- Albert Einstein didn't wear socks. He also thought one coat was enough. He said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Tom Horn, the famous Indian scout who rode alone into Geronimo's camp in Mexico and persuaded the legendary Apache to surrender, eventually became a hired killer. When he escaped from the Cheyenne, Wyoming, jail where he was awaiting execution for murder, townspeople ran him down and escorted him back to his cell. A photograph of his return shows a lone man on horseback … but at least seven people in the crowd were riding or pushing bicycles. Incidentally, Horn spent his last days before execution braiding the rope that was used to hang him.
- Deinosuchus - the forty-foot crocodile that weighed nine tons, lived 110 million years ago, and ate dinosaurs - had the strongest jaws of any animal known to science regardless of time period. In modern times, the American alligator has the strongest bite ever recorded, but it has large jaws. The spotted hyena probably bites harder per square inch. But for the strongest jaws on Earth - pound for pound - look to the eight-legged arachnid known variously as the sun spider or wind scorpion.
- The Gulf Stream is an immense water current. The part of the Gulf Stream System that flows out of the Gulf of Mexico between Florida and Cuba carries 15 times as much water as all the rivers of the world combined.
- In October, 1929, C. L. Grigg introduced a new soft drink, "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda". Despite the Great Depression, the product's unwieldy name, and the fact that it was competing with more than 600 other lemon-lime soft drinks, Grigg's new soda prospered. Thankfully, he quickly chose a handier name: 7 Up. Incidentally, no one knows why he chose that name, but early advertising did extol 7 Up's "seven natural flavors".
- Manufacturers, who felt they were a good idea, started putting bar codes on products before there were any bar code readers. Who started it all? Wrigley, the chewing gum company.
- Howard Carter, the English archaeologist who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen ("King Tut") in 1922, sealed the tomb in 1924, denying everyone the right to enter and refusing to turn over the keys. Why? He was upset because the Egyptian Minister of Public Works had forbidden women to enter the tomb.
- England's Royal Marriage Act of 1772 is an interesting piece of legislation. Under this Act, most descendants of King George II are forbidden to marry without the approval of the reigning monarch. Buried in the Act is this unusual provision: it is a crime even to attend a wedding that doesn't have the prescribed royal approval.
- Forty-six percent of Americans die during the three-month period following their birthday. Only six percent die during the three-month period leading up to their birthday.
- Welshman Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote Historia Regnum Britannie ("History of the Kings of Britain"), started all the legends when he included a king named Arthur. But the original story of Arthur didn't include a Round Table, or the peerless knight Sir Lancelot, or the innocent Sir Percival, whose purity allowed him to find the Holy Grail. Frenchmen added those features to the English legend.
- Bat Masterson knew some famous people, including close friends Wyatt Earp and Theodore Roosevelt. He also knew Richard D. Plunkett, a Colorado lawman who was only slightly famous. Plunkett was the man who arrested Ed O'Kelley, who was the man who killed Bob Ford, who was the man who killed Jesse James. Plunkett visited New York once, while Masterson was writing boxing columns for the New York Morning Telegraph. He drunkenly denounced Masterson as a phony and tried to hit him. Masterson ducked and knocked Plunkett down. He then reached into his pocket, drew out something no one saw, and held it against Plunkett's stomach. He kept the Colorado man motionless on the floor as they awaited the police and onlookers fled what appeared to be an imminent shooting by the famous western gunfighter. When the crisis was over, Masterson revealed his "weapon" - a pack of cigarettes.
- Crazy Horse, famous for his part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, bore a significant scar on his face for most of his adult life. He never allowed himself to be photographed, never allowed anyone to paint his portrait - perhaps because of the disgraceful scar. He got it after running off with another man's wife. The outraged husband followed, attacked, and permanently disfigured the legendary Sioux war leader.
- William Barrett Travis was a practicing attorney in South Carolina when he married. He then joined the Masons, fathered a son, and started publishing a newspaper. He later moved to Texas and practiced law first in Anahuac and then in San Felipe before joining the Texas "army" to oppose Santa Ana. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Texas forces and commanded the regular troops defending the Alamo. He died there on March 6, 1836; he was 26 years old.
- You may remember Necco Wafers, the mild, pastel-colored, "dusty", hard candy disks that came in a roll. Almost certainly, any of your relatives that served in World War II remember them, too. The Army bought almost all the Necco Wafers the New England Confectionery Company could produce, for shipment to troops overseas, since this "perfect food" didn't melt and was almost indestructible in shipment.
- Fortune, as the cliché goes, smiled on Gnaeus Pompeius, the exceptionally successful Roman general that Westerners usually call Pompey. He always chose the winning side in Rome's endless power struggles. His military campaigns always succeeded, even when they seemed certain to fail. He was wildly popular with the Roman citizens. All this, that is, until 64 B.C. After that, things never really went right for Pompey again, and he eventually wound up fleeing around the Mediterranean, barely keeping ahead of the pursuing forces of Julius Caesar. When he reached Egypt, supporters of Ptolemy XII assassinated him and presented his head to Caesar as a gesture of goodwill. Why did Pompey have such a complete reversal of fortune in 64 B.C.? Perhaps it was just one of those quirks that make history - and gambling - so interesting. Or maybe it was because Pompey, having just conquered Judea, was in Jerusalem in 64 B.C. He went to the Temple and, out of curiosity and over the protests of the Jews, he violated the Holy of Holies, entering the chamber where no man but the High Priest was ever allowed to go, the chamber where God dwelt.
|
