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Trivia ~ Famous People
Benjamin Franklin was way ahead of his time. In order to expand his printing business, he set up branches of his print shop in nearly every city on the Eastern seaboard. In return for setting the shops up, he then took a share of the profits. And like the modern franchises of today, he even sold the print shops the supplies they needed to run their business, like ink and paper.
Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod with a pointed tip in 1749 as a means of diverting a lightning strike harmlessly to earth. But King George III decreed that lightning rods on royal residences must have blunt ends. The king's degree was not based on science but on political pique, because Franklin was an advocate of independence from Great Britain.
However, ol' George may've been on to something. Charles Moore, a retired atmospheric physicist with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, tested both types of lightning rod tips during seven summer thunderstorm seasons. An article in New Scientist reports he found that the ones struck most frequently had blunt tips about 19 millimeters in diameter.
Jamie Farr who played Klinger in the series M*A*S*H was the only regular that actually did a stint in the Korean war.
After Albert Einstein died in 1955, his brain went to Kansas. Dr. Thomas Harvey, who autopsied the great mathematician, was authorized by Einstein's son to keep the brain for study. Harvey kept it in a bottle in a cardboard box behind a beer cooler.
Pretty Regis Vaughan didn't dance the whole night of Humes High School's 1953 senior prom. That's because her date, Elvis Presley, didn't know how!
Thomas Jefferson (3rd US president) and John Adams (2nd US president) both died on the same day: July 4, 1826! Some sources say that Adam's last words were "Thomas Jefferson still lives". He was wrong--Jefferson have died three hours earlier. [H]
When Apollo Mission Astronaut Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" statement but followed it by several remarks, usual communication traffic between him, the other astronauts and Mission Control. Just before he re-entered the lander, however, he made the enigmatic remark "Good luck Mr. Gorsky."
Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.
On July 5, 1995 in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had finally died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.
When he was a kid, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit a fly ball, which landed in the front of his neighbor's bedroom windows. His neighbors were Mr. & Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Sex! You want sex?! You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!" True story
The Mayflower is headed for Virginia… but ends up putting ashore at Plymouth rock. One Pilgrim's diary explains why:
"We could not take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer."
Yes- the Pilgrims made port because they ran out of beer (then considered an essential and a healthy part of everyone's daily diet)!
Once ashore, they promptly erected a brew-house… and got to work brewing up a new batch to slake their thirsts.
So Plymouth, Massachusetts ended up becoming the historic home of the pilgrims…
because they needed to make a beer run!
Robert Todd Lincoln the only son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to live to adulthood; was rescued from a train accident by Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln
One of the great actors of his day stands on a station platform in Jersey City waiting to board a train.
The coach he is about to get into… starts with a jolt; he sees a young man lose his balance, falling between the platform and the moving train.
Quickly, the actor reaches down, grabs the young man by the collar and pulls him to safety. It is only years later that they recognize the haunting irony.
The actor is Edwin Booth… brother of John Wilkes Booth.
And the young man he saved?
Robert Todd Lincoln—Abraham Lincoln's son. [T]
1876 - Wild Bill Hickok, shot dead (from behind) by Jack McCall while playing poker. He held a pair of Aces & a pair of 8's This combo of cards later became know as dead man's hand
BRAILLE
In the early 18 hundreds, soldiers have no way to read messages at night without exposing themselves to enemy fire. That is until a French artillery officer, Captain Charles Barbier, creates "Nightwriting", a code consisting of 12 raised dots poked onto paper.
Eventually Barbier introduces his system to the blind. One of his students… a young boy… thinks he can make it better. Barbier ignores him.
But by the time he is 15, the student—Louis Braille—succeeds in creating a simplified system that uses just 6 dots.And a new world opens up for those without sight
In his first film, The Lodger, Alfred Hitchcock, (winner of five Best Director Academy Awards) appeared as an extra to help fill the screen, but continued his cameos in subsequent films first out of superstition and then as a running gag to keep his audience's strict attention.
Elvis Presley died on Madonna's twelvth birthday, August 16, 1977.
One of President Andrew Jackson's most trusted advisors was Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Pretty extraordinary, considering that 20 years earlier, Benton put a bullet in Jackson!
Benton was Jackson's aide during the war of 1812, and shot him after the two quarreled. Then he lit out for Missouri.
By the time Jackson came to Washington, Benton was a powerful Senator. Some thought "Old Hickory" might shoot Benton on sight. But instead, he made peace, and gained an ally.
Years later, when doctors removed the bullet, Jackson supposedly offered it to Benton saying it was "his property." Benton declined; telling Jackson he'd earned it!
1907: Jim Casey, a 19 year-old from Seattle, Washington, started a messenger and delivery service called American Messenger Company.The company, later changed its name to United Parcel Service With about 340,000 employees worldwide, UPS delivers over 3 billion packages a year.)
In the mid-1950s, while B.B. King was performing in Twist, Arkansas, some audience members got into a fight over a woman named Lucille. They knocked over a kerosene stove and set the place on fire. Everyboy ran outside...but when King realized he left his guitar inside, he rushed back to retrieve it. From then on, King has named all his guitars "Lucille."
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Caligula made Incitatus a consul. He became one of the most powerful rulers of Rome. So what's the big deal? Incitatus was a horse!
Gerald R. Ford is the first president, and so far, only president to become president without being elected to be either president or vice president. Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., was renamed after his mother remarried. He served as a congressman for 25 years President Nixon nominated Ford as vice president in 1973 after Spiro T. Agnew resigned. Then, following Nixon's resignation in 1974, Ford became president. Ford attempted to run for president in 1976, but was defeated by Jimmy Carter.
As bits of trivia are presented on my e-mail list I will add them here. See them first by sending an e-mail to twotreestrivia-subscribe@topica.com
If you have other good Trivia to add please E-mail me
