...that Tanaz Eshaghian 's film Be Like Others explores the experiences of transsexuals in Iran , a country that outlaws homosexuality but sanctions sex-reassignment surgery ?[1]
...that Marzieh Meshkini 's 2000 film The Day I Became a Woman depicts three stages in the lives of Iranian women, focusing on a nine year old girl, a married woman, and an elderly widow?[2]
...that Mohamed Camara 's 1997 film Dakan was the first West African film to explore homosexuality ?[3]
...that jazz drummer Butch Ballard was hired by Duke Ellington as a backup drummer due to the excessive drinking of his regular drummer Sonny Greer ?[4]
...that Flora Sandes , who served with the Serbian Army, was the only British woman to officially enrol as a soldier in World War I ?[5]
...that Jacqueline Audry was the first commercially successful woman film director of post-war France ?[6]
...that 17th century actress Julia Glover was sold in marriage by her father for £1,000?[7]
...that in 1582 Ursula Kemp confessed to using familiar spirits to kill her neighbours and was later hanged for witchcraft ?[8]
...that Cheryl Dunye 's 1996 film The Watermelon Woman was the first feature film to be directed by a black lesbian?[9]
... that legendary princess Yennenga , the "mother" of the Mossi people, was such a great warrior that her father refused to allow her to marry?[10]
... that Safi Faye is a Senegalese film director whose work is better known in Europe than in her native Africa ?[11]
... that in her 1992 documentary film Nitrate Kisses Barbara Hammer filmed an elderly lesbian couple making love as part of an exploration of the repression and marginalization of LGBT history?[12]
... that Safi Faye 's 1975 film Kaddu Beykat was the first commercially distributed feature film made by a Sub-Saharan African woman?[13]
... that the supreme god of the southern African Bushmen is Cagn , a trickster who shapeshifts into a praying mantis ?[14]
... that prior to colonial times , written literature was virtually absent from Burkina Faso , with the country's first novel not published until 1962?[15]
... that much of modern theatre in Burkina Faso has developed from the need to educate rural people?[16]
... that in Burkina Faso , Bwa people use masks made of leaves to represent their god Dwo in performative rituals?[17]
... that Eliza Flower was a 19th-century English musician and composer with whom a young Robert Browning fell in love?[18]
... that Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland was a political hostess who introduced the dahlia to the United Kingdom in 1804?[19]
... that the Kunjin virus , which can be transmitted by mosquitoes and may cause encephalitis in humans, is named for an Indigenous Australian clan living near where the virus was first isolated?[20]
... that Freeheld is an Academy Award winning documentary by Cynthia Wade that follows a New Jersey detective fighting for the right to pass on her pension to her female domestic partner ?[21]
... that Med Hondo is an award-winning Mauritanian film director who dubbed the voice of Donkey in the French language version of Shrek ?[22]
... that Isaac Baker Brown was an English surgeon who in 1867 was expelled from the Obstetrical Society of London for performing clitoridectomies without his patients' consent?[23]
... that Sarraounia is an award-winning film that depicts a real-life battle between French Colonial Forces and an African queen ?[24]
... that tufo is a Mozambican dance said to have originated when the Islamic prophet Mohammed migrated to Medina ?[25]
... that Elsa Barker was an American novelist and poet who published three volumes of messages from a dead man?[26]
... that jazz pianist and vocalist Dena DeRose only considered singing professionally after carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis forced her to give up playing the piano?[27]
... that the parish church of Up Hatherley , England, was built because an elderly widow found it difficult to travel to a neighbouring village to worship?[28]
... that according to A Bright Red Scream , millions of Americans regularly use razors, knives or broken glass to intentionally injure themselves ?[29]
... that John Scagliotti 's 2003 film Dangerous Living was the first documentary about the experiences of gay and lesbian people in the non-Western world?[30]
... that after inheriting her late husband's tools in 1760, Hester Bateman successfully ran a family silversmithing business for 30 years?[31]
... that Rwandan cuisine includes urwagwa , a local beer made from fermented bananas ?[32]
... that Cruel and Unusual is a documentary about transsexual women incarcerated in men's prisons?[33]
... that the popularity of the British Landrace pig is partly responsible for the decline of rarer breeds in the United Kingdom ?[34]
... that Black Chicks Talking is a book, film, play and art exhibition that explores issues related to Indigenous Australian women?[35]
... that Evelina Haverfield , a British suffragette who was arrested after hitting a police officer in the mouth, threatened to "bring a revolver " next time?[36]
... that approximately 1 in every 10,000 to 20,000 babies are born with a laryngeal cleft , a gap between the oesophagus and trachea which allows food or fluid to pass into the airway?[37]
... that the timeline of Tanzanian history includes the shortest war in history and the first discovery of a new monkey genus since 1923?[38]
... that Fig Trees , an operatic documentary about AIDS activism, is narrated by a singing albino squirrel?[39]
... that the Tutt Brothers were early 20th century American vaudeville producers who created over 40 revues for black audiences?[40]
... that social reformer Isabella Ford was the first woman to speak at a conference of the Labour Representation Committee (which went on to form the British Labour Party )?[41]
... that Barbara Hammer 's Tender Fictions , one of a documentary trilogy on LGBT histories, focuses on the "constructedness" of the self ?[42]
... that tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe and the American colonies ?[43]
... that photographer and artist Zoe Leonard ' s 1995 exhibition Strange Fruit (for David) featured discarded fruit skins sewn together and decorated?[44]
... that P. T. Barnum named English showman Tom Norman the "Silver King" because of his gift for putting on a show?[45]
... that English dermatologist Henry Radcliffe Crocker was the first doctor to try to diagnose the condition of the Elephant Man (pictured) , suggesting that his condition was related to the nervous system ?[46]
... that The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister is a BBC drama film based on the life of a 19th-century lesbian industrialist ?[47]
... that Pierre Buyoya became president of Burundi twice, following a military coup d'état in 1987 , and another in 1996 ?[48]
... that "Lord" George Sanger was a 19th century circus proprietor who, at the age of 85, was murdered with a hatchet ?[49]
... that the parish churches of Ormskirk , Purton and Wanborough are the only churches in England to have both a western tower and a central spire ?[50]
... that St Wilfrid's Church and its rectory in Ribchester , Lancashire , were constructed in the 13th century of sandstone rubble ?[51]
... that the autobiography of Renaissance medical practitioner Grace Mildmay is one of the earliest written by an English woman?[52]
... that two women who intended to buy Marsh Mill , Thornton, Lancashire , UK, were killed in an accident when the fantail staging collapsed?[53]
... that Little Marton Mill was built in England in 1838 and restored in 1937 to become a memorial?[54]