The Arab world has given birth to many thinkers and many inventions - among them the three-course meal, alcohol and coffee. The best coffee bean is still known as Arabica, but it’s come a long way from the Muslim mystics who treasured it centuries ago, to the chains that line our high streets.

Think coffee, and you probably think of an Italian espresso, a French cafe au lait, or an American double grande latte with cinnamon.

Perhaps you learned at school that the USA became a nation of coffee drinkers because of the excise duty King George placed on tea? Today ubiquitous chains like Starbucks, Cafe Nero and Costa grace every international airport, and follow the now much humbler Nescafe as symbols of globalisation.

Coffee is produced in hot climates like Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia, and you could be forgiven if you thought it is a product from the New World like tobacco and chocolate. After all, all three became popular in Europe at more or less the same time, in the 16th and 17th Centuries.

In fact, coffee comes from the highland areas of the countries at the southern end of the Red Sea - Yemen and Ethiopia.

A century ago, one section of Vienna played host to Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin.

You really have to work hard to get hooked on smoking opium. The Victorian-era form of the drug, known as chandu, is rare, and the people who know how to use it aren’t exactly forthcoming. But leave it to an obsessive antiques collector to figure out how to get to addicted to a 19th-century drug.

First Coffee Ad, 1652

It forcloseth the Orifice of the Stomack

It might have been something as simple as a portion of white asparagus. Peeled, steamed and served with a delicious sauce, as Germans traditionally eat it. And with real butter, a scarcity in wartime. While the rest of the country struggled to get even coffee, or had to spread margarine diluted with flour on their bread, Margot Wölk could have savored the expensive vegetable dish — if not for the fear of dying, that is. Wölk was one of 15 young women who were forced to taste Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s food for some two and a half years during World War II.

Fascinating.

Whether March winds and April showers will bring forth May flowers is still a hope away, but the facts behind the month’s name are fortunately more certain.

The name March is derived from the Roman “Martius“ named after Mars, the Roman god of war. In ancient Rome, March 1st marked the first day of spring, which coincided with the beginning of the calendar year and the start of the military campaign season – which may explain why soldiers “march into battle.” The Roman ruler, Numa Pompilius, added January and February to the calendar thus making March the third month of the year. While many have adopted the Gregorian calendar, some cultures and religions still celebrate the start of the New Year on March 1st.

(Is it true there used to be one more month called Mercedonius? The accurate answer is sometimes. Here’s the reason why.)

Hares mate during the month of March and a female hare may be seen “boxing” (striking another hare with their paws) off a male to prevent an act of procreation — hence “Mad as a March hare” – a phrase that appeared for the first time in Sir Thomas More’s “The supplycacyon of soulys,” published in 1529. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, also referenced this annual event in 1865’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland“(often shortened to Alice in Wonderland) and the passage: “The March hare… as this is May, it won’t be raving mad – at least not so mad as it was in March.”

The Ides of March is a reference to the date Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in 44 B.C. and is observed on the 15th day of the month. Julius Caesar was many things good and bad, but did he deserve to have the month of July named after him? Read our explanation of the mess that defined the Roman calendar before Julius Caesar, here.

An Excellent conceited Tragedie…

Title page of the first edition.

For generations they have signified femininity and glamour - but a pair of high heels was once an essential accessory for men.