Tuesday Trivia

How 'bout a buncha things 'bout a buncha people? Take notes now .... there's gonna be a quiz!! :)

• 1984 Kelloggs' Miss America commemorative Corn Flakes Box featuring Vanessa Williams is one of the most collectible cereal boxes.
• On the night of October 31, 1938, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre troupe provided "the panic broadcast that shook the world," when they performed 'The War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells as a terrifying real-life episode.
• Mary Tyler Moore had an early acting role playing a woman at an answering service. You could only see her legs and hear her voice.
• A poll of 3,000 Americans found that for 41 percent, the thing they're most afraid of is speaking before a group of people. 32 percent stated they were afraid of heights.
• Robert Wadlow is the tallest man in history whose height is verified by indisputable evidence at 8'11". He is often referred to as the Alton giant because he came from Alton, Illinois. At the time of his death he weighed 440 pounds and showed no signs of stopping growing. His coffin weighed half a ton and required 12 pallbearers to carry.
• Castroville is known as the Artichoke Capital of the World. In 1947 a young woman named Norma Jean was crowned Castroville's first Artichoke Queen. She went on to become actress Marilyn Monroe.
• Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), America's most famous female poet, published only seven poems in her lifetime; all were published anonymously and against her will. It wasn't until after her death, at 56, that her nearly 2000 poems were discovered.
• Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins won the James Norris Memorial Trophy eight times, more than any hockey player in history.
• Following its coverage of the women's semi-finals match between Steffi Graf and Lori McNeil at the 1987 U.S. Open, CBS displayed a blank screen for six minutes when Dan Rather walked out of the studio, disturbed that the long match had pushed back the start of the evening news.
• Benjamin Franklin drew one of the first cartoons in the American colonies. His cartoon, intended to urge the colonies to unite against the French and Indians, showed each colony as a part of a snake, with the caption, "Join, or die." Considered the first American political cartoon, it was printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754.
• Mary Phelps Jacob - received the first patent for a bra in 1914. Her corset - replete with whaleback bones was visible under a brand new evening gown she purchased. She used handkerchiefs and ribbon to replace the bones. She sold the patent to Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500.
• The first car race in the Unites States, sponsored by the Chicago Times-Herald was held in 1895. The contestants drove from Chicago to Waukegan. It was won by James Frank Duryea (1869-1967).
• The guillotine was first put to lethal use on April 25, 1792, at 3:30 PM, in Paris at the Place de Greve on the Right Bank of the Seine. It separated highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier's head from the rest of his body.
• The first woman governor – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming - was elected in 1924, upon the death of the previous governor, her husband.
• Newly elected John F. Kennedy gave each his aides a PT-109 tie clasp, which became the highest status symbol of the New Frontier. Cufflinks and tie clasps are usually chosen as gifts by gubernatorial winners because of their high visibility when in public.
• An American gunsmith of the 1840s, Henry Deringer invented a tiny pistol that he named after himself. Further development and copying of his design resulted in the misspelled 'derringer' pistol, manufactured widely by other companies.
• In 1508, Leonardo da Vinci first described and sketched contact lenses.
• On Star Trek, William Shatner's character Captain Kirk, was the first to utter 'hell' and engage in an interracial kiss on prime-time television.
• The movie Jerry Maguire (1996) was Tom Cruise's fifth consecutive $100-million-plus film, an industry record.

Some Recognizable Names .....

• In 1963, Ernesto Miranda was accused of kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old, mildly retarded woman. He was brought in for questioning, and confessed to the crime. He was not told that he did not have to speak or that he could have a lawyer present. At trial, Miranda's lawyer tried to get the confession thrown out, but the motion was denied. In 1966, the case came in front of the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the statements made to the police could not be used as evidence, since Miranda had not been advised of his rights. Since then the police have been required to recite the Miranda warning.
• A Virginia farmer during the Revolutionary War, Captain William Lynch organized bands of townspeople to dispense justice to outlaws and British collaborators. These bands became known as "Lynch Mobs," and hanging someone without a trial became known as "Lynching."

Now go out there and make some else feel dumb!!