons of beer during Oktoberfest.

People in the Czech Republic drink more beer per capita than any other country, an average of 140 liters a year (246 pints). Austria is second on 107.8 (190 pints).

According to U.S. laws, a beer commercial can never show a person actually drinking beer.

The word Cenosillicaphobia means the fear of seeing an empty beer mug.

Beer has a bitter taste and slightly pungent aroma because of lupulin, a substance found in hops.

Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer.

An American Pint of beer is smaller than a British pint; 473mil compared to 568mil.

In Japan, there is braille on beer cans.

If you could stack all the beer cans consumed in the U.S. each year, it would reach the moon 20 times.

Greatfacts.com

Beef

Beef eating dates back to prehistoric times when men hunted aurochs for food. Aurochs were large wild animals large pointing horns that were ancestors of modern domestic cattle. The last individual auroch was killed by a poacher in 1627 on a reserve near Warsaw, Poland.

British politician, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is credited with naming the 'sandwich.' He developed a habit of eating beef between slices of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted.

Count Pavel Stroganov of St Petersburg was a noted gourmet as well as a friend of Czar Alexander III. A recipe called Beef Stroganoff had been in the family for some years and had been brought to the notice of many due to the Count’s love of entertaining. A chef, Charles Briere, who worked in St. Petersburg, submitted the recipe to L 'Art Culinaire, thus bringing the dish to the attention of many.

A major outbreak of BSE or mad cow’s disease in the late 1980s in Britain resulted many shying away from eating beef. On May 16, 1990, a photograph of British minister John Selwyn Gummer feeding his daughter a British beef burger appeared in many newspapers. Because of the growing anxiety about BSE the British minister was keen to show the world that British beef was safe.

In 1994 controls of export of British beef to the continent were imposed due to fears of contamination from BSE. The livelihoods of many British farmers were affected. Such health scares contributed to many turning to vegetarian options.

Corned beef got its name because this beef was preserved with pellets of salt that were the size of corn kernels, which was also referred to as "corns" of salt.

25% of global land use, land-use change and forestry emissions are driven by beef production. This includes the conversion of forests in the Brazilian Amazon.

Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world. The number of cattle in the country has risen from 78 million back in the 1960s to well over 200 million today. In 2014 Brazil exported 2.23 million metric tons of beef.

In the US, people eat over 1 billion pounds of beef at McDonald’s in a year, which is five-and-a-half million head of cattle.

Hong Kong consumes the most beef per capita.

Since Hindus don't eat beef, the McDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton.

The actor Shia LaBeouf's name means "Thank God for beef."

Source Food For Thought (Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World) by Ed Pearce

Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 24, 1813. He was the eighth of thirteen children born to the outspoken Presbyterian preacher Lyman Beecher. His siblings included Uncle Tom's Cabin writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and educator Catharine Beecher.

Henry had a childhood stammer and was considered slow-witted; his less than stellar performance at Biston Latin school earned him punishments such as being forced to sit for hours in the girls' corner wearing a dunce cap.

In 1837 Henry Beecher received a degree from Lane Theological Seminary outside Cincinnati, Ohio, which his father then headed.

Daguerreotype of Beecher as a young man

Henry Beecher was named the first pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York in 1847. Thousands of worshipers flocked to Beecher's enormous church and he became one of the most influential public figures in America.

An advocate of Women's suffrage, temperance and Darwin's theory of evolution, and a foe of bigotry of all kinds (religious, racial and social), Beecher held that Christianity should adapt itself to the changing culture of the times.

An abolitionist, he raised funds to buy weapons for those willing to oppose slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, and the rifles bought with this money became known as "Beecher's Bibles".

Beecher held mock 'auctions' at which the congregation purchased the freedom of real slaves. The most famous of these former slaves was a young girl named Pinky, auctioned during a regular Sunday worship service at Plymouth on February 5, 1860. A collection taken up that day raised $900 to buy Pinky from her owner.

An 1875 adultery trial in which Beecher was accused of having an affair with a friend's wife, Elizabeth Tilton, was one of the most notorious American trials of the 19th century. He was acquitted but the whole affair scandalized America as Beecher was an immensely popular and respected Christian public figure.

Beecher's fame on the lecture circuit led to his becoming editor of several religious magazines, and he received large advances for a novel and for a biography of Jesus.

One of the great preachers of the age, amongst the many thought-provoking quotes in Beecher's Life Thoughts was, “There are many people who think that Sunday is a sponge to wipe out all the sins of the week.”

Thomas J Barrett, a pioneer of modern advertising, popularized the “phrase “cleanliness is next to godliness,” which was used in the writings of Phinehas ben Yair, a rabbi. On a visit to America he sought a testimonial from a man of distinction. Henry Ward Beecher agreed to help and wrote a short text, which started “If cleanliness is next to godliness…”. Beecher merely received Barratt’s “hearty thanks” for his labor.

Henry Beecher developed a passion for jewels, which he carried, unset, in his pockets, taking them out for comfort when he was tired or in low spirits.

Beecher suffered a stroke and died in his sleep two days later on March 8, 1887. Brooklyn, still an independent city, declared a day of mourning. He is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Source Wikipedia 

Catharine Beecher

Catharine Beecher was born n East Hampton, New York on September 6, 1800. The daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and sister of Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe and preacher Henry Ward Beecher, she was the eldest of eight surviving children.

When she was 10, Catherine's family moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, where she received her first formal education at Sarah Pierce’s Academy for Young Women. 

At Sarah Pierce’s Academy for Young Women, she was taught the limited curriculum available to young women. The experience left Catherine longing for additional opportunities for education.

In 1821 she began teaching at a school in New Haven, Connecticut and went through a religious crisis brought on by her father's attempt to force his Calvinist views on her.

Catharine was engaged to marry Professor Alexander M. Fisher of Yale University, but he died in the shipwreck of the Albion off the coast of Ireland in 1822 before the wedding took place. She remained single for the rest of her life.

Catharine Beecher

After her fiancée’s death, Catharine founded the Hartford Female Seminary, launching a life-long campaign as lecturer, writer, and advocate for women's education.

The Hartford Female Seminary began with one room and 7 students; within three years, it grew to almost 100 students with 10 rooms and 8 teachers.

Catharine was constantly making experiments, and practicing them upon the girls, weighing all their food before they ate it, holding that Graham flour and the Graham diet were better for them than richer food. Ten of her pupils invited her to dine with them at a restaurant. She accepted the invitation, and the excellent dinner changed her views. Thereafter they were served with more palatable food.

In 1832, Beecher moved with her father to Cincinnati to campaign for more schools and teachers in the frontier. She devoted herself there to the development of an extended plan for the physical, social, intellectual, and moral education of women. Beecher founded in the 1840s the Central Committee for Promoting National Education, which promoted teacher education and contributed to the establishment of education as a profession.

In 1852 she founded the American Women's Education Association. Beecher's goal was to rescue women who wasted their lives in frivolous "feminine" pursuits as well as those exploited as factory hands.

Catharine Beecher

Beecher strongly supported allowing children to simply be children and not prematurely forcing adulthood onto them. It was these beliefs that led her to speak on the value of kindergartens.

Among her many published works was Treatise of Domestic Economy (1841). In 1869, Beecher collaborated with her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe on a new edition, retitled The American Woman's Home (1869) which became a hugely influential guide for generations of American housewives.

Beecher died in Elmira, New York from apoplexy on May 12, 1878. 

Sources Connecticut History, Wikipedia

Bee Gees

EARLY YEARS

Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb moved with their family to their father Hugh Gibb's hometown of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England in 1955. 

Barry (born September 1 1946) was the oldest. Twins Robin and Maurice were born just 30 minutes apart on December 22, 1949. 

They formed in Chorlton-cum-Hardy a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass.  Below is The Rattlesnakes in early 1958, from left to right: Paul Frost, Kenny Horrocks, Maurice, Barry and Robin Gibb.

By http://www.brothersgibb.org/news-2012.html -

In December 1957 the Gibb brothers began to sing in harmony. The story is told The Bee Gees were going to lip sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema, but as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live and received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career.

In August 1958, the Gibb family emigrated to Australia shortly after the birth of youngest sibling Andy, and the Gibbs performed anywhere and everywhere they could, in order to raise some pocket money. 

Speedway promoter Bill Goode gave the Gibb brothers their first break after he hired them to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960.

The Bee Gees were given their name by a Brisbane disc jockey called Bill Gates. He named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Barry Gibb's, and speedway promoter Bill Goode's initials. 

After securing a spot performing on local television shows, they were eventually signed for a record label in 1963. 

Their twelfth single "Spicks And Specks" was their first ever chart-topper, topping the New Zealand pop charts (#3 in Australia).

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

After achieving their first chart success in Australia with "Spicks and Specks", they returned to the United Kingdom in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience.

From the outset Barry Gibb was the primary creative force, penning the majority of their hit songs in the 1960s as well as countless other songs for other artists. 

"New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones)" was the The Bee Gees' debut recording in England. It became their first international success.

"(The Lights Went Out In) Massachusetts" was their first UK number one. The Bee Gees had never actually been to Massachusetts when they recorded this; they just liked the sound of the name.

While recording "Nights On Broadway" in 1975, the producer Arif Martin asked if one of the Bee Gees could do some screaming during the main chorus to make the song more exciting. In response, Barry Gibb began singing higher and higher, eventually singing it in a falsetto that was unexpectedly powerful. He had never known he had such an ability and Barry's falsetto became a trademark of the Bee Gees.

When Robert Stigwood, decided to make a feature film from an article written by rock writer, Nik Cohn, about the disco scene in New York, he asked the Bee Gees to contribute the soundtrack. The film was to be called Saturday Night and Stigwood asked for a new song with that title. The Gibb Brothers thought it was a corny title but they already had a song called ‘Night Fever’, hence the film’s eventual title.

The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, composed and performed primarily by the Bee Gees helped turn disco into a global phenomenon  It is the second best-selling soundtrack album of all time and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year-  the only disco album to do so.

The Bee Gees in 1977 (top to bottom): Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb

The first public demonstration of a compact disc player was on a 1981 episode of the BBC's Tomorrow's World. The CD they used was a special transfer of the Bee Gees' Living Eyes LP.

In November 2015, their hit "How Deep Is Your Love" was played at a deafening volume as police in the Philippines tried to scatter Leftwing protesters at a world leaders’ meeting.

The Bee Gees have sold over 220 million records worldwide, making them the most successful family and sibling band of all time.

PERSONAL LIVES

Robin Gibb was one of the survivors of the Hither Green railway crash in the United Kingdom, which killed 49 people on November 5, 1967.

Barry Gibb bought the Tennessee house Johnny Cash lived in from 1968 until his death. In 2007, while the home was being renovated for Gibb, it caught fire and burned to the ground. 

Maurice Gibb was an avid paintball player. He competed in tournaments as a member of the team the Royal Rat Rangers.

The Bee Gees in Los Angeles in 1992. By Mahmoodkhanmusic  Wikipedia

The three brothers were heartbroken in 1988 when brother Andy Gibb succumbed to years of substance abuse, and died at the age of 30. 

Maurice Gibb died of a cardiac arrest because of a congenital birth defect on January 12, 2003. It brought to a close the forty year career of The Bee Gees.

On May 20, 2012, Robin Gibb, died at the age of 62 from liver and kidney failure brought on by colorectal cancer. 

All three members of Bee Gees revealed during a copyright trial that they never learned to read or write sheet music despite being among the most prolific songwriters of all time. Instead, they developed a trial-and-error process and relied on their staff to transcribe the results.

Source Artistfacts

Bee

BEES IN HISTORY

The Ancient Egyptians kept their bees in tall, cylindrical hives; similar hives are still used in remote parts of Egypt today.

Golden bees were discovered in Tournai in the tomb of Childeric I (father of Clovis) who founded the Merovingian dynasty in 457. They were considered to be the oldest emblem of the sovereigns of France.

After the first settlers arrived in the New World, they found their orchards weren't producing many apples because there were no honeybees to pollinate them. So in March 1622, the first colony of honeybees were introduced to the Colony of Virginia from England. The North American Indians called these honeybees the "white man's flies."

Napoleon used the bee as a symbol of his empire after his coronation in 1804. He believed it stood for industry, efficiency and productivity.

Africanized hive bees, also called killer bees, are particularly aggressive. They are descended from African bees that were imported into Brazil in 1956. The imported bees escaped in 1957 and began to mate with European honeybees--the kind found in most hives.

Since 1957 killer bees have been moving steadily northward, and the first swarm entered the United States in October 1990.

World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20 in order to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem, The date was chosen as it is the birthday of Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, who was born in 1734.

ANATOMY

The most familiar species is the bumblebee (see below), which is larger and stronger than the Honey bee.

Bees deposit a small positive electric charge on each flower they visit. They also possess "Electroreception" which allows them to detect the presence of electric fields on flowers. They use this information to establish a flower has been recently visited by another bee and therefore has less nectar.

Honeybees, despite having the brain size of a sesame seed, can count up to four and understand the concept of zero.

Bees have two separate stomachs; one for food and another just for nectar.

Bumblebees don’t have ears. They pick up vibrations through their bodies.

Bumblebees have hair on their eyes.

Bees cannot see the color red. To them it looks like black.

Because bees cannot see the color red they prefer purple, blue, and yellow flowers.

Bees can see ultraviolet. UV allows them to see vein like patterns in a flower, like a map which allows them to locate the nectar treasure.

FLIGHT

Bees’s wings flap 11,400 a minute, creating their buzz.

The flapping of the wings of 1,000 bees generates seven watts of heat.

Honeybees navigate by using the sun as a compass.

Bees can sense moisture changes in the air, so they put in extra work  enabling them to make it back to their hives before it rains.

Bees build up an electrical charge as they fly, meaning the pollen leaps from the plant onto them.

In one trip, a honey bee visits about 75 flowers.

Honey bees must gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey. A single bee would therefore have to fly around 90,000 miles (144,800 kms) to make one pound of honey. The average honey bee will actually make only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

Bumblebees can carry as much as 91 percent of their body weight in nectar.

Bees fly at 15 mph and can reach up to 30 mph, visiting 50 to 100 flowers on each trip.

Bumblebees are abundant in high alpine regions and are capable of flying at altitudes higher than Mt. Everest. On one occasion they broke the insect record for high altitude flying. During research, two bees were able to fly at simulated altitudes of 29,525 feet inside a plexiglass chamber. The plexiglass kept breaking before the bees stopped flying.

The Australian blue-banded bee can headbang flowers up to 350 times a second to collect their pollen.

Two tablespoons of honey would be enough to fuel a bee’s entire flight around the world.

STING

No male bee of any bee species can sting— a stinger is a modified version of a female bee's egg-laying organ, the ovipositor.

There is a species of stingless bee in the Amazon known as the "Barber Bee" that will cut your hair as a means of defense.

Although the sting of one Africanized bee is no more dangerous than that of a European honeybee, the Africanized bees release a chemical when they attack that signals other bees to come and join the attack.

Elephants are so afraid of bees that the mere sound of buzzing is enough to make an entire herd flee. Elephants even have a particular call to use to warn others of bees.

Killer bees may swarm over great distances in pursuit of a raider of their hives, and they have been known to attack in such numbers as to kill farm animals and humans.

A bee uses 22 muscles to sting someone.

Honey bees will only die after stinging mammals with thick skin, but can freely sting other insects such a spider.

Michael Smith, a PHD student of Cornell University in New York,  allowed bees to sting him 190 times to find out which part of the body hurt the most. Smith said the most painful area was the inside of his nostril.

In a typical year, nearly 100 American deaths are caused by bee stings.

QUEEN BEES

Bumblebees all die at the end of the summer apart from new queens, which hibernate.

A queen bee continues to mate until she collects more than 70 million sperm from multiple males.

A productive queen bee can lay 3,000 eggs a day.

The Queen bee is too fat to fly after being pregnant, so when the worker bees want her to relocate the hive they chase her around the hive for week until she’s skinny enough to fly.

Queen bees only sting other Queen bees.

If a queen honey bee is removed from her hive, all the bees in the hive know she’s missing within 15 minutes.

HIVE

The average temperature of a bee hive and the human body are the same.

Honey bees keep their hives at a temperature between 32°C and optimally 35°C.  If its too cold they generate heat by flexing their muscles, and if its too hot then they vent hot air by fanning their wings

Bees dance to each other in the hive to tell each other where to find good pollen. The angle of the dance is the angle relative to the sun, the tempo of dance is the distance, the duration of dance is the quality of the pollen, and the dancer hands out free samples to whoever’s watching.

Bees also dance when choosing a place to build a new hive. When a hive becomes too full, bees will form a "Senate" comprised of older, more experienced bees to seek a new location. When a bee finds a good spot, it begins dancing to motion other bees toward it. Then, they vote on it by dancing as a collective until a consensus is reached.

Bees will not build in a gap that is very specifically 6-9 mm in width (but they WILL build in larger or smaller spaces). This discovery, called "bee space", made modern beehives with removable "frames" for honeycomb possible; otherwise, the bees would just cement everything together.

In 1984, a backstage worker at the Paris opera established one of the most unusually sited beehives on the roof of the opera house. The "opera bees" gather their nectar as they visit flowers all over the city of Paris. The fruits of their labors are on sale in the souvenir shop of the opera.

The blue carpenter bee, is non-aggressive and semi-solitary. They do not build hives like honeybees but instead prefer to live inside dead wood. They live in Southeast Asia, India and Southern China.

30 Billion honey bees from around the US are shipped to California once a year to pollinate almond trees. They are then shipped to other parts of the country through the year for the same purpose.

90% of all bees are solitary and don't work in a hive or colony.

FUN BEE FACTS

Geoffrey Chaucer coined the simile "busy as a bee" in his Canterbury Tales  In the “Epilogue to The Merchant’s Tale,” he wrote: “In wommen been! for ay as bisy as bees.”

In 1984, honeybees constructed a honeycomb in zero gravity as part of an experiment on a space shuttle.

Most insects used in a film: 22 million bees in The Swarm.

Sherlock Holmes took up beekeeping when he retired.

In 2008, it was reported that Asian honeybees and European honeybees can understand each other through waggling dance movements, though they need to learn each other’s dialects.

Bees have brains capable of performing basic maths. They have an understanding of the concept of zero and do basic addition and subtraction. They also have the ability to remember human faces they have seen before.

A bumblebee will stick up a middle leg if it’s annoyed by your presence, which means “back off!”. Otherwise they are docile to the point that you could usually handle one without negative consequence.

Japanese Honeybees defend themselves against wasps by swarming them and "baking" them by vibrating their wings to 47 degrees Celsius. This is one degree above the wasp's maximum temperature.

A newly discovered species of bee in 2013 was named ‘Euglossa bazinga’ after a catchphrase from TV show The Big Bang Theory.

The scientific name for the bumblebee is bombus. Their old English name is Dumbledore.

Bees not only sleep, but also take little bee naps on flowers. Forager bees sleep for several hours a day and older bees require more sleep than youngsters. This is why you sometimes you can find bees napping in flowers with their little heads down, antennae motionless, enjoying a quick snooze.

Most bees buzz in the key of A, unless they are tired, when they buzz in the key of E.

Bees don't poop in the hive. Over the winter, it builds up because they stay out of the cold. On warm winter days, they will all fly out at the same time on what are called "cleansing flights."

Worker bees, the smallest in a colony are immature females. They live for 28 to 35 days.

Bees are directly responsible for the production of 70% of fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts that we consume on a daily basis.

Bees were declared as the most invaluable species on Earth at the November 2008 Earthwatch debate. Five eminent scientists battled it out for fungi, bats, plankton, primates and bees.

Sources Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, Goldenblossomhoney.com, Daily Mail.

The Venerable Bede

Bede (673-735)'s name most likely derives from the Old English bēd, or prayer. Most likely his family had planned on his entering the clergy from birth.

He was known as Venerable Bede from the 9th century due to the holiness of his life. From Latin "venerablius" meaning "worthy of honor".

Young Bede was sent by his parents to the monastery at Monkearmouth at the age of 7. He was placed under the care of the abbot Benedict Biscop, to be raised as a monk. Monkwearmouth's sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year.

A few years after his transfer to Jarrow, all the monks responsible for leading the worship were killed by the plague leaving only Ceolfrith and the 13 year old Bede to maintain the services.

Bede devoted his life to the study of scripture and recording of history. His entire working life was spent as a Benedictine monk at the monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, and its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in Jarrow.

"The Venerable Bede Translates John" by James Doyle Penrose (1862-1932

The library in Jarrow was the largest library in England at the time. Bede became one of the most learned men in Western Europe.

All his works were written out by hand with ink made from ground up oak gall on vellum (animal skins).

Bede wrote 68 books in total, mainly religious biographies, scientific and theological works with a quill dipped in "encaustum", the monk’s word for ink.

Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede's classic historical tome written in Latin of the purest style, which tells of early Anglo Saxon kingdoms and their conversion to Christianity. Scrupulously researched, he even had a monk colleague gathering material for him in the Pope's archives in Rome.

Bede cited his references and was very concerned about the sources of all his sources, which created an important historical chain. He is credited with inventing footnoting.

An oddity in Bede's writings is that in one of his works, the Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, he writes in a manner that gives the impression he was married. The section in question is the only one in that work that is written in first-person view, where Bede says: "Prayers are hindered by the conjugal duty because as often as I perform what is due to my wife I am not able to pray."

In those days when people did not believe the Earth was round, Bede wrote that the Earth was indeed round "like a playground ball", contrasting that with being "round like a shield".

Bede tells us of in writings of his interest in carpentry and music and how he enjoyed long walks along the Northumbrian coast that allowed him to study the movement of the tides.

Bede loved cooking and was especially proud of his store of peppercorns and spices that he added to improve the bland monastery food.

Late in life, Bede became almost blind because of the strain on his eyes of working long hours by candlelight. He would dictate his works to other monks, who would write them out for him.

Bede died on May 26, 735 (Ascension Day) on the floor of his cell, chanting "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit" and was buried at Jarrow.

Cuthbert, a disciple of Bede's, wrote a letter to a Cuthwin describing Bede's last days and his death. According to Cuthbert, Bede fell ill, "with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain", before Easter. Two days before Bede died, his breathing became worse and his feet swelled.

On the evening of May 26th, Bede's scribe, a boy named Wilberht said, "Dear master, there is one sentence still unfinished." "Very well," he replied, "write it down." After a short while, the lad said, "Now it is finished." "You have spoken truly," Bede replied. "It is well finished. Now raise my head in your hands, for it would give me great joy to sit facing the holy place where I used to pray, so that I may sit and call on my Father." Singing "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son," he died.

When Bede died his estate was made up of some peppercorns, incense and handkerchiefs.

Bede's remains were moved to Durham Cathedral’s Galilee Chapel in 1370 and lie within a tomb chest sealed by a black marble slab.

Bede's tomb in Durham Cathedral

Bede is the only Englishman to be named by Dante as being in paradise in his Divine Comedy.

St Paul's Church, Jarrow, where Bede worshipped is still situated on the grounds of the monastery. A nearby metro station, Bede station is named after him.