• Jessie Webb, an Australian academic and historian, was the first female teacher at the University of Melbourne?

Facts on topics related to Jessie Webb

Athens

• Brigadier Ronnie Tod was awarded the freedom of Athens by Archbishop Damaskinos in 1944?
• American statesman John Milledge named Athens, Georgia, the city surrounding the University of Georgia, after Athens, Greece, the city of Plato's Academy?
• Epimachus of Athens, an ancient Athenian engineer, constructed the Helepolis, which remains the largest siege machine ever built, at over 60 feet in width and 125 feet in height?
• after previously competing at the 2004 games in Athens, Brooklyn-bred Erinn Smart and her brother Keeth are again part of the U. S. Olympic fencing team at Beijing?
• during World War II, the SS-run Haidari concentration camp near Athens was so infamous that it became known as the "Bastille of Greece"?
• the 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus reported the embassy of holy men from India to the Levant, Athens and Rome during the time of Jesus?
• the International Olympic Committee has shortlisted five cities — Athens, Bangkok, Moscow, Singapore and Turin — out of nine bids to host the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010?
• the Athenian coup of 411 BC temporarily replaced the democratic government of Athens with a narrow oligarchy?
• the Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths, a Greek Resistance organization, set a bomb that destroyed the headquarters of the pro-Nazi ESPO organization in the very centre of occupied Athens?
• the Plague of Athens devastated ancient Athens in 430 BC, perhaps leading ultimately to the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War?

Greece

• German painter Ludwig Thiersch influenced the debate over Byzantine and Western influences in modern Greek art, and painted church frescoes in Greece, Austria, Germany, England, and Russia?
• Greek composer Phivos has written songs for artists including Keti Garbi, Angela Dimitriou, Manto, Thanos Kalliris, and, most successfully, Despina Vandi?
• Greek–Polish singer Eleni Tzoka has been awarded the Saint Rita of Cascia prize for the act of mercy towards the killer of her young daughter?
• Nigeria, which contains what was once the Kingdom of Benin, has repeatedly called for the U.K.'s return of the Benin Bronzes, in a situation similar to Greece's petition for the return of the Elgin Marbles?
• Norwegian chemist Alexis Pappas was born in London to Greek parents who fled from Belgium to England during World War I?
• Russian Hussar Alexander Bulatovich (pictured) was a military aide to Ethiopian ruler Menelek II, a hieromonk in Greece, and leader of a banned religious movement?
• Stylianos Pattakos, a principal of the 21 April 1967 coup in Greece, after his conviction at the Greek junta trials, enjoyed amenities such as a pond with 21 goldfish while imprisoned?
• American statesman John Milledge named Athens, Georgia, the city surrounding the University of Georgia, after Athens, Greece, the city of Plato's Academy?
• Emmanouil Argyropoulos (pictured), the first Greek aviator to fly over his country, was also the first casualty suffered by Greek military aviation one year later during the Balkan Wars?
• Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù‎, founded in 1720, was the first modern opera theatre in Greece?

France

• "4 Mots sur un piano", which deals with the theme of a romantic relationship between two men and one woman, was the fifth best-selling single of 2007 in France?
• 11-year old Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein is regarded by Jacobites as third in line for the throne of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland?
• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?
• 18th century French artilleries were the most efficient at cannon operation (pictured), capable of firing 150 shots per cannon daily during siege?
• 18th century French salons were often led by those who were creating the Encyclopédie?
• footballer Edward King was honored for heroism in the Philippines and tactical skill in France and later became Commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College?
• Cambodia's Mongkol Borei District was part of Thailand until the French demanded it back in 1907?
• Camille Le Mercier d'Erm and his colleagues formed the Breton Nationalist Party in 1911 to advocate the independence of Brittany from France?
• Catherine II's Instruction to the Legislative Assembly was banned in pre-revolutionary 18th-century France as a "libertarian book"?
• cinematographer Lawrence Sher first developed an interest in photography after his father convinced him to take a 35mm camera on a Teaneck High School-sponsored trip to France?

Iraq

• Colorado state representative Joe Rice (pictured) resigned from the Glendale city council in 2003 when called up to serve in the U.S. Army in Iraq, where he advised the Baghdad city council?
• Iraqi poet Nazik Al-Malaika was the first person to write in free verse in Arabic?
• Iraqi refugee Wafaa Bilal was shot by more than 60,000 paintballs in a month-long performance art piece in Chicago?
• Iraqi lawyer Dheyaa al-Saadi was elected president of the Iraqi Bar Association in 2006, but his election was annulled because he was once a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party?
• Major-General Tim Cross was one of the most senior British military officers involved in the reconstruction of Iraq after the 2003 invasion?
• Palestinian nationalist poet Ibrahim Touqan wrote the poem Mawtini, which has been the national anthem of Iraq since 2003?
• private military companies operating in Iraq use the Mamba armoured personnel carrier because it appears "less aggressive"?
• United States Marine Sergeant Aubrey McDade (pictured) was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in Iraq in 2004?
• U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has expanded the Human Terrain Team program to match anthropologists with every brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Azerbaijanis live in Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States, as well as Azerbaijan?

Melbourne

• 42 Australians became crewmembers of Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah (pictured) when the vessel was docked outside Melbourne?
• Captain (later Air Vice Marshal) Henry Wrigley (pictured) piloted the first trans-Australia flight, from Melbourne to Darwin, in 1919?
• Melbourne rock band The Strangers appeared on weekly television for nine years straight?
• theater producer William May was inspired to create Walking with Dinosaurs – The Live Experience (pictured) after watching cranes constructing the Southern Cross railway station in Melbourne?
• Frank Loughran played for the Socceroos at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, scoring a goal in the first game his adopted country of Australia ever played in Olympic soccer?
• Harold Clapp's "fiendish efficiency" in improving Victorian Railways' train reliability was credited with losing Melbourne commuters "another excuse for being late for work in the mornings"?
• Jimmy Melbourne, who co-incidentally was murdered in Melbourne, was the first Indigenous Australian to play Australian rules football at a senior level?
• new evidence has revealed that Australian artist Tom Roberts painted much of his masterpiece Shearing the Rams on location en plein air, not in his Melbourne studio?
• the original specimen of the mauve splitting waxcap, a fungus from eastern Australia, found its way from Melbourne to Budapest but disappeared during the First World War?
• the National Gallery of Victoria only purchased Australian artist Frederick McCubbin's triptych The pioneer after he reworked the painting to add a view of the city of Melbourne in the background?