by Diana Filer
- A gibbous moon happens between the first quarter and the full moon. The word gibbous derives from ‘hump-backed’. In earlier times it was thought that the moon resembled this shape during that period.
- Whit Sunday is the seventh Sunday after Easter, when Christians celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s first followers. It is also called Pentecost.
- In 1834, a Quebecois businessman attending a St Patrick’s Day event thought that French Canada should have a similar day to honour their own heritage, so he organized a St Jean Baptiste Day and was able to celebrate the first one on June 24th of that year. In the Baltic states, St John’s Day is also a holiday on that date.
- Theresa May resigned because of intense political pressure resulting from her failure to secure Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a word concocted in 1935 to describe a supposed lung disease, is the longest word in the English language.