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Trivia ~ Famous People
Page 2
The vote of a single Indiana farmer helped make Texas a state. Here's how:
In 1842, Henry Shoemaker went to the polls to vote in the race for state legislator. His vote broke a tie.So his candidate, Madison Marsh won the election -- by ONE VOTE!
When the legislature convened to elect a US Senator- they wound up dead-locked, Marsh switched sides, and Edward Hannegan won by ONE VOTE!
A year later the US Senate was debating whether to allow Texas to join the Union. Hannegan's one vote tipped the balance!
In 1948, just one additional vote in each precinct would have elected Thomas Dewey.
In 1976, less then one vote in each precinct in Ohio could have elected Ford. President Thomas Jefferson was elected president by one vote in the Electoral College. So was John Quincy Adams.
And in Congress, one vote gave statehood to California, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The Draft Act of World War II passed the House by one vote.So never assume your vote doesn't count.
John D. Rockefeller made his first philanthropic contribution at the age of sixteen. At his death, eighty-two years later, the oil magnate had given away $531,326,842.
What's the Mark of Cain?
It's amazing how many people don't at least know that this expression derives from The Bible's Book of Genesis. Less surprising is that even more people wrongly assume that this mark was to call attention to Cain's crime of fratricide.
Cain felt that God was showing favoritism to his brother, Abel, and responded by whacking his sibling. The Lord punished Cain by casting him out of paradise and Cain settled east of Eden (another question answered?). But Cain was afraid that he, in turn, would be killed by someone else for having committed the crime, so God put a protective sign on him, The Mark of Cain. But this protective mark also represented the worst kind of punishment. Cain would have to live out his natural lifetime contemplating the horror of what he did. He would thus punish himself. So if someone threatens you with the Mark of Cain, plea-bargain.
On one of her hands, Ann Boleyn had six fingers; on one of her feet she had six toes. She also had three breasts. But all that anatomical surplus didn't get her to any place good in life. Ann suffered the occupational hazard of being married to Henry VIII and was condemned to a date with the executioner's axe
The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written for Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence. When the Beatles were at a religious retreat in India, they were playing around with Mia. Her sister wouldn't come out and play with them. Hence, "Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?"
Attila the Hun.
The very name conjures up images of pilage and destruction.But one of history's fiercest warriors died before he completed his conquest of the civilized world, and it wasn't on the battlefield. It was on his wedding night.
After a night of drunken revelry in celebration of a new bride, Attila retired to the wedding chamber and promptly passed out on his back.
Now Attila had a weakness, he suffered from chronic nosebleeds. Apparently, one came upon him in his drunken state, and he choked to death.
So it was that one of history's most fearsome warriors died not from a bloody wound, but from a bloody nose.
Patrick Henry kept his wife locked in the basement of his home in Virginia, in a strait-jacket and chains. He fed and cared for her, but he kept her locked in the basement ever since she had gone insane years before, seeing as there was no asylums to place her in. During the time he had his wife locked in chains, he made his famous speech to the Delegation of Virginia , said in the speech:
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains? Forbid it Almighty God!", and "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Everyone knows of him as "Honest Abe." But just how honest was Abraham Lincoln?
When Lincoln was 24-years-old, he was the postmaster of New Salem, an appointment that lasted briefly since the post office closed. Because the bureaucracy was so slow in those days, years passed before a government agent came to settle accounts with him. When he was told that he owed the government $17, Lincoln produced the exact amount of money which had remained untouched despite his poverty. The agent was shocked. But Lincoln explained, 'I never use any man's money but my own.'"
Throughout his life, Lincoln always valued principle above all else. It is no surprise his motto was: "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."
Jimmy Durante's nose was insured for $140,000
Betty Grable's legs were insured for $250,000
Fred Astaire's feet were insured for $650,000!
George Washington was a wealthy man in land, but he was short in cash. How short? He had to borrow 600 pounds to travel from Mount Vernon to New York City for his inauguration.
The British Royal family aren't British at all! They are 100% German in origin; their original name was the House of Saxe-Coberg-Gothe. At the outbreak of World War I, they had to 'de-Germanize' themselves for fear of losing the throne. The name 'Windsor' was substituted, and was taken from one of the monarch's castles.
Who is, or was, Uncle Sam?
Sam Wilson supplied the US troops stationed near Troy, New York, with meat during the war of 1812. The meat was shipped to the soldiers stamped, "U.S." for the United States of course.
One day, when a federal inspector was checking the meat at Wilson's store, he was told by an employee that the US stood for Uncle Sam--Wilson's nickname. It was not long before all federal supplies
were said to belong to Uncle Sam.
In the early 1960s, Congress proclaimed Sam Wilson the original Uncle Sam.
Meredith Baxter Birney (mother on the sit com Family Ties) and Michael Gross (who played the father) were both born on June 21, 1947
Molly Pitcher was the first commissioned officer in the U.S. military On June 27,1778 - Mary Ludwig Hayes She gained her famous nickname, " Molly Pitcher'. During the American Revolution, at the Battle of Monmouth, NJ, where she helped out as a water carrier. Her husband, John, was wounded during the battle and Molly dropped the water pitcher, picking up her husband's job of loading and firing a cannon. General George Washington appointed her a commissioned officer position.
Did you know that Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister? Strange, I don't remember any religious references in the show. But, there were plenty of morals and do-good stuff thrown around.
Wait, it gets weirder. Ward Cleaver was an ordained minister too! Next I'll probably discover that Gilligan was too.
In 1958 Pope Pius XII designated the patron saint of television .
She was St. Clare of Assisi, who was born in 1194. She joined a Benedictine convent in 1212 and, along with St. Francis, founded the order of Franciscan nuns (known as the Poor Clares) in 1215.
Pope Pius XII designated her as the patron saint of television because on Christmas 1252, while she was in her cell at the convent of San Damiano, she said she saw and heard the mass in the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Orville Wright--one of the famed Wright brothers who invented the airplane--didn't like to fly.
Really... he had a nerve injury that caused him discomfort when he flew. So, from 1915 to 1948, he never stepped inside an airplane.
1945 The John Birch Society was named for The first casualty of the Cold War
On August 25, 1945, John Birch, an American missionary to China before the war and a U.S. Army intelligence specialist captain in the Army during the war, is killed by Chinese communists in the province of Anhwei ten days after the surrender of Japan, for no apparent reason.
After America had entered the war, Birch, a Baptist missionary already in China, was made a liaison between American and Chinese forces fighting the Japanese. But on August 25, Birch, commanding an American Special Services team, was ordered to halt by Chinese communist troops. A scuffle ensued, and Birch was shot dead.
In the 1950s, Society founder Robert H. Welch, Jr., named the organization after Birch because he believed him to be
the first American casualty in the fight against communism. The John Birch Society claimed that a communist conspiracy existed within the U.S. government and implicated a number of Americans, including President Eisenhower and Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.RobertAccording to Welch, Birch was "the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World."
In 1954, Elizabeth Hodges sustained injuries while sleeping on the couch in her living room in Sylacauga, Alabama. Ms. Hodges was struck by a meteorite that slammed through her roof, bounced off a radio, and hit her in the hip. The meteorite weighed 8.5 pounds and was seven inches long. The incident was the first time in modern history that a human was struck by a meteorite, although a dog in Egypt was reportedly killed by a meteorite in 1911.
First Lieutenant Arthur MacArthur (Civil War) and General Douglas MacArthur (WWII) are the only father and son in history to each receive a Medal of Honor. The award has been presented to five sets of brothers.
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