A coin toss and a door lead to a pair of historical firsts
I’ve found myself watching a late-night US talk show, Later With Stephen Colbert, on YouTube recently. Can you tell me a little about him? – G.
Colbert hosts the most popular late-night show in America.
Winner of nine Emmy Awards, he began his career as an actor.
However, he switched to presenting duties on The Daily Show before getting his own show, The Colbert Report.
We enjoyed a tour of Westminster Abbey last week. When we came out, the rain was so heavy, we could just barely see a monument in front of the Abbey. What is it? – R.
That is the Crimea and Indian Mutiny Memorial.
Erected in 1861, it was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
The stone and marble column is topped by a figure of St George slaying the dragon.
Idon’t actually know which brother it was, but when the Wrights made the first powered aeroplane flight, how did they decide who would be the pilot?
I seem to recall there was a bit of friction when the astronauts of Apollo 11 made the first moon landing about who would be first to walk on the surface. – D.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard.
That pilot was Orville Wright, who simply tossed a coin with his brother, Wilbur, to see who would attempt the historical flight.
The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Three more flights were made that day, with Wilbur piloting the record flight lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet.
Just 66 years later, as NASA prepared to land the first men on the moon, the question of which of the two astronauts, Neil Armstrong or Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin would step out on to the lunar surface first, remained unanswered.
According to a memoir written by Chris Kraft, head of Mission Control: “Aldrin desperately wanted that honour and wasn’t quiet in letting it be known.”
Three months before lift-off, it was announced that Armstrong would be the first man to walk on the moon.
The reason? Because of the Lunar Module’s layout, it was easier for Armstrong to get out first.
And so it was, on July 20, 1969, he stepped out of the spaceship and stepped into history.
Why soccer? I mean the term for football – it doesn’t sound like any other word I know. – T.
Quite simply, soccer is an abbreviation for Association (from Association Football, the sport’s “official” name) plus the suffix -er.
The term soccer was probably coined by students of Oxford University, some time in the 1880s, to distinguish the game from rugby.
In much the same way, Rugby Football is often referred to as “rugger”.
While trying (and failing) to help my daughter with her chemistry homework, I noticed there is an element called palladium. Is it named after the theatre? – P.
Discovered in 1863, palladium is named after an asteroid called Pallas which, in turn, was named after the Greek goddess of wisdom, Pallas.
Palladium theatres are also named after the goddess.