Order the Phoenix Trivia Quiz

Around 58 AD

Paul was being transported to Rome under the guard of centurions a prisoner. They had planned to stop at one of two towns named Phoenix or Phoinix in ancient Crete; both were situated on the south coast and had a natural source of water.

As it boasted a natural harbour, looked both northwest and southwest, and was considered a good place to spend the winter, the one identified as the most likely place to which the apostle Paul (and his captors) was heading for was located slightly south-west of the modern Cretan village of Loutro. Unfortunately, a storm blew up prevented the ship getting there. (See Acts 27:9-12, NIV).

Storms arose and the ship was blown off-course, ending up as a shipwreck on the island of Malta where they spent several months. Paul was eventually taken to Rome via the Appian Way.

The back story: Paul was Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in 58 A.D. The crowd got bit restless and the Roman guard were called in. They escorted him back to the barracks and were about to scourge him when he informed them he was a Roman citizen. This being confirmed, he was imprisoned and eventually, after some argy-bargy, Paul requested he be sent to Rome for trial. This travel to Rome is considered his fourth evangelistic journey.

12th Century AD

The Bestiary, a kind of medieval illuminated encyclopedia, was written in England around the 1200s, and drew inspiration from the text "Physiologus", an earlier Greek text by an unknown author. Some of the creatures in the manuscript really exist (or existed) in nature, though others do not. The creatures are both described and illustrated, giving the author's assessment of their behaviour.

The Aberdeen Bestiary Phoenix manuscript covers parts of Creation, depicting Adam naming the animals. It contains some improbable and amusing commentary on the character of the various creatures. It was very popular and the manuscript, in the custom of the day, was copied and recopied; some 130 copies are still in existence, dated from various centuries. The book gave inspiration to other writers, including Chaucer.

It was first listed at the Palace of Westminster in the inventory of the Old Royal Library in the mid-1500s and was likely read by Henry VIII. It is considered a companion book to the Ashmole Bestiary. A number of the folios that make up the book are missing, but Folio 56 Recto shows the Phoenix rising from the ashes under the sun.

1598

The first time the Phoenix constellation, a minor constellation in the southern sky, was noted was by Petrus Plancius, Dutch astronomer and cartographer, in 1598. It was later depicted on a celestial atlas by Johann Bayer, in 1603. It has three main stars, Ankaa, Wurren, and Nenque, and to date there have been some ninety-five stars discovered in the region inside its perimeter.

Because of its location in the southern sky, it can be seen by people in Australia and South Africa during southern hemisphere summer, but is unlikely to be seen by anyone above the equator. There are currently 88 known modern constellations, and of these, the constellation of Phoenix is the 37th largest. The constellation of Phoenix has two regular meteor showers associated with it; the December Phoenicids, and the July Phoenicids. The December Phoenicids is the larger of the two and can be seen for 10 or 11 days at the end of November through to early December. These meteor showers were first noted in 1956.

1711

The Great Fire of London of 1666 counted amongst its victims the Gothic cathedral known these days as 'Old St Paul's'. When the burghers of the city of London were planning its rebuilding, Christopher Wren was asked to undertake the task of rebuilding numerous buildings, including St Paul's Cathedral.

He had the location cleared and in order to mark the centre point of the site, he asked for a piece of broken masonry taken from the rubble scattered around the area. Wren found an inscription already written on the stone he was brought by one of the workers; a single word, 'RESURGAM', Latin for 'I will rise again'.

Though it took until 1711 for Wren to get the plans agreed to, and St Paul's rebuilt, when it was declared complete on 25 December, 1711, Christopher Wren had incorporated the 'Resurgam' stone into a relief carving of a phoenix rising from flames with its wings outstretched. It can be seen in the pediment on the south side of St Paul's Cathedral.

1824 (scuttled in 1837)

Built by Randall & Brent in Great Britain, this ship replaced a former ship named Pheoenix by Hibbert & Co.

She transported convicts to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia) in 1824, with a cargo of 204 male convicts. From Hobart, Phoenix sailed to Sydney, where she was damaged on the Sow and Pigs Reef inside Port Jackson Heads, New South Wales. Due to the amount of damage she sustained, she was declared unseaworthy and was turned into a prison hulk for convicts awaiting transportation to Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay. She was broken up in 1837.

1843

In 1843, six years before his death aged 89, Katsushika Hokusai first visited the small village Obuse in Shinshu (now in the Nagano Prefecture). On a subsequent visit to the village, he created an amazing 38msq work that he called "Phoenix That Glares In All Directions", on the ceiling of Ganshoin Temple. An optical illusion means that the eyes of the mythical bird seem to follow you no matter where you stand. It is still open to visitors today, along with a museum in the small town, where a number of his works are on display.

Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist who created some artworks familiar across the world, including the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" (1830) and "One Thousand Images of the Sea" (1831). He is quoted as having said that although he was interested in art from a young age, nothing he produced before the age of seventy was worth looking at. He gave himself the nickname 'Gakyorojin Manji,' which translates to "old man mad about painting."

February 25, 1881

In late 1870, the boundary for what is currently down-town Phoenix was marked off and streets drawn up. Over the next few years, the first Church (Central Methodist) was opened, along with the first school, department store and residential buildings.

The town was incorporated when the Governor, John C. Frémont, signed "The Phoenix Charter Bill", in which a mayor-council form of government was instituted. That same year, the region's first Spanish language newspaper called La Guardia began publication. Soon followed a swathe of other required services; banking; police and rangers; telephone lines; a health officer to deal with polio outbreaks and other health issues; a fire department, and a horse-drawn street railway among them.

In 1889, the capital of Arizona Territory relocated to Phoenix from its previous location, Prescott. Its State Capitol building, built at a cost of $130,000 was dedicated in 1901.

1955

After the conflagration that was World War 2, the French attempted to reclaim its former colony of Vietnam, engendering the First Indochina War. Treaties were signed to end this conflict in 1954 leaving the land partitioned into North Vietnam, supported by China, and South Vietnam, supported by the USA. Each state issued its own stamps, albeit printed in other countries.

Fittingly, one of the images chosen for the stamps commemorating the first anniversary of the independence of South Vietnam from France was a phoenix, which celebrated the construction of Independence Palace in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Other stamps issued for the anniversary included the observance of the signing of the Geneva agreement that sealed their independence (depicted by a turtle); and the arrival of refugees from North Vietnam, showing a large pole-driven raft with people and their goods travelling rough seas.

1987

In season 2 of "McGyver", Angus McGyver and Peter Thornton move from the Department of External Services to work for the Phoenix Foundation. This is a not-for-profit think tank and government contractor that describes itself as a 'corporate white knight' whose logo is a stylised phoenix. Using its unofficial status, the organisation is able to work with various federal agencies to foil terrorist plots, rescue citizens from impending danger and uses it resources to develop technologies, all without the red-tape that hinders other agencies.

The organisation has appeared in several guises and traces its roots back to World War 1 when it was known as the Office of Prestige Intelligence. It was renamed the Department of External Services after World War 2. Its mottoes are 'Think Outside the Box' and 'Scientia Omnia Vincit' (Science Conquers All), both of which reflect its purpose.

2003

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the fifth in the series of books by J.K. Rowling.

The Order of the Phoenix is named for the mythical bird; the Patronus of Albus Dumbledore, founder and original leader of the Order, took the form of a phoenix, and he also had a phoenix called Fawkes as a pet.

Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, London, is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, and also the home of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. When Harry and his cousin Dudley are threatened by a group of dementors, Harry uses magic to defeat them. As he was not at school and is under-age, he is in violation of the rules.

Harry is transported to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Here Dumbledore and the other wizards, who operate the Order to fight the evil Lord Voldemort and his followers, determine that Harry was right to use magic against the dementors and can return to Hogwarts.

It is a tumultuous year, however. After several adventures, Harry discovers that he has an additional power of which he was unaware - the power of love. Because Harry's mother died to save him, he is blessed with her love. This power is generated by a blood relative - in this case, his mother's sister, Aunt Petunia. As long as he is in her house, she will provide him safety.