Local questions

The city of Sparks, Nevada, is named after John Sparks, the governor of Nevada between 1903 and 1908. Located 3.5 miles (or 5.6 kilometers) east of Reno, Sparks grew around a rail switching yard established by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The settlement was renamed Sparks in 1904 after being variously called East Reno, Glendale, and Harriman, after E H Harriman, president Read more...

The Minnesota Wild NHL ice hockey team plays its home games at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St Paul, Minnesota. Built on the site of the demolished St Paul Civic Center, the arena opened on September 29, 2000, when the Minnesota Wild played their first ever game, in a preseason 3-1 win against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. They Read more...

The newly-constructed Nipigon River Bridge in northern Ontario heaved apart in January 2016 due to multiple bolt failure during a winter storm, causing the the bridge deck to lift by around 60 centimetres (or 24 inches). The bridge, part of the Trans Canada Highway, was closed to vehicular traffic for 17 hours, severing the only road link between eastern and Read more...

The probable cause of the Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapse on March 15th, 2018, was load and capacity calculation errors by the bridge designers, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. The partially-constructed elevated foot bridge was being installed to improve pedestrian access across Southwest 8th Street, an eight-lane highway separating the FIU campus in University Park, a Read more...

Bridgeport is the most populous city in Connecticut, notable for its links to circus impresario PT Barnum, being the home of Beardsley Zoo, and as the birthplace of the Subway restaurant chain and the Frisbie Pie Company. Phileas T Barnum was elected as mayor of Bridgeport in 1875, overseeing a period of improvements in city infrastructure and services, including the Read more...

Vinegar Hill in Brooklyn, New York City, is named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill, a major clash between the United Irishmen and British forces that took place in Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The neighborhood was named by John Jackson who was developing his land holdings on this stretch of the East River waterfront in the early Read more...

US rapper Young Dolph was killed in a drive by shooting in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 17th, 2021. The 36-year-old musician was shot dead shortly before 1 pm at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies shop near Memphis International Airport. Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Robert Thornton Jr, had been targeted in previous shootings in 2017 in Charlotte, South Carolina, Read more...

John F Kennedy International Airport was officially called New York International Airport-Anderson Field, after it opened in 1948, but was more commonly known as Idlewild Airport. The airport in Queens, New York, was developed on land once occupied by the Idlewild Beach Golf Course, leading to it being referred to as Idlewild, and even used IDL as the FAA and Read more...

The suggested dress code for Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City is smart casual. Jacket and tie are not required for men and smart dark jeans may be worn, but sleeveless shirts are not permitted. Sports and athletic wear is not acceptable attire for the main restaurant although patrons in such clothing are allowed in the Tavern Read more...

Gamla stan means the Old Town in Swedish and refers to the historic centre of Stockholm, Sweden, an area comprising the island of Stadsholmen, and the surrounding islets of Helgeandsholmen, Riddarholmen and Strömsborg. Until 1980, it was officially called the City Between the Bridges (or Staden mellan broarna in Swedish). Present-day Stockholm has its foundations here, with the area substantially Read more...

New York’s WPIX TV, known as PIX11, is located in the News Building at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan. WPIX was once the TV broadcast subsidiary of the New York Daily News newspaper, and the building housed the Daily News operations until 1995, but PIX 11, by then under separate ownership, remained Read more...

BMW of Manhattan is located on West 57th Street at 11th Avenue with a street-level showroom in the building known as the BMW Building, previously occupied by Ford Motor Company until 1997. The dealership offers new and pre-owned BMW cars and is also home to BMW of Manhattan Motorrad, the authorized BMW Motorcycle Centre for New York City, carrying an Read more...

Gorton Monastery is owned by The Monastery of St Francis & Gorton Trust Limited, a Building Preservation Trust and registered charity established in 1996 to acquire, restore and maintain the once-derelict former Church and Friary of St Francis in the Gorton district of east Manchester. The church, known locally as Gorton Monastery, was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Read more...

The Edge observation deck on Level 100 of New York’s 30 Hudson Yards skyscraper is 1,131 feet (or 345 meters) above the ground. The cantilevered outdoor platform extends up to 80 feet (or 24 meters) from the building and offers views across Manhattan and the Hudson River, and visitors can stand on a glass floor panel looking straight down to Read more...

EWR is the IATA code for Newark Liberty International Airport, located 3 miles (or 4.8 kilometers) south of downtown Newark, New Jersey, and about 9 miles (or 14 kilometers) west of Manhattan. Although it is in the state of New Jersey, its proximity to New York City makes it is one of the three major airports serving the New York Read more...

Diana, Princess of Wales, suffered fatal injuries in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France, in the early hours of 31st August 1997. She was a back seat passenger in a Mercedes limousine provided by the Hôtel Ritz, along with film producer Dodi Fayed, with whom she was in a romantic relationship. The car was Read more...

The possession or consumption of alcohol is prohibited on Colorado State University’s campus in Fort Collins, including residence halls, with exceptions for university facilities licensed to sell alcohol and events authorized to serve alcohol by CSU’s Office of Risk Management. On campus, the Ramskeller Pub in the Lory Student Center serves alcohol to over-21s and has its own microbrewery on Read more...

The New York City Marathon starts from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The 26.2-mile (or 42.2-kilometer) marathon route passes through all five boroughs of New York City before finishing in Manhattan’s Central Park. It is usually held annually on the first Sunday in November and is the world’s largest marathon by participation. Read more...

The Port Elizabeth Campanile memorial tower has 204 steps leading up to the observation room, and it was made more accessible during refurbishment in 2017 with the addition of a lift. The 53-metre-high, nine-floor tower, located between the railway station and the port, was opened in 1923 to commemorate the landing of British settlers in South Africa in 1820. Long Read more...

Port Clyde is a picturesque fishing village on mid-coast Maine’s St George peninsula that has become a haven for artists and writers, and the nearby Marshall Point Lighthouse featured in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump. Once an important port for the fishing, granite and lumber industries, the main economic activity in Port Clyde now is tourism and lobster fishing. The Read more...