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Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory reopened Friday after a four-year, $93 million makeover that has doubled its size. Opened in 1935, the observatory was the dream of Griffith Jenkins Griffith, who wanted to make astronomy and observation accessible to everyone. The facility featured prominently in movies like James Dean's Rebel without a Cause and Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator and has been an LA fixture for more than 70 years.

DEFINITION: (noun) A superior skill that one can learn by study and practice and observation. SYNONYMS: prowess, art. USAGE: They were wrought to such a pitch of nervous dread by the uncanny artistry of their witch-doctor, they were helpless with terror.

Sultan Suleiman I was called "the Magnificent" in Europe and "the Lawgiver" in the Islamic world. He reigned from 1520 to 1566, during which time the Ottoman Empire reached its zenith. At the time of his death, Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, the Balkan provinces stretching to the border of modern Austria, and most of North Africa were under the control of his empire. Who was Damat Ibrahim Pasha, with whom the Sultan dined seven times before executing him?

The Dominican Republic declared its independence from Haiti in a movement led by Juan Duarte and Pedro Santana. It adopted a constitutional form of government, but Santana forced the assembly to include an article in the constitution that gave him dictatorial powers, allowing him to drive out his political opponents, including Duarte. In 1861, Santana restored the Dominican Republic to what country?

A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.

The longest escalator on earth is a 4-section outdoor escalator at Ocean Park, Hong Kong, with an overall length of 224m (745ft). Hong Kong also boasts the Central-Mid-Levels escalator, a long-distance system of escalators and moving sidewalks with a total length of 800m. The longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere is at the Wheaton station of the Washington Metro subway system and is 155m (508ft) long. How long does it take a commuter to ascend the Wheaton station escalator?