Trivia P-R
Places
- Niagara Falls erodes 2.5 feet each year.
- Canada has the largest shoreline in the world.
- Angel Falls in Venezuela is the highest waterfall in the world. (3,121 feet).
- The San Francisco Cable cars are the only USA mobile National Monuments.
- The only man made structure visible from space is the Great Wall of China.
- The Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah is the biggest manmade hole on Earth. It is more than a half-mile deep and 2.5 miles across.
- Hawaii is the only state name that ends in three consecutive vowels.
- Hawaii is the only state in the USA where coffee is commercially grown.
- In Hawaii an auction was held every day for 10 years to sell off and get rid of furnishings and personal possessions of the royal family who was pushed out of power.
- A statue of Christ is 28 feet underwater in Florida's John Pennekamp Coral Reef Park.
- The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. is sinking into the ground at a rate of 6 inches per 100 years.
- The Imperial Palace in Beijing, China is the largest palace in the world.It covers an area of 178 acres.
- The University of Karueein is the oldest university in the world. It was founded in 859 A.D. in Fez Morocco.
- The Henry Kaiser Concert Hall in Honolulu was built in 22 hours in 1957.
- Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not even be fully cured for another 500 years.
- Barbados got its name from the bearded fig trees that abound there.
- Budapest started as two cities divided by a river.Buda lies on the right bank and Pest on the left bank of the Danube.
- Burton Green founded Beverly Hills in 1906. The word Beverly came from Beverly of Beverly Farms,the retreat of President Howard Taft. Hills alluded to the rolling hills of the area.
- The University of Alaska, which extends from a college in Kitchikan in southeastern Alaska to a "learning facility" in remote Adak in the Aleutians stretches over four time zones.
- The Sears Tower in Chicago is 1,454 feet tall. The building has its own U.S. Post Official and ZIP code - 60606.
- There are only five places in the world/universe where the American flag is never lowered (no matter what the reason). They are: The Alamo, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the SS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, the Betsy Ross House, and the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.
- Disneyland and Walt Disney World amusement parks are in counties with the same name. Disneyland is in Orange County, California and Walt Disney World is in Orange County, Florida.
Trivia Index
Postal History
- A part time postal carrier named Patrick Sherrill was the first to go "postal" in August 1986, in Edmond, Oklahoma. He killed 14 co-workers and himself.
- William Penn established Pennsylvania's first post office in 1683.
- The Pony Express only lasted nineteen months, from April 1860 to October 1861.
- America's first mailman began delivering mail in 1883 in Boston,Massachusetts. He was paid one penny for each letter delivered.
- Rowland Hill advocated the use of prepaid adhesive postage stamps, which began in England in 1840 and rapidly spread throughout the world.
Trivia Index
Presidents
- There has never been a President who was an only child.
- Four U.S. presidents have been named John: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, and John F. Kennedy.
- The U.S. Secret Service has been guarding the President of the United States since the assassination of President William McKinley.
- When the first U.S. Congress set the president's pay at $25,000 per year, they also established the vice president's salary at $5,000.
- John Quincy Adams had an alligator for a pet.
- John Quincy Adams was the first person to be elected President of the United States, despite not winning a majority of individual votes.
- David Rice Atchinson served as President for only one day on March 4, 1849.
- At the age of 18, George Bush was the youngest pilot to see action during World War II. He was awarded the Flying Cross Award for heroism.
- Grover Cleveland is the only president to have been elected to two non-consecutive terms. March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1889 and from March 4, 1893 to March 3, 1897
- Bill Clinton was the first left-handed U.S. president to serve two terms.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower was responsible for creating NASA.
- Dwight David Eisenhower was the first American president to hold an airplane pilot's license.
- Gerald Ford was the only President to have two women attempt to assassinate him.The first attempt was by Lynette Fromme. The next attempt was by Sara Jane Moore. Both attempts were in 1975.
- President Garfield could simultaneously write in Latin with one hand and in Greek with the other.
- Warren G. Harding was the only president who was a newspaper publisher.
- Warren G. Harding was the first president to have a public golf course named after him.
- William Henry Harrison was the grandfather of president Benjamin Harrison.
- William Henry Harrison gave the longest inauguration speech ( 8,445 words) of any president.
- William Henry Harrison was the first U.S. president to die while in office He also had the shortest term in office, from March 4 to April 4, 1841. (32 days) He got pneumonia shortly after his inauguration and never recovered.
- President Hoover and his wife spoke Chinese when they did not want to be overheard.
- Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died July 4, 1826.
- Thomas Jefferson's personal library consisting of over 6,000 books formed the basis of the Library of Congress. They were purchased from him for $23,950.
- The first statue outside the United States that honored Abraham Lincoln was erected in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- Abraham Lincoln was watching the play Our American Cousins on the night he was assasinated.
- Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to not leave a will.
- Abraham Lincoln was the first president born outside of the original thirteen colonies.
- President William McKinley always wore a red carnation in his lapel for good luck.
- President William McKinley had a pet parrot that he named Washington Post.
- Wobbly Willie was William McKinley's nickname.
- Richard Nixon visited both China and the Soviet Union during his term. He was also the first president to visit all 50 states.
- Franklin Pierce was the first president to memorize his inaugural speech and recite it from memory.
- Franklin Pierce was responsible for the Gadsden Purchase which added New Mexico and part of Arizona to the United States.
- Franklin Pierce was the first United States president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree .
- Ronald Reagan was the oldest man elected president.
- Ronald Reagan was the first president to have been a Hollywood actor. He also submitted the first trillion dollar budget to Congress.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president elected four times.
- John Tyler had 15 children.
- Woodrow Wilson was the only U.S. President to have a Ph.D.
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