The useless bits of info to see if we can make a million posts thread

[cAstAgeAr]

October 4, 1957 is a historic date to be remembered, it is the day both "Leave it to Beaver" and the Russian satellite Sputnik 1 were launched.

[cAstAgeAr]

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

[cAstAgeAr]

Between 1947 and 1959, 42 nuclear devices were detonated in the Marshall Islands.

[cAstAgeAr]

During WW II the city of Leningrad underwent a seventeen month German seige. Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a truck route across the ice on Lake Ladoga to get food and supplies to the citizens.

[cAstAgeAr]

The Dodge brothers Horace and John were Jewish, that's why the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in it.

[cAstAgeAr]

Studebaker was the only major car company to stop making cars while making a profit from them.

[cAstAgeAr]

Not all of West Virginia voted to go with the North.When the State of West Virginia was formed from Virginia in 1863 the three western counties in Virginia voted to go with West Virginia, but West Virginia didn't take them because they were poor. Instead they took three counties that voted to stay with Virginia, because they were richer and they had the B&O railroad. Those counties since split and are now 5, Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, Mineral, and Morgan.

[cAstAgeAr]

The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.

[cAstAgeAr]

The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

[cAstAgeAr]

The beautiful, simple furniture made by the Shaker religious sect in New England was designed so that it could be hung on pegs around the walls. Every evening members of the sect tidied up in this way in case the night should be disturbed suddenly by the Second Coming of the Lord. Only the larger pieces of furniture, such as chests and tables, were left on the floor

[cAstAgeAr]

Until the Middle Ages, underwater divers near the Mediterranean coastline collected golden strands from the pen shell, which used the strands to hold itself in place. Called byssus, the strands were woven into a luxury textile, a "cloth of gold," and made into ladies' gloves so fine a pair could be packed into an empty walnut shell. Examples of this lost art exist today in some museums, and the cloth retains its color and softness.

[cAstAgeAr]

A Mexican president once held a funeral for his own leg. The president, Antonio de Santa Anna, was the general who in 1836 led Mexican troops to victory over Texan rebels at the siege of the Alamo. Santa Anna's leg was amputated below the knee after he was wounded during a battle with French troops in December 1838. He kept the leg at his hacienda near Veracruz for four years, during which he rose to become effectively dictator of Mexico and the center of an adoring political cult. On September 26, 1842 his supporters solemnly paraded the leg through the streets of Mexico City to the accompaniment of the bands and orchestras, then laid it to rest in a national shrine known as the Pantheon of Saint Paula. Two years later, however, the leg was stolen during the riots that surrounded Santa Anna's fall from power. Santa Anna died in 1876 at the age of 62 -- poor, blind and ignored. The fate of his leg remains unknown

[cAstAgeAr]

The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.

[cAstAgeAr]

Emus have double-plumed feathers, and they lay emerald/forest green eggs.

[cAstAgeAr]

The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.