Page 206 – Today I Found Out

Magellan Was Not the First Person to Circumnavigate the Globe, The Man Who First Did It May Have Been Magellan’s Slave

September 19, 2013 Emily Upton

Myth: Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães) was the first person to circumnavigate the globe. There’s no doubt that Magellan intended to have a successful journey when his expedition set off from Spain on September 20, 1519. He had planned for the departure meticulously, hoping to prove that people could sail all the way around the world, and to be the […]

This Day in History: September 19th

September 19, 2013 Kathy Padden

This Day In History: September 19th, 1995 The Unabomber, nicknamed such from the FBI’s title for him “UNABOM” (UNiversity and Airline BOMber), in a series of 16 total bombings from May 25, 1978 to April 14, 1995 spanning across the U.S., killed three people and injured 23 more, yet somehow managed to avoid getting caught. Then, on September 19, 1995, […]

This Day in History

The Engineer Who Bought Over 12,100 Cups Of Pudding to Earn 1.25 Million Air Miles

September 18, 2013 Karl Smallwood

Air Miles are awesome, they can be used to score free flights, hotel stays and if you’re really lucky, the scorn and hatred of everyone you come in contact with who has to pay full price when they travel. The king of all virtually free travelers is one David Phillips, a civil engineer who teaches at the University of California, […]

10 More Interesting Random Facts

September 18, 2013 Noreen

Gisborne Airport –image source s_bukley / Shutterstock.com Bruce C. Murray / Shutterstock.com Text Version: Fact 631: Hachikō was a dog who would greet his master Hidesaburō Ueno at the Shibuya Station every day for about a year when his master would come home from work at the University of Tokyo. Unfortunately, one day Ueno died while at work and didn’t […]

How One of the Most Beautiful Women in 1940s’ Hollywood Helped Make Certain Wireless Technologies Possible

September 18, 2013 Jeremy Megraw

Did an exotic actress from Vienna, considered one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood in the 1940s, really invent wireless? Not exactly, but the non-sensationalized facts of the matter are no less fascinating, involving Hollywood, the World War II Axis Powers, and remote control technology. Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as “Hedy Lamarr”, once really did patent a […]

This Day in History: September 18th

September 18, 2013 Kathy Padden

Today in History: September 18, 1975 On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old heiress to the Hearst newspaper empire, was abducted from her apartment in Berkeley, California by three armed assailants. Her fiancé, Stephen Weed and a neighbor who rushed to the scene to help the girl were both tied up and beaten by the kidnappers. Onlookers observed a […]

This Day in History

10 Interesting Random Facts

September 17, 2013 Noreen

Text Version: Fact 621- If you have a butt load of wine, you possess about 126 gallons (477 liters) of wine (1 butt). This is also known as 1 pipe of wine. Fact 622-“Play it again, Sam” was never said in Casablanca. Furthermore, although many attribute the adapted version to Bogart, the closest thing to it comes from Bergman’s character, […]

What Happened to Howard Hughes’ Money After He Died

September 17, 2013 Emily Upton

Today I found out what happened to billionaire Howard Hughes’ money when he died. Over his lifetime, Howard Hughes’ wallet became one of the fattest of his time. It isn’t known exactly how much he was worth at the time of his death, but ten years before he died, he was forced to sell his shares in the airline company […]

This Day in History: September 17th

September 17, 2013 Kathy Padden

On this day in history, September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War was fought. In the early morning hours, about 75,000 Union and 38,000 Confederate troops faced off near Maryland’s Antietam Creek in the deadliest single day of battle America had ever seen. The Battle of Antietam was the culmination Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee’s […]

This Day in History

Behind The Names Of 10 Popular Hairstyles

September 16, 2013 Noreen

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The Origin of the Phrase “Close, But No Cigar”

September 16, 2013 Emily Upton

J. Ramhit asks: Where did the phrase “close, but no cigar” come from? This popular idiom, which means “to fall short of a successful outcome” or “close call,” was first coined in the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. While it can’t be proven definitively, it’s likely that the phrase originated at fairgrounds around this time. […]

This Day in History: September 16th

September 16, 2013 Kathy Padden

Today In History: September 16, 1620 On this day in history, 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England heading for the New World with 102 souls aboard- some religious dissenters, many others adventurous entrepreneurs. The colonists, who were headed for Virginia, had been given official authorization to settle there by royal authority. As fate would have it, rough seas […]

This Day in History

Weekly Wrap Volume 4

September 14, 2013 Daven Hiskey

This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Paperclip was Used as a Symbol of Resistance During WWII In April of 1940, just a few months into World War II, Adolf Hitler knew that he needed a way to break past the Allied blockade of Germany if he had […]

The Origin of Friday the 13th as an Unlucky Day

September 13, 2013 Kathy Padden

Alicia asks: Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? Being wary of Friday the 13th is much more than a quaint superstition observed by a few uneducated people in distant, unreachable towns and hamlets. In the United States alone, it is estimated that between 17 and 21 million people dread that date to the extent that it can be officially classified […]

10 Random Amazing Facts

September 13, 2013 Noreen

Featureflash / Shutterstock.com Featureflash / Shutterstock.com Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock.com Andy Lidstone / Shutterstock.com s_bukley / Shutterstock.com Text Version: Fact 611: During the filming of the movie Troy where Brad Pitt played Achilles, he tore his Achilles tendon… What did Pitt have to say on the matter, “It’s sad, it’s stupid… It’s so wrong. It’s such a bad headline.” Fact […]

Facts Lists

The Animal Where the Male Becomes Pregnant and Gives Birth

September 13, 2013 Staci Lehman

Today I found out that female seahorses impregnating their male mates, rather than the other way around. The reproductive process of a seahorse begins when a male and a female meet up and “dance”. For several days prior to the actual act of mating, the two fish (yes, they are fish) will meet to intertwine their tails and swim together. […]

This Day in History: September 13th

September 13, 2013 Kathy Padden

This Day In History: September 13 On this day in history, 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed Buckingham Palace. In World War II during the London Blitz, the Nazi German Air Force made an air strike on Buckingham Palace while King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth were both in residence. During the attack, the palace was hit by five explosives, […]

This Day in History

The Man Who Fought in WWII With a Sword and Bow

September 12, 2013 Emily Upton

Running into battle armed with a broadsword, bow, and quiver of arrows was perfectly acceptable if you were fighting in the Hundred Years’ War or fending off some orcs on Middle Earth. But when it comes to World War II, such medieval weaponry looks like child’s play next to the technology of the time. A sword isn’t the most likely […]

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