Will (law)

A will is a legal document by which a person expresses their wishes as to how their property is to be after they die. It is sometimes called a "last will and testament."

NOTABLE WILLS

In 1638 John Harvard a clergyman and the teaching elder at Charlestown Church, Massachusetts died of tuberculosis. He bequeathed $3,500 together with his library of some 400 volumes to a recently founded and unnamed school in nearby Cambridge. The following year the school renamed itself Harvard College in his honor and from 1780 onwards it was referred to as Harvard University.

The original British Museum collection was 71,000 books, antiquities and natural specimens bequeathed to the nation by Sir Hans Sloane, the inventor of milk chocolate, in 1753.

The Thellusson v Woodford will case led to British legislation against the accumulation of money for later distribution. It was fictionalized as Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Charles Dickens' Bleak House.

The Nobel Prizes came about when a brother of Swedish arms manufacturer Alfred 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.

Alfred Nobel's will.

Joseph Pulitzer was one of the most influential figures in the American journalism in the late 19th century. He left a bequest after dying in 1911 to found a journalism school at Columbia University. The Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious award in journalism, was named in his honor.

All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book Peter Pan were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London. Since that time, the hospital has received a royalty from every production of Peter Pan that hits the stage, in addition to sales of the book and all related products.

FAMOUS PEOPLE's WILLS 

When Julius Caesar died, he left today's equivalent of about $270 to each and every Roman citizen.

William Shakespeare's will bequeathed most of his property to his daughter Susanna and his granddaughter. He left small mementoes to friends. He mentioned his wife only once, leaving her his "second best bed" with its furnishings.

Last page of the handwritten 1616 will of William Shakespeare

At his death, Benjamin Franklin bequeathed £1000 (a huge amount at the time) to each of the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust for 200 years.

Robert Louis Stevenson died of a brain haemorrhage in Vailima in Samoa, aged 44. In his will, he bequeathed his birthday to a little girl who had been born on Christmas Day.

Dorothy Parker, the American writer and wit, surprisingly but seriously bequeathed most of her estate to Martin Luther King.

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner tried to make sure his beneficiaries won’t blow through his money after his death. His will states that his children will be cut off “if the trustees reasonably believe that (the beneficiary) routinely or frequently uses or consumes any illegal substance".

When he died in 1987, Bob Fosse, the director behind Cabaret and Chicago, left a special gift to 66 friends in his will: £310 each to "go out and have dinner on me".

FUN WILL FACTS

An estimated 1 million dogs in the U.S. have been named the primary beneficiary in their owner's will.

The longest known legal will is that of Englishwoman Frederica Evelyn Stilwell Cook. The will was 1066 pages (95,940 words) and occupied four gilt-edged, leather-bound volumes; her estate was worth $100,000.

Bimla Rshi from India set a 1991 world record for the shortest will: ("All to son.") It was later equalled by Karl Tausch of Hesse, Germany, ("all to wife"). Both contain only two words in the language they were written in (Hindi and Czech, respectively).

When he was young, Francis Drake's father apprenticed his son to his neighbor, the master of a barque used for coastal trade transporting merchandise to France. The ship master was so satisfied with Francis' conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to the youngster.

The 1919 will of bitter millionaire Wellington Burt stated that his riches couldn't be paid out until 21 years after his last grandkid died.

The will of Charles Vance Millar (1853–1926), a Toronto lawyer, financier, and practical joker was full of playful bequests. In it, he left three men who hated one another a join lifetime tenancy in a villa, some protestant ministers $700,000 in Catholic beer stock, and anti-horse racing advocates $25,000 in a Jockey club.

The final bequest of Millar's will was the strangest. It required that the balance of Millar's estate was to be converted to cash ten years after his death and given to whichever woman in Toronto bore the most children in the decade after his death. Four women tied at nine children and received $100,000 each.

On June 8, 1948 in Saskatchewan, Canada a farmer named Cecil George Harris was pinned under his tractor. He used his pocket knife to scratch the words "In case I die in this mess, I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo Harris" onto the fender. Harris did die and the message was accepted in court. It has served as a precedent ever since for cases of holographic wills.

When the Polish composer and pianist Andre Tchaikowsky died in 1982, he bequeathed his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company to be used as the skull of Yorick in Hamlet. The first actor to use that skull in a performance of Hamlet was David Tennant in 1988.

Twins and multiple births

There are 7 different kinds of twins: Identical, Fraternal, Half-Identical, Mirror Image, Mixed Chromosome, Superfecundation, Superfetation.

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Twins may be genetically identical, having been formed from one fertilized egg, which split into two cells both of which became implanted. Non-identical twins are formed when two different eggs are fertilized at the same time.

FAMOUS TWINS IN HISTORY

In 1100, twin girls reputedly joined at the hips and shoulder, were born in the South East England village of Biddenden. The twins, Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst, were born to fairly wealthy parents.

At that time, conjoined twins having separate heads were baptized separately whereas twins with a shared head and thorax (cephalothoracopagus) were considered to be a single individual. 

An engraving of the Biddenden Maids from Gentleman's Magazine, 1896,

When Mary died at the age of 34, doctors suggested a separation but Eliza refused. She died within six hours after declaring, "As we came together, we will also go together". 

The Biddenden Maids bequeathed five plots of land to the village church wardens. The income from these lands was used to pay for an annual dole of bread, cheese and beer for the poor every Easter  Since at least 1775, the dole has included Biddenden cakes, hard biscuits imprinted with an image of  the Maids, as well as 300 quartern loaves and cheese. 

In the 19th century, the fame of conjoined twin brothers Chang and Eng Bunker propelled the expression "Siamese twins". They coined the term to refer to themselves, and it became synonymous for conjoined twins in general. 

Chang and Eng Bunker married sisters Sarah Ann and Adelaide Yates, and between them had 21 children.

Marie, Cecile, Yvonne, Emilie and Annette Dionne were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy. They were born near Callender, Ontario, Canada to Oliva and Elzire Dionne on May 10, 1934. 

The birth of the Dionne quintuplets caused a sensation and quickly became a media sensation, leading to the creation of a tourist industry around the family. Unfortunately, the quintuplets were taken away from their parents by the Ontario government and placed under the guardianship of Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, who oversaw their care and raised them in a specially-built hospital. 

The Dionne quintuplets were a major attraction and drew large crowds of tourists. After a legal battle, the quintuplets were returned to their parents in 1943. Despite being celebrated as a medical miracle and a tourist attraction, the Dionne quintuplets' early years were marked by controversy and exploitation, and their story remains a subject of public interest and debate to this day.

Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn with the Dionne babies in 1934

 
Elvis Presley was actually one half of a set of twins. His twin brother, later named Jesse Garon Presley, died during birth, which was not terribly uncommon for a family in 1935 Mississippi.

Two identical twin males, who had been separated by adoption at three weeks, in 1940 suddenly rediscovered each other in Ohio at age 39 on February 9, 1979. Both their adoptive parents coincidentally named them both James. Both men came to be named Jim for short, and that was just the start of it. Both loved carpentry and math, and pursued careers in security. Even stranger, they had each married a woman named Linda got divorced and then remarried a woman named Betty.

Margaret Thatcher had two children, the twins Carol and Mark, who were born six weeks premature in 1953. "Typical of Margaret. She produced twins and avoided the necessity of a second pregnancy," said her husband Denis Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher with Carol and Mark

Twin brothers Ross and Norris McWhirter were co-founders of The Guinness Book of Records, which they wrote and annually updated together between 1955 and 1975.

Between 2006 and 2007 Poland’s prime minister and president were identical twin brothers, Jarosław and Jech Kaczyński. They were the first brothers in history to hold a country’s prime ministership and presidency at the same time.

Krista and Tatiana Hogan (born October 25, 2006) are Canadians conjoined twins, who are joined at the head. Their brains are connected by a thalamic bridge which gives them unique neurological capabilities.The twins can feel and taste what the other is experiencing, hear each other’s thoughts without having to speak and see through one another’s eyes. 

RECORDS 

The oldest conjoined twins on record were Ronnie and Donnie Galyon from Dayton, Ohio, They were born on October 28, 1951, and passed away on July 4, 2020, at the age of 68. They were joined at the front from the sternum to the groin and shared some internal organs. In 2014, they surpassed the record of the previous longest-lived conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, who had lived to be 62.

The oldest craniopagus twins (joined at the head) on record  were Lori and George Schappell, who passed away on April 7, 2024 at the age of 62. They were born on September 18, 1961, in Reading, Pennsylvania. They lived largely independent lives, with Lori working as a laundry worker and George pursuing a career as a country singer. 

Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova were born January 3, 1950 in the Soviet Union and lived 53 years and 104 days. Masha and Dasha were a rare form of conjoined twins - two heads, four arms and two legs.

Twins Amy and Katie Jones-Elliott of Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, Ireland were born 87 days apart setting a new world record. Maria Jones-Elliott went into labor four months early, giving birth to Amy on June 1, 2012, but Katie did not arrive until three months later on August 27, 2012. The previous record is 84 days.

Twins Ann Hunt and Elizabeth Hamel were separated soon after they were born in Aldershot, England, to their unmarried domestic servant mother on February 28, 1936. They didn't see each other again for a record 78 years. Elizabeth was kept because she had curvature of the spine and her mother thought that it would be difficult for her to be adopted. Ann, who was adopted, grew up an only child.

 As an adult, Elizabeth met an American and moved to Oregon in the United States. When they met in 2014, they discovered they had both married men called Jim.

Igbo Ora, a town in Nigeria, boasts the highest number of twin births in the world. The town, which in the south west part of Nigeria, has a documented 50 sets of twins born out of every 1,000 live births. Locals say it is due to an okra leaf they eat. One woman says it’s responsible for her having eight pairs of twins.

The village Kodinhi in India has the highest twin rate in the world, with over 400 twins in about 2000 families. Scientists aren't sure of why this is, but it has been observed that even when women of Kodinhi have children with men outside of their village, the twin birth rate is still high.

FUN TWIN FACTS 

The odds against someone having twins is about 90:1.

The number of triplets born in the US in 1994 (4,594) was more than triple the number born in 1971 (1,034), an increase attributed to older age of the mothers and the use of fertility-enhancing drugs and techniques. 

Wikipedia

Left-handedness is extremely common in twins. It is unusual, however, for both to be left-handed.

You can tell identical twin babies apart from their navels, since navel is a scar and thus they're different.

Twins interact with each other in the womb as early as 14 weeks into the pregnancy.

After just under a year in space, astronaut Scott Kelly's gene expression changed significantly and is different than his identical twin brother's DNA.

The actor Tom Berenger once owned a restaurant called Twins, where the waitstaff consisted of 29 sets of identical twins.

Two brothers from a set of triplets fooled a Russian prison in 1992 when one brother named Roman swapped places with the other called Rusian to give him a brief taste of freedom. Rather than returning, Rusian ran off with his brother's girlfriend, leaving Roman to serve the rest of his twin's sentence. It took years for the authorities to realize they had been duped.

There have been several cases whereby identical twins are acquitted of crimes even though one of them is a definitely guilty as identical twins have almost identical DNA and legal system cannot afford to punish the wrong twin for the crime. 

In 2009 identical twins Hassan and Abbas O. were suspects in a $6.8 million jewelry heist. DNA matching the twins was found but they had to be released citing "we can deduce that at least one of the brothers took part in the crime, but it has not been possible to determine which one." 

Emily and Seth Peterson, who live in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, welcomed their new baby boys in the early hours of November 6, 2016. Samuel was born first, at 1:39 am, followed by his brother Ronan who entered this world 31 minutes later just as daylight saving time had ended. So even though Ronan was born 31 minutes after Samuel, he officially was born at 1:10 am — 29 minutes before his older brother.

Although children of identical twins are legally first cousins, genetically, they are actually half siblings.

Twinning is common in many other species other than humans, such as cats, cattle, sheep, and ferrets. 

Tomb

A tomb (from Greek "τύμβος" - tumbos) is generally a structurally enclosed space or chamber used for housing the remains of the dead, and sometimes their possessions. It is often intended to honor a deceased person and be visited by the living. A tomb is usually more elaborate and expensive than a grave. 

Ronald Reagan's tomb. By Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library, 

Originally tombs were filled with items that might be useful to the deceased in the afterlife. Garlic, watermelons along with other food were often placed in the burial tombs of pharaohs to nourish them in their life after death.

The Egyptian Pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs over 4,500 years ago. The architect Imhotep created the first pyramid - the 'step pyramid' at Saqqara – in 2620BC as a tomb for the pharaoh Zoser.

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According to the Greek historian Herodotus, it took 100,000 people to build the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Modern estimates put it at about 20,000.

The largest intact Ancient Egyptian tomb ever found was excavated by French Egyptologists Eugène Grebaut and Georges Daressy, with Urbain Bouriant and Ahmed Kamal. Bab el-Gasus was a cache of ancient 21st dynasty (c. 1070–945 BC) Egyptian mummies found at Deir el-Bahari in 1891.

Xin Zhui (died in 168 BC.) is the best preserved ancient human ever found. The wife of Li Cang, the Marquis of Dai and Chancellor of Changsha Kingdom, during the Western Han dynasty of ancient China, her tomb was discovered in 1968. It was covered in 20 layers of silk, glued together with clay and coal. A mysterious substance was also found in her skin, which may have helped preserve her body. 

The Terracotta Army at the tomb of Qin Shi Huang Emperor of China contains thousands of life-like soldiers and hundreds of horses. The vast collection of terracotta statues, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, was discovered by a group of farmers in Shaanxi province, China, on March 29, 1974. Estimates from 2007 were that the three pits containing the statutes held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses. The tomb area covers about 38 square miles.

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Hall 1. By Zossolino 

Romans were known to create tombs for their dogs and gave them epitaphs to remember them by. One such inscription read, "[Myia] never barked without reason, but now he is silent." 

Another Roman canine tomb epitaph read. "I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home with my own hands 15 years ago." 

In the first half of the 3rd century Christians decorated the walls of their tomb chambers with New Testament scenes and with depictions of the Eucharist. Members of the Christian community were shown sitting round a table together to break bread, and to share their food and drink, much like later Christian representations of the Last Supper. 

The Taj Mahal is one of the world's most famous tombs. Commissioned in 1632 on the orders of Shah Jahan to honour his favorite wife, Mumtaz Maha, it was built in Agra, India with materials from all over Central and East Asia. So much white marble and precious stones were used in its construction that it nearly bankrupted the Mughal empire.

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The remains of American Civil War general and former US President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, lie interred in Grant's Tomb. The granite and marble structure, designed by architect John Duncan, was completed in 1897 and remains the largest mausoleum in North America. The tomb complex is located in New York City's scenic Riverside Park. 

A cenotaph, such as the one in Whitehall, London, is an empty tomb, built to honor someone who is unknown or buried elsewhere.

The founder of Tombstone, Arizona was told he’d find his tombstone there. Hence the name.

Sources Daily Express, Historyworld  

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum in Agra, central India built by Shah Jahan for his late wife Mumtaz Mahal. 

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Mumtaz Mahal (born Arjumand Banu Begum) was a Persian princess who was the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Their marriage took place on April 30, 1612,  five years after the year of their betrothal and the pair was very much a love-match. She was her husband's constant companion and trusted confidant and in their nineteen years of marriage, they had fourteen children together (eight sons and six daughters).

Mumtaz Mahal was accompanying her husband on a military campaign in Burhanpur, Deccan (present-day Madhya Pradesh) when she went into labor. It was a prolonged labor of approximately 30 hours and the exhausted mother died from a postpartum hemorrhage on June 17, 1631 after giving birth to her fourteenth child, a daughter named Gauhar Ara Begum.
 

Portrait of Mumtaz Mahal 

The Empress' body was temporarily buried at Burhanpur in a walled pleasure garden known as Zainabad. In the immediate aftermath of his bereavement, Shah Jahan was inconsolable and he went into secluded mourning for a year.

In December 1631, Mumtaz Mahal body's was disinterred and transported in a golden casket back to the Mughal Empire capital, Agra. There it was interred in a small building on the banks of the Yamuna River. 

Shah Jahan stayed behind in Burhanpur to conclude the military campaign and while there, he commissioned the construction of a suitable mausoleum and funerary garden in Agra to be built in the memory of his wife. 

Shah Jahan would spend the next two decades building his beloved wife's mausoleum, the Taj Mahal. It required the labor of 20,000 stone carvers, masons and artists from all over India and Central Asia. It is generally thought that Ustad Ahmad Lahauri was in charge of the construction.

The Taj Mahal was built with materials from all over Central and East Asia. So much white marble and precious stones was used in its construction that it nearly bankrupted the Mughal empire. Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport white marble from Rajasthan, jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. In all, 28 types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the building.

The principal mausoleum was completed in 1643 and the surrounding buildings and garden were finished a decade later.

The actual tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan in the lower level. Donelson 

In order to misguide Japanese bombers during World War II,  the Taj Mahal was disguised with a huge scaffold which made it look like a stockpile of bamboos. The idea worked and was used again in 1971 at the time of Indo-Pak War.

The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which is around 52.8 billion Indian rupees ($827 million US) based on 2015 values.

The Taj Mahal was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, for being "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". 

It attracts 7–8 million visitors a year. Most tourists visit the Taj Mahal in the cooler months of October, November and February.

It is forbidden for aircraft to fly over the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal's white marble exterior is gradually turning yellow due to high levels of air pollution.

Source Irancivilcenter

Suicide bombing

The first known suicide bomber in history was an Indian Queen. Rani Velu Nachiyar, the Queen of the Tamil kingdom of Shivagangai, set herself on fire and ran into an ammunition's storehouse to kill the British in 1780. 

Throughout the 19th century, suicide bombings remained rare.

The first suicide bomber that succeeded in killing a head of state was Ignaty Grinevitsky, a member of the Russian Left-wing terrorist group, The People's Willing. On March 13, 1881 Grinevitsky blew up himself and Tsar Alexander II. 

Source Today In History

Around 3,860 Japanese kamikaze pilots gave their lives in attacks during World War II when their bomb-loaded fighters crashed into Allied naval vessels.

The usage of the term "suicide bombing" dates back to the early 1940s. One of the first usuages was when a New York Times article referred to a Japanese kamikaze attempt on an American carrier as a "suicide bombing".

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) after a kamikaze attack by the Japanese

From World War II, there were no reported incidents of suicide bombings until the 1980s, despite conflicts between insurgent groups facing a larger and better armed opponent (such as in Afghanistan, Angola, Vietnam, Northern Ireland and Nicaragua).

Suicide bombings became a feature of guerrilla warfare and terror tactics in Lebanon in the eighties. In 1994, Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad began using suicide bombers against Israeli targets to disrupt peace talks.

The 9/11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by members of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States September 11, 2001. Four groups of terrorists, each with a trained pilot, hijacked airplanes. Two of them flew into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York City, and another into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target in Washington, D.C.

By far the most deadly country for suicide bombings of the 2000s was Iraq. A Lancet study, Casualties In Civilians And Coalition Soldiers From Suicide Bombings In Iraq, 2003–10: A Descriptive Study, concluded there were no suicide bombings before 2003.
It found that at least 1,003 suicide bombings caused civilian casualties in Iraq between 2004 and 2010, with at least 12,000 civilians killed. 

The number of suicide attacks grew enormously after 2000. By BoogaLouie

Suicide bombings in Iraq killed 60 times as many civilians as it did soldiers during the Iraqi war.

In 2014 a British sniper in Afghanistan killed six insurgents with a single bullet after hitting the trigger switch of a suicide bomber whose device then exploded.

Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh was a suicide bomber who boarded the Somali owned Daallo Airlines on February 2, 2016 with explosives in his laptop intending to blow the whole aircraft. Twenty minutes after the take-off, the bomb exploded, creating a hole in the plane, and Borleh was sucked out of the aircraft. He was the only fatality as the blast occurred before it reached cruising altitude.

Suicide

HISTORY

In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

Seven suicides are recorded in the Bible.

In 165AD, the Greek philosopher Peregrinus Proteus committed suicide in flamboyant fashion after giving his own oration then cremating himself on the flames of a funeral pyre at the Olympic Games.

In Ancient Rome, suicide was never a general offense in law, though the whole approach to the question was essentially pragmatic. This is illustrated by the example given by Titus Livy of the colony of Massalia (present day Marseilles) people who wanted to kill themselves applied to the Senate, and if their reasons were judged sufficient they were given free hemlock to do so.

The Death of Seneca (1684), painting by Luca Giordano

When Roman statesman Cato the Younger attempted suicide in secret in 46 BC to avoid capture by Caesar, his sword missed any vital organs, slicing open his stomach. When he awoke to a doctor stitching him up, Cato pushed him away, tore out his intestines with his bare hands, and died on the spot. 

In the early fifth century, St. Augustine wrote the book The City of God, which included Christianity's first blanket condemnation of suicide. His biblical justification for this was the interpretation of the commandment, "thou shalt not kill", as he saw the omission of "thy neighbor", which is included in "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor", to mean that the killing of oneself is not allowed either.

Suicide used to be regarded as shocking and blasphemous, and a coroner's verdict of 'felo de se' – literally crime against oneself. In Tudor England those who committed suicide while accused of a crime were forbidden a Christian burial, which was deemed necessary for entry to the Kingdom of God.

For hundreds of years, a suicide usually resulted in the body being buried at a crossroads, with a stake through the heart, and with no religious ceremony.

In Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1774 book The Sorrows of Young Werther, the title character kills himself due to a love triangle involving Charlotte. The novel inspired many copycat suicides in Europe.

Charlotte (pictured at Werther's grave. 

If you attempted to commit suicide in England in the 1800′s, and were unsuccessful, you would face the death penalty.

In 1803, the Igbo people (an ethnic group from present day south Nigeria) managed to take control of their slave ship. They committed mass suicide instead of submitting to slavery in the United States. 

For centuries, India practiced sati, where widows were obliged to commit suicide upon their husband's death, often by self-immolation on their funeral pyre. The British banned it in the 19th century.

During World War I, suicide rates dropped in Europe in those countries involved in the fighting and those that were neutral. Following the armistice, the national rates returned to pre-war levels.

The British Anglican priest Chad Varah established Samaritans as the world's first crisis telephone support to those contemplating suicide. He started the hotline in the crypt of his church in 1953. He was prompted to do so after the first funeral he conducted early in his career was for a 14-year-old girl who took her own life after having no one to talk to when her first period came and believed she’d contracted an STD. The phone line, MAN 9000 (for MANsion House), received its first call on November 2, 1953. 

Varah190 Wikipedia

When Kokichi Tsuburaya Japan "only" won bronze for Japan at the 1964 Olympics, he promptly committed suicide because he felt he had let down his country.

In 1970, Billy Joel wrote a suicide note and attempted to commit suicide by drinking furniture polish, stating it looked "tastier than bleach". He later published his suicide note as a song in his first album, Cold Spring Harbor. The song would be titled, “Tomorrow is Today.”

When famous Japanese pop star Yukiko Okada suddenly committed suicide on April 8, 1986, many of her fans were so devastated that it resulted in numerous copycat suicides, the process has since been dubbed "Yukiko Syndrome."

Dr. Jack Kevorkian used his suicide machine for the first time on June 4, 1990 when Alzheimer's patient Janet Adkins gave herself a fatal injection by pressing a button on the euthanasia proponent's death machine. 

The writer Hunter S. Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on February 20, 2005. He killed himself while on the phone with his wife. She mistook the cocking of the gun for the sound of his typewriter keys and hung up as he fired.

Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea from 2003 to 2008, killed himself on May 23, 2009 by jumping off a cliff. His left-wing party chose to delay the opening of parliament until the right-wing government of the time accepted responsibility for his suicide.

Following the suicide of a the famous Korean actress Choi Jin-sil on October 2, 2008, the frequency of suicide in Korea increased by 162,2% for three weeks confirming the "Werther effect," that a suicide can cause others to also commit suicide.

Portrait photograph of the South Korean actress, Choi Jin-sil

A restaurant manager at Disneyland Paris killed himself in 2010 and scratched a message on a wall saying "Je ne veux pas retourner chez Mickey" which translates to "I don't want to work for Mickey any more."

The day after Robin Williams's suicide on August 11, 2014, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline fielded the greatest number of calls in its history.

Suicides nationwide increased by 10 percent after Robin Williams’ death; researchers found a convincing parallel between the increase and sensationalized coverage/headlines of his death that violated CDC guidelines, focusing on the method of death.

STATISTICS

A study titled "Where Are They Now?" in 1978 followed up on 515 people who were prevented from attempting suicide using the Golden Gate Bridge from 1937 to 1971.  About 90% were either alive or had died of natural causes, concluding "suicidal behavior is crisis-oriented" rather than inexorable.

As a suicide prevention initiative, the sign below promotes a special telephone available on the Golden Gate Bridge that connects to a crisis hotline

Wikipedia

Several studies have shown a significant decrease in suicides on Japanese railway station platforms after the installation of blue LED lights. The exact percentage reduction varies between studies, but it's generally around 70-80%. The theory behind this is that blue light can help to regulate mood and reduce impulsive behavior. While the specific mechanism isn't fully understood, the positive impact of this simple intervention is clear.

Over one million people die by suicide worldwide each year. 

The global suicide rate is 16 per 100,000 population.

On average, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds somewhere in the world. 

1.8% of worldwide deaths are suicides.

In the United Kingdom, 5,675, 5,608, and 6,045 people aged 15 and over committed suicide in 2009, 2010, and 2011 respectively.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States.

The precipitating circumstances for suicide from 16 American states in 2008

Men commit suicides 3.8 times more than women in the West, and 1.8 time more globally.

2.5% of all men in the US commit suicide, it is the 7th leading cause of death for men

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among those aged 15-29 worldwide.

For many doctors, the constant stress of their work can lead to crippling depression. 300 - 400 doctors kill themselves each year, a rate of 28 to 40 per 100,000, more than double that of general population.

1 in every 5 people in Greenland attempts to kill themselves at some point in their lifetimes.

25% of suicides happen on a Wednesday, 11% more than the next highest day. 

The Suicide by Édouard Manet 1877–1881

On average there are 25 attempts at suicide for every single success. The elderly are more successful at 4:1. While for younger folks (aged 15 - 24), the odds are between 100 and 200 to 1 against.

SUICIDE FACTS

If you commit suicide in Japan by jumping onto an oncoming train or killing yourself in an apartment building, the train or building company can/will sue your family for clean up fees, loss of income and negative publicity brought on by your suicide.

There is a "Suicide Forest" in Japan where about 100 suicides occur every year.

Blue LED lights are installed at certain Tokyo railway stations to deter suicides. Research found the presence of blue lights resulted in an 84% decrease in suicides. Although the exact reason is unknown, it is theorized blue light has a positive calming effect on mood. 

In an effort to reduce the high number of suicides on South Korea's Mapo Bridge, it was unofficially renamed the Bridge of Life. It was decorated with positive affirmations and even sympathetic sculptures. Suicides increased sixfold the following year.

The "suicide palm" recently discovered in Madagascar flowers itself to death. The plant grows for decades before exploding with nectar-rich blossoms that deplete the plant's nutrients and cause it to die.

British woman Amy Dallamura was banned from being within 50 meters of the sea after she unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by throwing herself into the ocean fifty times - costing emergency crews over £1m.

Chen Si is a Chinese man who has spent every weekend since December 19, 2003 voluntarily patrolling the world's most popular suicide site. As a result, he has prevented over 400 people from jumping over the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.

Don Ritchie (June 9, 1925 – May 13, 2012) was an Australian who talked at least 160 people out of committing suicide at Watson's Bay by offering them a cup of tea and someone to talk to. He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his efforts.

The irrational feeling of wanting to jump off a high building or to swerve your car into a tree has a name - L'appel du vide (call of the void).

Source Suicide

Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was originally established in 1478 when Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile requested a papal bull establishing an inquisition in Spain in response to the Marrano Jewish population who had converted to Catholicism but returned to Judaism.

In 1483, Ferdinand and Isabella established a state council to administer the inquisition with the Dominican Friar Tomás de Torquemada (1420 – September 16, 1498) acting as its president. This branch of the inquisition was an organization of men with the authority to punish or even execute Spanish heretics.

Torquemada quickly established procedures for the Inquisition. A new court would be announced with a thirty-day grace period for confessions and the gathering of accusations by neighbors. Soon anyone who was not loyal to the Roman Catholic church was in danger of being called a heretic and being put to death by being burnt at the stake. The Inquisition swiftly became the only institution that held authority across all the realms of the Spanish monarchy.

One of the ways in which the Inquisition operated was by sending letters, known as "Edict of Grace," to people who were suspected of heresy or other offenses against the Catholic Church. These letters gave the accused 30 days' notice to present themselves to the Inquisition for questioning and possible punishment.

The Edicts of Grace were read out during Sunday Mass in local churches, ensuring that the entire community was aware of who was being targeted by the Inquisition. This public shaming was intended to deter others from committing similar offenses and to create a climate of fear and suspicion.

Inquisition Scene by Francisco Goya. 

Torquemada developed an oppressive network of spies and secret police. His courts summoned thousands of individuals, most of whom were completely at a loss as to what they were supposed to have done. One third were tortured. The methods most used were to be hung by the arms until they were pulled from their sockets; to be forced to swallow gallons of water; and to be racked. The latter, in which the limbs were slowly pulled apart, was the instrument of torture used most frequently.

During the Spanish Inquisition all torture instruments were ironically regularly dowsed with holy water.

As part of the Spanish Inquisition, close to 200,000 Jews, who refused to be baptized, were driven out of Spain. This was inspired by Ferdinand and Isabella interpreting the January 1492 fall of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian peninsular, as a sign that Christ's second coming was imminent; the removal of the Jews being required before Jesus returned. The Alhambra Decree was issued on March 31, 1492, by the royal pair ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by July 31st of that year. Their departure brought great economic distress to Spain for in turning out their most talented and industrious citizens, Spain became speedily crippled economically.

Jews who refused to convert or leave Spain were called heretics and could be burned to death on a stake. A ceremony at which heretics were burnt was called an auto-da-fé.

By http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/

It was an offence under the Spanish Inquisition for believers to read the Bible. Thousands were given the choice of either confessing their heretical ways and denouncing others as a result of which they would only have to do penance which would involve the paying of fines and/or beating themselves, or denying their heresy and being burnt at the stake. It only required one denouncer for a particular "heretic" to be charged.

The Inquisition of the Netherlands was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands, established during the reign of Charles V. With the rapid spread of Calvinism in the early years of the reign of his son Phillip II, a champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, its scope widened vastly. In 1567 Philip II's Council of the Troubles set up the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands to crush Calvinism. This has lead to the execution of 18,000 people and another 100,000 were driven into exile.

The burning of a 16th-century Dutch Anabaptist, Anneken Hendriks

An author and former monk writing under the name Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus wrote one of the most influential books ever published about the Spanish Inquisition. The book, titled Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae Artes aliquot detectae, ac palam traductae (The Arts of the Holy Spanish Inquisition Plainly Discovered and Laid Open), was published in Heidelberg in 1567. It described in vivid detail the use of secret witnesses, psychological manipulation, and the horrors of the auto-da-fé (the public ritual of penance and execution). Because it was written by a former monk who had intimate knowledge of the institution, it was seen as highly credible at the time and was quickly translated into English, French, Dutch, and German, fueling anti-Spanish sentiment across Protestant Europe.

The Spanish Inquisition was still in force in the late eighteenth century, but much reduced in power. A schoolmaster, Cayetano Ripoll, was the last person to be executed by the Spanish Inquisition in 1826. He was strangled to death for allegedly teaching Deist principles in Valencia.

It has been estimated that from 1480 to 1826 around 150,000 were prosecuted for various offenses during the duration of the Spanish Inquisition, out of which between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed.

The Queen Mother Cristina officially closed down the Tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition in 1834 when she declared "that the Tribunal of the Inquisition is definitely suppressed."

Source Christianity

Seed

DEFINITION

A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. It is a reproductive structure which disperses, and can survive for some time.

Many seeds are edible and the majority of human calories comes from seeds, especially from cereals, legumes and nuts.

Brown flax seeds

Many structures commonly referred to as "seeds" are actually dry fruits. For instance, sunflower seeds are sometimes sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed.

GERMINATION AND DISPERSION

Seeds develop from a fertilized ovule and consist of an embryo and a food store, surrounded and protected by an outer seat coat, called the testa. The food store is contained either in a specialized nutritive tissue, the endosperm, or in the cotyledons of the embryo itself.

In angiosperms (flowering plants) the seed is enclosed within a fruit, whereas in gymnosperms (a group of seed plants which includes conifers, cycads and Gnetales) it is usually naked and unprotected, once shed from the female cone.

Wilikpedia

Following germination the seed develops into new plants but there may be a delay in germination to ensure growth occurs under favorable conditions.

When the seed is ready to develop, it needs water, air and warmth but not sunlight to become a seedling.

Seeds may be dispersed from the parent plant in a number of different ways. Agents of dispersal include animals, as with barrs and fleshly edible fruits, or wind, where the seed or fruit may be winged or plumed. Dandelion seeds are contained within achenes, which can be carried long distances by the wind.

Pixebay

Water can disperse seeds of fruits that float, and various mechanical devices may eject seeds from the fruit, as in some pods are legumes.

SIZE

Seeds are very diverse in size. The dust-like orchid seeds are the smallest, with about one million seeds per gram; they are often embryonic seeds with immature embryos and no significant energy reserves.

The largest seed is produced by the Coco de mer, or "double coconut palm", Lodoicea maldivica. The entire fruit may weigh up to 23 kilograms (50 pounds) and usually contains a single seed.

Female coco de mer growth Wikipedia

Almost 2,000 carrot seeds will fit into, a teaspoon.

HISTORY

The seed drill is a machine for sowing cereals and other seeds, developed by Jethro Tull (1674 –  February 21, 1741), in England in 1701. The seeds are stored in a hopper and delivered by tubes into furrows made in the ground by a set of blades called coulters attached in front. A harrow is drawn behind the drill to cover up the seeds.

Before Tull's invention, people sowed seeds by scattering them by hand. Tull's machine could plant several rows of seeds at regular intervals, which meant that less seed was wasted. Tull used his first seed-drill on his own farm without telling anybody else for thirty years. His invention was the first step in the use of machines in British agriculture.

1902 model 12-run seed drill Monitor Manufacturing Company. By trekphiler

During the Siege of Leningrad in World War II, nine Soviet scientists died of starvation while protecting the world's largest seed bank, refusing to eat what they saw as their country's future.

2,000-year-old Judean date palm seeds were discovered in 1963 inside an ancient jar in Israel. The seeds were planted in 2005 and a tree that had been extinct for over 1800 years sprouted.

The upper survival time limit of properly stored seeds remains unknown. Some scientists believe that seeds can last for thousands of years, if they are stored in the right conditions. However, there is no guarantee that any particular seed will survive for that long.

The conditions that are best for storing seeds are cool, dry, and dark. Seeds that are stored in these conditions are less likely to deteriorate and lose their viability. However, even seeds that are stored in these conditions can eventually degrade and become non-viable.

The ceremonial "first stone" of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds from locations worldwide in an underground cavern in Spitsbergen, Norway, was laid on June 19, 2006. There arctic vault stores over 860,000 different varieties of food crop seeds as an insurance policy for the world’s food supply.

Seed storage containers on metal shelving inside the vault. By NordGen/Dag Terje Filip Endresen

FUN SEED FACTS

The conditions that are best for storing seeds are cool, dry, and dark. Seeds that are stored in these conditions are less likely to deteriorate and lose their viability. However, even seeds that are stored in these conditions can eventually degrade and become non-viable.

Samuel Ryder, founder of golf's Ryder Cup, made his fortune selling packets of garden seeds.

The world record for spitting a watermelon seed is 65 feet 4 inches.