X-Nico

77 unusual facts about Amsterdam


1976 Winter Olympics

The chart below displays the original vote count for the 69th IOC meeting at Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1970, before the Denver rejection and the installation of Innsbruck, Austria, as alternate host.

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.

Aire-sur-la-Lys

The architect, Pierre Framery was inspired by the former Hotel de Ville at Amsterdam.

Albert Mol

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

Amsterdam-Zuidoost

In 1992 the Bijlmermeer was struck by disaster as an Israeli El Al airplane El Al Flight 1862 crashed into the blocks called Groeneveen en Kruitberg, in the very heart of the Bijlmermeer.

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).

Art zuid

ARTZUID is an open air sculpture biennial in Amsterdam's Southern district in The Netherlands.

Bill Glerum

Herman Wilhelm ("Bill") Glerum (born 28 August 1911 in Amsterdam – died 24 August 2002) was a Dutch cricket player.

British propaganda during World War I

Special telegraph agencies were established in various European cities, including Bucharest, Bilbao and Amsterdam, in order to facilitate the spread of information.

British Rail Class 374

However, to meet the prospect of increased competition through the Channel Tunnel (primarily from Deutsche Bahn), it intends to use its new trains to expand its network by running services to destinations including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Cologne, as well as more destinations in France.

Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste

Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste (English: International Bulletin of the Syndicalist Movement) was a syndicalist periodical published from 1907 by Christiaan Cornelissen and from 1913 by the International Syndicalist Bureau in Amsterdam.

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.

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.

Daniel Cajanus

Later he took up residence in Amsterdam, where he lived from 1735 to 1741 as the guest of the landlord of the Blauw Jan, an inn where natural curiosities could be seen and traded.

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.

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.

Dispokinesis

Dispokinesis was developed more than 45 years ago in the environment of the Sweelinck-Conservatory, Amsterdam.

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.

Eagle Strike

Alex goes to Cray Industries in Amsterdam, where he hears Yassen and Cray conversing about a flash drive.

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.

Eberhard Isbrand Ides

His account appeared in French translation, along with a work by Cornelis de Bruijn, in Voyage de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Persia, et aux Indes Orientales (6 parts in 2 volumes), published in Amsterdam in 1718.

El Palacio de Hierro

In 1879, they began planning to build a department store in Mexico City similar to famous upscale, and high class stores in Paris (Le Bon Marché), New York City (Saks Fifth Avenue), London (Harrods), and Amsterdam (De Bijenkorf).

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.

Ethel Catherwood

In 1928, she became a member of the Matchless Six, a group of 7 Canadian women who competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, the first Olympics to allow female competitors in athletics.

Frank Ammerlaan

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

George Prévost

Prévost's maternal grandfather was a wealthy banker in Amsterdam, and his money is considered to have certainly been responsible for his grandson's quick advancement up the chain of command in the British Army, as promotion could then be obtained "by purchase".

Georges Berthet

Georges Berthet (18 September 1903 – 14 August 1979) was a French sportsman who took part in the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix and the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

Gerrit Bol

Gerrit Bol (born May 29, 1906 in Amsterdam, died 1989) was a Dutch mathematician, who specialized in geometry.

Graffiti My Soul

According to a post on his website, Brian Higgins visited Amsterdam and asked permission to sample the main guitar riff of "It's Not the Drug" for Girls Aloud.

Hendrick van Brederode

In March of the year 1567, backed by his friend Lenaert Jansz de Graeff and a large part of the bourgeoisie Brederode became the Generalcaptain of the city of Amsterdam.

Henlopen Acres, Delaware

The name "Henlopen" probably is derived from that of Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen (1572–1637), a merchant in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

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.

Hiro Yamamoto

His last gig with the band was in 1989 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, after which they got into an argument and Yamamoto subsequently left.

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

Van de Wetering was born and raised in Rotterdam, but in later years he lived in South Africa, Japan, London, Colombia, Peru, Australia, Amsterdam and most recently in Surry, Maine, the setting of two of his Grijpstra and de Gier novels and his children's series about the porcupine Hugh Pine.

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.

Joseph Frans Lescrauwaet

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

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.

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.

Live for Life

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

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).

Manis Jacobs

Manis (Morris) Jacobs (1782, Amsterdam, Netherlands - September 28, 1839, New Orleans, Louisiana) was the founder, first president and although unordained, the first rabbi of Congregation Shangarai Chasset of New Orleans.

Max Kohnstamm

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

Mazda Kazamai

It was first introduced at the 2008 Moscow International Automobile Salon in August and later shown at the 2009 AutoRAI Amsterdam held in April.

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.

Middle Party for City and Country

The electorate of the Middle Party was concentrated in Amsterdam and 't Gooi, a region around Hilversum, where Vos came from.

New Republican Society

The New Republican Society (Nieuw Republikeins Genootschap-NRG) is a Dutch republican society, founded in January 1998 in Amsterdam by Ewout Irrgang and Elisabeth van der Steenhoven, as opposed to the Republican Society (Republikeins Genootschap) that only allows members by co-option.

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).

Oman Tribune

It offers both local and international content by correspondents in Pakistan, Amsterdam and New Delhi.

Piccalilli

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

Ra-Ra Zoo

Ra-Ra Zoo was influenced by the agitprop and political theatre of the late 1960s and early 70's and the ritual theatre and 'Happenings' associated with the time notably the 'Grand Magic Circus', 'Circus Oz, 'The People Show', 'Cunning Stunts, 'The Festival of Fools' in Amsterdam and the German choreographer Pina Bausch.

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.

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.

Sport policies of the Arab League

Sixteen years later, Egypt won its first two gold medals, in weightlifting and wrestling, and a silver and bronze in diving at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

SS Georgia

Her new owners were the M.V. Dutch Tanker & Oil Company Ltd., of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

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.

Stena Line Holland BV

The new route enabled passengers to leave London in the evening and, after arrival in the Hook before 6 am, be in Amsterdam at breakfast time and reach Berlin by the end of the day.

Stille Omgang

The biggest and best known is the Stille Omgang of Amsterdam, which is still performed every year in March.

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.

Theodore of Corsica

After sounding out the possibility of protection from Spain and Naples, he set off to Holland where he was arrested for debt 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.

Transport in the Netherlands

The busiest 4-lane motorway in the Netherlands is the A10 in the Coen Tunnel in Amsterdam with 110.000 vehicles per day.

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.

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.

Who's That Knocking at My Door

Scorsese shot and edited a technically beautiful but largely gratuitous montage of J.R. fantasizing about bedding a series of prostitutes (shot in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with a visibly older Keitel) and the film finally became Who's That Knocking at My Door (named for the song which closes the film).

Wolfgang Ratke

In addition to Augsburg and Köthen, he put his method of instruction into operation in Amsterdam, Basel, Strassburg, Frankfurt, Weimar, and various other places.

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.

Zelandia Illustrata

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


Anarchism in Brazil

Most anarchist newspaper issues can be found in the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth in Campinas, but there are also examplars in other Brazilian archives, in Milan and in the IISH in Amsterdam.

Bardo State

Frank is the son of Jan Wijn; a famous Dutch concert pianist, while Dorian attended the conservatory in Amsterdam and has a background in pop and dance music.

Carwyn James

In 1983 James was on a private visit to the Netherlands and staying alone at the Kras Nabolsky Hotel in Dam Square, Amsterdam.

Coat of arms of Amsterdam

Both the colours and the crosses are also found in the escutcheons of two towns near Amsterdam: the village of Ouder-Amstel on the banks of the river Amstel to the southeast, and Nieuwer-Amstel (now the suburb Amstelveen) to the southwest.

Colonial Institute

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

David de Castro Tartas

David ben Abraham de Castro Tartas (Tartas, 1630-Amsterdam, 1698) was a Portuguese Jewish printer in Amsterdam.

Didier Malherbe

Malherbe has also joined them on various tours, and has appeared with Gong and Hadouk at all Gong Family Unconventional Gatherings in 2004 and 2005 at the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms, and 2006 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, at which Gong's set was filmed and released as a DVD.

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.

Eva Bendien

However her family was forced to go underground and Eva spent time at diverse underground addresses in Amsterdam, Bergen, Haarlem, Sneek, Boekelo, and Bornebroek, with the last few months spent in the "Verscholen dorp" a colony of earthen huts housing 86 people in the woods between Nunspeet and Vierhouten.

Expansion of Amsterdam since the 19th century

This part of Amsterdam would become a neighborhood with the grandeur of Paris or London of that time.

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.

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).

Hieronymus de Bosch

Hieronymus de Bosch or Jeronimo de Bosch (23 March 1740, Amsterdam – 1 June 1811, Leiden) was a Latin poet and notable scholar from the Netherlands.

Ivan Karizna

He had numerous performances in other countries of the world including Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the United States and France where he played at such concert halls as Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Parisian City of Music and Salle Pleyel as well as Brussels's Centre for Fine Arts where he performed together with a pianist Eliane Reyes.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Contemporaries nicknamed him Orpheus of Amsterdam and even the city authorities frequently brought important visitors to hear Sweelinck's improvisations.

Jesse Moren Bader

From 1937 onwards he attended all the major ecumenical gatherings related to the formation and establishment of the World Council of Churches including Oxford and Edinburgh (1937), Amsterdam (1948), Evanston (1954), New Delhi (1961) and the annual meetings of the World Council of Churches executive committee once it was set up in 1948.

João Silvério Trevisan

The film was shot in Brooklyn, and entered more than 80 film festivals and won 21 awards all over the world, including Best of the Fest at Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Storyteller Award at Savannah Film Fetival, and the Van Gogh Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival, among others.

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.

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.

Mediapro

MediaPro is based in Barcelona, with branch offices in Girona, Amsterdam, Budapest, Lisbon, Madeira, Madrid, Miami, Porto, Qatar, Seville and Tenerife.

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.

Michel Tapié

Tapié organized and curated scores of exhibitions of new and modern art in major cities all over the world, including not only Paris and Turin but also New York, Rome, Tokyo, Munich, Madrid, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Milan, and Osaka.

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.

Mini pops

Minny Pops, an Amsterdam-based new wave/electronic/art punk band active from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s

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.

Nikolai Khardzhiev

Khardzhiev and Chaga flew to Amsterdam in November 1993 and checked into the Hilton Hotel, where they were to stay for four months.

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.

Principles for Responsible Investment

The PRI Initiative has a Secretariat of around 50 staff based mostly in London, with staff based in New York, as well regional offices in Seoul, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Cape Town.

Prinsenbeek

The village is situated west of the motorway A16 (Rotterdam - Antwerp) and the TGV-line Amsterdam - Paris.

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.

Robert Rowlette

He was Honorary Physician to the British Olympic team at the 1920 Summer Olympics (Antwerp) and to the Irish teams at the 1924 Summer Olympics (Paris) and 1928 Summer Olympics (Amsterdam), the first two occasions on which an independent Irish team competed.

Roxana Briban

She also appeared at the Vienna Volksoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Théâtre du Capitole, the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile and the Muziektheater in Amsterdam.

Royal Humane Society

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.

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.

Sylvia Hollamby

Sylvia's worst fears become reality as Shell is found alive and heavily pregnant in Amsterdam, and extradited back to G-Wing.

Tasmanian Devil: Munching Madness

Players take control of Taz to eat all the food in each of the nine levels - Tasmania, Australia, China, Greece, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Amazon River, Las Vegas and Transylvania.

Van der Voort

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

Weesp–Leiden railway

Amsterdam De Vlugtlaan was closed in 2000, after the opening of the Hemboog: a chord at Amsterdam Sloterdijk which connects Schiphol and the city of Zaandam.

Werner Schaaphok

Back in the Netherlands, he tried to sign with local Amsterdam side AFC DWS, but the club was unable to come to terms with his former club the Chicago Mustangs, where he was still under contract.

Westergasfabriek

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

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.