Portal:Islands

Robert Baden-Powell with boys of experimental scout camp on Brownsea Island

Brownsea Island Scout camp, is a historic Scout campsite on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in southern England, which was the site of Robert Baden-Powell's 1907 experimental camp for boys to test ideas for his book Scouting for Boys, which led to the rapid growth of the Scout movement. Boys from different social backgrounds participated from 1 to 8 August 1907 in activities around camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism.

Boy Scout camped on the island until the early 1930s. In 1963, a formal 50-acre (20 ha) Scout campsite was created after the island became a nature conservation area owned by the National Trust. In 1973, a Scout Jamboree with six hundred Scouts was held on the island. On 1 August 2007, a centenary of Scouting event, including four Scout camps and a Sunrise Ceremony, took place at the Brownsea Island Scout camp on the 100th anniversary of the start of the experimental encampment. (Full article...)

Sicilian cuisine is the style of cooking on the island of Sicily. It shows traces of all cultures that have existed on the island of Sicily over the last two millennia. Although its cuisine has much in common with Italian cuisine, Sicilian food also has Greek, Spanish, Jewish, Maghrebi, and Arab influences.

The Sicilian cook Mithaecus, born during 5th century BC, is credited with having brought knowledge of Sicilian gastronomy to Greece: his cookbook was the first in Greek, therefore he was the earliest cookbook author in any language whose name is known. (Full article...)

• ... that tens of thousands of New Yorkers traveled to see Dreamland burn?
• ... that Carl-Gustav Groth was the first surgeon in Sweden to perform pancreas, liver, and islet cell transplants?
• ... that El Ojo is a circular rotating floating island?
• ... that while some lichen species in the genus Piccolia have ranges which span multiple continents, others are restricted to single islands?
• ... that although Greek forces captured the Aegean island of Chios in January 1913, its annexation to Greece was not finalized until 1923?
• ... that a guerrilla garden established atop an abandoned railroad in Long Island City became legally recognized by the MTA?