Total Trivia

[RUlookingup]

the #1 song of 1966 according to Billboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH4-tOqLH94

1965 1,863
1966 6,143
1967 11,153
1968 16,592
1969 11,616
1970 6,081
1971 2,357

The seven years with the greatest loss of life by American troops in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

 

[RUlookingup]

The modern table setting is attributed to Charles I of England who in 1633 declared, "It is decent to use a fork," a statement that heralded the beginning of civilized table manners. But it wasn't until almost a century later that the fork gained acceptance among the lower class. In England, the acceptance of the fork encouraged preparation of continental recipes, such as 'olios' from Spain, a dish made with stewed meat taken with a fork as opposed to mashed food eaten from the blade of a knife. Because the average family owned a limited number of forks, historians suggest that the service of sherbet midway through a meal gave the servants time to wash the forks used earlier on.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

In the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, a huge tank of molasses burst on a warm day, sending a 15ft high wave of sweetener through the neighbourhood at an estimated 35mph. The molasses flood killed 21 people and injured around 150.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Ernest Vincent Wright's 1939 novel 'Gadsby: Champion of Youth' is notable for not using the letter 'e' once in its 50,000+ words. This, in turn inspired other novels that did the same thing - most notably, George Perec's 'La Disparition'.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The first commercial product ever bought with a barcode was a ten-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum, at a store in Ohio, on June 26th 1974. The historic packet of gum now resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

 

[Stryderthorongil]

The first commercial product ever bought with a barcode was a ten-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum, at a store in Ohio, on June 26th 1974. The historic packet of gum now resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Yet throughout the early '80s I was still putting price tags on things.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Yet throughout the early '80s I was still putting price tags on things.

Agrees, the barcodes were there but the systems to read them weren't

 

[RUlookingup]

The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British soldiers on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of civilian-military tensions that had been growing since royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts

 

[RUlookingup]

Thailand is the world's largest producer of pineapples, with 17.5 per cent of global output.

 

[fire_breeze]

In the 11th century the Church was opposed to the use of forks. So much so, that when a Byzantine princess who used a 2 tined gold fork died from the plague, her death was called "a just punishment from God."

 

[fire_breeze]

In the U.S. forks did not become popular until the 19th century, when the Rockefellers, Morgans and Carnegies popularized them.

 

[fire_breeze]

It is against the law to eat chicken with a fork in Gainesville, Georgia, the 'Chicken Capital of the World.'

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

A U.S. Park Ranger called Roy C. Sullivan holds the record for being hit by lightning the most times - surviving an impressive seven strikes between 1942 and 1977. Which makes him either very lucky or very unlucky.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The Torino Scale measures how likely an asteroid is to destroy the Earth - it runs from the comforting 1 ('no unusual level of danger') to the less-cheerful 10 ('may threaten the future of civilization as we know it'.) Fortunately, nothing's ever ranked more than a 4... so far.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Film actress Hedy Lamarr, who starred in many Hollywood films in the 1940s, was far more than just a glamorous face - she also helped invent a communications system that led to much of today's wireless technology.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

If you've ever wondered what the term for the little dot above lower case 'i's and 'j's is: it's called a tittle. (Technically, a tittle is any small printed mark.)

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

A boss and his secretary who were having an affair saw their romantic tryst interrupted in a wince-inducing manner -

According to reports in China Press and Sin Chew Daily, the 30-year-old woman was performing oral sex on her boss in a car in a Singapore park, when the car was struck by a reversing van.

The impact caused her to bite the man's penis off.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

Film actress Hedy Lamarr, who starred in many Hollywood films in the 1940s, was far more than just a glamorous face - she also helped invent a communications system that led to much of today's wireless technology.

Hey, I knew that one!
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum modulation. Allows several radio transmitters to share the same band at once, or one to transmit so weakly that it's not detectable to someone who doesn't know the descrambling code.
Not just a pretty face, me! (Not even a pretty face, more like it.)

My trivia fact:

Greenland has the most internet-connected population in the world, with 92% having access in their homes.
(Source: New Scientist magazine 2 May 09)

 

[rbijon]

The WWII cartoon characters Willie & Joe fought primary in Sicily and the Italian peninsula. They both proclaimed to be experts at European soil because of all the fox holes they dug.

 

[EesomeBeastie]

On average, 210 billion e-mails were sent daily, worldwide, in 2008.

(Source: New Scientist, 2 May 2009)

 

[vanillaicecream]

Mother's Day became a national holiday in the U.S. in 1914.

Happy Mother's Day, moms of Lit!

http://legacyproject.org/guides/mdhistory.html

 

[PervyRomantic]

Mother's Day became a national holiday in the U.S. in 1914.

Happy Mother's Day, moms of Lit!

http://legacyproject.org/guides/mdhistory.html

Hey there

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

King Charles VI of France, also known as Charles the Mad, suffered from the delusion he was made of glass. He even had protective iron bars sewn into his clothes to prevent him from shattering if he fell.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

On May 1st 1978, the first spam email was written by a man named Gary Thuerk. Sent out two days later to around 600 unwilling recipients, it advertised open houses on America's west coast for computer company Digital Equipment Corp. And so a phenomenon was born.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

I love this one! It appeals to my sense of humour


In 1988, Tiáo, a bad-tempered chimpanzee at Rio de Janeiro Zoo, who had a habit of flinging excrement at visitors, was nominated by a satirical magazine to stand in Rio's Mayoral election. He got over 400,000 votes, coming third out of twelve candidates.