Johns Hopkins, a famous Baltimore businessman, left his fortune of $7 million to establish both the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His Quaker upbringing helped him to develop a sense of charity and equity. Mr. Hopkins was not able to receive the education he longed for, so he wanted to provide a university for others. Witnessing the epidemics that ravaged Baltimore caused him to realize the need for a hospital. His business ability earned him the funds he needed to provide education and health care to citizens of Baltimore and the world.

As part of his bequest, Johns Hopkins stipulated that a school of medicine accompany the hospital. As such, the School of Medicine was opened in 1893, 17 years after the founding of the university. The delay resulted in part from the trustees' wish to have a fully equipped hospital before students were accepted. The Johns Hopkins Hospital was completed in 1889, and from the outset its destiny has been inextricably woven with that of the School of Medicine. This policy was established in a letter from Mr. Hopkins to the first trustees of the hospital. "In all your arrangements in relation to this hospital," he wrote, "you will bear constantly in mind that it is my wish and purpose that the institution shall ultimately form a part of the Medical School of that university for which I have made ample provision by my will."

Mascots have a long and relatively honourable association with soccer dating back over a century or more, although the origin of the species was a source of good luck rather than commercial opportunity. The concept of the mascot predates most professionally organised sports, for example a number of British Army regiments had live animals as good luck charms in the nineteenth century. One well-known instance is that of the 95th Derbyshire Regiment of Foot, who adopted a ram during the Indian Mutiny Campaign in the 1850s; the ram subsequently became a symbol associated with the city of Derby and, of course Derby County who were given the nickname of ‘the Rams’.

The use of the word ‘mascot’ became popular in the early 1880s with the advent of the operetta La Mascotte (translated as The Mascot), which was performed in both England and the United States from 1881. It was soon after this that mascots began to become associated with sports teams on both sides of the Atlantic. The first athletic mascot in US College sport is believed to have been ‘Handsome Dan’, a bulldog donated to Yale University by a student in 1889.

It is of interest to consider the story of Sunderland’s black cat as perhaps typical of how mascots were ‘born’. The animal was found inside the Roker Park ground when the club met Bury on 2 January 1909 during a relatively lean spell on the field. The team responded with a 3-1 win and two weeks later went on to win 3-2 at Sheffield United in the first round of the FA Cup and the cat was quickly adopted as the club mascot. Its success was not just a result of the association of black cats with good fortune, but by the fact that the cat is an obvious predator of the magpie, nickname of the club’s bitter local rivals Newcastle United. 

The Prague Astronomical Clock was first installed in 1410. This makes it the world's third-oldest astronomical clock and the oldest still in operation today. At the time of writing, this makes the clock 609 years old and still going strong. The first recorded mention of the clock was in October of the same year. But it should be pointed out that this date was when the oldest part of the clock was installed, the Orloj. Within the following hundred years, the lower calendar dial was added in around 1490.

Around the same time, the incredible gothic statues were also added. At some time in the late 1600s, probably between 1629 and 1659, the wooden statues were installed. The Apostle statues were added during a major refit between 1787 and 1791. The clock tower's iconic golden crowing rooster was added in around 1865. Throughout time the clock has been subject to continuous maintenance and repair. In fact, there is a legend that if the clock were to ever fall into disrepair, then the city will suffer.

It was heavily damaged during the Second World War during the Prague uprising against occupying Nazi forces. After significant effort, the machinery was repaired, the wooden Apostles restored by Vojt?ch Sucharda, and the Orloj started working again in 1948.

Another phase of renovation was undertaken in 2005 with the lower calendar ring and statures restored. Anti-pigeon nets were also installed around the wooden statues. The last renovation of the astronomical clock was carried out from January to September 2018, following a reconstruction of the Old Town Tower. During the renovation, an electric clock mechanism that was in operation since 1948 was replaced by an original mechanism from the 1860s.