- Most people think of the fax machine as relatively new - an offshoot of personal computer development. Actually, Alexander Bain patented the fax machine on May 27, 1843, thirty-three years before Alexander Bell patented the telephone.
- Lillian "Queen Lil" Miner, once the madam of a Boston brothel, built a three-story "house of ill repute" in Richford, Vermont in 1911. Or at least partly in Richford: this facility was unique in that it straddled the US-Canadian border. The story goes that customers could thus flee into Canada if US authorities raided the establishment, and they could likewise escape into the US if Canadian police came prowling.
- Most people have never heard of the nuña, or popping bean, perhaps the oldest cultivated bean in the world. The people of the Andes were growing and eating nuñas before the Inca Empire began and possibly as long as 11,000 years ago. Heated in oil, nuña (pronounced noonya) beans pop like corn, resulting in a food that has the texture of popcorn and the flavor of peanuts.
- John Howard Payne was orphaned at age 13. He wandered New York, London, and Paris, finally dying in Tunis, Tunisia in North Africa in 1852. He wrote in 1850 that he "never had a home of my own" and never expected to have one. He also wrote one of the most popular and successful songs of the 19th Century - "Home, Sweet Home".
- Members of the rose family occurring in the wild never have true blue flowers or true red flowers. They lack the genes to produce pure blue or red flower pigments.
- The almond isn't a nut in the normal sense. The almond tree is a member of the rose family and resembles a peach tree. It grows an inedible fruit that is otherwise similar to a peach. Inside the almond fruit is a pit; inside the pit are one or two of the edible kernels we call almonds.
- Mary, Queen of Scots, was driven from Scotland by a rebellion. She fled into England, where her cousin and rival for power in the British Isles, Elizabeth I, imprisoned her for 19 years before executing her on a questionable charge of treason. What brought about the rebellion and Mary's subsequent difficulties? Some attribute it to public outrage because the queen, after her husband Lord Darnley was murdered, went to play golf instead of mourning him.
- Even when they know what a marsupial is and can even name a couple - the North American opossum and the Australian red kangaroo, say - most people can't name more than a very few of the other 275 species of marsupials living today.
- The U.S. Navy doesn't talk much about Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones. In December of 1841, he was given command of a six-ship squadron and sent to patrol the western coast of North America. In 1842, he sailed into the harbor at Monterey - the capital of the Mexican province of California - and proceeded to capture the city, even though the U.S. and Mexico were at peace. When Washington heard about this, Jones was ordered to leave Monterey, to turn over his command to a Commodore Dallas who was on his way west, and to return to Washington "… in such mode as be most convenient and agreeable …". Jones found it agreeable to sail his ships to Hawaii without informing Washington. When Commodore Dallas followed to Honolulu, he found that Jones had sailed on to Tahiti. When Dallas got to Tahiti, Jones was in Valparaiso, Chile. When Dallas got to Chile, he was informed that Jones had sailed off somewhere to the north. Dallas died before he caught up to his fellow officer. However, by this time, the War Department understood that the gentlemanly phrase - "most convenient and agreeable" - had been a mistake. They wrote up orders for Jones to return directly to Washington and left copies at every friendly port in the Pacific. Jones eventually received his orders and dutifully sailed home. He was never punished, but he never again commanded a Navy ship.
- The Wah Wah Mountains of Utah, in addition to having one of the most amusing of all mountain range names, have the world's only known deposits of gem-quality red beryl, an extremely rare precious stone that differs from an emerald only in color.
- For some reason, a certain Captain Paul - the Scottish commander of a prosperous merchant vessel in the West Indies - decided to add to his name when he went to live in the British colonies in North America. That's why we know the US naval pioneer John Paul as John Paul Jones.
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