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There is a lot going on in Peter Paul Reubens’ The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt, painted circa 1615. The painting was commissioned by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, of The House of Wittelsbach, for Schleißheim Palace.
Looted during the Napoleonic wars, the massive 98 in × 126 in work was returned to Munich, where The Wittelsbach collection formed the nucleus of the Alte Pinakothek, one of the world’s oldest art galleries.
An Olympic medal event only since 1998 you might think that curling is a relatively new sport apparently invented in Canada. And, of course, neither is true. The sport dates back at least to the 16th century, and comes from perhaps a surprising place.
During the later half of the nineteenth century numerous attempts were made to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Killing the Tsar, however, turned out to be no easy task.
The St Louis World’s Fair, officially known as the Louisiana Purchase Expedition, was an enormous event, with more than 60 countries and 43 states maintaining exhibition spaces for nearly twenty million visitors. In addition to the many exhibitions, a variety of private enterprises set up camp near the fair in the hopes of making money off the guaranteed audience. Some of those ideas worked better than others, but few among them went as ridiculously badly as the attempt to put on a Spanish-Style bullfight.
