Here we are with another confection of trivia to put a Spark! into your Monday. Remember to spice it up if you enjoy it.
Today in History: 25th July 1909 – Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel
Louis Bleriot was a French engineer, inventor and aviation enthusiast who came up with a successful design for car headlamps. The money he made from his business activities helped fund his flying experiments.
The Daily Mail newspaper put up a prize of £500 for the first person to pilot a heavier than air craft across the channel before the end of 1908. When this prize aroused no interest, the money was doubled to £1,000 for anyone who made the crossing before the end of 1909.
Bleriot had built numerous aircraft designs and the plane which eventually achieved the prize was a Bleriot XI. He took off from near Calais at dawn on 25th July and landed, rather heavily, near Dover Castle just under 37 minutes later. Fortunately, he did not have to deal with the queues for customs at Dover!
Bleriot founded Bleriot Aeronautique and later headed a consortium that bought the SPAD aircraft company which produced several successful fighter aircraft used in WWI.
Read more here.
Also on this day
1554 – Mary I of England marries Phillip II of Spain at Winchester Cathedral
1959 – The SRN1 hovercraft crosses the channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours
1965 – Bob Dylan booed for playing an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival
2000 – Air France Concorde flight 4590 crashes art Paris Charles de Gaulle airport
2010 – Wikileaks publishes classified US military documents about the Afghan war
Arrivals
1894 – Gavril Princip, Bosnian Serb revolutionary, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
1920 – Rosalind Franklin, British scientist and academic, co-discoverer of DNA
1954 – Walter Payton, US NFL football star
1967 – Matt le Blanc, US actor and TV presenter
1978 – Louise Brown, the first IVF baby, born in Oldham, Lancashire
Departures
1834 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, British poet and philosopher
2003 – John Schlesinger, British film director
2009 – Harry Patch, last surviving British Tommy from the WWI trenches
2020 – Peter Green, British guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
2020 – Olivia De Havilland, British actor (Gone with the Wind)
The Funnies:
Recipe of the day: Stuffed Chicken Wrapped in Bacon
Another recipe from BBC Food similar to a favourite recipe served up by my wife. Chicken, Bacon, what could go wrong?
Ingredients
· 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
· 60g/2¼oz garlic and herb soft cheese
· 6 slices smoked streaky bacon
· 1 tbsp finely chopped flatleaf parsley
· 1 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
· ½ tbsp finely grated Parmesan
· 1 tbsp olive oil
· 10 cherry tomatoes
· salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
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Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5.
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Turn the chicken breasts over so that the smooth side is on the chopping board. Using a small sharp knife, cut a pocket the length of the breast, under the small false fillet – be careful not to cut all the way through the chicken breast.
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Open up the pocket and neatly spread the cream cheese into the pocket. Fold the chicken back over to seal the cheese inside.
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Take three slices of bacon from the packet, leaving them overlapped, place them on the board and massage the bacon so that it doubles in length. Repeat with another three slices. Place each chicken breast on top of three slices of bacon, at an angle, and roll up tightly so that the bacon seals the chicken breast packet closed. Put the chicken breasts on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
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In a small bowl, mix together the parsley, breadcrumbs, Parmesan and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
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Take the baking tray out of the oven and scatter the breadcrumb mixture over the top. Arrange the cherry tomatoes around the chicken. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the tomatoes are softened.
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Allow the chicken breast to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Slice each chicken breast in half and serve with the roasted tomatoes.
Quote of the Day:
*“*I got quite annoyed after the Haiti earthquake. A baby was taken from the wreckage and people said it was a miracle. It would have been a miracle had God stopped the earthquake. More wonderful was that a load of evolved monkeys got together to save the life of a child that wasn’t theirs”.
– Sir Terry Pratchett
Comic of the Day:
Mouseover: ‘I got banned from the county fair for handing out Helium-2 balloons. Apparently the instant massive plasma explosions violated some local ordinance or something.’
Image Credit: https://xkcd.com/2649/
Explain XKCD: explain xkcd
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
In case you missed it, read @therepairatrooper’s shockingly sheepish Spark! from Friday here:
( Spark! Pro Series - July 22, 2022 )
