Trivia Of The Day August 10

During the Middle Ages, Oxford University had rules that forbade students from bringing bows and arrows to class.

The first modern rationing system was introduced in Germany in 1914 during the First World War.

First World War German government propaganda poster describing rationing

Silent movie actress Clara Bow failed in the talkies mostly because of her thick Brooklyn accent.

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Happy Birthday August 10

31st President of the United States Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German and Swiss ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was of English and Irish ancestry. Both of his parents were Quakers. As a child, young Bertie was often called by his father "my little stick in the mud", since he repeatedly was trapped in the mud while crossing an unpaved street.

For more August 10 anniversaries, including the most successful indigenous rebellion in American history, the admission of Missouri as the 24th U.S. state. the discovery of aspirin and the debut of Spider-Man check out OnThatDay.

Today Is August 10

Today is the anniversary of the opening of The Louvre Art Museum.

The Cour Carrée of the "Old Louvre". By King of Hearts -

The Louvre emerged as a medieval fortress built by Philip II of France in the 14th century located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris.

Between 1360 and 1380, Charles V converted the Louvre Castle into a palace, known as the "joli Louvre" ("pretty Louvre"). 

In 1546, Francis I razed the structure in favor of a larger royal residence in French Renaissance style.

In 1682 Louis XIV abandoned the Louvre, and moved his court to Versailles to establish his independence from the Paris nobility.

The Louvre was converted into an Art Museum during the French Revolution with an exhibition of 537 paintings. It opened for the first time on August 10, 1793. Most of its exhibits at the time consisted of treasures confiscated from the royal family or the Church.

The Louvre has become the globe's most-visited museum, with 35,000 works of art dating from Antiquity to the early modern period. As well as the Mona Lisa, the museum's permanent collection includes masterpieces by European masters such as Rembrandt, Giambattista Pittoni, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titian and Eugène Dela.

On This Day August 10

Rin Tin Tin was a male German Shepherd who was rescued from a World War I battlefield by Lee Duncan. An aerial gunner of the U.S. Army Air Service, Duncan nicknamed him "Rinty". Duncan trained Rin Tin Tin and obtained silent film work for his pet. He was an immediate box-office success and went on to appear in 27 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame. After the death of Rin Tin Tin on August 10, 1932, the name was given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured on film, radio, and television.

WANT MORE THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON AUGUST 10? CHECK OUT MY ONTHATDAY BLOG. HERE'S A LINK.

Trivia of the Day August 9

On August 9, 2010, JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater quit his job in dramatic style. Irked by the behavior of a rude passenger, Slater announced his resignation over the PA system upon landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He then grabbed two beers from a beverage cart and exited by deploying the plane’s emergency slide. 

Crew cuts originated from the hairstyle enjoyed by US college rower teams in the 1930s.

Author Jack Kerouac sporting a G.I. crew cut in 1943

A diesel engine can also be made to run on vegetable oil made from old cooking oil. This type of fuel is called biodiesel. This is not a new idea. Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his diesel engine in the 1900 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) using peanut oil fuel.

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Happy Birthday August 9

King Henry V of England was born in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle in the Principality of Wales on August 9, 1387. His father was Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV of England, and his mother Mary de Bohun, who died in 1394 giving birth to her last child, a daughter, Philippa of England. As king, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe. 

Detail of a miniature of Henry V of England.

Grocer Clarence Saunders, who pioneered the modern retail sales model of self service, was born on a farm in Amherst County, Virginia on August 9, 1881. Saunders launched the self-service revolution in the United States by opening the first self-service Piggly Wiggly supermarket, at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee on September 6, 1916. The checkouts and turnstile entrance at Saunders' stores proved such a success that by 1923 a further 2,800 Piggly Wigglies had sprung up across the U.S.

For more August 9 anniversaries, including the founding of Bulgaria, beginning of the construction of The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the first printed edition of the Quran in Arabic check out OnThatDay.

Today Is August 9

Today is the anniversary of the patenting of the diesel engine.

Rudolph Diesel had the idea to develop an engine which relied on a high compression of the fuel to ignite it. He took his inspiration from watching a lecture where there was a demonstration of a Malaysian fire starting technique called the 'fire piston' which creates flames through air compression.

Diesel first came up with a design for his engine in 1892 and, subsidized by the Krupp company, constructed a ‘rational heat motor’, demonstrating the first compression-ignition engine in 1897. Diesel was granted US Patent No. 608,845 on August 9, 1898, for his engine. He unveiled his engine at the World Fair in 1900.

The first US diesel-power passenger car, a Cummins powered Packard, was built in Columbus, Indiana in 1930.

When he invented the Diesel engine, Diesel envisioned local communities growing crops to run their engines and making themselves entirely self-sufficient. Today, virtually all diesel engines run on petroleum from the ground by multinational oil companies in a globalized market.