The ACLU began as an antimilitarism movement during World War I, headed by people who didn’t support America’s mandatory draft.
Congress once denounced Frank Sinatra and the Lone Ranger for turning American youths into delinquents.
In 1969, author Norman Mailer ran for Mayor of New York City. He wanted it to be the 51st state.
In 1676, an American colonist named Nathaniel Bacon led a tax rebellion against the governor of Virginia. The rebellion fell apart three months later when Bacon died of dysentery.
What did George Washington and Colonel Sanders have in common? They were both Freemasons.
In 2003, there were 135 people on the ballot to be governor of California.
President Harry S. Truman’s mother refused to sleep in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom—she was a Confederate sympathizer.
Food Stuff
Americans now eat nine times more broccoli than they did 20 years ago.
In the Middle Ages, people added carrot juice to butter to make the color more appetizing.
If you shake a can of mixed nuts, the larger nuts will rise to the top.
Because fruits ferment, virtually all fruit juices contain minute amounts of alcohol.
More people on the West Coast prefer chunky peanut butter. East Coasters like theirs creamy.
Nondairy creamer is flammable.
The first fruit eaten on the Moon was a peach.
The average American child eats 15 pounds of cereal in a year.
It takes twelve ears of corn to make a tablespoon of corn oil.
Casu marzu, a cheese from Sardinia, is ready to eat when it’s riddled with live maggots.
Young & Old
Paul McCartney wrote “When I’m Sixty-four” when he was 15.
Gladys Knight won first prize on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour TV show when she was seven years old.
Youngest golfer ever to compete in the Ryder Cup: Sergio Garcia, at age 19.
Elton John won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 11.
Maggie Kuhn founded the senior citizens’ activist group the Gray Panthers in 1971, at the age of 65.
The piano piece “Chopsticks” was written by 16-year-old Euphemia Allen.
Drummer Julian Pavone played at a Chicago Cubs game and made a CD called Go, Baby! He was three.
Conductor Leopold Stokowski founded the American Symphony Orchestra when he was 80…and signed a six-year recording contract at age 94. (He died a year later.)
Mark Twain didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until he was nearly 50 years old.
Jack Kerouac wrote his first novel at the age of 11.
Youngest player ever to qualify for the PGA Tour: Ty Tryon, at age 17.
Bill Gates started programming computers at the age of 13.
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis first played with the New Orleans Philharmonic when he was 14.
The value of Herbert Hoover’s estate at his death at age 90 in 1964: more than $8 million.
On the Job
Five most dangerous jobs in the United States: logger, pilot, asbestos worker, metalworker, electrician.
Statistically, the most productive day of the workweek is Tuesday.
Professions most likely to require work at night: police, security guard. Least likely: construction worker.
Gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. was the first employer to give workers a two-day weekend.
Before the Civil War, the average person worked 11 hours a day, six days a week.
Day of the week most Americans call in sick: Friday (18 percent). The day fewest do: Tuesday (11 percent).
In 2000, France became the first country to adopt the 35-hour workweek.
Estimated number of plumbers in the United States: 500,000.
On average, Americans miss more than three million days of work each year due to allergies.
The average American salary during the 1960s was $4,743. Today: about $40,000.
The higher his income, the more likely an American man will cheat on his wife.
Among American men, those with the highest income are the most likely to be overweight—but among American women, those with the lowest income are.
U.S. men who drink moderately earn 7 percent higher pay than nondrinkers.
About 25 percent of male employees say they take naps on the job. Only half as many women do.
The Oregon Trail
TRANSPORTATION. The most common vehicle used on the Oregon Trail—the route many 19th-century pioneers took from the East to the West Coast—was the prairie schooner, a light, covered wagon. But they also used everything from wheelbarrows to handcarts to wind-powered wagons to make the trip. One inventor even tried to come up with a way to fly settlers to Oregon. In 1849, a man named Rufus Porter advertised that he could use balloons to carry people over the mountains. About 200 people signed up for the trip, but Porter ran out of money before he could make even one flight.
DANGER, DANGER! More than 10,000 people died traveling the Oregon Trail. The most common cause of death: disease. People caught smallpox and cholera in huge numbers, and their companions were so anxious to get moving that some of the sick were buried alive.
CHILD’S PLAY. Many kids traveling the Oregon Trail took up an unusual game: cow dung frisbee.
VALUABLE CARGO. In 1847, Iowan Henderson Luelling set out for Oregon with his wife, eight children, and three wagons. One was for the family and their belongings, but the other two carried about 700 young fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry, and others). People he passed on the trail thought Luelling was crazy, but when he arrived in the Willamette Valley in northwest Oregon, he planted the trees and established several orchards. Luelling was the first to introduce these fruits to Oregon, and later to California. Today, both are among the most profitable fruit-growing regions of the United States.
Facts of War
Shortest war in American history: the Spanish-American War, in 1898. It lasted less than four months.
More battles of the American Revolution were fought in South Carolina than in any other colony.
In the War of 1812, the British burned most of Washington, D.C., including the White House.
The only war ever fought by NATO was against Yugoslavia.
New Englanders so opposed the War of 1812 that many wanted to secede.
Buckingham Palace was bombed nine times during World War II, with one fatality.
The last battle of World War I was fought in what is now Zambia, Africa.
President James K. Polk was so involved with managing the details of the Mexican War that he even oversaw the purchase of mules.
During World War I, Germany offered Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to Mexico if the country would change sides. (It didn’t.)
And Now…Percents
Thirty-one percent of American workers skip lunch every day.
Eighty percent of the world’s population regularly eats insects.
Twenty-five percent of Americans will catch more than four colds this year.
Fifty percent of the pizzas sold in the United States have pepperoni on them.
Fifty percent of all Oreo eaters say they pull the cookies apart before eating them.
How often do NFL teams try for a first down on fourth down? Less than 1 percent of the time.
Fifty-five percent of Americans say they’ll let someone else into the bathroom with them.
Thirty percent of NBA players have tattoos.
World’s biggest consumers of music: the British, who account for 7.2 percent of global sales.
Seventy percent of Fortune 500 CEOs regularly do business on the golf course.
Seventeen percent of sales reps who golf with clients say they intentionally let the clients win.
Odds that a cosmetic surgery patient is a woman: 89 percent.
Twenty percent more antacids are sold the day after the Super Bowl than on an average day.
Heinz sells more than 50 percent of all the ketchup in the world.
A British study found that people with facial piercings are 23 percent more likely to order vegetarian pizza.
Laws Against Nature
Melbourne, Australia, has an 8:00 p.m. curfew…for cats.
A Memphis, Tennessee, ordinance bans frogs from croaking after 11:00 p.m.
In Wilbur, Washington, you can be fined for riding an ugly horse.
It’s a crime to punch a bull in the nose in Washington, D.C.
In Zion, Illinois, it’s illegal to give a lit cigar to a dog, cat, or other domesticated pet.
In Fairbanks, Alaska, moose are banned from mating within city limits.
In Florida, it’s against the law to hunt deer while they’re swimming.
It’s against the law in Utah to fish from horseback.
It’s illegal to put graffiti on someone else’s cow in Texas.
Technically, you must have a hunting license to catch mice in California.
Historical Surprises
Joseph Stalin was studying to become a Russian Orthodox priest when he learned about communism.
While he was escaping, political prisoner Lev Bronstein stole his jailer’s passport…and was thereafter known as Leon Trotsky.
Before he reunited Italy in the 1870s and became a national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi lived briefly on Staten Island, New York, and worked as a candle maker.
Ho Chi Minh, whose name means “one who enlightens,” once worked as a photo retoucher in Paris.
Later in life, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin attacked the despotism of Communist leaders.
St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was British but was kidnapped by Irish pirates.
Explorer John Cabot, who sailed to fame under the English flag, was really an Italian named Giovanni Caboto.
Although King John of England signed the Magna Carta, he promptly had Pope Innocent III annul it.
Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian. She was Greek.
During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI tried to escape, but he was easily recognized—because his portrait was on French currency.
Edward VIII abdicated the English throne in 1936, but he did rule again…as governor of the Bahamas.
Josephine Bonaparte’s divorce from Napoléon was the first under the Napoleonic code of law, which allowed women to file for divorce.
Snakes & So On
Snakes don’t blink because they don’t have movable eyelids.
The “warts” on a toad are actually toxin-filled glands.
The American alligator derives its name from the Spanish lagarto, or “lizard.”
During one summer, a single toad will eat about 10,000 insects.
The South American basilisk lizard is nicknamed the “Jesus Christ lizard” because it can run across the surface of water to escape predators.
During their lifetimes, alligators grow—and lose— about 3,000 teeth.
The poisonous copperhead snake gives off a scent like that of fresh-cut cucumbers.
More than 80 percent of the reptiles in Australia are native to the continent.
Horned toads are not toads—they’re lizards.
The Sonoran coral snake and the western hook-nosed snake both fart to scare off predators. (The noise scares them, not the smell.)
Life in the Military
The U.S. Navy won’t accept any recruit with an “obscene” tattoo.
In 1995, Rebecca Marier became the first woman to graduate at the top of the class at West Point.
When they’re at sea, the crews of U.S. nuclear-powered submarines wear blue coveralls called “poopie-suits.”
Granola bars, instant noodle soup, and freeze-dried coffee were all invented by the military.
The only woman to receive the congressional Medal of Honor was Dr. Mary Walker, a surgeon in the Civil War.
Item most requested by American soldiers serving in Iraq: toilet paper.
Fliers with the Blue Angels have to be active-duty Navy or Marine Corps tactical jet pilots with a minimum of 1,350 flight hours.
In January 2006, the U.S. Army raised its maximum enlistment age to 39.
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has five gymnasiums and a basketball league with 22 teams.
By George!
England’s King George I (1660–1727) was German and could barely speak English.
At the 1912 Olympics, General George S. Patton placed fifth in the pentathlon.
If the 2004 U.S. presidential election had been held in Canada, John Kerry would have beaten George Bush 64 percent to 19 percent.
George magazine (a political publication named for George Washington) was founded by John Kennedy Jr. in 1995. Its first cover featured Cindy Crawford.
George Washington played a version of baseball with his men at Valley Forge.
King George VI changed the date of his birthday from December 14 to June 9, so it wouldn’t interfere with Christmas.
Alabama governor George Wallace put himself through college by working as a professional boxer.
Author George Orwell was probably the first person to use the phrase “cold war,” in 1945.
The speeches of England’s King George VI (1895–1952) were written specifically to minimize his stammer.
On July 4, 1776, King George III wrote in his diary, “Nothing of importance happened today.”
Writers George Sand and George Eliot were women.
George Washington Carver made more than 300 products out of peanuts during the early 1900s.
Priciest painting by a female artist: Calla Lilies with Red Anemone (Georgia O’Keeffe, sold for $6.1 million in 2001).
Ancient History
The Roman Empire was knit together by more than 50,000 miles of roads.
Early Egyptians buried their dead in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating natural mummies.
Horse racing originated around 4500 BC among nomadic tribesmen in central Asia.
Ancient Egyptians slept on headrests made of stone.
At its height in AD 117, the Roman Empire covered 2.5 million square miles.
According to paleontologists, Neanderthals probably had high-pitched voices.
Sit-in strikes were conducted by Egyptian graveyard workers in the 12th century BC.
In ancient Rome, being born with a crooked nose was a sign of a good leader.
In ancient Egypt, doctors sometimes prescribed warm donkey droppings to relieve sore eyes.
During the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220–280), China’s name for Japan was Wa.
The earliest known pottery in the world comes from Japan’s Jomon culture, which emerged around 14,000 BC.
Ancient Roman wrestling matches had only one rule: no eye gouging.
The ruins of Carthage are located in Tunisia.
The word gymnasium comes from the Greek gymnos (naked) because athletes in ancient Greece often competed in the nude.
Confection-ately Yours
America’s oldest candy brand is the Necco wafer, sold since 1847. The eight original flavors: lemon, orange, lime, clove, cinnamon, wintergreen, licorice, and chocolate.
About 65 percent of American candy brands have been around for more than 50 years.
The marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal are technically called “marbits.”
In 1915, William Wrigley Jr. sent free chewing gum to every person listed in the Chicago phone book.
Pez dispensers got their first character heads in 1955.
Three out of every four Snickers bars in the world are made at the M&M/Mars plant in Waco, Texas.
Streetlamps in Hershey, Pennsylvania, are shaped like chocolate kisses.
Every year, Americans eat about 95 million pounds of marshmallows…and more than 2.5 billion pounds of chocolate.
Chocolatier Clarence Crane invented Life Savers in 1912; the original flavor was called Pep-O-Mint.
How many M&Ms are there in a pound? About 192 peanut or 512 plain.
In the late 1960s, Pez tr
ied to market flower-flavored candies.
U.S. candy makers manufacture more than 16 million jelly beans every Easter.
The first chewing gum to be widely advertised in the United States was Tutti-Frutti.
Time needed to produce a marshmallow Peep: six seconds.
Ocean & Coast
The Sargasso Sea has no coastline. (It’s in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.)
Florida’s beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand every year.
The United States has 12,383 miles of coastline; 6,640 miles of it are in Alaska.
First national seashore: Cape Hatteras National Seashore, in North Carolina, established in 1953.
Seventy percent of San Francisco Bay is less than 12 feet deep.
New York City has 570 miles of shoreline.
Alaska’s Glacier Bay has some of the largest tidal fluctuations in the world; high tide can be as much as 25 feet higher than low tide.
Tsunami waves can move from one shore of the Pacific to the other in less than a day.
The ocean off the Outer Banks of North Carolina has been called “the Graveyard of the Atlantic.” The total number of vessels lost near Cape Hatteras is estimated at more than 2,000.
Scientific Streets
Many of the streets in Paris are named for famous scientists. Here are five you might recognize:
1. Rue Ampère. Named for French physicist André-Marie Ampère, who discovered electromagnetism. He initiated a standard system of measurement for electric currents, and the ampere unit of electric current was named for him.
2. Rue Copernic. Named for Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who produced a workable model of the solar system with the Sun in the center in the 16th century.
3. Rue Pierre et Marie Curie. Named for the Nobel Prize–winning couple who pioneered the study of magnetism and radioactivity, and discovered the elements radium and polonium in 1898. (Polonium was named for Marie’s homeland of Poland.)
4. Rue Galilée. Named for Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher Galileo Galilei, who has been called the “father of modern science.”
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Page 11