What is the world’s largest city below sea level?

At approximately 92 feet below sea level, Baku, Azerbaijan, is the world capital with the lowest elevation and the world’s largest city below sea level. A trading port on the Caspian Sea since ancient times, Baku has some extraordinary modern architecture, including a carpet museum that resembles a rolledup carpet and the Heydar Aliyev Center library, museum and concert hall designed by Zaha Hadid. It’s also a venue on the Formula 1 championship circuit, with drivers reaching speeds of nearly 224 miles per hour on the historic city streets. Trivia question: La Paz, Bolivia, has what distinction as a world capital? A) Highest B) Least populous C) Most populous D) Newest

In 1871, Margaret E. Knight was denied a patent on her design for a machine to produce flatbottomed paper bags because Charles Annan had already filed one nearly identical to hers. That was no coincidence. Knight had shown Annan a prototype of her machine, never expecting that he’d try to patent her design as his own. Able to prove he’d filched her work, she sued Annan and won. Her “Improvement in paper-bag machines” — U.S. Patent 116,842 — was the first to make the stand-up paper bags with the uniquely folded bottoms we know today. The Dickin Medal is awarded to animals for gallantry in service. Named for Maria Dickin, founder of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals — now known simply as PDSA — in the United Kingdom, the medal was awarded the first time in 1943 to White Vision, Winkie and Tyke, three carrier pigeons that delivered messages facilitating the rescues of downed RAF crewmen. Recipients include 32 pigeons, 31 dogs, 4 horses and 1 cat named Simon, who served aboard the HMS Amethyst in the 1940s.

We may never know who’s responsible for concocting the first s’mores, but credit for the earliest publication of a recipe for squishing a toasted marshmallow and chocolate between graham crackers goes to the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. The recipe for “Some More” appeared in a 1927 guide called “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.” The guide’s other campfire recipes included Ring Tum Diddy, a melange of bacon, tomatoes, corn and American cheese and served over toast.

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? Not her sister Vanessa Bell. While Virginia was writing modernist fiction such as “To the Lighthouse” and “Mrs. Dalloway,” her older sister Vanessa was a successful painter and designer who created the cover art for some of Virginia’s books. One of Vanessa’s notable commissions was a Wedgwood china service of 50 plates decorated with portraits of famous women. Among them: Helen of Troy, the Queen of Sheba, ballerina Anna Pavlova, 11th-century author Murasaki Shikibu (who wrote “The Tale of Genji”), Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell herself.

Colored lights illuminate New York City’s Empire State Building, changing each night to commemorate holidays and events, from red and green with a candystriped top for Christmas to purple and yellow for the annual Westminster Dog Show. Some 16 million color combinations are possible. Once the tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building has its own ZIP code and more than 135,000 Twitter followers. It has appeared in more than 200 movies and TV shows, never with a speaking role. Trivia answer: At about 11,975feet above sea level, La Paz, Bolivia is the highest world capital.