This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Where the Phrase “Close But No Cigar” Came 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 […]
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Believe it or not, the history of Nintendo goes all the way back to 1889. And before you ask- no, they were not selling Mario figures carved from wood. Originally named “Nintendo Koppai”, the small business based in Kyoto started by Fusajiro Yamauchi produced Hanafuda Cards. For those unfamiliar, these are simple playing cards that are used to play multiple […]
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Long ago an advanced civilization sprang up along the shores of Lake Titicaca, in the Andes Mountains in present day Bolivia and Peru, and disappeared just as quickly 500 years later. The sophisticated people that created the fabulous city of Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) were the forefathers of the Incas and other South American cultures, and some even believe they were the […]
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Dan asks: How did the running gag of police always eating donuts come about? Members of law enforcement stuffing their faces full of doughnuts is one of the most enduring stereotypes about the boys and girls in blue. In virtually every media representation of the police that isn’t deadly serious, the stereotype is played out in some way- Police Academy, […]
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This Day In History: September 20, 2012 Amish Group Convicted of Beard Cutting Hate Crimes (Yep, that’s a thing.) A year ago today, 16 members of a dissident Amish group from Ohio were found guilty of both federal hate crimes and conspiracy, for forcibly cutting the hair and beards of other Amish with whom they had religious differences. The ruthless […]
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Beloved by Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgz, Kazakhs, Pashtuns and Turkmens as well as Afghans, the equestrian sport known as Kokpar or Buzkashi is a rugged, and traditionally extremely violent, game similar to polo with one surprising twist; rather than hitting a ball with mallets toward a goal, players vie for control of a headless animal carcass. While at first glance this […]
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Mitch Gunn / Shutterstock.com Featureflash / Shutterstock.com Shirley Henderson- image source/ author- nicolas genin Featureflash / Shutterstock.com Text Version: Fact 641: In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the person who finished in fourth place in the women’s high jump was actually a man, German athlete Heinrich Ratjen. Two years later, he won a gold medal setting a new “women’s” world […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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