X-Nico

83 unusual facts about Amsterdam


A55 road

The road improvements have been part funded with European money, under the Trans-European Networks programme, as the route is designated part of Euroroute E22 (Holyhead - Leeds - Amsterdam - Hamburg - Malmoe - Riga - Moscow - Perm - Ekaterinburg - Ishim).

Aflatoun

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Aflatoun currently works in 83 countries who are implementing the Aflatoun programme.

Albert Mol

Mol was born in Amsterdam, and was one of the first openly gay actors in the Netherlands.

Amanda Röntgen-Maier

After his father died, the couple married in 1880 in Landskrona and moved to Amsterdam.

António Variações

Returning once again to Portugal for a brief time in 1976, António Variações roamed to Amsterdam where he took up hairdressing, profession which he would continue to exert when returning to Lisbon in the following year, opening the first unisex salon in the country and afterwards a barber shop downtown (among his clients there would be several people from the music industry, who would help launch his career).

Artificial respiration

Thomas Cogan, another English physician, who had become interested in the same subject during a stay at Amsterdam, where was instituted in 1767 a society for preservation of life from accidents in water, joined Hawes in his crusade.

Bhupen Khakhar

By the 1980s Khakhar was enjoying solo shows in places as far away as London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Bicker family

They were at the centre of Amsterdam oligarchy from the begin of the 17th century until the early 1650s.

Bunge y Born

The company superseded the Bunge Company founded in Amsterdam by Johann Bunge, in 1818.

Cape Dutch architecture

Houses in this style have a distinctive and recognisable design, with a prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables, reminiscent of features in townhouses of Amsterdam built in the Dutch style.

Carl Friedrich Wenzel

Disliking his father's trade of bookbinding, for which he was intended, he left home in 1755, and after taking lessons in surgery and chemistry at Amsterdam, became a ship's surgeon in the Dutch service.

Central Dredging Association

CEDA was launched at the 8th World Dredging Congress in Amsterdam in November 1978.

City centre

The city centre of Amsterdam is Centrum, the historical heart of the city, while the CBD of Amsterdam is the Zuidas in the south.

Coca Braun

coca braun photographers meet once a year, during the second weekend in September, in Amsterdam or Berlin, to discuss coca braun affairs.

Dalarö wreck

The coal, for which the local market in Stockholm was too small, would have been sold in part at Amsterdam where products like imported wine were loaded for export back to Sweden.

Dee Dee Ramone I.C.L.C.

After several live shows and drummers in the three piece line up the two members decided to move to Amsterdam to record two albums for Rough Trade Records World Services.

Defence lines of the Netherlands

The main principle was defence by flooding where as the army of the Netherlands would withdraw to the area around Amsterdam.

Diamond hoax of 1872

Further investigation showed Arnold and Slack bought cheap cast-off diamonds, refuse of gem cutting, in London and Amsterdam for $35,000 and scattered them to "salt" the ground.

Diego Abad de Santillán

Further unpublished works, Ideas y suggestiones para una nueva estrategía revolutionaria (Ideas and Suggestions for a New Revolutionary Strategy) and Delincuencia política (Political Criminality), along with the rest of his extensive archives, are held in Amsterdam at the International Institute of Social History.

Ebba Bernadotte

She was a lady-in-waiting of the Crown Princess, Victoria of Baden, who in 1885 visited her brother-in-law in Amsterdam, where he was to undergo a medical examination for a heart difficulty.

Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience

When in 1905 the heirs of Gustave Havre wanted to sell his impressive book collection at an auction in Amsterdam, the head librarian French Gittens and Maximum Rooses, curator of the library of the Plantin-Moretus Museum, asked the City Council, the press and several patrons to buy the collection.

Europa Galante

The ensemble has been invited to play at important festivals and concert halls and has performed at La Scala in Milan, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, Lincoln Center in New York, the Sydney Opera House, and at Kraków Philharmonic.

Frank Ammerlaan

Ammerlaan graduated as an independent artist from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2007.

H. Robert Reynolds

In Europe, he conducted the premiere of an opera for La Scala Opera (Milan, Italy), and concerts at the prestigious Maggio Musicale (Florence, Italy), the Tonhalle (Zurich, Switzerland), and at the Holland Festival in the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), as well as the 750th Anniversary of the City of Berlin.

Henri Lloyd

In 2001, Henri Lloyd’s TP3 Reflex Jacket and Hi-Fit Trouser won the Design Award METS, at the Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam.

Henrik af Trolle

In 1766, after years that had seen the Swedish Navy being reduced, he travelled on his own expense to Brest, Flanders and Amsterdam, where he observed shipbuilding and fortress construction techniques.

History of the Marranos in England

Petitions favoring readmission had been presented to the army as early as 1649 by two Baptists of Amsterdam, Johanna Cartwright and her son Ebenezer ("The Petition of the Jews for the Repealing of the Act of Parliament for Their Banishment out of England"); and suggestions looking to that end were made by men of the type of Roger Williams, Hugh Peters, and by Independents generally.

J.J. Tholen

Inspector J.J. Tholen is a fictional police detective of the 1950s Amsterdam Police, appearing in Winston Graham's thriller The Little Walls where he is in charge of investigating the mysterious death of the main protagonist's brother.

Jacobus Harrewijn

Jacobus Harrewijn (1660 in Amsterdam – 1727 in Brussels) (in modern Dutch Jacobus Harrewijn) was an engraver from the Southern Netherlands.

Janwillem van de Wetering

Janwillem van de Wetering was particularly noted for his detective fiction, his most popular creations being Grijpstra and de Gier, a pair of Amsterdam police officers who figure in a lengthy series of novels and short stories.

They are police detectives in the Murder Brigade of the Amsterdam Municipal Police, and are featured in more than a dozen detective novels and several short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

Jewish Groningen

The community in Groningen managed to stay large and numerous despite the moving of many Jews to the western part of the country (most notably Amsterdam).

Jewish Maastricht

The Jewish community suffered a decline in membership at the end of the 19th century, as Jews started to move to larger cities in the western part of the Netherlands, notably Amsterdam.

Jewish Tilburg

In contrast to other Jewish communities in the so-called "mediene" (the Jewish communities outside the major cities in the western part of the country, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague), the community did not decrease in numbers due to the favorable economic position of Tilburg.

John Trippe

On 31 July, he reached Amsterdam, where he delivered official dispatches and conducted negotiations which helped cement commercial relations between the Netherlands and the United States.

Joseph Athias

Born in Spain, probably in Córdoba, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, he settled in Amsterdam.

Joseph Frans Lescrauwaet

Lescrauwaet resigned as auxiliary bishop of Haarlem on 22 March 1995.

Lescrauwaet was appointed auxiliary bishop of Diocese of Haarlem on 19 October 1983 as well as Titular Bishop of Turres Concordiae and was ordained bishop on 14 January 1984.

Joseph Wijnkoop

Joseph David Wijnkoop (Amsterdam, 14 August 1842 - Amsterdam, 1 October 1910) was a Dutch rabbi and scholar in Jewish studies.

Kannitverstan

A young workman from Tuttlingen (then part of the Duchy of Württemberg) visited the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam for the first time in his life and was impressed by a particularly stately home and a large ship laden with precious commodities.

Keep It Dark

In the first and second verses and the fade out, the band walks along bleak city streets (in Amsterdam) wearing trenchcoats and fedoras.

Landscape scale conservation

A key inspiration for this approach was the Oostvaardersplassen near Amsterdam, a huge wetland landscape that is managed largely through natural processes.

Life net

During the Hotel Polen fire in Amsterdam on May 9, 1977, firefighters could not successfully deploy a life net in a narrow, congested alley.

Live for Life

He takes her along on an assignment in Kenya and later establishes an "arrangement" with her in Amsterdam.

Lothar Fischer

During the rest of the 1960s he continued to exhibit his work in Kassel, Amsterdam, Duisburg, Darmstadt and Wiesbaden.

Louis H. Chrispijn

(May 13, 1854, Amsterdam – November 1, 1926, Amsterdam) was a Dutch actor, writer and director.

Malvik

The airport has frequent connections to many locations in Norway, and a growing range of direct air links abroad (currently including London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Prague).

Max Kohnstamm

He was educated at Amsterdam University, where he studied Modern History, before taking up a fellowship at American University, Washington, D.C..

Max Letteris

Letteris was a member of a family of printers that originally came from Amsterdam.

Megamix '93

The promotion campaign of this anthology CD was launched in a notorious Amsterdam gay club (De iT) where the Luv' singers appeared in concert.

Megaritual

Megaritual is the fifth and final album in the series initiated and recorded by Omar Rodriguez Lopez in Amsterdam in 2005.

Mercury-in-glass thermometer

The mercury-in-glass or mercury thermometer was invented by physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in Amsterdam (1714).

Meu Amor

Because they know Bernardo's father won't support such love, they plan on escaping, but they get caught and Mel and her sister Clara are banned from the homestead, while Bernardo is forced to go with the father alongside Rafael Vargas Mota, the son of millionaire Caetano Vargas Mota, and the homekeeper/Mel and Clara's father in a flower-exportation business trip to Amsterdam, but the flight is fatal because the plane crashes a few miles before reaching its destination.

Nicholas Pope

His most important early shows included solo exhibitions at the Garage Gallery (1976), the Anthony Stokes Gallery (1979), and the Art & Project Gallery in Amsterdam (1979).

NSD

It was developed by NLnet Labs of Amsterdam in cooperation with the RIPE NCC, from scratch as an authoritative name server (i.e., not implementing the recursive caching function by design).

Olier Mordrel

While in Amsterdam, the two leaders issued a Manifesto calling for the Bretons not to back the French forces.

Paul D. Stroop

In 1928, he served as a member of U.S. gymnastic team at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Pearl Maxima

In 1865, King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy bought the pearl, but around 1868 he sold it to Willem van Kooten, a Dutch goldsmith from Amsterdam.

Piccalilli

Tourists visiting the Netherlands, and especially Amsterdam, are often unaware of this which can lead to unexpected results.

Plexi

After embarking to Amsterdam, where they recorded a follow-up album in late 1998, the band dissolved.

Rage Hard

Having topped the charts around the world with Welcome to the Pleasuredome and its accompanying singles, Frankie Goes to Hollywood took off to Amsterdam to record the follow-up album, Liverpool.

Ray DiPalma

His visual works (including artist's books, collages, and prints) have been exhibited in numerous shows in the United States, Europe, Japan, and South America, and in a one-person show at the Stemplelplatt's Gallery in Amsterdam.

Roman Tragedies

Roman Tragedies (Dutch: Romeinse Tragedies) is a 6-hour stage adaptation of William Shakespeare's plays Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra, created in 2007 by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the theatre company of Amsterdam.

Sakha language

The first printing in Sakha was a part of a book by Nicolaas Witsen published in 1692 in Amsterdam.

Salomon van Abbé

Salomon van Abbé (born Amsterdam, 31 July 1883, died London, 28 February 1955), also known as Jack van Abbé or Jack Abbey, was an artist, etcher and illustrator of books and magazines.

Sandar

To get there, directions are as for Sandefjord - by road from the south or the north via E18; via traintrain; by ferry from Strömstad in Sweden, or via air to Torp airport from places such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Shai Biruk

Biruk accepted an offer to join the youth system in Amsterdam only to come back to Israel six months later citing homesickness.

While playing for the Israeli youth academy, Beitar Nes Tubruk his footballing talent was noticed by scouts from the Dutch football club Ajax.

St. Nicholas Park

Like the streets on its eastern and western borders, the park was named after St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Amsterdam whose likeness adorned one of the ships that brought the first Dutch settlers to New Amsterdam.

Summer Carnival

She was part of the Kingdoms under the Sun Group from Amsterdam.

SV Alsenborn

While watching the 1962 European Cup Final in Amsterdam, Walter and Hannes Ruth, another former 1. FC Kaiserslautern player, vowed to build up the little club and take it to the top level of German football.

Tama Morita

In 1954, she was selected as the Japanese delegate to the International PEN meeting in Amsterdam.

Third Lubbers cabinet

She was temporarily succeeded by Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin until Ed van Thijn, then mayor of Amsterdam, could succeed him on 18 January 1994.

Thorne Forrester

Thorne followed Macy to the airport, and married her in Amsterdam.

To Hull and Back

In the episode, the Trotters agree to smuggle diamonds from Amsterdam for Boycie.

Tom Manders

Later he also designed decors for theatre and cabaret, regularly for Lou Bandy, Wim Kan and theatre Carré in Amsterdam.

V-2 Schneider

A live version recorded at Paradiso, Amsterdam in June 1997, was released as the B-side of the single "Pallas Athena" in August 1997, under the name 'Tao Jones Index'.

Venus with Pistol

On his next commission in Amsterdam, he helps obtain an un-catalogued work of Vincent van Gogh, but the art expert certifying the painting is soon brutally murdered.

Victorian Dad

He once took his family to Amsterdam, hoping to take in some fine scenery and continental culture.

Viking Death March

It is a live music video compiled from live footage that was shot during the band's performances at the Rock am Ring festival in Nürburg, Germany on June 2, and at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, Netherlands on June 6.

WeTransfer

WeTransfer is a cloud-based file transfer service based in Amsterdam designed to send small to large files.

When Love Comes to Town

It was played at 46 of the 47 shows; the only concert it missed was 18 December 1989 in Amsterdam, as the show concluded prematurely due to Bono suffering vocal problems.

Zelandia Illustrata

The collection was founded by the Amsterdam lawyer Jacob Verheye van Citters (1753–1823) in the 18th century.


Alexandros Vasileiou

Because of his trading businesses he lived in several cities throughout Europe: Amsterdam, Marseille, Lyon, Paris, Vienna, Trieste.

Arkell Museum

These were the European paintings Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Prince George Gallery at the Walker Art Museum in Liverpool, England and the gallery that housed The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Cals cabinet

There was also social unrest ('the sixties'), which became apparent in the Provo movement, construction worker protests, riots over the marriage of princess Beatrix in Amsterdam and the rise of new parties like Boerenpartij, Pacifist Socialist Party, GPV and D'66.

Colonial Institute

The Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, originally called the Colonial Institute

Dutch Brazilian

The Dutch West India Company was established in Amsterdam in 1621 and soon came into contact with the overseas domains of Portugal and Spain.

Eugenio Finardi

Together they even emulated the US film Easy Rider by travelling on motorbikes from Milan to Amsterdam.

Eugenio Miccini

He participated in the most important international exhibitions, such as: Biennale di Venezia (four times), Quadriennale of Rome (as commissar), Stedelijik Museum of Amsterdam, Palazzo Forti of Verona, Palazzo Vecchio of Florence, Museums of Marseille, GAM, Palazzo dei Diamanti of Ferrara.

Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal

Most Portuguese Jews, thousands, would eventually leave the country to Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Constantinople (Istanbul), France, Morocco, Brazil, Curaçao and the Antilles.

Fliegerführer Atlantik

Küstenfliegergruppe 106, 406, 506, 606 and 906 were also made available, based at Amsterdam, (Netherlands), Brest, Westerland, Lannion, (France), Aalborg, (Denmark).

Géza Frid

In 1954 he was awarded the music prize of the City of Amsterdam for Etudes Symphoniques, in 1956 the second prize from the Dutch Government for the Sonate op. 50, for violin and piano, and the fourth prize at the Concours International pour Quatuor à Cordes in Luik for Strijkkwartet IV.

Harry van Bommel

The incident was reason for the Rabbi Raphael Evers of the "Dutch Israelite Religious Community" (Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap - NIK) to require that van Bommel would not be present at the Auschwitz Memorial in Amsterdam on January 25.

Henriette Amelie de Nerha

Henriette Amelie de Nerha (Brussels, Austrian Netherlands, 1754 - Amsterdam, 19 June 1818), was a Dutch memoir writer, known for her relationship with Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau.

Herman Ambrosius Jan Baanders

Major projects of the firm in the period up to the mid-1920s included the district of Heijplaat in the harbour of Rotterdam (1912-1921) — originally built as a garden city (tuindorp) to house the employees of the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij shipping company — and the Amsterdam secondary school Amsterdams Lyceum (1917-1922).

IDBUS

Currently, iDBUS serves Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Brussels, Gene, Lille, London, Lyon, Marseille, Milan, Nice, Paris, Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and Turin.

Jan Claus

In 1669 with Steven Crisp (1628-1692), a Friend from Colchester, who from 1663 onwards would every year visit Amsterdam, he travelled on a preaching tour to a series of towns along the Rhine: Cologne, Bonn, Metz, Bingen, Bacharach and Kriegsheim.

John Bagford

Originally a shoemaker by trade, he was active on the book-trading market from 1680 in and around Holborn, travelling to Haarlem, Leiden, and Amsterdam on this business and aiding such collectors as John Moore, Robert and Edward Harley, Sir Hans Sloane, Samuel Pepys and John Woodward.

Joseph Jaquet

In 1864, he secured his first commission in Amsterdam: The Victory for the Volksvlijt Palace (nl), then a second commission for the decoration of the national monument in The Hague Willemspark (nl).

Lawrence Krader

For his study of the roots of the theory of evolution in the 19th century he received support from the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam) during 1963-1975.

Leilei Tian

She has been awarded the Prix de Rome, and other awards from the Besançon Composition Competition for orchestra in France, the Contemporary Music Contest "Citta' di Udine" in Italy, Composition Competition of GRAME in Lyon, Gaudeamus Competition in Amsterdam and International Society of Contemporary Music Cash Young Composer's Award.

Liberal State Party

The party performed particularly well in the major trading cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the rich municipalities around Hilversum and the Hague and in northern rural provinces, like Groningen and Drenthe.

Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!

#"Territorial Pissings" (In two parts: 1991.12.06 - UK TV show Jonathan Ross / 1991.11.25 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland)

Mariss Jansons

In October 2002, Jansons was named the sixth chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (KCO, Dutch abbreviation) of Amsterdam, effective 1 September 2004, succeeding Riccardo Chailly.

Meertens number

It was "given" to Lambert Meertens by Richard S. Bird as a present during the celebration of his 25 years at the CWI, Amsterdam.

Melechesh

The band started their career in Jerusalem (and Bethlehem) and operated from there between 1993–1998; however, they have resided mainly in Amsterdam since 1998 for several personal, professional and demographic reasons.

Michiel van Bokhorst

In late 2001 Van Bokhorst met Philip Oakey at a party in Amsterdam for "OOR magazine" and discussed working on remixing some of the tracks on The Human League album Secrets.

Nick Dompierre

Dompierre came in first in the amateur class at the 2006 Vans Downtown Showdown in Los Angeles and placed in its best trick contest, as well as the street and best trick contests at Volcom's Damn Am in Amsterdam.

Novastar

After a sold out club tour in the Fall of 2008, Novastar performed in February in a fully packed Antwerp based Lotto Arena and Amsterdam’s Heineken Music Hall.

Opta Sports

Opta Sports is a sports data company with headquarters in London and other offices in Leeds, Munich, Bassano del Grappa, Milan, Paris, Madrid, Montevideo and Amsterdam.

PSI-20

It is one of the main national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels' BEL20, Paris's CAC 40 and Amsterdam's AEX.

R. v. Sharpe

It began in 1995 when John Robin Sharpe was returning from a trip to Amsterdam where he had traveled to meet Edward Brongersma, a Dutch jurist and open advocate of pederastic boylove.

Ray Stern

In 2005 he received the New York State Award (now since renamed the Senator Hugh Farley Award) from the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in Amsterdam, New York.

Reactions to the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 attack

The international flight originated in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, Netherlands and made an emergency landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Michigan, United States.

Richard Bluestein

After working in the health care industry for several years and dabbling in radio hosting in Amsterdam, Bluestein moved to Chicago in 1998 and started becoming involved with the underground film and performance scene.

Rob Grootendorst

He studied Dutch studies at the University of Amsterdam since 1980, and became a Ph.D. in 1982 in Speech Communication.

Ruben Hakhverdyan

Three songs that Hakhverdyan himself says have influenced him most and have been his all-time favorites are Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles, Amsterdam by Jacques Brel and It's a Man's World by James Brown.

Schiphol–Antwerp high-speed railway

The Schiphol - Antwerp High-Speed Line is a high-speed rail line connecting Schiphol Airport, 9 km southwest of Amsterdam, to Antwerp, Belgium.

Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Von der Heide performed at the "Eurovision in Concert" preview concert in the Amsterdam municipality of Zaanstad in the Netherlands on 24 April, along with 17 other competitors.

Transport in Amsterdam

The nearby port city of Ijmuiden is a popular travel option for those wishing to visit Amsterdam.

Van der Voort

Michael Pauluzen Van der Voort (c. 1615–1690), Flemish early resident of New Amsterdam

Westergasfabriek

Amsterdam went over to gas from Hoogovens in IJmuiden, so the production of coal gas from the Factory decreased.

Wim Hesterman

Willem "Wim" Hesterman (26 November 1897, Amsterdam – 2 December 1971, Amstelveen) was a Dutch boxer who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics.

Wythoff construction

W.A. Wythoff, A relation between the polytopes of the C600-family, Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, Proceedings of the Section of Sciences, 20 (1918) 966–970.

XS4ALL

Because international telephone connections from Egypt to the rest of the world are not blocked people can dial into the modems in Amsterdam and then log into the internet using username and password xs4all.

Yves Brayer

He also created murals and wall ornamentations, tapestry cartoons, maquettes, sets, and costumes for the Théâtre Français and the operas of Paris, Amsterdam, Nice, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Avignon.

Zorch

More recently, Zorch took part in the three day 2006 Gong Unconvention at the Melkweg, Amsterdam, where Basil Brooks also took part in the Steve Hillage Band set with Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, Mike Howlett, and Chris Taylor.