Fact Of The Day

Although Julie Andrews has the reputation of being a Goodie-Two-Shoes, she reportedly has an off-screen vocabulary which would make the proverbial sailor blush. It's said that Walt Disney himself witnessed a blue streak of f-bombs and other salty terms when a special-effects wire broke during the filming of Mary Poppins, sending Julie crashing into some scenery.

 

September 14

• 1814
  Francis Scott Key composed the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner.
  
  
• 1901
  President McKinley died of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him.
  
  
• 1927
  Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice, France.
  
  
• 1940
  Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
  
  
• 1959
  The Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the Moon when it crashed onto the lunar surface.
  
  
• 1982
  Princess Grace of Monaco died from injuries sustained in a car crash the previous day.
  
  
• 1994
  Acting commissioner Bud Selig announced the cancellation of the 1994 baseball season on the 34th day of a strike by players.
  

 

SupercaliF***inglisticexpialidocious!!!

 

The Romanian Leu, the Canadian Dollar and the US Dollar have been judged as the most toxic banknotes of the world, according to the article Money and Transmission of Bacteria published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control.

 

September 15

• 1789
  The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs changed its name to the Department of State.
  
  
• 1821
  Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador gained independence.
  
  
• 1835
  Charles Darwin and the HMS Beagle reached the Galapagos Islands.
  
  
• 1917
  Alexander Kerensky proclaimed Russia a republic.
  
  
• 1935
  The Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of their citizenship and made the Swastika the official emblem of **** Germany.
  
  
• 1963
  A church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four young black girls.
  
  
• 1989
  Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States, died.
  
  
• 2004
  The National Hockey League lockout began. The 2004-2005 season would ultimately be canceled.
  

 

Excellent book: The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. While a young adult novel, it is one fine read.

 

Kangaroos can't walk backwards.

 

According to the Las Vegas Sun, in 2016, $7 million dollars in uncashed TITO vouchers were reported by Strip casinos, with the State of Nevada taking 75% and the casinos taking 25%.

 

September 16

• 1630
  The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.
  
  
• 1810
  Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.
  
  
• 1908
  General Motors was founded by William C. Durant.
  
  
• 1919
  The American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress.
  
  
• 1940
  The United States first adopted peacetime conscription when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act into law.
  
  
• 1974
  President Ford announced conditional amnesty for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders.
  
  
• 1975
  Papua New Guinea became independent.
  
  
• 1982
  Lebanese Christians massacred hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Beirut.
  
  
• 1987
  The Montreal Protocol was signed by 25 nations, limiting production of substances that harm the ozone layer. To date, 197 nations have ratified the protocol.
  

 

Every letter of the alphabet can be said to be silent in most modern dialects of English. Examples: A: cocoa, B: debt, C: scene, D: Wednesday, E: game, F: cliff, G: phlegm, H: hour, I: Hawaii, J: marijuana, K: knock, L: talk, M: mnemonic, N: autumn, O: leopard, P: psychic, Q: lacquer, R: Worcestershire, S: Arkansas, T: often (yes, that's preferred), U: gauge, V: Le Febvre, W: two, X: swimmxing, Y: Malaysia, Z: rendezvous.

 

What is "swimmxing"?

 

It's from an old Henny Youngman joke. It's also to see if people actually read all of those.

 

...might have been better to use "faux"

 

But isn’t that actually French?

 

Oops, he made a faux pas.

 

The name of the native tribe Sioux might be a good example of a silent X.

 

I googled it after I posted. I'm still not that sure who is right. It is a French word, but has kind of been adopted by the English speaking people. It's like the difference between an alligator and a crocodile...nobody knows for sure.

 

The largest U.S. national park (Wrangell-St. Elias NP) is more than 43,000 times larger than the smallest (Gateway Arch NP). If you include Wrangell-St. Elias's associated Preserve, it's more than 68,000 times larger. Nonetheless, Gateway Arch NP had 25 times as many visitors in 2018.

 

Back in the 1930s, some NYC subways used specially-made light bulbs with left-hand threads to deter people from unscrewing and stealing them.

 

September 18

• 1759
  French Quebec surrendered to the British after the Sept. 13 battle on the Plains of Abraham, the last battle of the French and Indian Wars. French general Montcalm and British general Wolfe died in the fray.
  
  
• 1810
  Chile declared its independence from Spain.
  
  
• 1850
  Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required the return of escaped slaves to their owners.
  
  
• 1851
  The first edition of The New York Daily Times, which later became The New York Times, was published.
  
  
• 1947
  The National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy, and Air Force, was passed.
  
  
• 1961
  Secretary-General of the UN Dag Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).
  
  
• 1970
  27-year-old rock star, Jimi Hendrix, died in London.
  
  
• 1999
  Sammy Sosa became the first player in major league baseball history to hit 60 homers in two seasons.