The highest order of chivalry in Denmark is the Order of the Elephant, typically given to royals or foreign heads of state, and on rare occasions to commoners such as Nobel Prize-winning Danish physicist Niels Bohr. For his role in World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was awarded the Order of the Elephant in 1945. To date, Eisenhower is the only American to be so honored. His decoration — a small jeweled elephant on a pale blue sash — is in the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas.

The permanent collections of both the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London contain knitted wool socks from Egypt and Rome as far back as the 3rd century. Some still retain their bright red color from more than 1,000 years ago. One pair is knitted in rainbow stripes. Most are two-toed, with room for the big toe on one side and the rest of the toes on the other — like foot-mittens. Even our ancient ancestors hated having cold feet.

Roger Williams came to North America from England as a Puritan minister in 1631 then separated from the church and formed a more religiously tolerant colony that became Rhode Island. There are no known portraits of him made while he was alive, which created a dilemma for sculptor Armand LaMontagne in 1997, when he was commissioned to make a bronze sculpture of Williams for the campus of Rhode Island's Roger Williams University. So LaMontagne gave his statue the face of Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams instead.

On Jan. 4, 1896, Utah became the 45th U.S. state. Forty-six years later, it became home to the nation's first KFC franchise. That unlikely event is down to Pete Harman, a local restaurateur and friend of "Colonel" Harland Sanders. While visiting Utah, Sanders prepared his famous "original recipe" chicken for Harman and his wife, who named it Kentucky Fried Chicken and put it on their own restaurant menu. Customers loved it and Pete Harman became KFC's first "finger lickin' good" franchisee.

Known for their huge, colorful beaks, toucans are frugivores — meaning their diet consists mainly of fruit, especially guava, figs, oranges and peppers found in South America where they live. When they're courting, toucan couples will use their beaks to toss fruit to each other as a sign of affection.

You probably know the American patriotic song "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" has the same tune as the British anthem "God Save the Queen." Did you know that tune is also used for the national anthem of Liechtenstein "Oben am jungen Rhein" ("Up Above the Young Rhine")? And it's the tune of "Kongesangen" ("King's Song"), the royal anthem of Norway.

TRIVIA

1. "Moon River" is the Oscar-winning theme song from which 1960s film?

A) "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

B) "Casino Royale"

C) "Charade"

D) "Roman Holiday"

2. The vengeful Madame Defarge worked the names of her enemies into her knitting in what classic novel?

A) "Dracula"

B) "Middlemarch"

C) "A Tale of Two Cities"

D) "The Woman in White"

3. The Rhode Island state seal features an anchor and what one-word motto?

A) Courage

B) Faith

C) Freedom

D) Hope

4. Which spice is made from the dried, ground fruits of the Capsicum annuum plant?

A) Cumin

B) Ginger

C) Nutmeg

D) Paprika

5. Abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was inspired by a slave rebellion led by Toussaint Louverture that helped establish what nation?

A) Angola

B) Haiti

C) Jamaica

D) Vietnam

6. The principality of Liechtenstein has won nine Winter Olympics medals, all in what sport?

A) Alpine skiing

B) Biathlon

C) Luge

D) Ski jumping

ANSWERS

1) "Moon River" is the Oscar-winning theme song from "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

2) Madame Defarge was the famous vengeful knitter in Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities."

3) The Rhode Island state seal features an anchor and the word "Hope."

4) Paprika is made from the dried, ground fruits of the Capsicum annuum pepper plant.

5) In the late 18th century, Toussaint Louverture led a slave rebellion that helped establish Haiti as a nation.

6) All of Liechtenstein's nine Winter Olympics medals were for alpine skiing, including Hanni Wenzel's two golds at Lake Placid in 1980.

WEEK OF JANUARY 8

Female nine-banded armadillos almost always give birth to identical quadruplets — either four males or four females. The little ones are able to walk within hours of birth. Their skin is soft; it takes a while to develop scutes, the characteristic bony plates that cover an adult armadillo's body.

The typically English custom of afternoon tea can be traced to the 17th-century Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. When Catherine married England's King Charles II in 1662, tea wasn't unknown in England, but it wasn't especially popular either. Catherine changed that. The queen being a de facto trendsetter, her habit of taking an afternoon "cuppa" became the fashion and remains so to this day.

Here's a story ... about Mike Brady: Before Robert Reed was cast as the dad in "The Brady Bunch," producer Sherwood Schwartz had Gene Hackman in mind for the role. The network vetoed the choice, reportedly because Hackman wasn't well-known enough. "The Brady Bunch" premiered on ABC in 1969. Two years later, Gene Hackman won an Oscar for his role in "The French Connection," at which point everyone knew his name.

The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, was founded in 1842, making it the oldest continuously operating public museum in the United States. In 1931, it became the first American museum to stage an exhibition of Surrealist art and the first museum anywhere to purchase a painting by Salvador Dali — "La Solitude," which it acquired for $120.

Tim Hortons is the largest restaurant chain in Canada, with some 3,800 locations in Canada and another 800-plus in the United States and the Middle East. Should you find yourself craving coffee and doughnuts at 63 degrees 45 minutes north latitude, there's one in Iqaluit, Nunavut — the northernmost Tim Hortons in the world.

The HMS Endeavour was the ship that carried James Cook on his voyages of exploration to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific from 1768 to 1771. When NASA was developing a shuttle to replace Challenger, it conducted an essay contest for elementary and high school kids to suggest names for the new spacecraft. Endeavour — spelled British-style like Cook's ship — was the overwhelming favorite. (Or should we say "favourite"?)

TRIVIA

1. TV's Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a specialist in which medical field?

A) Emergency medicine

B) Forensic anthropology

C) Neurology

D) Orthopedic surgery

2. Bergamot-flavored Earl Grey tea is named for a man who held what position?

A) Ambassador to China

B) Grocery store operator

C) Owner of tea plantations in India

D) Prime minister of the U.K.

3. Which of the "Seven Sisters" colleges is in Poughkeepsie, New York?

A) Barnard

B) Radcliffe

C) Smith

D) Vassar

4. Who won a Tony Award for her starring role in the current Broadway revival of "Hello, Dolly!"?

A) Cher

B) Glenn Close

C) Idina Menzel

D) Bette Midler

5. NHL All-Star Tim Horton played most of his career and won four Stanley Cup championships with which team?

A) Boston Bruins

B) Detroit Red Wings

C) Montreal Canadiens

D) Toronto Maple Leafs

6. The Australian airline Qantas takes its name from what?

A) An Aboriginal word meaning "flight"

B) An acronym

C) A rock formation near Sydney

D) A type of koala

ANSWERS

1) TV's Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a forensic anthropologist.

2) Bergamot-flavored Earl Grey tea is named for Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, prime minister of the U.K. from 1830 to 1834.

3) Founded in 1861, Vassar College is in Poughkeepsie, New York.

4) Bette Midler won a 2017 Tony Award for her role as Dolly Levi in the current Broadway revival of "Hello, Dolly!"

5) Tim Horton played most of his career and won four Stanley Cup championships with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

6) Qantas is an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, the airline's original name.

WEEK OF JANUARY 15

Long before Janet Guthrie or Danica Patrick there was Dorothy Levitt, "fastest girl on earth" and "premier woman motorist and botorist of the world." In 1903, she set a world water speed record and won the first Gaston-Menier Challenge motorboat race in Trouville, France. Then she pursued auto racing, setting speed, endurance and performance records through the 1900s. She flew planes, wrote a book of driving advice for women, and taught Britain's Queen Alexandra and her three daughters to drive.

Honeybees stay warm in winter by huddling in hives, consuming honey they've stored and vibrating their wings to create heat. Layers and layers of bees pack together to form what's called a winter cluster, with the queen bee — the most important member of the hive community — at its center. The cluster keeps the queen warm and protected at a comfortable 90 degrees or so through the winter, so she can lay eggs to repopulate the hive in the spring.

El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico is the only tropical rainforest administered by the U.S. Forest Service. Among the smallest forests in the system, El Yunque might be the most biologically diverse; home to species such as the Puerto Rican boa and the critically endangered Puerto Rican parrot, not to mention the little coqui tree frogs known for their characteristic "ko-kee" call. After Hurricane Maria destroyed much of El Yunque's vegetation last fall, environmental scientists have been working hard to restore the forest and reopen it to visitors.

This year, France will host the biennial Ryder Cup golf challenge between teams from the United States and Europe. The competition began in 1927 with the U.S. and Great Britain vying for bragging rights and a golden trophy. (The original trophy remains in England; players on the winning team receive replica trophies.) In 1979, the Ryder Cup expanded to include golfers from continental Europe. The first country to host the Ryder Cup in continental Europe was Spain in 1997; France will be the second.

The first men's "briefs" were sold at Marshall Field & Company department store in Chicago in January 1935. Inspired by French men's bathing suits, the supportive undergarments made by the Cooper Underwear Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin, sold out immediately and became even more popular when a distinctive Y-front design was introduced. Because the briefs mimicked the fit of athletic supporters, they became known as Jockey shorts. Babe Ruth was among the first group of celebrities chosen to endorse them.

Vermont takes its name from the French "verts monts" or "monts verts," meaning Green Mountains, for the Green Mountains, which, conveniently, are located in Vermont. Our 14th state nearly had another name, though. For about six months in 1777, while trying to break free from land claims by New York and New Hampshire, the territory put forth a proposal for independence as the colony of New Connecticut.

TRIVIA

1. The 1994 film "Speed" takes place on a city bus; its 1997 sequel "Speed 2" on what type of transport?

A) Airplane

B) Cruise ship

C) Funicular

D) Submarine

2. In a hive, female bees other than the queen are called what?

A) Cows

B) Drones

C) Soldiers

D) Workers

3. What do Whoopi Goldberg, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn and Rita Moreno have in common?

A) Appeared in the "Star Trek" franchise

B) Born in Puerto Rico

C) EGOT winners

D) Patented inventions

4. Which water bird figures prominently in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

A) Albatross

B) Auk

C) Cormorant

D) Seagull

5. To date, who is the only jockey to have won the Thoroughbred racing Triple Crown twice?

A) Eddie Arcaro

B) Steve Cauthen

C) Angel Cordero Jr.

D) Victor Espinoza

6. Montpelier, Vermont, is the only U.S. state capital without what?

A) A capitol building

B) A McDonald's

C) A newspaper

D) A police force

ANSWERS

1) "Speed 2," subtitled "Cruise Control," takes place on a cruise ship.

2) In a hive, female bees other than the queen are called worker bees.

3) Whoopi Goldberg, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn and Rita Moreno are EGOT — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — winners.

4) The albatross figures prominently in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

5) Eddie Arcaro won the Thoroughbred horseracing Triple Crown on Whirlaway in 1941 and on Citation in 1948.

6) Montpelier, Vermont, is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald's.

WEEK OF JANUARY 22

The flat-bottomed, cone-shaped Erlenmeyer laboratory flask is named for German chemist Emil Erlenmeyer, who devised it in the 1850s. Well-balanced and untippable, the Erlenmeyer flask is designed for liquids to be swirled without splashing. For a time, Erlenmeyer worked with Robert Bunsen, another German chemist, whose contributions to science include the discoveries of cesium and rubidium and the invention of the Bunsen burner.

Scrofula is a swelling of the lymph nodes related to tuberculosis. From the 12th century to as recently as the 19th century in England and France, it was known as "King's Evil," because people believed that a touch from the king could cure it. Weird but true: People clamored to see the reigning monarch hoping to be touched and healed. It's estimated that England's King Charles II touched more than 96,000 sufferers over the course of his 25-year reign, each of whom received a small coin medallion to signify they'd received the healing touch.

Transylvania in central Romania isn't merely known for fictional vampires. It's also known for the Hateg Country Dinosaurs Geopark filled with the skeletons of dwarf dinosaurs from 72 million years ago. The region also was the stomping ground of Hatzegopteryx, a pterosaur (the dinosaur's flying reptile cousin) with a wingspan estimated at well over 30 feet — possibly the biggest flying creature ever. One Hatzegopteryx relative is Quetzalcoatlus, a similarly enormous pterosaur, whose fossilized bones were unearthed at Big Bend National Park in Texas in the 1970s.

Great artists take inspiration from all sorts of sources; like Michael Jackson taking inspiration from Robert Burns. The King of Pop reportedly was a great fan of Scotland's national poet, collecting rare editions of his published work. In the 1990s, he set "A Red, Red Rose," "Tam O'Shanter" and other 18th-century Burns poems to contemporary music. (Presumably, he skipped "Address to a Haggis.") Possibly intended to be an album, the foundation of a stage musical, or both, the songs were recorded at Jackson's studio in California.

In January, stargazers might look for the Winter Triangle, formed by three of the brightest stars in the northern winter sky: Sirius, Betelgeuse and Procyon. Harder to discern is the unicorn inside the triangle. That's the distant, faint constellation Monoceros, the unicorn. Monoceros was first described in the 17th century by Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius.

The modern trampoline was invented by George Nissen, a competitive diver and All-American gymnast at the University of Iowa. He devised and built his first trampoline in 1937, while he was in college, inspired by watching circus aerialists dropping into nets and bouncing back up after their routines. A showman himself, Nissen was known to perform trampoline tricks well into his 60s and he was on hand in Sydney in 2000 when trampoline became an official Olympic gymnastics event.

TRIVIA

1. A 1966 flood of the Arno River destroyed many of the art masterpieces in which historic city?

A) Dresden, Germany

B) Florence, Italy

C) Venice, Italy

D) Vienna, Austria

2. Who ruled England, Scotland and Ireland as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth between the reigns of King Charles I and King Charles II?

A) Winston Churchill

B) Oliver Cromwell

C) Lady Jane Grey

D) William Pitt the Younger

3. The currency of Guatemala is named for what colorful Central American bird?

A) Cotinga

B) Macaw

C) Quetzal

D) Toucan

4. Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish of sheep innards mixed with what grain?

A) Millet

B) Oatmeal

C) Rice

D) Rye

5. While visiting Sumatra, Marco Polo mistook what creature for a unicorn?

A) Elephant

B) Horse

C) Narwhal

D) Rhinoceros

6. Kriss Kross, Van Halen and The Pointer Sisters all had hit songs with what title?

A) "Bounce"

B) "Flip"

C) "Jump"

D) "Trampoline"

ANSWERS

1) A 1966 flood of the Arno River destroyed many of the art masterpieces in Florence, Italy.

2) Oliver Cromwell ruled England, Scotland and Ireland as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth between the reigns of King Charles I and King Charles II.

3) The currency of Guatemala is the quetzal, named for a brilliantly colored resplendent quetzal bird.

4) Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish of sheep innards mixed with oatmeal.

5) In his diaries, Marco Polo wrote that he'd seen a unicorn, but it was a two-horned Sumatran rhino.

6) Kriss Kross, Van Halen and The Pointer Sisters all had hit songs called "Jump."

WEEK OF JANUARY 29

Because starfish aren't fish, marine biologists prefer to call them sea stars — even though they're not always traditionally star-shaped. Most have five arms, but many have 10, 20 or even 40, and if they lose one it will grow back. A sea star doesn't have a brain; its arms contain its central nervous system. It doesn't have blood, either. Filtered seawater circulates through its body.

We may never know when or where the first beer was brewed, but it happened a long time ago. A regulation specifying a fair price for beer is in the laws of Babylonian king Hammurabi written in the 18th century B.C. Beer also figures in the "Epic of Gilgamesh," which predates Hammurabi by about a thousand years. That tale mentions Siduri, a mythical goddess of beer.

If the characters of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in the Disney animated films look similar it's because both were modeled on Helene Stanley, a dancer and film ingenue of the 1940s and '50s. She was also the model for Anita Radcliffe, the wife in the 1961 animated film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and she played Polly Crockett, Davy Crockett's wife, in the live-action film "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier."

For a brief period in 2010, Burger King offered a menu item called the Sprout Surprise Whopper to customers at select locations in the U.K. It featured a burger topped with Brussels sprouts and Emmental Swiss cheese. You might not be surprised to hear the sandwich was not a hit. Give credit for trying, though. Brussels sprouts are healthy, tasty little relatives of cabbage and broccoli. They just might not be the best burger topping.

Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" was based on the real-life exploits of a sailor named Alexander Selkirk, who was abandoned by his ship's captain in 1704 on an uninhabited isle called Mas a Tierra off the Pacific coast of Chile. "Robinson Crusoe" was published in 1719, 10 years after Selkirk was rescued. Mas a Tierra in the Juan Fernandez Islands is now called Robinson Crusoe Island. A larger neighboring island formerly known as Mas Afuera was renamed Alejandro Selkirk Island.

Max Factor is considered the "father" of movie makeup; in fact, some people maintain that he made the noun "makeup" part of our vocabulary. A beautician and wigmaker to the Russian royal family before immigrating to the United States in 1904, he formulated makeup in numerous skin tone shades that made actors and actresses look natural on-screen. Performers liked it so much they took it home with them from the set. So Max Factor started making cosmetics for everyday use, and a company was born.

TRIVIA

1. Created by marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, Patrick Star the starfish is a character in which animated series?

A) "Aquaman"

B) "Bubble Guppies"

C) "Splash and Bubbles"

D) "SpongeBob SquarePants"

2. The De Beers Group of Companies is most closely associated with what industry?

A) Brewing

B) Diamond mines

C) Insurance

D) Railroads

3. A 1997 TV musical starred Brandy as Cinderella and who as the Fairy Godmother?

A) Aretha Franklin

B) Whitney Houston

C) Patti LaBelle

D) Patti LuPone

4. Gouda and Edam cheeses originated in which country?

A) Denmark

B) Netherlands

C) Norway

D) Switzerland

5. A volleyball with what name plays a key role in the 2000 film "Cast Away"?

A) Hanks

B) Kip

C) Rita

D) Wilson

6. What unusual items did Peter Carl Faberge design for the Russian royal family?

A) Easter eggs

B) Fur coats

C) Glass slippers

D) Microscopes

ANSWERS

1) Patrick Star the starfish is a character in "SpongeBob SquarePants."

2) The De Beers Group of Companies is most closely associated with diamond mines.

3) A 1997 TV musical starred Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother.

4) Gouda and Edam cheeses originated in the Netherlands.

5) Wilson the volleyball plays a key role in the 2000 film "Cast Away."

6) Peter Carl Faberge designed Easter eggs for the Russian royal family and other distinguished people.