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Lev Yashin

Lev Yashin was a Russian-Soviet football goalkeeper, considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the game. He was known for his superior athleticism in goal, imposing stature, amazing reflex saves and inventing the idea of goalkeeper sweeping. One of his best performances was the 1963 FA Centenary match, when he appeared in the ‘Rest of the World XI’ against England at Wembley Stadium and made a number of breathtaking and almost unbelievable saves. Known all over the world as the “Black Spider” for his distinctive all-black outfit, and because it seemed like he had eight arms to save almost everything. But to his fans he was always the fearless “Black Panther”. He often played wearing a cloth cap of burnt-brick color. In 1971 in Moscow he played his last match for Dynamo Moscow. Lev Yashin’s FIFA testimonial match was held at the Lenin Stadium in Moscow with 100,000 fans attending, and a host of football stars, including Pelé, Eusébio and Franz Beckenbauer.

Linnaeus’ flower clock

Linnaeus' flower clock was a garden plan hypothesized by Carolus Linnaeus that would take advantage of several plants that open or close their flowers at particular times of the day to accurately predict the time. He called it specifically the Horologium Florae, and proposed the concept in the 1751 publication Philosophia Botanica.

Le Petit Journal

Le Petit Journal was a daily Parisian newspaper published from 1863 to 1944. One of the Journal's major innovations, that made a substantial contribution to its popularity, was the publishing of detailed minutes from sensational trials, beginning with the Troppmann Affair in 1869. The exploitation of this affair enabled the Journal to almost double its readership. It was also one of the earliest instances of a publication's journalistic ethics being called to serious account.

Lord Bath

Lord Bath's womanising is legendary and to house his extensive female companions – affectionately known as wifelets, he has rooms for them, as well as cottages in the nearby vicinity. At the last count, Lord Bath has had 74 wifelets. That's roughly one a year for every year of his life. He usually has 3 or 4 on the go at a time. He is ranked 359th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2009, with an estimated wealth of £157 million.

Leonhart Fuchs

Leonhart Fuchs was a German physician and one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock

La Scala

La Scala was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal Theatre at La Scala. Today the theatre is recognised as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet and La Scala Theatre Orchestra.

Lady Be Good

Lady Be Good was an American B-24D Liberator of the United States Army Air Forces, serial number 41-24301, during World War II. Based at Benina Airfield in Soluch (today Suluq), Libya, it crashed in April 1943 returning from a mission and was later discovered in 1959 hundreds of miles into the Sahara with its crew mysteriously missing.

Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok is the largest of more than 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Antarctica. It is located beneath Russia's Vostok Station, 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet, within the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Louis Leakey

Louis Leakey was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey.

Lapham’s Quaterly

Lapham's Quarterly is a literary magazine established in 2007 by former Harper's Magazine editor Lewis H. Lapham. Each issue examines a theme using primary source material from history.

Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime

Lima