Did you know? Part 1
1 A is the first letter of the English alphabet.
2 A 1 is a term used to describe anything unusually good.
3 Aachen (pop. 238,587) is an industrial city in Germany.
4 Aalto, Alvar (1898-1976), was a Finnish architect, town planner, and furniture designer.
5 Aardvark is an African mammal that lives in the ground and eats ants and termites.
6 Aardwolf is an unusual type of hyena that lives on the plains of southern and eastern Africa.
7 Aaron, in the Bible and in the Quran, was the brother of Moses and Miriam.
8 Aaron, Henry (1934-...), an American baseball player, hit 755 regular-season home runs, more than any
other player in major league history.
9 Abaca is a plant grown in Borneo, the Philippines, and Sumatra for its fibre.
10 Abacus is an ancient device used in China and other countries to perform arithmetic calculations.
11 Abadan (pop. 294,068) is a refining centre for Iran's oil industry.
12 Abalone is a marine snail found in most mild and tropical seas.
13 Abalone fishing is an important commercial industry in all southern Australian states.
14 Abandonment is a legal term that has two chief meanings.
15 Abbas, Ferhat (1899-1985), served as president of Algeria's first elected legislature.
16 Abbey Theatre, in Dublin, is the national theatre of the Republic of Ireland.
17 Abbot is the religious superior of a monastery of an early religious order, such as the Benedictines and
Cistercians.
18 Abbotsbury is a village in Dorset famous for its swannery (a place where swans are bred).
19 Abbott, Lyman (1835-1922), an American Congregationalist preacher and editor, popularized the
reconciliation of evolution with the Biblical account of creation.
20 Abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or a phrase.
21 Abdomen is a large body cavity between the thorax (chest) and the pelvic cavity.
22 Abduh, Muhammad (1849-1905), an Egyptian lawyer, tried to bring Muslim thinking in line with the
findings of science and conditions of the modern world.
23 Abdul Aziz, Ungku (1922-...), a distinguished Malaysian economist, was vice chancellor of the University
of Malaya from 1968 to 1988.
24 Abdul Ghafar Baba, Tun (1925-...), a Malay politician, became deputy prime minister and minister of
national development of Malaysia in 1986.
25 Abdul-Hamid II, (1842-1918), was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
26 Abdul Rahim Kajai (1894?-1944) was the leading professional Malay journalist in the 1930's.
27 Abdul Rahman, Tuanku (1895-1960), the first king of independent Malaya, was yang di-pertuan agong
(paramount ruler) from 1957 to 1960.
28 Abdul Rahman, Tunku (1903-1990), was the first prime minister of the independent country of Malaya
from 1957 to 1963.
29 Abdul Rahman Yakub, Datuk Patinggi (1928-...), a Malay lawyer and politician, was chief minister of the
Malaysian state of Sarawak from 1970 to 1980.
30 Abdul Razak bin Hussein, Tun (1922-1976), the second prime minister of Malaysia, held the post from
1970 to 1976.
31 Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munshi (1795?-1854), is regarded as the first modern Malay writer.
32 Abdurahman, Abdullah (1872?-1940), was the main political leader of the coloured (mixed race) people
in South Africa from 1905 until his death.
33 Abel, in the Bible, the second son of Adam and Eve, was a shepherd (Genesis 4).
34 Abel, I. W. (1908-1987), served as president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) from 1965
to 1977.
35 Abelard, Peter (1079-1142), was one of the leading philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages.
36 Aberconwy and Colwyn (pop. 54,100) was a unitary authority (local government district) in Wales
created in 1996.
