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Trivia ~ Places
Disney World in Orlando, FL has only been closed one day since it opened in 1971 and that was due to a hurricane in 1999. Even on that day, there was still a two hour wait for most rides.
The full name of Los Angeles is: "El Pueblo de Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula".
For millions of years, the Mississippi River ran freely across its delta into the Gulf of Mexico, flooding every year and building up layer upon layer of sediments. Each year, the sediments sank under their own weight and the floods added more layers on top.
Then humans came and built a city that they called New Orleans. Unfortunately, they also penned the waters of the river into narrow channels. The floods no longer added new layers, and the land began to sink.
Today, most of New Orleans is sinking at a rate of three feet (1 meter) per century, and on average the whole city is already eight feet below sea level (2.4 meters). Rising sea levels caused by global warming make the problem even worse. Although efforts are under way to protect the city, it is likely that large parts of New Orleans will be underwater within decades.
The Official name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, which translates as United States of Mexico
There are 61 towns in the United States with the word "turkey" in their names (e.g., Turkeytown, Alabama and Turkey Foot, Florida).
Texas has 254 counties. Alaska, which is more than twice as large, hasn't any.
Ohio is the state which has produced the largest number of U.S. Presidents, 7.
8, if you include William Henry Harrison (as some do) the 9th U.S. President, though born in Charles City County, Virginia and not in Ohio, he spent most of his adult life there and served in the Ohio senate, as Ohio Representative to Congress and as a U.S. senator from Ohio. He was the first U.S. President to die in office and also served the shortest term, March 4, 1841 to April 4, 1841.Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th was born in Delaware Ohio
James Abram Garfield the 20th ( assassinated while in office) was born on a frontier farm in Cuyahoga co., Ohio,
Benjamin Harrison the 23rd , grandson of 9th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio.
William McKinley the 25th ( assassinated while in office) was born in Niles, Ohio.
William Howard Taft the 27th and chief justice, U.S. Supreme Court. was native of Cincinnati, Ohio
Warren Gamaliel Harding the 29th U.S. 1st president to speak on radio) was born near Corsica, Ohio.Ohio has not only produced the largest number of Presidents but also the largest, in William Howard Taft at 6'2" and 300 pounds.
2003 is Ohio's 200th and 50th birthday. On February 19,1803, Congress voted to accept Ohio's borders and constitution, but due to an over site, Congress did not formally ratify Ohio statehood until 1953.
What's the oldest city in the America's? If the criteria are city's in recorded history, shuffleboard courts, early bird specials and retired people one-upping each other by comparing their bypass operation scars, then it’s probably the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan area.
But if we’re talking urban timelines, it looks as if the first entry will be for a place called Caral, in Peru. The site is just now being excavated but already it’s been dated almost back to 3,000 BC. That would have made it a thriving urban area during the great era of pyramid building in Egypt.
Caral covered about 35 square miles, had its own pyramids, one of which spanned the area of four football fields, a large amphitheater, plazas and homes. It may have been the birthplace of the Inca civilization. However, archaeological evidence suggests that there were no freeways....
The State of Nevada first legalized gambling in 1931. At that same time, the Hoover Dam was being built and the federal government did not want its workers (who earned 50 cents an hour) to be involved with such diversions, so they built the town of Boulder City to house the dam workers. To this day, Boulder City is the only city in Nevada where gambling is illegal.
Traveling down the Interstate in Delaware costs $.18 per mile in tolls, more than three times what New Jersey charges. Fees from the more than 300,000 barely regulated companies that incorporate in Delaware make a state sales tax unnecessary, helping to siphon away business from New Jersey and Maryland.
Is Delaware a state or a stock?
The longest main street in America, 33 miles in length, is in Island Park, Idaho.
On March 27, 1964, North America's strongest recorded earthquake, with a moment magnitude of 9.2, rocked central Alaska. Each year Alaska has approximately 5,000 earthquakes, including 1,000 that measure above 3.5 on the Richter scale. Of the ten strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the world, three have occurred in Alaska.
Rio de Janiero, Brazil was, for a time (1808), declared the capital of Portugal by King Joao VI, who fled his country while it was occupied by Napoleon I's forces.
The 4,215-square-mile Katmai National Monument in Alaska, is the largest of all U. S. national parks and monuments in size. Glacier Bay National Monument, also in Alaska, ranks second with 3,554 square miles, and Yellowstone National Park is third with 3,472. Katmai is about four-fifths as large as Connecticut, and more than twice the size of Delaware.
In Worcester County in the state of Massachusetts, there's a lake that's known as Lake Webster. But it's real name is the longest place-name in America and can literally take your breath away......oh boy! Put on your reading glasses, take a deep breath, and feed the cat because you may be out of commission for a while,
It's Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The name, which has 17 g's, is pronounced, naturally, as it's spelled. There are two variant spellings, but I don't have the heart to subject you or my proofreader to them.
According to author Bill McLain, this Nipmuck Indian word (did you really think it was French or Portuguese?) means, "You fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fishes in the middle."
Did you know that the "White House" was once in the Bronx? For three months in 1797, while a yellow fever epidemic raged in Philadelphia, then the U. S. capital, President John Adams conducted the nation's business from this much-maligned New York City borough.
Da Bronx! Fancy dat.
Sorry to pick on the folk from Michigan, but did you know that state has a lot of weird city names?
For example: Bad Axe, Christmas, Climax, Eden, Gay, Hell, Jugville, Kalamazoo, Olive Branch, Paradise, Pigeon, Pine Stump Junction, Podunk and, Slapneck.
I bet you have never been "way down upon the Swanee River" That's because it's far, far away. Like Never, Never land. There's no such place. Stephen Foster, who composed the song in Pittsburgh, was going to call it "The Yazoo River," but switched to the Suwannee, located in Georgia and Florida, because it sounded better. Needing two syllables, he shortened it to "Swanee."
But for that we might have been singing "up the Yazoo in a canoe with you."
At the Isthmus of Panama the Pacific Ocean can be as much as 20 feet higher than the Atlantic - depending on what the Pacific has been smoking.
If you stand at the equator you will spin at about 1,000 miles per hour because of the Earth's rotation. On the other hand, even if you're just lying on a chaise lounge in your own backyard, there are some stiff tropical drinks that will do the same for you
The only radio station in the U.S. with call letters that spell out the name of its home city is WACO in Waco, Texas.
The University of Santo Domingo (established in 1538) in the Dominican Republic is the Americas’ oldest university
Philadelphia was second only to London as the largest English-speaking city in the world at the time of the American War of Independence
Purely coincidental, Disneyland and Walt Disney World amusement parks are in counties with the same name. The former is in Orange County, California; the latter is in Orange County, Florida.
New York City, named by Americans as the most dangerous, least attractive, and rudest city in a America, is also, strangely enough, Americans’ top choice as the city where they would most like to live or visit on vacation
The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day
Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin? Today it's known as Tennessee.
The names of some cities in the United States are the names of other U.S. states. These include Nevada in Missouri, California Maryland, Louisiana in Missouri, Oregon in Wisconsin, Kansas in Oklahoma, Wyoming in Ohio, Michigan in North Dakota, Delaware in Arkansas, and Indiana in Pennsylvania
North Carolina (not California) was the site of first U.S. gold rush in 1803. The state supplied all the domestic gold coined for currency by the US Mint in Philadelphia, until 1828
“Q” is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any state of the United States
Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'
People in the Dominican Republic, where Christopher Columbus landed, think his name is jinxed and won't mention it. There have been earthquakes, plane crashes and other accidents associated with occasions honoring the explorer.
There are more people in New York City (7,895,563) than there are in the states of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, Delaware, and New Mexico combined
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
