katatonia82 / Shutterstock.com rook76 / Shutterstock.com SeanPavonePhoto / Shutterstock.com Text Version: Fact 576: It wouldn’t be until 15 years after basketball was invented before someone got the bright idea of putting a hole in the bottom of the basket to allow the ball to pass through so it wouldn’t have to be manually retrieved every time someone made a shot. […]
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Today in History: August 21 1959: Hawaii is made the 50th state of the United States When President Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the Oval Office in 1953, he was president of 48 states; when he ended his stint in 1961 two more states had joined the Union, bringing the grand total up to fifty. The addition of Alaska and Hawaii […]
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Today I found out that the soft drink 7 UP used to include a psychiatric medication as one of its ingredients. The lemon-lime flavored soda, 7-UP was created by Charles Grigg of the Howdy Corporation in 1929 and first launched two weeks before the stock market crash that spurred the Great Depression… Timing! It was originally named “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime […]
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Today in History: August 20 This Day In History, 1862: “The Prayer of Twenty Millions” by Horace Greeley was published. An editorial by New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley called “The Prayer of the Twenty Millions” challenged President Abraham Lincoln to declare emancipation for all slaves in territories officially held by the Union. Greeley’s impassioned words mirrored the sentiments of […]
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In an era where full service gas pumping seems to be a thing of the past, Oregon not only still offers this type of service to its citizens but the “beaver state” also does not offer them any other choice – Oregonians are not allowed to pump their own gas! Of fifty states, only two do not allow “self-service dispensing of […]
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Sarah asks: Who invented the TV dinner? TV dinners weren’t officially created until the 1950s under that name, so before that time single guys, people that simply can’t or hate to cook, and harried moms had to find other ways to rustle up dinner in a hurry. It’s hard to imagine surviving in such primitive conditions, but our ancestors were […]
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Today I found out about the Rosewood Massacre of 1923. Rosewood, Florida was established around 1845. It was a quiet place that prospered in 1870 when a railway depot was set up to transport the abundant red cedar, from which the town got its name, from Rosewood to a pencil factory in cedar key. Unfortunately, within thirty years the population […]
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Today in History: August 19, 1692 On this day in history, 1692, five people were executed in Salem, MA for witchcraft, as part of the Salem witch trials that occurred between February 1692 and May 1693. To the 17th century people of New England, as in Europe, Satan wasn’t an abstract concept used to personify evil in the world – […]
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G. Peterson asks: Why do we call a time when something needs done by a “deadline”? Great question! We all have deadlines. And when we hear about other people’s deadlines it’s understood that they refer to a time limit of some kind. But where does the phrase come from and what was its original meaning? The first references to a […]
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To call Pac-Man a mere game would be an injustice. It’s a cultural icon, a symbol of an entire decade, as well as an entity that redefined gaming itself. Evidence of this can be found not only in its initial success, but also by the fact that it continues to be loved and valued by every new generation of gamers. […]
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Today I found out that Cheerios used to be called CheeriOats. Cereal has become such a go-to food for breakfast for children and adults alike that it’s difficult to think that it hasn’t always been around. In the grand scheme of things, cereal is a relatively modern invention. Cheerios entered the cereal playing field a bit late, and they weren’t […]
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It was 5:12am, local time on April 18, 1906, when residents of the San Francisco Bay area in California experienced major shaking. 20-25 seconds later, they learned the hard way that that shaking was nothing compared to what they would experience for the next 45-60 seconds. The epicenter of the 7.7 – 8.25 quake was about 2 miles from the city of […]
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The Hindenburg disaster will probably always be remembered as the singular event that killed airship travel. In truth, there were other events that occurred which also contributed, but none stand out in the public consciousness more than the demise of the Hindenburg. The image of that huge ship falling from the sky and erupting into flames before burning to nothing […]
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“Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve played the silver ball. From Soho down to Brighton, I must have played them all. But I ain’t seen nothing like him, In any amusement hall… That deaf dumb and blind kid, Sure plays a mean pinball” -The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” In May of 1976 in New York City, Roger Sharpe watched […]
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The speed of light in a vacuum stands at “exactly 299,792,458 metres per second“. The reason today we can put an exact figure on it is because the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant that has been measured with lasers; and when an experiment involves lasers, it’s hard to argue with the results. As to why […]
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Today I found out about the remarkable Pancho Barnes, a famous aviatrix and the founder of the Happy Bottom Riding Club. It could be argued that flying was in Pancho’s blood. Born into a wealthy family in 1901, Florence Leontine Lowe, as she was originally known, grew up in a large mansion in California. Her family’s wealth was built on […]
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It is one of the first things we notice about someone upon being introduced: Hair. Even Donald Trump’s combover, or whatever you call that thing on his head, has its own Facebook page, but only 51 Likes. Here’s a look back over the years at the various ways we’ve styled our locks and the origin of the names of those […]
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When Neil Armstrong set his left boot on the surface of the moon on July 21, 1969, becoming the first person to ever walk on the moon. He then spoke some of the most famous words in the history of mankind, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” So true, so brilliant, so inspirational yet…so contradicting? The word […]
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