PAGE FOUR:Historical Facts and Figures

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Historical Facts

• Pennsylvania is spelled wrong on the Liberty Bell.
• The first known written advertisement is more than 3000 years old. It was found in the ruins of Thebes.
• The only survivor of Custer's Last stand was his horse, Commanche.
• The White House painted white after the British Burned it in 1814, before that it was the Grey House.
• The first newspaper, started by Julius Ceasar, was posted daily in public places. It was called Acta diurna.
• The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabres, hence the name leathernecks
• When the German air force bombed cities in England, they used guide books to make sure they hit historically important Buildings.
• The USSR was the fisrt country to legalize abortion.(in 1920)
• English poachers caught hunting illegeally in the time of Richard the Lion Heart(1157-1199) were castrated.
• To keep Napoleon from stealing the Crown Jewels of Spain, the people walled them up somewhere in the castle.The French redecorated all the rooms while they were there, and the jewels have never been found.
• In the US Capitol there is a 100-year-old safe, called the Centennial Safe. It Was given to the government at the 1876 Exposition and it was supposed to be opened and it's secret contents were to be revealed in 1976, but the Smithsonian Institute was trusted with the key, and they LOST IT!
• There were not only mid-wifes in the 17th century, but also, midmencalled accouchers.
• The Studebaker dynasty started was originally founded on $68.
• Amoung the 9400 Americans buried in Normandy, near the site of the D-day invasion, are 33 pairs of brothers, and a father and son, buried right next to each other.
• If Hell is a Lake of Fire, as mentioned in Revealations, the temperature around there would be about 445 degrees centegrade or 833 degrees fahrenheit.(Just thought this would be something interesting to know.)
• The first roll of toliet paper was introduced in 1871.
• The ancient European custom of drinking honeyed wine(mead.) during the early weeks of marriage gave us the word HONEYMOON.
• In 1509 there were 11,654 prostitutes in Venice. How do I Know? Because their names, addresses, and prices were all listed in a widely distributed directory, that's how.
• In the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene became the "patron Saint" of prostitutes.
• In Rome, brides were lifted across the threshold to prevent tripping, a bad omen.
• Wheeled toys were found in Mexican Tombs dating back to the 1st century A.D., even though wheels weren't used as transportation until after the Spanish arrived there in the 15th and 16th centuries.
• By the same token, there were toy helicopters as far back as the 14th century, but no real helicopter flew sucessfully until the 20th century.
• O is the oldest letter in the alphabet.
• In 1641 the Massachusettes Bay Colony outlawed lawyers!
• Frank and Jesse James committed the first ever DAY TIME bank Robbey on Feb.14,1866.
• The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on Breed's Hill.
• Yale College served apple pie every night for more than 100 years.
• Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, was coming home from Harvard for vacation when he slipped and fell between two railroad cars. His life was saved when a man pulled him out. The man was Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, the man who would one day assasintated Robert's presidential father.
• Native Americans all had blood type A or O until the Europeans arrived.
• The White House had a telephone before it had an indoor bathroom.
• The first car accident in US history involved an automobile and a bicycle. It was 1896 and bikes were the new rage.
• The first space shuttle was named Constitution, but President Ford changed it to Enterprise after receiving 100,000 letters for Star Trek fans.

America is a mistake, a gigantic mistake, it is true, but none the less, a mistake.-Sigmond Frued.

HIstorical Figures

• When Albert Einstein left Germany in 1935 the Nazis put a 20,000 Mark price on his head.
• J. Edgar Hoover didn't want anyone to walk in his shadow.
• Florence Nightengale carried a pet owl in her pocket. (Nightengale?Owl?...Hmm?)
• David Livingston(of Dr. Livingston, I presume fame) is buried in two different spots. His heart and organs were placed under a tree near Lake Bangweulu in Africa, and the rest of him is under the floor of Westminster Abbey.
• The first black man(a moor) in the New World was Pedro Alonso Nino. The first Jew would have been Luis de Torres. They were both memebers of Coloumbus' crew.
• Annie Oakley's real name was Phoebe Ann Moses, nicnamed Watanya cicilia (little sure shot) by Cheif Sitting Bull.
• J. Edgar Hoover got the idea for his TEN MOST WANTED list from a fashion designer who invented the TEN BEST DRESSED WOMEN survey.
• The Roman emperor, Nero, never wore the same clothes twice.
• Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic.
• HItler was so anti-abortion,amoung the Arians, that is, he sentenced women who had them to hard labor or even death.
• A balck surgeon, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, performed the first sucessful heart operation.
• Sir Walter Raliegh was decapited. His body was buried in a Westminster church, but his head was lost.
• When Pope John XXIII died he only owned two things- a cross and a fountain pen.
• Louis XIV bathed only twice a year, Queen Elizabeth I, only once a month, whehter she needed it or not,
• Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart never went to school.
• Fidel Castro's anti-communist sister lives in Miami, Florida.
• Napoleon designed the flag of Italy.
• Queen Victoria's picture was on the world's first stamp.Circa 1840.
• Aristotle was Alexander the Great's tutor.
• The agualung was invented by Jaques Yves Cousteau and Emil Gagnan while they belonged to the French Resistance in WWII.
• Johann Sebastian Bach had 20 children.
• Ben Franklyn met the lover (Giacomo) Cassanova while visiting Paris.
• Charles W. Furras, the Wright Brothers mechanic, was the first-ever airplane passenger. Wilbur gave him a 29 second ride in 1908.
• Annie Oakley shot a cigar out of Kaiser Wilheim's mouth while touring Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
• The First Woman solider was 22-year-old Deborah Sampson, who changed her name to Robert Shurtleff and joined the Massachusettes Regiment of Foot during the American Revolution. She was wounded twice, but refused treatment both times to protect her secret.
• Johnny Appleseed,aka John Chapman, died in FT. Wayne, Indiana in 1845.
• Gail Borden, inventor of condensed milk in 1856, is the one who started the "Remember the Alamo" battle cry. He printed it as a head line while working at a newspaper.
• The Statue of Liberty's real name is LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD. Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi used hos nmother as a model, and the framework was designed by Gustav Eiffel, famous for the tower.
• Andrew Carnigie donated more than $350 million to charity in his life.
• The Navajo Indian language was used as code in WWII.
• George M. Cohan was birn on July...3rd, 1878. His father changed it to the 4th to be patriotic.
• Calanity Jane was not only an outlaw, she was also a prostitute.
• Lynch mobs were named for justice of the peace, Charles Lynch, but he never hung prisoners-he flogged them.
• Henry Ford named the EDSEL after his son.
• Ben Franklyn never married. He lived with a lover, Deborah Read for 44 years and they had two children together. Ms. Read's husband's death could never be verified.
• Douglas MacArthur's mother dressed him in skirts until he was eight.
• Paul Revere had to arrow a horse for his famous ride.
• Huey Long gave the laongest-ever speech before the senate. It lasted 15 and a half hours.
• George Armstrong Custer took out a $5,000 life insurance policy right before leading his men to Little Big Horn.(Good Move.)
• Hitler had a picture of Henry Ford on his desk, and Henry ford had a picture of Hitler on his desk.
• Before flying in space John Glenn flew 59 missions in WWII and 90 in Korea.
• The first MD in the US, Elizabeth Blackwell, was let into med school as a joke. She got the last laugh by graduating at the head of her class.
• The tree were Nathan Hale was hung by the British as a spy was probaly located near the corner of 66th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.
• The flight of Alan Shepard, first US astronaut, lasted only 15 minutes, 22 seconds.
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