Page 101 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o Musical based on the opera La Boheme is Rent. o The first published American woman writer was Anne Bradstreet in 1650. Her book was The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, a volume of poetry. o The first indicted bank robbery in the U.S. was Edward Smith, in 1831. He was sentenced to five year’s hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison. o Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity during the decade of the 1960s. o The first woman in the U.S. to become a certified dentist was Lucy Hobbs Taylor, in 1867 o England’s longest reigning dynasty was the Plantagenets. o Samuel Morse is nicknamed “The American Leonardo.” o May 16, 1975: Junko Tabei of Japan was the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. o Ransom E. Olds, not Henry Ford, created the assembly line in 1901. Ford improved on it. o George magazine was founded by John Kennedy Jr.; its first cover featured Cindy Crawford. o The woman to appear the most times on Time’s cover - the Virgin Mary. o Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John S. Pemberton in 1885. It was sold as a brain tonic. o The shopping bag was invented by Walter H. Deubner of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1912. o Early Hoola Hoop: Egyptian children played with hoops of dried grapevines, 3,000 years ago. o The bow and arrow was invented around 20,ooo B.C. o Until about 200 years ago, people in many Asian countries used bricks of tea as money. o Eyeglasses were invented in Europe in A.D. 1286. o Explosives were used in China at the Battle of Ts’ai-shih in A.D. 1161. o The earliest known written music for guitars was written by the Troubadours around A.D. 1100. o The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London in 1844. o The first U.S. victory of WWI was the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. o The first merry-go-round was seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey, in 1620. o King James I cited the health hazards of smoking in his “Counterblaste to Tobacco: in 1604. o The first blood transfusion was performed on Nov. 14, 1666, by Richard Lower of England. o Fidelio was Beethoven’s only opera. o The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds looking for a stray goat. o Rob Roy was Scotland’s “Robin Hood.” o Mummies have been found all over the world, including Alaska, Italy, Australia, and Japan. o Berenice Gera was the first female to umpire in pro baseball in 1972. o In 1975, Ellen Burstyn became the first person to win an Oscar and a Tony in the same year. o A 1947 ad for Barbasol Lotion Deodorant referred to body odor as “Athletic Aroma.” o In Africa, Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees; Dian Fossey studied mountain gorillas. o Heidelberg is the oldest European university city. o The Chinese character for “money” originally represented a cowrie shell. o London’s Post Office still gets letters sent to 221B Baker Street asking for Sherlock Holme’s help. o The first English historian was a scholarly monk called The Venerable Bede (c. 672-735). o A mysterious ancient Chinese language called Nushu was created and used exclusively by women. o Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, is the largest infantry camp in the world. o Mount Everest’s name in Nepal is Sagarmantha (“goddess of the sky.”) o In Tibet, Mount Everest is called Chomolungma (“mother goddess of the universe.)” o There are about 120 corpses remaining on Mount Everest. o Mount Everest rises a few millimeters each year because of geological factors. o In a 1946 contest in Tokyo, an abacus out performed an electric calculator.