Interesting random facts.
 

Just a little over 200 years ago there were only 20,000 people in New York City, and George Washington was fixing to kick some British ass.
There's over 8,000,000 people in NYC today.

Please add things like that. Anything you think is interesting or noteworthy. The more random the better. Historical, modern, trivial, whatever. Maybe something from news or tv or Reader's Digest. The kind of stuff you go bother your wife with and she says "That's wonderful, dear."
I love these kind of things because it incites me to go read and search out the stories, or just look a little deeper, cause I love to learn me stuff.
It's not necessary to make your post in bold letters. It doesn't even necessarily need to be true. We have plenty of brains here, someone will straighten it out.
Let's see what you got. :tu

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

86.7% of statistics are made up on the spot. :tu

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Regarding the Washington kicking some British ass...

Had the wind not been out of the East on the night of August 29-30, 1776, and the British been able to bring in reinforcements, we would all likely be British today. Because of the heavy wind from the East, the Bristish army was not able to board small boats and cross from New Jersey to Long Island. Washington's army was able to evacuate 9000 across the East River without a single loss of life.

FWIW, one of my great great great great .... aunts was a spy for Washington (the Culper spy ring) during this time period. http://aphdigital.org/projects/culperspyring/strong

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

John Adams, our 1st Vice President and 2nd President, was a cigar smoker, as was his son John Quincy Adams, our 6th President. :ss

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Although george washington is typically credited as the first president of the united states of america there were actually multiple before him. Some claim that john hanson was the first president but john hancock was actually the first

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Corrected for accuracy
http://www.cojoweb.com/first-president.html

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The fastest hat trick in NHL history was scored my Bill Mosienko of the Chicago Blackhawks on March 23rd, 1952....he scored three goals in 21 seconds.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...mosienko-1.jpg

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Richard Milhouse Nixon was the first US President whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal". William Jefferson Clinton is the 2nd.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

A fan doesn't actually cool a room down, but rather can increase temperature.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Ramon Pane, a monk who accompanied Christopher Columbus to the Americas, is usually credited with introducing tobacco to Europe.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th,
John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August
2nd, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Neil Young and Rick James were in a band together.

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/friends/rick-james.htm

Old man take a look at my life, I'm a Super Freak!

MCS

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The term hat-trick comes from cricket, and means to take three wickets in three balls. Allegedly, it is called a hat-trick as the owner of the bowler's team would present him with a brand new hat for his efforts.

And now it's been appropriated for sports that people actually care about... ;)
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The water from all the other Great Lakes would fit into Lake Superior, plus 2 additional Lake Eries.

There is enough water in Lake Superior (3,000,000,000,000,000--or 3 quadrillion-- gallons) to flood all of North and South America to a depth of one foot.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

MCS likes cake------does that count for anything?

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The first notable user of the Thompson submachine gun was not the Prohibition gangs...it was the Irish Republican Army.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri has more miles of shoreline than the state of California.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

My butt is itchy. :r

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

cricket is boring to watch, but there is something to be said about a sport that stops mid-game for the players to have cocktails

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

1^2= 1
11^2= 121
111^2= 12321
1111^2= 1234321
11111^2= 123454321
111111^2= 12345654321
1111111^2= 1234567654321

Sorry, math nerd :D

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Rene Descartes came up with the gems "cogito ergo sum" - I think therefore I am, the Cartesian Coordinate plane (x axis, y axis and use it to graph), the idea to use superscripts to represent exponents, and numerous other things.

The interesting part, he did all this but refused to get out of bed until after 11 am. And he adhered to this until the year he died.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Yeah, well, what time did he go to bed the night before??? :r

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Chili can be made with or without beans.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Chicago's virtual absence from movie and TV screens for almost twenty years arose from the late 1950s TV series "M Squad", when a scene of a Chicago cop taking a bribe enraged Mayor Daley. (The fact that it coincided with the Summerdale police theft scandal definitely didn't help matters.) He refused to allow any outside filming in "his" city for the duration of his reign as mayor (although a few movies and scenes were filmed "guerilla style" without authorization).

The use of "Metro Police", instead of "Chicago Police", in movies and TV shows filmed in Chicago in the 1980s and 90s reportedly arose from a single line in the movie "The Blues Brothers". ("Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved.") The line was a poke at a certain event in 1968...apparently the Chicago Police brass were not amused.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

When Chicago hosted the Democratic Convention in 1996, I had a CPD shirt that said "We kicked your father's ass in '68...wait until you see what we do to you this year". :r

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

:r

He actually went to bed at a normal time. He got into the habit because when he was younger he had extremely poor health. He was allowed to lay in bed until 11 while he was at a Jesuit boarding school because of his health issues. He then kept the habit through most of his life but he wasn't sleeping, he would just lay and think all morning.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Most people who deal with me on professional basis think I am a very serious person.


MCS

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

But it can't be made without meat....otherwise its just spicy tomato soup.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

I REMEMBER THOSE!!!!! :r:r:r

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Yeah, one of the guys on my old hockey team stole mine. :mad:

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Elvis presley never once gave an encore.
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

I call bullshit. :D

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Lobsters urinate out of their faces.

They do this often in battle with other lobsters as a scent signature. Lobsters can "remember" scents of others so they know to fight or flee. Kind of like "Oh I remember that the pee I'm sensing is from that big lobster that kicked my butt last week. I'm outta here!":sl

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

That is wickedly cool. :tu

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

On the other hand, I have five different fingers.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Only 30% of working class Americans are college educated.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

<-- not one of the 30%

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The facial expressions on the left side of the face is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain and is more pronounced than the right.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

Descartes was originally a monist and later adopted dualism due to pressure from the church. The interesting thing is he was beheaded, which literally separated his "mind" from his body. When his head was finally reconnected to his body later, his "mind" and body were one again.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered how to make silk from silkworm cocoons. For about 3,000 years, the Chinese kept this discovery a secret. Because poor people could not afford real silk, they tried to make other cloth look silky. Women would beat on cotton with sticks to soften the fibers. Then they rubbed it against a big stone to make it shiny. The shiny cotton was called "chintz." Because chintz was a cheaper copy of silk, calling something "chintzy" means it is cheap and not of good quality.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful plough man strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

And this is why the English language is so hard to learn...
Similarly, the following sentence will often confuse people who are learning English, both young native speakers, and those learning English as a second language:

He strung his bow, carved from the bough of a tree, while stood on the bow of the ship.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The Mayflower was originally set to sail for Virginia, but stopped at Plymouth Rock because the pilgrims had run out of beer.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

People never grow up. We only learn how to act in public.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The creators of Adidas and Puma were brothers, and Nazis.

Laid that one on a waitress a few weeks ago while having a cigar with a buddy, he was wearing Adidas, I had a pair of Pumas on.

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

When he was a boy, David Bowie took art lessons from Peter Frampton's father, Owen.


MCS

Re: Interesting random facts.
 

The Nike 'swoosh', one of the worlds most recognizable, logos was created by a graphic design student, Carolyn Davidson. Total cost: $35. :hm