You Don’t Say?!

1) Did you know that on Oct 12, 1860, Abraham Lincoln purchased 50 cents worth of cocaine?

2) Did you know that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen.

3) The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper

4) Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades= David ; Clubs = Alexander the Great ; Hearts = Charlemagne ; Diamonds = Caesar

5) John Wilkes Booth(Lincoln’s assassin)had a brother who once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son.

6) Most lipstick contains fish scales.

7) Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

8) In 1919, Boston had a molasses disaster. 2 million gallons of crude molasses burst from a tank and pushed its way through the neighborhood and city. It killed at least 21 people and took weeks to clean up.

9) Francis Scott Key, who penned the Star Spangled Banner, was a practicing lawyer. His sister, Anne Key, married Roger Brooke Taney, who later would be the Chief Justice that gave the decision in the Dred Scott case.

10) Martin Luther King, Jr., was originally named Michael, like his father. When Jr. was 5, dad
changed both their names to Martin.

11) Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital.

12) The first American poet to achieve any fame was an African female slave named
Phillus Wheatly. One of her poems was first published when she was 13. She wrote a poem
about George Washington and later met him. She died tragically at the age of 30 in 1784.

13) Harry S. Truman was the only president in this century who didn’t have a
college education.

14) More Civil War battles were fought in Virginia than in any other state.

15) A golden razor removed from Tutankhamen’s tomb over 3000 years after his death was still sharp enough for use.

16) The Chinese were using aluminium to make things as early as AD300. Western civilisation didn’t rediscover the metal until 1827.

17) Barbers used to combine shaving and haircutting with bloodletting and pulling teeth, The white stripes on the red background of a barber’s pole represent the bandages used in bloodletting.

18) Only two people signed the Declaration independence on 4 July 1776 – John Hancock and Charles Thomson. The majority of the other members of Congress signed on 2 August, although the final signature wasn’t added for another five years.

19) Roman Emperor Caligula was so upset by the death of his sister Drusila that he imposed a year of mourning. During this time, everyone in the empire was forbidden to dine with his family, laugh or take a bath. The penalty for transgression was death.

20) At Andrew Jackson’s funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing.

21) Peter the Great executed his wife’s lover, and forced her to keep her lover’s head in a jar of alcohol in her bedroom.

22) The US federal income tax was first enacted in 1862 to support the Union’s Civil War effort. It was eliminated in 1872, revived in 1894 then declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the following year. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the US tax system.

23) The White House, in Washington DC, was originally gray, the color of the sandstone it was built out of. After the War of 1812, during which it had been burned by Canadian troops, the outside walls were painted white to hide the smoke stains.

24) In the 1400’s a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have “the rule of thumb”.

25) Celtic warriors sometimes fought their battles naked, their bodies dyed blue from head to toe.

26) The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period from 1347 to 1351.

27) Pilgrims did not eat potatoes for Thanksgiving as they thought they were poisonous

28) If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes(pay attention my Richmond Va peeps!).

29) Many men who acted as guards along the Great Wall of China in the Middle Ages spent their whole lives there. They were born there, raised there, they married there, died there, and were even buried within the wall.

30) February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

31) Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had only one testicle.

32) It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

33) In the 1550’s, the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, embarrassingly left to travel for seven years because he had accidently farted when he had bowed down to Queen Elizabeth I. When he returned the Queen said to him, “My Lord, I had forgot the fart.”

34) If a surgeon in Ancient Egypt lost a patient while performing an operation, his hands were cut off.

35) In 1980, the city of Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with a key to the city.

36) There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

37) In 1897, Bayer, who is the maker of Aspirin, marketed the drug heroin

38) The first-known contraceptive was crocodile dung and was used by the Egyptians in 2000 BC.

39) The slang word “hooker,” which means prostitute, was gotten from the US civil-war general Joseph T. Hooker. He hired prostitutes for his army to keep up troop morale. They started being called, “Hooker’s girls” which was eventually shortened to “hooker.” The name stuck.

40) Ancient Romans at one time used human urine as an ingredient in their toothpaste.

41) In ancient China, doctors could receive fees only if their patient was cured. If it deteriorated, they would have to pay the patient.

42) The tiny Pyrenean state of Andorra found itself fighting two world wars at the same time. Due to an oversight at the end of the First World War, Andorra’s name was omitted from the Treaty of Versailles, meaning that the 11-man national army was still technically at war with Germany. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, it was too much of a strain on the Andorran resources. So the country hastily signed a private treaty with Germany, finally concluding the First World War

43) Although Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the US, it is technically number 47. Until 7 August 1953, Congress forgot to vote of formal resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.

44) The United States gets through enough water in one day for every American to take 64 baths. The average water consumption for the rest of the world is only a third of the US.

45) The Boston Nation, a newspaper published in Ohio during the mid-19th century, had pages which were 7½ft long and 5½ft wide. It needed two people to hold it aloft for reading.

46) 97 per cent of all paper money in the United States contains traces of cocaine.

47) While the Hiroshima atomic bomb was being prepared in New Mexico, applicants for menial jobs at the plant didn’t get the job if they could read. This was because the Us authorities didn’t want staff reading secret papers or discarded litter.

48) The amount of junk mail that Americans receive in a day could produce enough energy to heat a quarter of a million homes.

49) Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln ‘s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named ‘Ford.’
Kennedy was shot in a car called ‘ Lincoln’ made by ‘Ford.’

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a
theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here’s the kicker…

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

50) Until the year 1796 there was a state called Franklin (sometimes known as Franklin Land), which eventually became a part of the state of Tennessee. The State of Franklin was a part of Western North Carolina that was ceded to the federal Government after the Revolutionary War in 1784, to help North Carolina pay its debts.

51) The United States Postal Service did not charge anyone to send mail until March 3, 1863

52) President Jimmie Carter was the 6th generation cousin of President Richard Nixon

53) Did you know Paul Revere designed George Washington’s false teeth?

54) The United States armed forces were considered segregated until President Harry Truman issued an Executive Order in 1948 commanding the integration of all armed forces of the U.S.A.

55) The name “Uncle Sam” is based on a real man from Massachusetts named Sam Wilson

56) The first American state to abolish slavery was Vermont in 1777

57)  African-American inventor Alfred Cralle patented the first ice cream scoop. His original design remains in wide use, even today

58) George Carruthers(African-American) invented the far ultraviolet electrographic camera, used in the 1972 Apollo 16 mission. This invention revealed new features in Earth’s far-outer atmosphere and deep-space objects from the perspective of the lunar surface. Carruthers was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2003.

59) African-American surgeon Charles R. Drew is often credited with the invention of the first large-scale blood bank.

60) In 1899, African-American golf fan Dr. George Franklin Grant received a patent for the world’s first golf tee. Grant, however, never marketed his invention, instead giving the tees away to friends and fellow golfers.

61) Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled “Gentlemen Only…Ladies Forbidden”…and thus the word “GOLF” entered into the English language.

62) It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there have only been 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world.

63) The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the combined total of Americans killed in all other wars.

64) Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

65) The custom of shaking hands with the strangers originated to show that both the parties were unarmed.

66) The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo

67) Abdul Kassam Ismael, Grand Vizier of Persia in the tenth century, carried his library with him wherever he went. Four hundred camels carried the 117,000 volumes

68) Coca-Cola was originally green

69) Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice

70) The worldwide “Spanish Flu” epidemic which broke out in 1918 killed more than 30 million people in less than a year’s time

71) The punishment of a Vestal Virgin who broke her oath of chastity was to be buried alive

72) Tablecloths were originally meant to serve as towels with which guests could wipe their hands and faces after dinner

73) Because metal was scarce; the Oscars given out during World War II were made of plaster

74) To take an oath, ancient Romans put a hand on their testicles

75) The first novel ever written on a typewriter was Tom Sawyer

76) Captain Cook lost 41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795 the importance of eating citrus was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships

77) The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day

78) In the 1800s, if you attempted suicide and failed, you would have to face the death penalty

79) The peace symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee, and was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The symbol is a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament

80) The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children

81) In early Rome, a father could legally execute any member of his household

82) In Ancient Greece, if a woman watched even one Olympic event, she was executed

83) The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabres, hence the name “leathernecks.”

84) George Washington grew marijuana in his garden

85) When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn’t understand German

86) St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not Irish

87) Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died

88) Born 4 January 1838, General Tom Thumb’s growth slowed at the age of 6 months, at 5 years he was signed to the circus by P.T. Barnum, and at adulthood reached a height of only 1 meter

89) Because they had no proper rubbish disposal system, the streets of ancient Mesopotamia became literally knee-deep in rubbish

90) Before it was stopped by the British, it was the not uncommon for women in some area’s of India to choose to be burnt alive on their husband’s funeral pyre

91) In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas

92) For Roman Catholics, 5 January is St Simeon Stylites’ Day. He was a fifth-century hermit who showed his devotion to God by spending literally years sitting on top of a huge flagpole.

93) When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years

94) Henry VII was the only British King to be crowned on the field of battle

95) During World War One, the future Pope John XXIII was a sergeant in the Italian Army

96) The magic word “Abracadabra” was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever

97) Albert Einstein was once offered the Presidency of Israel. He declined saying he had no head for problems

98) Ralph and Carolyn Cummins had 5 children( 4 girls and 1 boy) between 1952 and 1966, all were born on the 20 February

99) John D. Rockefeller gave away over US$ 500,000,000 during his lifetime

100) Catherine the First of Russia, made a rule that no man was allowed to get drunk at one of her parties before nine o’clock

101) Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover the onset of baldness

102) While at Harvard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam

103) During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men’s beards

104) George Custer was the youngest General in US history, he was promoted at the age of 23

105) John Paul Getty, once the richest man in the world, had a payphone in his mansion

106) In 1911 3 men were hung for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry at Greenbury Hill, their last names were Green, Berry , and Hill

107) There are no clocks visible in Las Vegas casinos.

108) Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill “if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee”. His reply was “if you were my wife, I would drink it !”

109) The Great Pyramid of Giza consists of 2,300,000 blocks each weighing 2.5 tons

110) Paul Revere was an amateur dentist