According to A. C. Nielsen, an average home in 1953 got 3.8 stations on TV. With the advent of cable, 1983 saw televisions get an average of 10.3 stations. An average home in 1990 received 11.7 stations.
Walter was the first name of the federal official named Nixon whom the U.S. Senate impeached. Walter L. Nixon, Jr., a judge of the U.S. District Court for Mississippi, was removed from office on November 3, 1989, after appearing before the Senate in its role as court of impeachment. President Richard Nixon resigned from office … Read more
Edward Alleyn played Doctor Faustus in the original production of Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy, circa 1589. Alleyn also played the lead in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great (1587).
Mildred Pierce was a waitress who bought an eatery that she built into a chain of restaurants.
The 1984 film Red Dawn, directed by John Milius, takes top honors for the most violent film on record. It contains 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.
“As the World Turns” (CBS, 1956) was the first soap opera to change its format from fifteen minutes to thirty minutes each weekday.
Sacco and Vanzetti were pardoned, but not until long after their deaths. On July 14, 1921, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two avowed anarchists, were convicted of robbing a shoe factory and murdering a paymaster and guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Their trial was marred by possible perjury, suppression of evidence, and the bias of … Read more
Twenty-five states were in the Union by the end of the Civil War; 11 were in the Confederacy. The states were: Union Confederacy California Alabama Connecticut Arkansas Delaware Florida Illinois Georgia Indiana Louisiana Iowa Mississippi Kansas North Carolina Kentucky South Carolina Maine Tennessee Maryland Texas Massachusetts Virginia Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey … Read more
Both Mike Tyson, 1986 and 1987 Heavyweight World Champion, and Riddick Bowe, 1992 Heavyweight World Champion, are from Brownsville.
Balding occurs when hair follicles shrink and become less productive. Instead of the new hairs being cultivated to replace the ones that fall out naturally each day, they are allowed to remain embryonic, at the most, in a light, peach-fuzz stage. Probably some hormonal action triggers the follicles to behave this way, but it is … Read more
The New Orleans Opera, which made eight tours to New York and other cities between 1827 and 1845, was America’s first resident opera company. Specializing in French opera, the company’s reputation made New Orleans as synonymous with opera in the 19th century as it was with jazz in the 20th.
Charlotte Bronte’s close friend, novelist Elizabeth Gaskell wrote The Life of Charlotte Bronte. The two met in 1850; Bronte died five years later.
Thanksgiving was made a national holiday in 1863, after a concerted campaign by ladies’ magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale. That year, President Abraham Lincoln officially proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, to be held on the last Thursday of November. In 1939, to stimulate the Depression economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date of Thanksgiving … Read more
In days of old, tables were generally more crowded during mealtime and one’s elbows could get in the way of other diners. Today elbows are allowed on the table by certain etiquette authorities, but the general idea of keeping elbows away from dinnerware and other diners is still a good one.
Carl B. Stokes (b. 1927) was the first black mayor. He was the great-grandson of a slave and was mayor of Cleveland from 1967 to 1971.
The Taj Mahal was built between 1632 and 1650 in Agra, India, by Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife. The marble structure is considered a superb representation of the Mogul style.
The story of Cinderella has enjoyed 58 film productions, in cinematic and cartoon form, throughout the world. The first Cinderella movie was made in 1898.
The gold hoop earring is in Mr. Clean’s left earlobe. Mr. Clean made his first TV appearance in 1958. The Mr. Clean jingle was sung by Don Cherry and Betty Bryan.
Princess Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher’s) home planet in Star Wars (1977) was Alderaan.
George Jessel turned down the lead for The Jazz Singer (1927).
Quicksand doesn’t work by pulling you down. Quicksand is nearly always found above a spring, which creates a supersaturated condition that makes the sand frictionless and unable to support weight. In addition, quicksand is airless, which creates suction as you struggle to get free. The most effective way to escape quicksand is to position yourself … Read more
The Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi first played the role onstage in the 1927 Broadway production of Dracula. It was adapted by Hamilton Deane and John Balderston from Bram Stoker’s novel. Lugosi became famous by playing Dracula in the 1931 movie version.
David Wayne took the role of the child murderer in the 1951 remake of M (directed by Joseph Losey).
As the announcer never failed to remind us, the TV show, “The F.B.I.”, was a “Quinn Martin Production.”
Percy Shelley’s first wife Harriet Westbrook Shelley committed suicide by drowning in 1816, two years after Shelley left her for Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley had eloped with the sixteen-year-old Harriet in 1811. Shelley himself died by drowning in a boating accident aboard his schooner, Ariel, in 1822.
The last line of Little Caesar (1930) was “Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?”
Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny in most of the older James Bond films. Bernard Lee played M until his death in 1979; Robert Brown since then. Desmond Llewelyn played Q.
The Ouija board is thought to reveal unconscious thoughts and emotions. It is named for the French and German words for yes, oui and ja.
The secret fraternal order of Free and Acceptable Masons has its origins in communities of actual stoneworkers, the masons who built cathedrals in the Middle Ages. Eventually, lodges in need of new members started admitting non-masons, and from these lodges modern Freemasonry developed.
Ava Gardner appeared with the Bowery Boys in Ghosts on the Loose (1943), which also starred Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, and Huntz Hall. Gardner played Huntz Hall’s sister.
When the first minimum wage was instituted in 1938, it was 25 cents per hour.
Felix Salten’s real name is Siegmund Salzmann. Under the pen name “Salten,” the German author wrote Bambi (1923). The first English translation was published in 1928.
Two hundred and forty-four deceased inhabitants of Spoon River recite their verse epitaphs in Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology.
A happy child first reported, “Look, Ma, no cavities!” because of Crest Toothpaste in a 1958 commercial.
The real first names of the following musicians are: Duke Ellington—Edward Tommy Dorsey—Francis Glenn Miller—Alton Count Basie—William
Harry Dickens (John Astin) and Arch Fenster (Marty Ingels) were carpenters and handymen. They starred in “I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster” (ABC, 1962-63).
Suzanne Somers played the woman in the white 1956 Thunderbird in American Graffiti (1973).
Jay Loeb and R. Evans were the composers of the popular World War II song “Rosie the Riveter”. Rosie the Riveter was a nickname for civilian working women during World War II, particularly those who worked in war-related industries.
A TV network president accept an Emmy and said, “This is the best show I ever canceled” for “He and She,” which ran in 1967-68 on CBS and starred Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss. The network president was Mike Dann, of CBS.
Dick York leave the TV series “Bewitched” (ABC, 1964-72) primarily for health reasons. As a result of a back injury during the filming of They Came to Cordura (1959), he developed a degenerative spine condition. He has also said that he wanted to spend more time with his children and that “the atmosphere on the … Read more
Pixies are mischievous sprites of English folklore that like to play pranks on people. They are most famous for leading people astray. Hence, anyone lost on a familiar road, bewildered, or confused came to be called “pixie-led” or “pixilated.
Eddie (“Banana Nose”) Arcaro won the Triple Crown twice, in 1941 on Whirlaway and in 1948 on Citation.
Ryan O’Neal’s character had the number IV after his name, as in “Oliver Barrett IV.”, in Love Story (1970). His father was Oliver Barrett III, played by Ray Milland.
Forty-two-year-old Leroy “Satchel” Paige became the oldest rookie in pro baseball when he signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1948. He had been a pitcher in the Negro Leagues since 1926.
The moon’s diameter is 2,160 miles. The earth’s diameter at the equator is 7,926.68 miles.
Tipperary is a county in Munster Province, Ireland. It occupies a broad strip of land between the Shannon and Suir rivers. The Irish name for Tipperary is Contae Tiobraid Arann. It is a long way from most places.
Originally called a frankfurter (for its origin in Frankfurt, Germany) or a dachshund sausage (for its shape), the hot dog is said to have been first served on a bun in the U.S. in the 1880s. German food vendors Antoine Feuchtwanger in St. Louis, Missouri, and Charles Feltman in Coney Island, Brooklyn, have both been … Read more
“Gunsmoke” (CBS, 1955-75) was the top-rated TV show in 1960.
The rich bons vivants, Nick and Nora Charles, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man (1934), lived in San Francisco.
More than 13,000 Union prisoners died at Andersonville, the largest Confederate military prison. Most died of neglect. The prison’s commandant, Captain Henry Wirz, was the only Civil War soldier executed for war crimes.
A school of these 8- to 12-inch fish, which inhabit the freshwater rivers of South America, has been observed gnawing a 400-pound hog to the bone in minutes. Initially attracted by the smell of blood, piranhas begin gnawing as soon as they reach their prey. With their spring-trap jaws, they remove any animal’s flesh most … Read more
While James I granted a pension to Ben Jonson in 1616, it was not until 1668 that the laureateship was created as a royal office. John Dryden (1631-1700) was appointed by Charles II and held the office until 1688, when he was stripped of the laureateship by William and Mary because he had become a … Read more
The longest hiccuping attack lasted 65 years. The longest sneezing fit lasted 978 days. The longest yawning ordeal took five weeks.
The four 60-foot-high likenesses on Mount Rushmore, sculpted between 1925 and 1941, are meant to represent the following: George Washington, the nation’s founding; Thomas Jefferson, its political philosophy; Abraham Lincoln, its preservation; and Theodore Roosevelt, its expansion and conservation.
The first poem of Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge in what many consider the founding work of English romanticism is Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
The Hundred Years’ War was a conflict between France and England for control of France. It took place over a period of 116 years, from 1337 to 1453, with peaceful intervals of varying length. The French won.
The “Gilligan’s Island” (CBS, 1964-67) cast and characters were .. . Gilligan—Gilligan (Bob Denver) The Skipper—Jonas Grumbly (Alan Hale, Jr.) The Millionaire—Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus) His Wife—Mrs. Lovey Howell III (Natalie Schaefer) The Movie Star—Ginger Grant (Tina Louise) The Professor—Roy Hinkley (Russell Johnson) Mary Ann—Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells)
Alfred Nobel, who made his fortune in the Baker oil fields of Russia and through the sale of dynamite and other explosives, bequeathed $9.2 million for the prize at his death in 1896. Some say his concern over increasing mankind’s ability to kill one another led him to endow a peace prize. Today, Nobel Prizes … Read more
Andrew Jackson said, “After eight years as president, I have only two regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun”.
Most of the world’s non-Muslim countries use the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as a reform of the Julian calendar. The latter, instituted by Julius Caesar, had been in use since 46 B.C. Americans have used the Gregorian calendar since 1752. What’s the difference between the the Julian or the Gregorian … Read more
A sleuth or sloth of bears A clutter or chowder of cats A murder of crows A cloud or horde of gnats A troop of kangaroos A muster or ostentation of peacocks A sounder of swine
The self-improvement program called the Chautauqua Movement was designed “to promote habits of reading and study in nature, art, science, and in secular and sacred literature, in connection with the routine of daily life”. It was first proposed at a Methodist Episcopal camp meeting at Lake Chautauqua, New York, in 1873 by Bishop John H. … Read more
Mary Stuart as Joanne Barron and Larry Haines as Stu Bergman, both on “Search for Tomorrow” (CBS, 1951-82; NBC, 1982-1987), is the longest-running performance in daytime TV drama history.
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto became the first European to reach the Mississippi River during a treasure-hunting expedition in 1539-42. Sailing from Havana, Cuba, De Soto landed at Tampa Bay, Florida, and traveled by a meandering route through what are now Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. After crossing the river and reaching what … Read more
Not surprisingly, the name refers to a part of the lion. In England, before the sixteenth century, the weed was called lion’s tooth because of its serrated leaf’s resemblance to the lion’s incisor. Later, the French translation, dent de lion, was adopted into English and eventually became anglicized to “dandelion.”
A prima donna is simply the leading lady of an opera company. A diva, a “goddess,” is a legendary or highly celebrated leading lady.
In the movie Babette’s Feast (1987), the spread included, among other things, fresh terrapin soup, quail in vol-au-vents, blinis, caviar, and baba au rhum.
Following consumer testing, M&M/Mars decided upon the following breakdown for plain M&M’s in each bag: Brown. 30 percent Red. 20 percent Yellow. 20 percent Green. 10 percent Orange. 10 percent Tan. 10 percent For peanut M&M’s, it is: Brown. 30 percent Red. 20 percent Yellow. 20 percent Green. 20 percent Orange. 10 percent
By the electoral votes of two states, the 1932 landslide that removed Herbert Hoover was more complete. In 1928, Hoover captured the electoral votes of 40 states; in 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt captured the votes of 42 states. Roosevelt’s landslide was larger in the popular vote as well. The 1928 election saw Hoover winning 6.4 … Read more
At the end of The Invisible Man (1933), when the invisible, naked man runs through the snow, the police spot him by his footprints, but his footprints are those of shoes instead of bare feet.
The chairman of the America First Committee formed in 1940 to oppose U.S. intervention in World War II was Robert E. Wood, head of Sears, Roebuck. America First’s most famous spokesman, however, was aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. Some committee members expressed sympathy for Nazi ideology; Lindbergh had visited Nazi Germany and accepted a medal from … Read more
The first drive-in movie opened on a 40-acre parking lot in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. The creation of New Jersey entrepreneurs Richard M. Hollinshead, Jr., and Willis Smith started a nationwide craze. During its peak, in 1958, there were over 4,000 drive-ins across America. As of 1992, there were fewer than 1,000 … Read more
Chariots of Fire (1981) portrays the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
In the mid-1970s, the leading career choice for Harvard M.B.A. graduates was manufacturing. Ten years later, it was investment banking.
William Safire wrote the phrase “nattering nabobs of negativism” for Vice-President Spiro Agnew in 1970. Agnew speechwriter Pat Buchanan, came up with “pusillanimous pussyfooters”, also in 1970.
George Hamilton played Robert Cole, a character based on Raskolnikov, in this strange version of Feodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment set in Santa Monica, California. It was Hamilton’s screen debut.
Sprinters Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos, winners of medals in the 200-meter event, raised their fists in a “black power” salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics. The 1968 Olympics from Mexico City were televised in the United States on ABC.
On June 26, 1896, the 400-seat Vitascope Hall was opened at the corner of Canal Street and Exchange Place in New Orleans by William T. Rock. For 10 cents, viewers could peer into the projection room; for another 10 cents, they could see the Edison Vitascope projector. A popular film of the time was May … Read more
According to Adam Smith (1723-1790), the “invisible hand” of economics is competition that regulates the marketplace. He first made this observation in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776).
Beavers prefer slender poplar trees for food, but will cut down trees as large as 18 inches in diameter, including hardwoods such as beech, cherry, and oak.
Tassajara, founded in Big Sur, California, in 1967 by Richard Baker and Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, was the first Zen Buddhist monastery in the U.S.
The animal in the 1865 Mark Twain story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is named Dan’l Webster.
The 500-mile race in Indianapolis was first held on May 30, 1911, when Ray Harroun won in 6 hours, 42 minutes, 8 seconds. His average speed was 74.59 miles per hour.
Eric Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales” are: 1. La Boulangere de Monceau (1963) 2. La Carriere de Suzanne (1963). 3. La Collectionneuse (1967) 4. Ma Nuit chez Maud (1969) 5. Le Genou de Claire (1971) 6. Chloe in the AfternoonlE Amour l’apres-midi (1972)
Only one U.S. president was never married, James Buchanan (president 1857-61).
The formal name of the painting “Whistler’s Mother” is Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1872.
Glenn Miller was presented with a gold-covered master of his recording “Chattanooga Choo Choo” on his radio program of February 10, 1942. The record, released in conjunction with the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade, had climbed past the 1 million mark a few months after its release. The original 1949 Broadway cast recording of Oklahoma! … Read more
It was not Mark Twain who said the phrase. The quote first appeared in an editorial in the Hartford Courant of August 24, 1897, probably written by associate editor Charles Dudley Warner. Warner had collaborated with Twain on The Gilded Age (1873).
The Kobayashi Maru was the name of the “no-win” test that Lieutenant Saavik (Kirstie Alley) fails at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
