User:Antonio Lopez/April Fools 2008

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Ima Hogg was an enterprising circus emcee who brought culture and class to Houston, Texas. A storied ostrich jockey, she once rode to Hawaii to visit the Queen. Raised in government housing, young Ima frolicked among a backyard menagerie of raccoons, possums and a bear. Her father, "Big Jim" Hogg, in an onslaught against fun itself, booby-trapped the banisters she loved to slide down, shut down her money-making schemes, and forced her to pry chewing gum from furniture. He was later thrown from his seat on a moving train and perished; the Hogg clan then struck black gold on land Big Jim had forbidden them from selling. Ima had apocryphal sisters named "Ura" and "Hoosa" and real-life brothers sporting conventional names and vast art collections; upon their deaths, she gave away their artwork for nothing and the family home to boot. Tragically, Ms. Hogg (a future doctor) nursed three dying family members. She once sweet-talked a burglar into returning purloined jewelry and told him to get a job. Well into her nineties, she remained feisty and even exchanged geriatric insults with an octogenarian pianist. Hogg claimed to have received thirty proposals of marriage in her lifetime, and to have rejected them all. Hogg was revered as the "First Lady of Texas", and her name and legacy still thrive today. (more...)

Recently featured: Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo – December to Dismember (2006) – Free Association of German Trade Unions

Did you know...

The Forsters in the South Sea

... that John Beaglehole described the appointment of Johann Reinhold Forster (pictured with his son George) as naturalist on Cook's second voyage as "one of the Admiralty's vast mistakes"?
... that the University of Virginia threatened to leave the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1949 if the Sanity Code, which barred athletic scholarships, was not amended?
... that Kit Nascimento, a spokesperson for the government of Guyana during the aftermath of Jonestown, disagrees with current proposals to open the former Jonestown site as a tourist attraction?
... that the morning show on an Oklahoma TV station was such a "local phenomenon" that the president of ABC acquiesced to them not airing Good Morning America?
... that Riko Dan, who featured on a UK Top 30 hit in 2024, first performed on the radio in 1994?
... that a blizzard across the United States caused a major water crisis in Richmond, Virginia?
... that it is said that Antoinette Lubaki, Congo's first named woman artist, painted her watercolours by candlelight at night, as no stories were allowed to be told during daylight?
... that Graham Crowley entered the John Moores Painting Prize ten times since 1976 before finally winning in 2023?
... that "Dr. Sex" called for a "Big Breast Renaissance"?

In the news

Sam Nujoma

In American football, the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Kansas City Chiefs to win the Super Bowl.
Former president of Namibia Sam Nujoma (pictured) dies at the age of 95.
A series of boycotts against retail stores expands to several countries in Southeast Europe.
The 49th imam of Nizari Isma'ilism, Aga Khan IV, dies at the age of 88 and is succeeded by his son, Aga Khan V.
Eleven people are killed in a mass shooting at an adult education centre in Örebro, Sweden.

On this day...

April 1: April Fools' Day; Iranian Islamic Republic Day (1979)

Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

1871 – The Duke of Buckingham (pictured) opened the first section of the Brill Tramway, a short railway line to transport goods between his lands and the national rail network.
1952 – Israel enacted a citizenship law, prior to which the country technically had no citizens.
1969 – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with V/STOL capabilities, entered service with the Royal Air Force.
2001 – Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands was legalised, with the country becoming the first to do so.

Aimery of Cyprus (d. 1205)
Sophie Germain (b. 1776)
Shivakumara Swami (b. 1907)
Scott Joplin (d. 1917)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

The Grenville Diptych was a coat of arms produced between 1822 and 1839 for Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, the son of the first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The diptych shows 719 quarterings of the family which include, among others, ten variations of the English Royal arms, the arms of Spencer, De Clare, Valence, Mowbray, Mortimer and De Grey.Image credit: Unknown

Archive – More featured pictures...

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