Text Version: President Thomas Jefferson was never a fan of formal affairs, and was often reported to have worn his pajamas while meeting with Foreign dignitaries. On one such occasion, when meeting with British Minister to the U.S., Andrew Merry, he wore his PJ’s. Needless to say, Andrew Merry was not amused and he was later quoted as saying, “I, […]
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On this day in history, November 26th… 1842: The University of Notre Dame was founded by Father Edward Sorin. He also became the University’s first President. The University’s name “Notre Dame” is French for “Our Lady,” being a catholic school, the term “Our Lady” is a reference to the Virgin Mary. When the University was first founded, it was an […]
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On this day in history, November 25th… 1926 : An outbreak of 27 twisters rip up the Midwest in one of the worst tornado storms in U.S history. The strongest of these tornadoes was an estimated F4 that tore up Herber Springs, Arkansas. The storm caused over 76 deaths, 51 of which were in Arkansas alone and over 400 injuries in […]
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Text Version: Vodka comes from the Russian word for “water,” which is “Voda.” Poland likes to brag about how their Vodka is older than Russia’s Vodka, dating it back to the 8th century, where it went by different names such as “burnt wine” and “gorzalka.” Like most distilled liquors back then, Vodka was mainly used as a medicine. Vodka was […]
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On this day in history, November 24th… 1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life‘, more popularly known as simply “On the Origin of Species”. Darwin had already been working on his theory of “natural selection” since 1938, as the idea […]
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On this day in history, November 23rd… 1963 : The first episode of “Doctor Who” aired on BBC. The show went on the become the world’s longest running science fiction drama. Based on the adventures of a Time Lord—a time traveling, humanoid alien known as the Doctor, the show quickly become a significant part of British popular culture. After 26 seasons, in 1996, the show was put on […]
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Text Version: We’ve all heard of Yahoo and have probably seen their commercials and heard the famous yodel “Yahoooooo!” The famous yodel comes from Wylie Gustafson. He made the yodel for Yahoo in 1996 for a one time payment of $590 U.S. Dollars. However in 2002, I guess he wanted more, so he sued Yahoo, settling out of court for […]
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On this day in history, November 22nd… 1963 : President John F. Kennedy, was fatally shot while traveling with his wife and others in a Presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The President was traveling in Dallas in an open-top convertible along with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, the Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife, on a route that was planned to give […]
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Text Version: Humans enjoy five or more different tastes namely: sour, bitter, salty, umami (associated with meat), and sweet. We can taste sweet things thanks to two proteins generated by two separate genes. Cats, on the other hand, have a mutant chemoreceptor in their taste buds that prevents them from tasting sweet things, which is actually a trait shared by […]
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The real name of the “Birdman” was Robert Franklin Stroud. Seattle born Stroud ran away from home at the age of 13 and was first arrested in 1909 at the age of 19 after turning himself in for murder. He shot and killed a bartender, F. K. Von Dahmer, who had allegedly failed to pay a prostitute for whom Stroud was […]
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On this day in history, November 21st… 1877 : Thomas Edison announced the first of his inventions, the phonograph, a tinfoil cylindrical device that could not only record sounds, but could also re-play the recorded sound. While experimenting with a way to record telephone communications at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison developed a device using a stylus on […]
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Text Version: The Bowhead Whale is also known as the Arctic whale, because it lives only in Arctic waters unlike other whales that migrate to feed. The Bowhead whale is by far the longest living mammal on the planet. Some Bowhead whales have been seen with ivory spears still lodged in them from failed attempts by whalers over 200 years […]
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Text Version: – The average age of a Nobel Peace prize recipient is 62 years old. The oldest recipient was Joseph Rotblat, he was 87 years old when he received his Nobel Peace prize for his worldwide campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons. – Mahatma Gandhi surprisingly never won a Nobel Peace prize, despite being nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, […]
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