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(Last updated September 28, 2011)

This page contains various trivia that I've collected (and am still collecting) over the past several years.  It may be in the form of lists, tables, etc.  In general, it follows no theme, topic, and/or category (it's farraginous!).  I plan to add to this page as time permits.  I've tried to attribute each "factoid" to a reliable source, but there are a few that I can't be positive about.  If you see anything that you could give a more reliable source to, please e-mail me at ddenney@gmail.com.  It will be highly appreciated.  Hope you enjoy!

Back to my main page...

"Ya know, it's a little known fact that...." —Cliff Claven, fictitious postal worker

• The first census in the United States was taken in 1790... only 3.9 million people!
  –Jeopardy!

• There are 250 million people in the United States.
  --NBC News, c. 1990

• Current population of the United States as of January 22, 1994 is 261 million.
  --AP News

• According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 3 March, 2003 at 12:00 PM EST is 290,410,651. There is one birth every 8 seconds and one death every 11 seconds.
  --US Census Bureau)

• According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to January 1, 2006 at 20:04 GMT is 297,826,358.

• According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to April 5, 2007 at 01:26 GMT (EST+5) is 301,535,192.

• According to the International Programs Center, U.S. Bureau of the Census, the total population of the World, projected to January 1, 2006 at 20:09 GMT is 6,488,749,765.

• According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the total population of the World, as of December 21, 2008, is 6,748,527,874.

• According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as of January 1, 2006, the following statistics for the U.S. are estimated:

  One birth every.........................  7 seconds
  One death every......................... 13 seconds
  One international migrant (net) every... 25 seconds
  Net gain of one person every............ 10 seconds

• As of September '94, there are 5.6 billion people on Earth. You can fit all 5.6 billion within the state of Texas, giving each individual person 1300 square feet to themselves.
  --CBN News

• Today, 58 million women hold paid jobs in America. (as of August 1994)
  --Source unknown

• The twin-engine Boeing 737 is the world's most popular jetliner.
  --The Boeing Company

• The Boeing 737 is the most popular airplane in the U.S.
  --USA Radio News

• As of April 6, 2007, the Boeing 737 is still the world's most popular, best selling commercial jet in history.  Read more fascinating facts about the Boeing 737 at Boeing's official 737 website.

• Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Surpasses 500 Customer Orders in under Three Years
  EVERETT, Washington, April 03, 2007 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced the 500th customer order for the 787 Dreamliner with a follow-on order from Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL).

  The JAL order for five 787-8 airplanes, in addition to several orders from unidentified customers, brings the 787's order total to 514 airplanes from 43 customers since its launch on April 26, 2004, making it the fastest-selling commercial airplane in history. This increases JAL's total 787 order to 35 airplanes from its previous order of 30 in December 2004.
  —News release from Boeing.com  (Includes a nice photo of the Boeing 787.)

• Leeuwenhoek invented the single lens microscope in the early 1600's.
  —CompuServe trivia quiz

• Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen.
  --Rodney Dangerfield on Suzanne Somers show

• The Chinese invented sauerkraut.
  --Jeopardy!

• Gibson USA is among the oldest manufacturers of electric guitars in the world, founded in 1894 by Orville Gibson.
  --Gibson guitars, CompuServe

• The play that President Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated in Ford's theatre was "Our American Cousin."
  --Jeopardy!

• The Netherlands has the lowest incidence of teen pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases among Western nations.
  --Dateline NBC

• HISTORY OF PLASTIC

  The first synthetic plastic was CELLULOID, a mixture of cellulose nitrate and camphor. Invented in 1856 by Alexander Parkes, it was used initially as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls, combs, and piano keys. The high flammability of celluloid has restricted its use to products that are small in size. For years celluloid was widely used in photographic and motion picture film stock, until it was superseded by the less dangerous polymer cellulose acetate. In 1909 the second synthetic plastic, phenol-formaldehyde (also called BAKELITE), was invented by Leo Baekeland when he simply heated a mixture of phenol and formaldehyde. Shortly before World War II a number of synthetic polymers were developed, including CASEIN, NYLON, POLYESTER, polyvinyl chloride (see VINYL), polystyrene, and polyethylene. Since then the number as well as the types and qualities of plastics have greatly increased, producing superior materials such as epoxies, polycarbonate, TEFLON, silicones, and polysulfones.
  Two modern trends found in the development of plastic materials are of interest. One is the increased number of foamed plastics--plastics that are imbedded with gas--and the other is the specific designing of plastics to satisfy particular service requirements. The ability of chemists to tailor the properties of plastics has become powerful and dramatic. This may be illustrated by polyethylene, which is soft and waxy when used as a film, but hard and abrasion-resistant when used as a socket for an artificial hip joint.
  --American Academic Encyclopedia

  Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995
     DOW BREAKING 4,000
     NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrial average
  topped the 4,000 mark for the first time in history.
  The bellwether index of 30 blue-chip stocks was up
  46.77 points 4,019.82 at 1:46 p.m. Advancers outpaced
  decliners, 1,476-645. The milestone 4,000 Dow mark was
  broken amid optimism generated by indications from
  Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that the
  central bank may be finished raising interest rates.
  --Associated Press news agency

• The first telephone answering maching was invented in 1904.
  --Jeopardy

• Thurgood Marshall was the first black (African American) US supreme court justice.
  --Jeopardy

• Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first US president to speak on television.
  --Jeopardy

• In 1899, a New York City taxi cab driver was the first person to get a traffic ticket speeding.
  --Jeopardy

• As of March 7, 1995, there were 11,638 taxi drivers in NYC.
  --New York City cab driver on the David Letterman show

• As of October 1999, there are 11,787 taxi cabs in New York City.
  --Source unknown

• Water to steam ratio- 1:1600 (one cup of water will make 1600 cups of steam.)
  --This Old House, PBS Series

• THE FOLLOWING I CALL-- "DON'T GIVE UP!"

  • Einstein failed his very first college entrance exam.

  • Thomas Edison had about 50,000 of his inventions fail. He had about 5,000 different combinations/variations of the light bulb before he finally came up with a successful one.

  • Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in his very first car.

  • Babe Ruth has the record for career strikeouts-- 1,330.

  --Pastor Chuck Swindoll on his Christian radio program

• Adult bookstores outnumber McDonald's restaurants 3 to 1 in the United States.
  --Pastor David Moore on Focus on the Family radio show-- 11/6/95

• Every 46 seconds a woman is raped in the U.S. We lead the world with that statistic!
  --ibid.

• 11/21/95-- First time in history that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 5000.
  --Reuters News Agency

• The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 30,000 to 50,000 patients a year undergo electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). USA Today reports estimate from 50,000 to 100,000 patients a year.
  --Donohue, 2/21/96

• In 1899, Henry Ford left the Edison Illuminating Company to help organize the Detroit Automobile Co.
  --Jeopardy!

• "Gyroscopic inertia" is the term referring to the force that keeps a rotating wheel turning straight, the Earth from changing its angle of tilt, etc.
  --Source unknown, possibly Newton's Apple, PBS show

• The first transcontinental airmail route was in 1920, and was from New York City to San Francisco.
  --Jeopardy!

• Minus 459.67 degrees F. (-459.67F or -273.15C) is considered "absolute zero".
  --Jeopardy!

• Astronomers and astrophysicists estimate that the universe is comprised of 90% dark matter-- not just an empty vacuum, but actually a form of matter.
  --Jeopardy!

• In 1988, IBM and Sears Roebuck joined forces to launch Progidy online computer services.
  --Jeopardy!

• An inch has been defined as the combined lengths of 12 poppy seeds.
  --Jeopardy!

• In 1967 the second was defined as 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation of a Cesium-133 atom.
  --Jeopardy!

• The meter was originally intended to be 1/40,000,000th of the Earth's circumference.
  --Jeopardy!

• There are 17 different species of penguins-- only 5 of those species live in a cold climate. Penguins have more feathers per square inch than any other bird in the world.
  --Jack Hanna, Columbus Zoo

• Corrie Ten Boom was the first woman licensed watchmaker in Holland.
  --the movie, "The Hiding Place"

• The chances of dying in a car are 1 in 125-- airplane 1 in 4.6 million-- elevator 1 in 6 million-- earthquake 1 in 11 million.
  --Oprah

• "Jurassic Park", the movie, had a total of 7 minutes of special effects (computer blue screen, "Chromakey", etc.) "Independence Day" had 50 minutes.
  --Oprah

• The Curtiss JN4 was nicknamed "The Jenny".
  --Jeopardy!

• One death per day is caused by wrong prescriptions, wrong doses, etc., due to sloppy handwriting.
  --Paul Harvey and CBS News, 1/23/97

• There were no 1983 Corvettes made.
  --Motor Week, PBS show, 3/3/97

• A total of forty-three 1983 model Corvettes were built, but there were so many quality problems with them it was decided to halt production until they could be corrected. By the time the problems were corrected, it was so late into the model year that the car was brought out as a 1984 model which was run for a year and a half. The 1983's were never sold to the public and the only one that is known to still exist is in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
  --Idaho Corvette Trivia Page (http://vette.ida.net/trivia.htm)

• Einstein's birthday is easy to remember-- just think of the mathematical
  symbol pi ( p = 3.14 = March 14th ).
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, 3/14/97

• The very first patent was given for potash.
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, 5/16/97

• 400 churches in the US permanently close their doors per week.
  --Pastor Rodger Williams

• Americans consume about 2 billion pounds of chocolate per year.
  --Debbie Fields, Mrs. Fields, on her PBS cooking show, 6/28/97

• A shark's skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone.
  --Jeopardy!

• Only two percent of the world's population is truly ambidextrous.
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, 8/8/97

• Statistically, there are twice as many deaths from stomach cancer than auto accidents.
  --Science Friday, 10/10/97

• If you were able to fold a piece of paper of average thickness 100 times, the thickness would equal approximately 800 trillion times the distance between the Earth and the Sun!
  --Science Friday, NPR Radio program, 10/10/97

• In 1860, someone suggested to Abraham Lincoln that he grow a beard, so he did!
  --AP Newswire

• The calendar was changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582-- the one we use today. There are not 365.25 days per year, but instead 365.24xxxxx (many, many digits beyond the decimal point).
  Here's the "scoop":
  In 45 B.C. Julius Caesar set up the Julian calendar. His rule was to have a leap year every four years, but that overestimates the year by 11 minutes. Over time, that would accumulate extra time. By the 16th century, there were 10 extra days in the calendar. So Pope Gregory convened a committee of mathematicians, and they came up with the Gregorian calendar-- the one we use today. They just dropped 10 days in 1582-- October 5 through October 14 simply never existed. They then instituted a new rule to have a leap year every four years except at century boundaries. So the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 weren't leap years. But that underestimated a little, so they put the leap year back at century boundaries every 400 years. So, we'll have leap years in the year 2000, 2400, 2800, etc.
  --Stephen Jay Gould, author of "Questioning the Millenium",
  on The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, CBS

• Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital.
  --Jeopardy!

• If you took all of the people that sleep in church in the US on Sunday mornings and lay them end to end, they would sleep better.
  --Gary Smalley

• The automatic transmission was invented (first used) in 1904.
  --Jeopardy!

• A female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in seven years.
  --U.S. Humane Society

• Three species disappear off the face of the Earth every day.
  --The X-Files, TV series-- pending a more reliable source

• There are more nuns over the age of 90 than there are under the age of 40.
  --Ted Koppel, ABC News Nightline, 4/10/98

• Russia refers to World War II as "The Great Patriotic War."
  --Top Gun Over Moscow, Nova, PBS Series

• In 1887, Charles Forster began the first wooden toothpick factory in the United States.
  --Forster Inc.

• The crocodile is able to "shrink" back its liver, enabling its lungs to have more capacity, therefore enabling it to stay submerged (under water) for up to three hours.
  --"Crocodile", Nova, PBS Series, 4/28/98

• Number of violent acts per hour on TV: (Obviously, old info)

  • Murder, She Wrote -- 7

  • Equalizer -- 21

  • Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show -- 49

  • Percentage killed by Tubbs & Crockett in 18 episodes of "Miami Vice" -- 43.

  • Percentage of people killed in 18 Shakespearean plays -- 65.

  --National Coalition on TV violence

• By the year 2000, 50% of the Soviet Union will not be Russian. Soviets spend the same percentage on alcohol as we do on food. It's extremely dangerous to have a child in the Soviet Union because of poor medical standards.
  --Walt Bodine Show, a local Kansas City radio program, when the Soviet Union still was the Soviet Union... back in the late 80's.

• There are six "simple machines":

  • the lever

  • the wheel and axle

  • the pulley

  • the wedge

  • the screw

  • the inclined plane

  One or more of these simple machines are essential to any more complex machine.
  --Webster's Dictionary

• 1/11/64 Cigarettes get warning label from Surgeon General.
  --KMBC TV

• Fifty percent of seventeen-year-old Americans can't read, and fifty seven percent can't write.
  --700 Club

• 40% of infertility problems among couples are the man's fault.
  --Source unknown

• January 20, 1981 - Iran released 52 hostages held captive for 444 days, just minutes after the U.S. presidency was handed from Carter to Reagan.
  --Book of Facts

• Number of cars stolen per minute in the U.S. -- 3.
  --Source unknown

• Number of cars stolen per hour in the U.S. -- 23
  --NBC Nightly News, 5/5/98

• The B-2 stealth bomber costs 550 million dollars.
  --Nova, PBS Series, 2/6/90

• The B-2 stealth bomber costs one billion dollars.
  --60 Minutes, CBS

• Eighty percent of the world has the Bible.
  --British Bible Society as of 2/8/90

• One billion people in the world have inadequate shelter.
  --Phil Collins' "Another Day In Paradise" music video

• Three people die per hour in the US due to drunk drivers.
  --Source unknown

• Every year one million tons of oil are deliberately dumped into the ocean by tankers.
  --MTV

• Since the General Motors Leeds assembly plant in the Kansas City, Missouri area closed in April of '88, there have been 620 divorces and 14 suicides linked to the closing. (as of February 10, 1990)
  --Source unknown

• In the US, a person dies from AIDS every 30 minutes.
  --Donohue, date not recorded

• Minus forty degrees (-40) is the only place that Fahrenheit and Celsius meet on the temperature scale.
  --Just a fact, man!

• EGGS
       When buying eggs, you should make sure that each egg is in the carton with the "pointed" end down. That keeps the yolk as close to the center of the egg as possible. Also, the shell is porous. That means that moisture can pass through the shell depending upon the temperature inside versus the temperature outside. That also means that bacteria can pass through. The larger the "air pocket" inside the egg, the older the egg is -- due to dehydration. (Just for the fun of it, put an egg in the back of your refrigerator for about a year of two. The "white" of the egg should evaporate, and the yolk should turn hard, causing an "empty rattling" sound -- sort of like a marble inside an empty eggshell.)
       When "hard boiling" an egg, start with the eggs in cold water and bring the water to a boil. Then lower the temperature until the boiling stops, but the water is still just under the boiling point. Cook the eggs for about eleven minutes, then immediately pour cold water over them. Let them soak for several minutes in the cold water-- this minimizes the outside of the yolk turning a greenish or bluish color, which is a "buildup" of ? (possibly sulfur dioxide). Store them in the refrigerator with each egg wrapped in a paper towel, minimizing the chances of moisture and bacteria passing through the shell.
  --Bob Porter, quality control manager, Monark Egg Corporation

• Here's a photo of me when I was on drugs!

  There are 15 million hemorrhoid sufferers
  in the U.S.
  --Some hemorrhoid commercial

• There are 15 million Americans that rely on different kinds of support groups.
  --Newsweek 2/6/90

• Rice is a grass -- a type of aquatic cereal grass.
  --Webster's Dictionary

• Antarctica got its first ATM (automatic [bank] teller machine) in 1997.
  --Jeopardy!

• An estimated 100 million people view the Super Bowl on television. An estimated 3.6 billion people view the World Cup soccer match.
  --Steve Morgan, AIA (Athletes In Action)

• A full grown male tiger on average weighs about 600 pounds. A full grown female tiger weighs about 400 pounds.
  --Some animal expert on Jay Leno, 6/23/98

• Considered the greatest soccer player of all time, Pele scored six goals in the 1958 World Cup soccer tournament. He retired with a total of 1,280 goals!
  --ABC Sports, during the 1998 World Cup coverage

• Martina Navratilova won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles title nine times!
  --Chris Evert, NBC Sports, during the 1998 Wimbledon ladies' final

• Yellow tennis balls were used at Wimbledon for the first time in 1986.
  --Official Wimbledon web site

• The Greek alphabet:
  alpha
  beta
  gamma
  delta
  epsilon
  zeta
  eta
  theta
  iota
  kappa
  lambda
  mu
  nu
  xi
  omicron
  pi
  rho
  sigma
  tau
  upsilon
  phi
  chi
  psi
  omega

• Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons. Some of the characters are named after, but not based on, Matt's own relatives. His father and son are named Homer, his mother is Marge and he has two sisters, Lisa and Maggie.
  --Comics for kids, by Bob Weber Jr.

• The elephant is the only mammal with four knees.
  --Hollywood Squares, pending a more reliable source

• It took more than two million 2-ton blocks of stone to build the Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu).
  --Jeopardy!

• Charlie was a chemist, Charlie is no more. What Charlie thought was H₂O was H₂SO₄!
  --Ooops... that's not trivia!

• The three-digit number to dial when you need help in an emergency (911) was first used in the US in 1968.
  --Jeopardy!

• The phonetic alphabet
  The NATO phonetic alphabet:
  Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliet Kilo Lima Mike November Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey Xray Yankee Zulu
  (A very concise list of phonetic alphabets from around the world can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/~fuat/cuarc/phonetic.html)

• Charles Lindbergh was only 25 years old when he made the first successful transatlantic flight.
  --Scott Berg, Author of "Lindbergh"

• Under threat of impeachment, US President Richard M. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. He was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford.
  --Associated Press News

• If a person goes from a light environment to a dark environment, it takes about five to ten minutes before the cones of the eyes become adjusted. When they do, the eyes are about 100 times more sensitive to light. After about thirty minutes the rods of the eyes become adjusted to the darkness, and the eyes are now about 100,000 times more sensitive to light than they were before. Going the other way from a dark environment to a light one, it only takes a few seconds for the eyes to adjust.
  --"Night Flying", King Takeoff Videos

• Rotating Beacons
  A rotating beacon is a light that sits on top of a tall tower and rotates around and helps airplane pilots find the airport. They are aimed about one to three degrees above the horizon so that it doesn't blind people on the ground. It rotates around at a constant speed.

  • At a lighted land airport, the beacon will be alternating green and white.

  • At an unlighted land airport, the beacon will be alternating white and white.

  • At a military land airport, the beacon will be alternating green, white, and white (green, white, white, green, white, white).

  • At a lighted water airport, the beacon will be alternating yellow and white.

  • At a lighted heliport, the beacon will be alternating green, yellow, and white.

  --"Night Flying", King Takeoff Videos

• In the weather phrase, "It's raining cats and dogs", cats (felines) represent precipitation and dogs (canines) symbolize wind and storm.
  --Jeopardy

• A survey for Hebrew National found that at sixty-eight percent, mustard is the most popular hot dog topping.
  --Jeopardy

• Cow's milk contains about five percent lactose. Human milk is slightly sweeter.
  --Jeopardy

• On January 10, 1911, the temperature at Rapid City, South Dakota fell over 45 degrees F in only 15 minutes.
  --Jeopardy

• The phrase, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", incorporates all of the letters of the English alphabet. It's commonly used for the purpose of practicing typing on a keyboard.
  --Jeopardy

• There are more Barbie dolls than people in the US.
  --What's In The News, PBS

• Standing burns 140 calories per hour.
  --Popup Videos, VH1

• Everyday in the United States, 87 people die from gunshot wounds, and approximately four times that many people (348) are wounded from gunshots.
  --Rosie O'Donnell, November 4, 1999 (pending a more reliable source)

• On December 4, 1963, the first "instant replay" was used in a football game between Army and Navy.
  --Salem Radio Network News

• The approximate diameter of the moon viewed by the naked eye from Earth is one-half degree.
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, 1/7/2000

• The speed limit for airplanes flying in the U.S. below 10,000 feet MSL (mean sea level) is 250 knots. This speed limit is set and regulated by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).
  --FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)

• It costs eight-tenths of a cent to make a penny.
  --U.S. Mint

• A total solar eclipse
  The alignment of the sun, earth, and moon follows a pattern that repeats every 223 lunar months, which is about 18 years. But, because of the rotation of the earth, it takes three such cycles for a particular spot to be in position again. For example, North Carolina witnessed a total solar eclipse on March 7, 1970, and will again on April 8, 2024 and on May 11, 2078.
  --JC Trivia (www.jctrivia.com)

• A day on the planet Mars, as defined by the amount of time it takes to rotate once on its axis, is 24 hours, 37 minutes -- just slightly longer than Earth's day of 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds. Larger planets tend to rotate faster, so a day on Jupiter is only about 10 hours long. On the other extreme, Venus rotates so slowly that its day (243 Earth days) is actually longer than its year (224.7 Earth days)!
  --JC Trivia (www.jctrivia.com)

• Tecumseh was killed in a battle under the command of William Henry Harrison. Harrison died in the office of U.S. President about 30 days after taking the office. Since then, the president elected every 20 years has either been killed or died while in office until Ronald Reagan's presidency. Here's a list of the presidents:
  
  Election Years:
  1840 -- W.H. Harrison (died in office)
  1860 -- Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)
  1880 -- James Garfield (assassinated)
  1900 -- William McKinley (assassinated)
  1920 -- Warren G. Harding (died in office)
  1940 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt (died in office)
  1960 -- John F. Kennedy (assassinated)
  1980 -- Ronald Reagan (survived his assassination attempt)
  --Source unknown

• Mark Twain was very much into the latest technology of his time. Tom Sawyer was the first novel to be written on a typewriter.
  --American Experience, PBS series

• Would you rather be bitten by a dog or by a human? A human has 18 different types of germs in its mouth and a dog only has 6 types of germs.
  --Jack Hanna, Late Show with David Letterman, 4/6/2000

• There are twenty-eight bones in the human hand.
  --Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H TV Series

• The human skull contains 22 bones.
  --Grolier's Encyclopedia

• There are 206 bones in the adult human body. Humans are born with about 300 bones, but many of them fuse together during childhood growth.
  --Grolier's Encyclopedia

• Chess was the second sport to have a world championship.
  --Chessmaster 5500 tips

• The first Space Shuttle launched into space was the Columbia on April 12, l98l. The first shuttle, however, was the Enterprise. (It was even mentioned in the first Star Trek movie.) But it was never sent into space. It was only used for atmospheric approach and landing tests in 1977. It was then put into storage in a warehouse where it awaits a museum to be built for it. The Columbia was the oldest active shuttle. (See next few entries)
  --JC Trivia (www.jctrivia.com)

• Columbia was the first Space Shuttle that traveled to Earth orbit.
  --NASA Columbia home page

• Columbia Space Shuttle
  Background Information on the Columbia Space Shuttle Mission STS-107

  STS-107 Mission Summary
  STS-107 Flight: January 16-February 1, 2003

  Crew:
  Commander Rick D. Husband (second flight),
  Pilot William C. McCool (first flight),
  Payload Specialist Michael P. Anderson (second flight),
  Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla (second flight),
  Mission Specialist David M. Brown (first flight),
  Mission Specialist Laurel B. Clark (first flight),
  Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, Israel (first flight)

  Payload:
  First flight of SPACEHAB Research Double Module; Fast Reaction Experiments Enabling Science, Technology, Applications and Research (FREESTAR); first Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) mission since STS-90. This 16-day mission was dedicated to research in physical, life, and space sciences, conducted in approximately 80 separate experiments, comprised of hundreds of samples and test points. The seven astronauts worked 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts.

  First flight:
  April 12-14, 1981 (Crew John W. Young and Robert Crippen)
  28 flights 1981-2003.

  Most recent flight:
  STS-109, March 1-12, 2002 Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission

  Other notable missions:
  STS 1 through 5, 1981-1982 first flight of European Space Agency built Spacelab. STS-50, June 25-July 9, 1992, first extended-duration Space Shuttle mission. STS-93, July 1999 placement in orbit of Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

  Past mission anomaly:
  STS-83, April 4-8, 1997. Mission was cut short by Shuttle managers due to a problem with fuel cell No. 2, which displayed evidence of internal voltage degradation after the launch.
  --NASA Columbia mission page

  (A Tribute to the Crew of STS-107 - 16 Minutes from Home - can be found at:
  http://www.nasa.gov/missions/shuttle/to_16minfromhome.html

• At the surface of the Earth the gravitational force of the Moon is about 2.2 times greater than that of the Sun.
  --Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (www.britannica.com)

• Approximately 68 million Americans are sleep deprived.
  --TV commercial

• Lifesavers candy was invented in Cleveland, Ohio in 1892.
  --Nightly Business Report, PBS show

• Turkey was the first food consumed by the astronauts of Apollo 11 after landing on the Moon.
  --Ray Hamel, New York Times Trivia Master (http://www.nytimes.com/diversions/trivia/)

• The islands of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina are the southernmost land outside of Antarctica.
  --JC Trivia (www.jctrivia.com)

• John Tukey is often credited with inventing the computer term "Software." During the dawn of the computer age, Tukey wrote in the January, 1958, issue of American Mathematical Monthly, "Today the 'software' comprising the carefully planned interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automative programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its 'hardware' of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes, and the like." Many believe that to be the first mention of the term. Tukey is also often credited with the invention of the term "bit", probably a contraction of "binary integer", referring to the ones and zeroes that make up computer languages.
  --JC Trivia (www.jctrivia.com)

• In April, 1967, the American actress Marcia Strassman attempted to launch a singing career with the recording of Jerry Goldstein and "Lord" Tim Hudson's "The Flower Children" song (these two people coined the phrase "flower power").
  --Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Strassman,+Marcia)

• The ice "smoothing" machine known as the "Zamboni" made its debut in 1955.
  --CNN News factoid

• There are more than 32,000 known species of spider in the world.
  --http://www.earthlife.net/insects/araneae.html (www.earthlife.net)

• The 1965 Chevrolet Corvette came out of the factory with four-wheel disk brakes standard.
  --CNN News factoid

• Fluoride

  • Average amount in drinking water: 4 ppm (parts per million)

  • Average amount in toothpaste: 1100 ppm

  Twenty five studies in eight different countries, both with and without fluoridated water showed no evidence of fluoride decreasing tooth decay. As a matter of fact, in laboratory studies, fluoride has been linked to cancer in animals.
  --Newsweek, February 6, 1990

• The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in late April '86. A serious accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant about 60 miles from Kiev in the Soviet Union spewed clouds of radiation that spread over several European nations.
  --The World Almanac And Book Of Facts

• It takes approximately 8.3 minutes for the light from the sun to reach Earth.
  --(I did the math.)

• It takes approximately 33 years for the light from Polaris to reach Earth.
  --Brother Bob, pastor, Plaza Heights Baptist Church

• In the US, there's 14.3 million (Southern) Baptists and 37,000 Southern Baptist churches in the US. (as of the early 1990's)
  --ibid.

• One out of three girls are sexually molested in their own home.
  --Power Team, a Christian ministry

• More than 750 players hit 37,000 balls, dry off using 17,500 towels and quench their thirst with 17,850 litres of bottled water for the duration of the event (The 1999 Australian Open).
  --The official Australian Open website (1999)

• Some space trivia!

  • April 12, 1961 -- First manned orbital flight (the first man in space) was Yuri A. Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut.

  • May 5, 1961 -- First American in space was Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

  • February 20, 1962 -- First American in orbit was John H. Glenn, Jr.

  --The 1991 World Almanac And Book Of Facts

• The Mounds candy bar was introduced to the public in 1920. The Almond Joy was introduced in 1946. Regular M&M's candies and Cheerios cereal were introduced in 1941.
  --Jeopardy!

• Ken Rosewell was both the youngest and oldest man to win the Australian Open tennis tournament-- at age 18 in 1953 and age 37 in 1972.
  --Ray Hamel, New York Times Trivia Master (www.nytimes.com/diversions/trivia/)

• Melbourne, Australia hosted the 1956 Summer Olympic games. Since the seasons are reversed in the Southern hemisphere, the summer games were held in November and December, instead of July and August. There was an animal quarantine in effect at the time, so the equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden during June. This was also the Olympics that introduced the closing ceremonies.
  --JC Trivia (www.jctrivia.com)

• W.C. Fields despised Christmas. Coincidentally, he died on Christmas Day.
  --Jeopardy!

• The first successful measurement of the speed of light was made by Olaus Roemer in 1676.
  --http://hepweb.rl.ac.uk/ppUK/PhysFAQ/measure_c.html

• Approximately 19 million people suffer from panic disorder in the U.S.
  --Oprah - pending a more reliable source

• The word "nylon" derives from New York ("ny-") and London ("-lon").
  --Jeopardy!

• There are approximately 36,000 missing children in the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) computer database.
  --A radio advertisement (as of 3/26/01)

• The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing on a standard keyboard.
  --Source forgotten

• A marathon is 26 miles and 385 yards long.
  --heard on M*A*S*H television series

• There are approximately 2700 species of snakes in the world. Several of these species can actually go over a year without food!
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, July 6, 2001

• King Henry VIII was the first king to be referred to as "Your Majesty".
  --Hollywood Squares, pending a more reliable source

• The word "Velcro" originated from the words "velour" and "crochet". The product was first invented in 1948.
  --A friend, pending a more reliable source

• The trademark name "Velcro" is an arbitrary formation based on the word "velvet".
  --Webster's New World Dictionary, second college edition

• Velcro was first invented in 1948.
  --My memory, pending a more reliable source

• In the early 1940's, Swiss inventor George de Mestral went on a walk with his dog. Upon his return home, he noticed that his dog's coat and his pants were covered with cockleburrs. His inventor's curiosity led him to study the burrs under a microscope, where he discovered their natural hook-like shape.

  This was to become the basis for a unique, two-sided fastener - one side with stiff "hooks" like the burrs and the other side with the soft "loops" like the fabric of his pants. The result was VELCRO brand hook and loop fasteners, named for the French words "velour" and "crochet."

  The challenge then became to make machinery that could produce the product in a manner that assured consistent closure performance. After considerable experimentation, looms and proprietary hook cutting systems were developed, which set the standards for hook and loop fastener performance, consistency and quality.
  --Velcro.com

• Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Most of the rest, 13 percent, have no religion. That leaves just 4 percent as adherents of all non-Christian religions combined - Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.
  --ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll taken in June 2001

• The Great Horned Owl has no sense of smell.
  --Jim Fowler, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

• There are 640 muscles in the human body.
  --Inside Edition, pending a more reliable source

• It takes 72 muscles just to speak.
  --Beakman's World

• The very first Goodyear blimp, named "The Pilgrim", made its first flight in 1925.
  --Dick Enberg, CBS sports commentator, during the 2001 U.S. Open tennis tournament

• Betsy Ross, famous flagmaker, was born with a full set of teeth.
  --Hollywood Squares, pending a more reliable source

• Of the world's top 25 venomous snakes, Australia has 21, including sea snakes with venom two to ten times as deadly as a cobra's.
  --Cecil Adams, Chicago Reader

• Walt Disney won a total of 32 academy awards (Oscars) in his career-- more than anyone else in show business.
  --Disneyworld

• A quarter of all computers suffer violence and abuse at the hands of users. One in every four computers has been physically attacked by its owner, according to a survey. The survey, conducted by British PC manufacturer Novatech, was intended to take a lighthearted look at embarrassing experiences.
  --Wired News, wired.com, 5 June, 2001

• The average adult's body contains about 10 to 12 pints of blood. Your body continuously replaces its red cells, making new ones with iron salvaged from old ones that have been retired. Blood transports nutrients and defensive antibodies, cells, and clotting factors; red blood cells deliver or release oxygen.
  --American Red Cross

• Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair.
  --Hollywood Squares, pending a more reliable source

• Antarctica is technically a desert (frozen desert) since the continent gets less than ten inches of precipitation per year.
  --National Geographic

• The famous author, Lewis Carroll, was left-handed.
  Four of the five original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.
  --www.left-handersday.com for a more complete list of "everything left handed"

• In July of 1955, Arco, Idaho, with a population of one thousand, became the first U.S. town powered by nuclear energy. The town's energy was supplied by an experimental boiling-water reactor called the Borax III.
  --YourBigFun.com pending a more reliable source.

• There were approximately 1500 antennae on top of the north tower of the World Trade Center, ranging from television to radio to police scanners, etc.
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow

• Scattered around the earth, over fifty thousand caves have been found.
  --"The Secret Life Of Caves", Nova, a PBS television series, 1 Oct 2002

• The greyhound dog can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour.
  --The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

• Important Dates in Milk History

  • 1611 - Cows arrive for Jamestown Colony. (US)

  • 1964 - Plastic milk container introduced commercially.

  • 1995 - Launch of processor-funded milk mustache advertising campaign.

  --International Dairy Foods Association for a much longer list of milk trivia

• The kiss that Americans call a "French kiss" is referred to as an "English kiss" in France.
  --Hollywood Squares, pending a more reliable source

• Among the 140,000 dentists in the US, 3 have contracted AIDS.
  --Paul Harvey, as of 10 March 1990

• Less than one percent of the continent of Antarctica is exposed (not covered with ice).
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, December 27, 2002

• George Washington, the first US president, had false teeth made of hippopotamus ivory (tusk).
  --"Look It Up, Book Of Presidents"

• George Washington, the first US president, had false teeth made of hippo tusks and other materials that pained him continually and deformed his face.
  --Smithsonian Magazine Copyright 1999

• Tigers have striped skin as well as striped fur.
  --PBS

• In 1990, Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world.
  --"The Long Road To War", Frontline, PBS Series

• Over 60,000 tennis balls are used over the French Open fortnight.
  --Official French Open website

• What West Point graduate was married to Martha Washington's great-granddaughter? Answer: Robert E. Lee
  --Ray Hamel, Author of "The New York Times Trivia Quiz Book"

• The Stanley Cup is notably the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America.
  --Legends of Hockey, Hockey Hall of Fame <--(more Stanley Cup trivia)

• In 1964, the freighter ship Al Kuwait which was carrying 6,000 live sheep capsized and sank in Kuwait's harbor. The sunken ship with its decomposing cargo was presenting a serious threat to the country's water supply through its desalination processing plant. To overcome the problem the ship had to be raised and moved to a safe place without falling apart and dumping its poisonous contents into the nation's water supply. Karl Kroyer, a Danish engineer working in Kuwait came up with a novel idea. He pumped 27 million ping-pong balls into the freighter's hull which slowly raised it to the surface. And where did he get this idea? From a Donald Duck comic book. Somebody sank Donald's boat and he and his feathered friends raised it by filling it with ping-pong balls!
  --ACTS International, pending a more reliable source

• Sperm whales can swallow lumps of food eight feet in diameter. Entire skeletons of sharks up to sixteen feet in length have been found in them. In February of 1891, James Bartley, a sailor aboard the whaling ship "Star of the East," was swallowed by a whale in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands. He was within the whale for more than forty-eight hours, and after he was found inside the whale, which had been harpooned and brought aboard the whaling ship, it took him two weeks to recover from the ordeal. Sir Francis Fox wrote as follows about this:

  Bartley affirms that he would probably have lived inside his house of flesh until he starved, for he lost his senses through fright and not from lack of air. He remembers the sensation of being thrown out of the boat into the sea. He was then encompassed by a great darkness and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage of some sort that seemed to move and carry him forward. The sensation lasted but a short time and then he realized he had more room. He felt about him and his hands came in contact with a yielding slimy substance that seemed to shrink from his touch. It finally dawned upon him that he had been swallowed by the whale... he could easily breathe; but the heat was terrible. It was not of a scorching, stifling nature, but it seemed to open the pores of his skin and draw out his vitality. His skin where it was exposed to the action of the gastric juice - face, neck and hands - were bleached to a deadly whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment, (and) never recovered its natural appearance, (though otherwise) his health did not seem affected by his terrible experience.
  --Global Resource Ministries, pending a more reliable source

• In June of 1974, the first U.P.C. scanner was installed at a Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's Gum.
  --Bar Codes history from about.com

• "Red Dawn" was the first motion picture released with the PG-13 rating, which had been created after difficulty rating some movies in 1984, most notably "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984). ("The Flamingo Kid" (1984) was the first film to be *given* a PG-13 rating, but sat on the shelves for five months before being released).
  --Amazon.com Quotes & Trivia

• Watermelons originally came from the Kalahari Desert region in Africa, which is interesting because the average watermelon is 92 percent water.
  --Encarta

• The strawberry is actually a member of the rose family.  Each strawberry contains approximately 200 seeds.
  --Encarta

• During the mid-1980s, world peach production totaled about 5.5 million metric tons per year. The highest peach-producing countries were the United States and Italy.
  --Encarta

• The U.S. potato harvest in 1999 yielded 21.7 million metric tons of potatoes!
  --Encarta

• Giant pandas eat up to 40 pounds of bamboo daily.
  --Encarta

• The planet Earth weighs in at 5.972 sextillion (5,972 followed by 18 zeroes) metric tons.
  --University of Washington archived article

• Earth's gravitational constant = 9.8 meters per second squared
  --NASA article

• Earth's gravitational constant = 6.67300 ?10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^-2
  --Google calculator

• Radius of Earth is 6,378.1 kilometers
  --Google calculator

• Circumference of Earth is 24901.31644 miles
  --Google calculator

• "Combustible" and "incombustible" are opposites but "flammable" and "inflammable" are synonyms. Why? The "in-" of "incombustible" is a common prefix meaning "not," but the "in-" of "inflammable" is a different prefix. "Inflammable," which dates back to 1605, descends from the Latin "inflammare" ("to inflame"), from "in-" (here meaning "in" or "into") plus "flammare" ("to flame"). "Flammable" also comes from "flammare," but didn't enter English until 1813. In the early 20th century, firefighters worried that people might think "inflammable" meant "not able to catch fire," so they adopted "flammable" and "nonflammable" as official safety labels and encouraged their use to prevent confusion. In general use, "flammable" is now the preferred term for describing things that can catch fire, but "inflammable" is still occasionally used with that meaning as well.
  --Merriam-Webster dictionary

• J. S. Bach became known worldwide for his remarkable musical talent, but he never ceased to credit his Creator as the one who was responsible for his ability. The pages of his musical compositions could well have been used to satisfy a personal pride as his name appeared on them. But he was determined to give glory to God for his accomplishments. So he always concluded his original compositions with the three letters INS. They stood for the Latin words meaning In the name of Christ. At other times Bach began his score with the letters JJ, meaning Jesus help, and then ended his composition with the letters SDG for the Latin “Solo Deo Gloria”, meaning “To God be the glory.”
  --Harold H. Lentz, Preaching The Miracles, CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, 1999

• The official name of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri is "The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial."
  --The United States Mint Pressroom

• Winston Churchill was half-British and half-American. His mother was American.
  --PBS, pending additional sources

• In the US, the mailing code known as "ZIP" code is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan.
  --101 Things You Need To Know, Scholastic Publishing

• Raccoons have opposable thumbs.
  --CSI, CBS TV Series, pending a more reliable source

• The approximate diameter of the sun is 869,920 miles (1,400,000 kilometers).
  --Google calculator

• In the US, there are approximately 15,000 cheerleader related injuries annually.
  --Inside Edition, television news magazine

• In the US, a baby is born every eight seconds.
  --Inside Edition, television news magazine

• Ignaz Schwinn, a German engineer, along with his partner Adolph Arnold, incorporated the "Arnold, Schwinn & Company" on October 22, 1895.
  --Schwinn Fitness

• An arctophile is a person who collects teddy bears or is fond of them.
  --www.wordreference.com

• The word graffiti is a plural noun in Italian. In English, graffiti is far more common than the singular form graffito and is mainly used as a singular noun in much the same way data is. When the reference is to a particular inscription (as in "There was a bold graffiti on the wall"), the form graffito would be etymologically correct but might strike some readers as pedantic outside an archaeological context. There is no substitute for the singular use of graffiti when the word is used as a mass noun to refer to inscriptions in general or to the related social phenomenon. The sentence "Graffiti is a major problem for the Transit Authority Police" cannot be reworded Graffito is... (since graffito can refer only to a particular inscription) or Graffiti are... (which suggests that the police problem involves only the physical marks and not the larger issue of vandalism). In such contexts, the use of graffiti as a singular is justified by both utility and widespread precedent.
  --http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=graffito

• Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1750.
  --Science Friday, NPR, hosted by Ira Flatow, August 6, 2004

• Approximately 1.5 billion people use cell phones worldwide.
  --20/20, ABC television newsmagazine, as of March 11, 2005

• 96 percent of the population of Israel own and use cell phones.
  --20/20, ABC television newsmagazine, as of March 11, 2005

• 75,000 people go in and out of the Boston, Massachusetts area every day.
  --Crossing Jordan, pending a more reliable source

• The ball point pen was invented in 1945.
  --New York Times Crossword puzzle

• The opossum is the only North American marsupial.
  --History Detectives, PBS series

• In 2005, AOL (America Online) blocked an average of 1.5 billion spams per day.  Approximately 8 in 10 e-mails received at its gateway were blocked as junk.  More than a half-trillion junk e-mails, known as spam, were blocked by AOL filters, slightly above 2004 levels, the company said.  The number of junk e-mails reported by AOL's 26 million members worldwide has declined about 75 percent since 2003.
  --Reuters news agency

• Question: What treat was originally filled with banana cream but switched to vanilla cream filling due to a World War II shortage of bananas?
  Answer: Twinkies
  --twinkies.com, snopes.com

• The very first stewardesses (flight attendants) were also registered nurses.
  --Pioneers In Aviation, aPBS documentary

• The following facts/trivia is from the TV show Jeopardy:

  Strawberries have more vitamin C than oranges.

  California leads the U.S. in strawberry production.

  The Russian space station Mir is composed of several separate parts, the first part going into space February 1986.

  The lowest place in elevation in the Western Hemisphere is a spot in Death Valley National Park in California, which is 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level.

  In 1970, McDonnell Douglas introduced the DC-10 to compete with the Boeing 747.

  One founder of the jet engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney was a cousin of Eli Whitney-- the inventor of the cotton gin.

  The Boeing 737 is the most popular commercial jet in the world.  Every six seconds a Boeing 737 somewhere around the world takes off.

  Jeopardy went on the air September of 1984. (This doesn't include the original show that aired in the 1960's with host Art Fleming.)

  A bear's dormancy in the winter isn't true hibernation, as its body temperature doesn't drop. (Hibernation, by definition, includes the lowering of the body core temperature of the hibernating animal.)

  North Carolina supplied one-fourth of the casualties to the losing side in the Civil War.

  The Christmas song, "Jingle Bells" was written in 1857.

  The cosmetic company, Avon, was started in 1886.

  PLANETS
  The mass of the planet Jupiter is more than twice the mass of all other planets combined.

  The planet Saturn's ring system is more than 170,000 miles in diameter, but only about a mile thick.

  Since its discovery in 1846, the planet Neptune has yet to complete one trip around the sun!

• Why are most taxis yellow?

  In 1907, car salesman John Hertz looked at his surplus of traded-in cars and decided to start a taxicab business. Since taxis need to stand out in a sea of cars, Hertz reportedly commissioned a study to determine which color was easiest to spot at a distance. The answer was yellow.

  His Chicago Yellow Cab Company was the first taxicab service to use that now-familiar moniker. However, these days not all Yellow Cabs are yellow cabs.

  In 1923, Hertz expanded his automobile empire by purchasing a car-rental business from Walter L. Jacobs. Although this particular company was acquired by General Motors a few years later, it was only the beginning for Hertz's rental cars and his affinity for yellow.

  In fact, when the entrepreneur established the Hertz Corporation in 1953, he used yellow in the new logo.
  --Ask Yahoo!

• In the world of tennis, since the Open Era started in 1969, and the subsequent introduction of prizemoney, the combined men's and women's singles winners' prizepool in the Australian Open has multiplied more than 140 times from $A11,600 to $A1,661,000 (as of 2001).
  --2001 Australian Open website

• There are more cases of slavery today than ever before in history.
  --Film producer Ken Wales, January 29, 2007, guest speaker on Focus On The Family radio program, when asked by Dr. Dobson how the black community is receiving his movie, "Amazing Grace."

• Life Savers Candy
  In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane (Cleveland, Ohio) invented Life Savers as a "summer candy" that could withstand heat better than chocolate.  Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers.  After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward Noble for $2,900.  Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh, instead of cardboard rolls.  Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Saver flavor.  Since then, many different flavors of Life Savers have been produced.  The five-flavor roll first appeared in 1935.
  —inventors.about.com

• Life Savers Candy
  Life Savers candy was first created in 1912 by Clarence Crane, a Cleveland chocolatier and father of the famed poet Hart Crane. Crane was looking for a new "summer candy" to supplement his chocolate business, which slumped in hot weather.
  
  Crane developed a line of hard mints, but didn't have the space or machinery to make them. He contracted with a pill manufacturer to press the mints into shape. The pill manufacturer, whose machinery was malfunctioning, found that the pressing process worked much better when the mints were stamped with a hole in the middle.
  
  Crane called the new candy "Crane's Peppermint Life Savers," because they looked like miniature throwable life preservers. The ring-shaped devices were just beginning to come into use after the Titanic disaster.
  —Check Wikipedia for lots more Life Savers trivia.

• Israel is approximately one fourth the size of the state of Missouri.
  —Brother Bob, pastor, Plaza Heights Baptist Church

• The "Eisenhower", a US aircraft carrier, has a 64 bed hospital.
  —Live from AT&T Bell Labs, PBS special

• How many people have MS?
  Approximately 400,000 Americans have MS, and every week about 200 people are diagnosed. World-wide, MS affects about 2.5 million people. Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not require U.S. physicians to report new cases, and because symptoms can be completely invisible, the numbers can only be estimated. —National Multiple Sclerosis Society, as of 4/22/07

• The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) writes that most healthy adults require seven to nine hours of sleep each night.  Adolescents need a bit more – about 8.5 to 9.5 hours.  And infants are the "laziest" of all, needing around 14 to 15 hours of sleep each day (including naps).
  —Ask Yahoo!

Redeye Publishing

Chris Evert is the only American women's tennis champion to have
won at least one Grand Slam singles title each year for thirteen
consecutive years.

--Source unknown

There are approximately 17,000 commercial flights per day in the US.
At any given time, there are more than 60,000 people flying over
the United States. (prior to September 11, 2001)
--Source unknown

The buffalo -- largest mammal in the state of Missouri -- 30 to 60
million once roamed North America. Also, they're very unpredictable
in behavior.
--Source unknown

D-Day, Normandy, 6/5/44.
--PBS

Virginia Beach, VA EMS squad - largest in US with 635 volunteer
rescue people.
--Rescue 911, TV Show

--The following list of facts (in green) is from the 1993 PBS Nova quiz.
Rockets were invented in China.
The largest reflecting telescope in the world is the Keck
  telescope, with a diameter of 396" (that's 33 feet!).
Vision requires more brain power than the other four senses.
There are 108 known elements.
The Xerox copier was commercially open to the public in 1959.
The opossum is the only marsupial native to North America.
A gill equals 4 ounces (1/2 cup).
The world's tallest waterfall is Angel Falls in Venezuela --
  3,212 feet high.
DDT was stopped being used in the late 1960's because it almost
  caused extinction of the peregrine falcon.
The only even prime number is 2.
Vanilla is a member of the orchid family.
--End of info from Nova quiz

Walla Walla, Washington state prison is the toughest in the US.
--"Hillside Stranglers", Movie

Every 22 minutes a person is killed by an alcohol related auto
accident.
--State Farm

One out of thirty children in the US are abused.
--Unsolved Mysteries, NBC series

Every 27 seconds a divorce takes place in the US.
--CBN

One billion trees are used per year just for disposable diapers.
If all the disposable diapers used in the US were stacked up, in
18 months it would reach the moon! (And it would stink to "high
heaven"!)
--Source unknown

Peanut butter was invented in 1890 by a St. Louis physician for a
protein substitute for old folks. Americans consume 800 lbs. per
year! (The "as of" date is unknown.)
--Source unknown

In 1862, the confederate congress passed a bill exempting anyone
owning 20 (or more) slaves from military service.
--Jeopardy!

Though it originated in South America, the potato came to North
America from Ireland.
--Jeopardy!

There are 332 different species of parrots, including parakeets,
cockatoos, and macaws.
--Source unknown

The German dirigible, "Hindenburg" was almost 3 football fields
long and weighed over 200 tons, the largest rigid airship ever
constructed. It was an 804 feet long (245 meters) airship of
conventional Zeppelin design that was first launched at
Friedrichshafen, Germany, in April 1936. It had a maximum speed
of 84 mph (135 kph) and a cruising speed of 78 mph (126 kph). In
1936, the Hindenburg inaugurated commercial air service across the
North Atlantic by carrying 1,002 passengers on ten scheduled round
trips between Germany and the US. On May 6, 1937, while landing
at Lakehurst, NJ, on the first of its scheduled 1937
transatlantic crossings, the hydrogen-inflated Hindenburg burst
into flames and was completely destroyed. Thirty six of the 97
persons aboard were killed. The fire was generally attributed to
a discharge of atmospheric electricity in the vicinity of a
hydrogen gas leak from the airship, though it has also been
speculated that the dirigible was the victim of an anti-Nazi act
of sabotage. The Hindenburg disaster marked the end of the use of
rigid airships in commercial air transportation. It contained 7
million cubic feet of hydrogen.
--Encyclopaedia Britannica & World Almanac

US infant mortality rate per 1,000 births: nine white, 18 black.
--NBC news

Willis Carrier invented air conditioning in 1902.
--Jeopardy! (World Almanac says 1911)

IBM invented the floppy disk in 1970.
--World Almanac

The USS Pueblo and 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan Jan. 23,
1968 by North Koreans; 82 men released Dec. 22, 1968.
--World Almanac

An estimated 100 trillion cells in the human body.
--Jeopardy!

The Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 1 million fellow Cambodians--
possibly 2 million.

--Source unknown

1935--the year of the dust bowl--effected Kansas, Oklahoma, and
Colorado.
--Source unknown

The Sahara, the largest desert in the world, is 3,500,000 square
miles, just under the gross area of the US including land and
water (3,618,770).
--World Almanac

Cost of flying the space shuttle back to Cape Canaveral from
Edwards Air Force Base mounted on top of a 747 jet-- $1,000,000.
--Source unknown

The Great Pyramid of Giza covers 13 acres, the equivalent of 7
blocks of Manhattan. It contains well over 2 million blocks of
stone, some weighing as much as 15 tons. It stretches 755 feet
along each of its four sides. It is so close to geometric
perfection that the difference between the longest and shortest
sides is only 7 inches. Each side is aligned with one of the true
directions of the compass. As a matter of fact, it is within a
few arc-seconds of being perfect. It rises at an angle of 52
degrees to a height of 481 feet, about the size of a 40 story
office building.
--Nova, PBS, "Pyramid"

A grizzly bear can run as fast as a horse.
--Beakman's World

There are over 2 million cases of child abuse reported every year in US.
--PBS as of 1994

23% of US children live in poverty.
--PBS, 1994

Since 1980, divorce has torn 18 million families apart.
--PBS, 1994

The following paragraphs are from "Nova--Aircraft Carrier"
     The USS Independence has 80 planes-- a combination of fighters,
bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft-- the equivalent of a small air
force. It was commissioned in 1959. There are four catapults, steam
powered by the engine's boilers, that launch planes into the air
reaching 150 mph in just under three seconds! A plane can be launched
every 45 seconds. The ship picks up speed to create a 20-knot wind
over the flight deck, giving the heavy planes the best possible wind
speed for takeoff. A 20-ton plane landing at 120 mph is brought to a
halt in 200 feet. The "wire" that catches the hook on the plane to
stop it is used exactly 100 times at which time it is replaced. If
that wire breaks, it can easily cut through flesh, even steel, like
butter. Every landing is actually a "controlled crash". It costs 5
million dollars to train a pilot, and he/she is required to have at
least 500 flying hours before landing on a carrier.
     It's one of the largest warships afloat. 5,000 men live beneath
the flight deck in 8 cramped and artificially lit decks. They are
mostly teenagers around 19 years old, maybe 20 years old that work
16-17 hours per day. The men sleep and work around the clock (in
shifts). There are three TV channels that show news, sports, and
movies. There are 3 miles of corridors and over 2,000 separate
compartments. The kitchen bakes between 1200 and 1600 loaves of bread
per day, and 800 sandwiches last only about three to four hours.
     At least two carriers in our navy are deployed 365 days a year,
and another three or four are in home waters constantly practicing.
During the Gulf War, 36 planes were shot down by Iraqi missiles. The
USS Independence was deployed to govern and maintain the "no-fly"
zone over Iraq for 23 days. During that time, pilots would strap a
gun to their side, as well as a radio beacon, and a leaflet in Arabic
in case of being shot down. In the 6 months they were at sea, the
crew conducted 8,752 launches and arrested landings. In the 23 days
that the Independence operated in support of operations over Iraq,
there were 1,349 missions, an average of 58 a day.
--"Aircraft Carrier", Nova, PBS Series

Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr., the "father of modern baseball".
...set bases 90 feet apart.
...established nine innings as game and nine players as team.
...organized the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of NY in 1845
...carried baseball to the Pacific coast and Hawaii in pioneer days.
First game was June 19, 1846, 1st match of baseball was played on the
Elysian Fields... Knickerbockers vs. the New Yorks.
--Source unknown

In 1881, there were three US presidents: R.B. Hayes, Garfield, and
Chester A. Arthur.
--Jeopardy!

Carson City, Nevada is actually west of Los Angeles, California (by
about 100 miles or so).
--Jeopardy!

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died of cancer May 19, 1994 at age 64. She
suffered from a non-- Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph
system that eventually spread to her liver. She was only 31 years old
when JFK became president.
--Associated Press and CBS News

The average elevation of New Orleans, LA is 2 ft. below sea level.
--Nova (Jeopardy! says 4 ft.)

May 21st in history:
1506 Christopher Columbus dies in poverty in Spain.
1845 First legislative assembly convenes in Hawaii.
1861 NC secedes, Confederacy capital moves from Montgomery to Richmond
1874 Levi Strauss markets his blue jeans with copper rivets, priced at
     $13.50 A DOZEN.
1902 The United States ends its occupation of Cuba
1926 Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies.
1927 At 7:40am, Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross Atlantic.
1932 Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland, first woman fly solo across
     the Atlantic.
1939 Pan Am begins transatlantic passenger and air mail service.
1956 Atomic fusion (thermonuclear) bomb dropped from plane -
     on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1961 White mob attacks `Freedom Riders' in Montgomery, Alabama
1974 Russians' Soyuz 14 returns to Earth
1985 FBI arrests John A. Walker Jr, convicted of spying for the USSR.
1985 The US begins broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti.
--KCYFC BBS

May 21, 1956 (my birthday), the United States exploded the first
airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
--Source unknown

On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis
near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the
Atlantic Ocean.
--AP News

May 21, 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.
--AP News

Every day, 20,000 letters pour into Bill Clinton's White House --
three times the mail that arrived during George Bush's term.
--US News & World Report, May 30, 1994

Only 4 nucleotides exist in DNA, and every living thing is created
out of these 4 building blocks.
--"X-Files", TV series, pending a more reliable source

MAY 21 in History
1761 First life insurance policy in the US, issued in Philadelphia
1807 Townsend Speakman begins making and selling fruit-flavored
     carbonated drinks - in Philadelphia.
1846 First steamer arrives in Hawaii
1856 Violence in Senate, SC rep Brooks uses a cane on Mass Sen Sumner.
1868 Great Train Robbery. Seven men make off with $98,000 in cash.
1939 Hitler and Mussolini sign `Pact of Steel.'
1947 First ballistic missile fired.
1947 The "Truman Doctrine" goes into effect aiding Turkey & Greece.
1963 Mickey Mantle hits a ball off Yankee Stadium's facade
1967 Egyptian president Nassar closes the Straits of Tiran to Israel.
1970 Arab terrorists kill 9 children and 3 adults on a school bus.
1972 Ceylon becomes Republic of Sri Lanka.
1981 Russians' Soyuz 40 returns to Earth
--Source unknown

The Douglas Fir isn't a fir, but actually a member of the pine family.
--Jeopardy!

Glass is an amorphous substance made by heating a mixture of such
materials as sand, soda (sodium carbonate), and limestone to a
temperature of about 1,300 deg C (2,400 deg F). Temperatures only
slightly lower than this can be achieved with a wood fire, which was
the traditional fuel for glass melting. Today glass is made
continuously in large tanks. Powdered raw materials are fed in at one
end, and a molten strip or plate of glass emerges at the other end.
The glass is heated by oil or gas flames over the melt, but since
these fuels are becoming more expensive, the electrical glass-melting
process, which employs metal electrodes in the melt to generate heat,
is becoming more widely used. Windows, containers, light bulbs,
optical instruments, and many specialty items of glass are an
essential part of modern life.
--Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia

1742 First indoor swimming pool opens at Goodman's Fields, London.
1774 First Continental Congress convenes in Virginia.
1926 United States Customs Court created by Congress.
1929 First all color talking picture "On With The Show" exhibited, NYC
1946 First night game at Yankee stadium.
1953 Premier of first animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor - "Melody."
1959 First animals fired into space and rescued, Cape Canaveral.

--YFC BBS

Born May 29, 1826, Ebenezer Butterick invented the tissue paper
dress pattern.
--YFC BBS

Born May 29,1903 Leslie Townes (Bob) Hope, famous profile.
--YFC BBS

June 1, 1971 Ed Sullivan's final show.
--YFC BBS

June 2, 1835 P.T. Barnum and his circus begin their first tour
             of the U.S.
June 2, 1886 First president to wed during presidency- Grover
             Cleveland.
June 2, 1910 Pygmies are discovered in Dutch New Guinea.
--YFC BBS

Americans open the refrigerator an average of 22 times per day.
--Fox Television

June 4, 1896 -- Road test of the first Ford car is delayed an hour
                because the car is wider than the door of the shed in
                which it is built.
June 5, 1933 -- The United States leaves the gold standard.
--YFC BBS

June 5th in history:
     In 1783, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier publicly demonstrated
their hot-air balloon in a 10-minute flight over Annonay, France.
     In 1967, war erupted in the Middle East when Israel, convinced
an Arab attack was imminent, raided Egyptian military targets. Syria,
Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.
     In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded
just after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential
primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
--AP Online News

Born June 5, 1900 Dennis Gabor, inventor of holography (3D laser
photography).
--YFC BBS

June 6 in history:
1946 Henry Morgan is first to take off his shirt on TV.
2012 Transit of Venus (between Earth and Sun) will occur.
--YFC BBS

June 8 in history:
1786 First commercially-made ice cream sold in New York.
1869 IW McGaffey receives patent for vacuum cleaner.
1889 Cable Cars begin service in Los Angeles.  LOS ANGELES!
--YFC BBS

June 9, 1869 Charles Elmer Hires sells his first Root Beer, in
Philadelphia.
--YFC BBS

There's a pyramid in Rome! The pyramid of Gaius Cestius, the only
pyramid in Rome, has a burial chamber inside.
--Jeopardy!

Peppermint was the flavor of the first LifeSaver candy, introduced
in 1912.

--Jeopardy!

The word "Buccaneer", a 17th century pirate who raided Spanish ships,
derived from the French word for "barbecuer".
--Jeopardy!

To check the accuracy of an 18% photographic gray card, with the sun
out and the aperture on f/16, the shutter speed should equal the ASA
(speed) of the film.
--Source unknown

Harry Luce, president of Time (or LIFE), is the son of a presbyterian
minister.
--700 Club

The slang word "geek" derives back as far as 1611, referring to the
scorn of others' villainy.
The slang word "cool" derives back as far as 1825.
--Random House Dictionary of Slang

June 16, 1903, Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
--AP News

June 17th in history:
1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard the French ship `Isere.'
1953 Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stays executions of
     spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg scheduled for the next day
     because it's their 14th anniversary.
1963 Supreme Court strikes down rule requiring recitation of the
     Lord's Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools.
1987 NY Yankees and KC Royals Manager Dick Howser dies at 51 of
     brain cancer.
--YFC BBS

In 1979, President Carter apologized to Australia for pieces of
Skylab falling on their country.
--Jeopardy!

The human small intestine is approximately 21 feet long.
--Jeopardy!

In 1981, Pres. Reagan fired nearly 12,000 air traffic controllers of
the PATCO union after they called an illegal strike.
--Jeopardy!

In 1993, Pres. Clinton lifted the ban that Reagan put into effect
regarding the permanent freeze of hiring ex-PATCO union workers from
any aviation related jobs.
--Jeopardy!

June 18, 1812 -- War of 1812 begins - US vs. Great Britain
June 18, 1877 -- James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator, is born. He's
best known for his "I want you" Uncle Sam recruiting poster.
--YFC BBS

The blink of an eye takes approximately one fourth of a second.
--Source unknown

According to GE, a twinkling of an eye is about 1/700th of a second.
--Brother Bob, pastor, Plaza Heights Baptist Church

Only 15% of people past age 18 get converted to Christianity.
--ibid.

There are over 500,000 hymns written. (as of the early 1990's)
--ibid.

June 23, 1868 The typewriter is patented.
--YFC BBS

June 25th in history:

1178 Five Canterbury monks report something exploding on the Moon
     (only known observation). These monks had NO winery of their own.
1630 The Fork is introduced to American dining by Gov. Winthrop.

1835 Pueblo founded with construction of first building (start of
     Yerba Buena, later to be called San Francisco).
1876 Lt. Col. Custer and 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and
     Cheyenne Indians.
1929 President Hoover authorizes construction of Boulder (Hoover) Dam.
1950 El Al airlines begins air service.
1950 North Korea invades South Korea - Korean War begins.
1951 First color TV broadcast - CBS' Arthur Godfrey from NYC. Four
     cities see the show in color.
1962 Supreme Court rules use of unofficial non-denominational prayer
     in New York State public schools is unconstitutional.
--YFC BBS

July 4th in history:
In 1826, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson -- the second and third
   presidents of the United States -- both died, 50 years to the
   day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
In 1831, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, died
   in New York City.
In 1862, English clergyman and mathematician Charles L. Dodgson,
   better known as Lewis Carroll, began inventing the story of
   "Alice in Wonderland" for his friend Alice Pleasance Liddell
   during a boating trip.
--YFC BBS

In 1984, The Statue of Liberty's torch, symbol of freedom to tens of
millions of new Americans for almost a century, was removed from the
statue's outstretched hand to be replaced with a new one the
following year.
--Source unknown

July 14, 1916, Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero
Products, was founded in Seattle by William Boeing.
--AP Online News

July 16, 1935 Oklahoma City becomes first in U.S. to use parking meters.
July 17, 1954 Construction begins on Disneyland ...
July 17, 1955 ... Disneyland opens its doors in rural Orange County.
July 18, 1940 First successful helicopter flight, Stratford, CT.
July 18, 1968 Intel Corporation is incorporated.
July 18, 1969 Mary Jo Kopechne and Sen Ted Kennedy plunge off bridge
     in a car.

--YFC BBS

July 19, 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 returns to Earth.
--AP Online News

July 19, 1975, the Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked
in orbit for two days separated.
--AP Online News

July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz"
Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. At 10:56 p.m. EDT,
Armstrong stepped onto the moon from Apollo's lunar module and
declared, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for
mankind."
--AP Online News

July 20, 1976, America's Viking One robot spacecraft made a
successful, first-ever landing on Mars.
--AP Online News

July 19, 1961 First in-flight movie is shown (on TWA.)
--YFC BBS

July 21 in history:
1873 World's first train robbery, by Jesse James.
1925 John Scopes found guilty for teaching evolution.
1959 First atomic merchant ship, Savannah, christened, Camden, NJ.
1961 Gus Grissom aboard Liberty Bell 7 is launched .
1966 Gemini X returns to Earth.
1976 "Legionnaire's Disease" kills 29 in Philadelphia, Pa.

July 25 in history:
1909 First airplane flight across the English Channel.
1946 First bikini is shown at a Paris fashion show.
1952 Puerto Rico becomes a commonwealth of the US.
--YFC BBS

The toucan is a relative of the woodpecker.
--Jeopardy!

July 27 in history:
1866 Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid (1,686 miles long.)
1940 Billboard magazine starts publishing best-seller's charts.
1953 Korean War ends.
--YFC BBS

Guyana--The Peoples' Temple--Nov. 1978--Led by Jim Jones. Ambush on
four journalists and a California congressman, plus mass suicide...
total 911 dead.
--World's Great News Photos

Three Mile Island--March of 1979
--World's Great News Photos

July 30, 1946 First rocket to attain 100-mile altitude, White Sands, NM.
--YFC BBS

Aug. 1, 1790, the first U.S. census was completed, showing a
population of nearly 4 million people.
--AP Online News
Aug. 1, 1936, the Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony
presided over by Adolf Hitler.
--AP Online News
Aug. 1, 1981, the rock music video channel MTV made its debut.
--AP Online News

August 4th in history:
1693 Champagne is invented by Dom Perignon.
1777 Retired British cavalry officer Philip Astley establishes the
     first circus.
1790 United States Coast Guard founded.
--AP Online News

Aug. 12th in history:
1851 Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1888 Bertha, wife of inventor Karl Benz, makes the first motor tour.
     Without her husband's knowledge, she borrow one of his cars and
     travels 180km to visit relatives for 5 days.
1934 Babe Ruth's final game at Fenway Park, 41,766 on hand.
1972 Last combat troops leave Vietnam.
1977 First test of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
--AP Online News

March 1989 -- Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of crude oil.
--AP Online News

By age 65, the human heart will have beat about 2 1/2 billion times.
--Source unknown

Rain forests get between 100 and 400 inches of rain per year, as
opposed to Missouri, which gets 33.91 yearly.
--1991 World Almanac

One US gallon of pure water is about 8.345 pounds. One inch of
rainfall over one acre of ground would equal 27,143 gallons of water.
--1991 World Almanac

Feb. 1, '68 -- famous Loan shooting of suspected Viet Cong soldier
photographed by Eddie Adams-- AP photographer.
--Source unknown

Aug. 31, 1895 John Brailier becomes the first "professional"
football player when he receives $10 for expenses in a game
at Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
--YFC BBS

The first commercial product to use transistors was the hearing aid
in 1952. The radio used transistors two years later.

--Jeopardy!

Sep. 13, 1977-- First TV viewer discretion warning used-- "Soap"
--YFC BBS

Sep. 30, 1452-- First book published, Johann Guttenberg's Bible.
--YFC BBS

Sep. 30, 1960 "The Flintstones" premieres. Yabba Dabba Doo!
--YFC BBS

ONE VOTE...

In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be executed.
In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of
     German.
In 1836, one vote elected Marcus Morton governor of Massachusetts.
In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the Union.
In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment.
In 1875, one vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic.
In 1876, one vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the United States
     presidency.
In 1923, one vote gave Adolf Hitler control of the Nazi party.
In 1941, one vote saved the selective service system just 12 weeks
before Pearl Harbor.
--Chuck Swindoll quoting from some book on his radio program

As of 3-7-95, there are 11,638 taxi drivers in New York, NY.
--NYC cab driver on David Letterman