White City is the name of the northern area of London’s Shepherd’s Bush. After being used for agriculture up to 1908, the area then served as trade fair grounds until until the First World War. It owes its name to the white exhibition pavilions. But they are long gone history.
Since 1963, the tradition-rich Wimbeldon tennis tournament has a 90-percent-white rule: male and female players must all wear almost entirely white clothing. No other tournament in the world has a similar rule.
White, as far as the eye can see. The nature reserve “White Sands National Monument” in the US state of New Mexico comprises the southern half of the largest gypsum desert in the world. Seven hundred square kilometers and 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand rise in billowing snow-white dunes.
The little town with 2,245 inhabitants in the State of New York was made world famous by Steven Spielberg’s horror film Jaws in 1975. Although it is about 400 kilometers (220 miles) from the sea as the crow flies. The “Amity Island” depicted in the film does not exist. Global box-office sales for Jaws were around 470 million dollars, with production costs of seven million.
The name rum, rhum (French) or rom (Spanish) for an alcoholic drink dates back to the mid-17th century. The first recorded use is found in a decree made by the governor of Jamaica on July 8, 1661. Since about that time, members of the Royal Navy received a daily ration.White rum, which is actually colourless, has to mature for at least three months in stainless steel barrels.
Even beyond the horizon it is still white: The world’s largest salt sea, Salar de Uyuni with its, 10,582 square kilometers (4082 square miles) is located at the foot of the Andes at an altitude of 3,650 meters (11,980 feet). The sea is estimated to hold about ten billion tons of salt. Each year, 25,000 tons are harvested.
Snøhvit or Snow White is not just a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is also the name of a natural gas field in the Barents Sea. Discovered in 1984, it is located about 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of Hammerfest on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Each year in the state of Bavaria in Germany, people drink nearly nine million hectoliters (237,800,000 gallons) of ”white“ beer. In today’s terminology, all white beers contain wheat but not all wheat beers are white. Originally the term Weissbier (white beer) was solely meant to refer to the colour in contrast to brown, red and black beer.
Half a millennium ago, the Renaissance artist Michelangelo chipped away at a block of Carrara marble to create a work for eternity: the 5.20 meter (17 feet) tall David. It became the most famous sculpture in art history and still stands in Florence. Carrara marble has been mined since the late Roman Republic and is now marketed under some fifty trade names. Not all varieties are white.
Every March 14th, Japan celebrates White Day. It was conceived by an enterprising confectioner in 1977. On this day, men should thank women for gifts that they were given one month earlier on Valentine’s Day—with (white) chocolate, candy or other small gifts.
There are an estimated three to five thousand tigers left in the wild today. In theory one in every ten thousand is white. In captivity, there are about 250 white tigers—they all descend from one male, caught in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in 1951. The last wild white tiger was killed in 1958 by humans.
The highest mountain in Africa, is “kilima njaro”, 5,895 meter (19,340 feet), which is Swahili for the White Mountain. Since 1880, its ice cap has shrunk to one-tenth of its former area. Kilimanjaro could be ice-free within 10 years.
Infographic: Designstudio Halbautomaten