A portmanteau of "banana" and "toffee," banoffee pie is an English dessert made from bananas, cream, toffee, and a pastry or biscuit base. Though Ian Dowding and Nigel Mackenzie of The Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex, England, claim to have invented the dish in 1972, other tales of its origins eventually spread. The men responded by offering a £10,000 prize to anyone who could disprove their claim. How is the toffee for the pie made?More...Discuss
Very occasionally, we might have a larger parenthetical element that contains one or more smaller ones. What is conventionally done to the smaller parenthetical element, to distinguish it from the parentheses of the larger text?More...Discuss
Victoria Woodhull Is Nominated for President of the US (1872)
Woodhull was a prominent US women's rights advocate, suffragist, and owner of a weekly publication known for printing the first English translation of The Communist Manifesto. In May of 1872, she became the first female candidate for president when a group of suffragists formed a political party and nominated her, but because she was a woman many disputed the legality of her candidacy. What famous African-American was nominated to be her vice-president—possibly without his knowledge?More...Discuss
Born into a family of famous actors, Booth made his acting debut at the age of 17. Touring widely, he soon became a wealthy celebrity, earning acclaim for his Shakespearean roles. However, he harbored deep Confederate sympathies and viewed President Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant. In April of 1865, he assassinated Lincoln at Ford's Theater, where Lincoln had previously watched him perform. Twelve days later, Booth was shot and killed by a Union soldier. Who else had Booth conspired to have killed?More...Discuss
This reenactment of the completion of America's transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah, has been held since 1952. Reproductions of the Central Pacific's "Jupiter" and Union Pacific's "119" meet at the site of the ceremony. Then, the Golden Spike and three other spikes are tapped into a special railroad tie; at 12:47 PM, an ordinary iron "last spike" is driven into the last tie, and the message "D-O-N-E" is sent by ham radio to the California State Railway Museum in Sacramento.More...Discuss
