Page 47 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o When Stalin became Secretary General of the Communist party, it was just a menial position. o In his youth, Pol Pot learned to be a radio operator in Paris. o Ironically, the name of the Soviet propaganda newspaper, Pravda, means “Truth” in English. o Czechoslovakia, a communist country, was the only one ever attacked by the Warsaw Pact. o Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping both died of complications from Parkinson’s disease. st o Charles Lindbergh was actually the 61 person to fly across the Atlantic. o Before founding the Boy Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell had been a spy in South Africa. o Because he supported violence, Amnesty International never adopted Nelson Mandela. o Founded by Union army officers, the NRA was originally out to improve marksmanship. o Tennessee teacher John Scopes was actually on the losing end of the famous “Monkey Trial.” o The ACLU was founded as the American Union Against Militarism. o John Adam’s wife Abigail used to hand the wash in the White House East Room. o U.S. president W.H. Harrison caught pneumonia at his inaugural speech and died 32 days later, o The first president to be impeached was Andrew Jackson. o FDR had a 25,000-piece stamp collection worth millions of dollars. o The presidential election of 1876 was even more heavily disputed than the election of 2001. o James Madison was only 5 foot 4 inches and weighed less than 100 pounds. o The CIA considered killing Fidel Castro by dosing his scuba gear with LSD. o During the War of 1812, James Madison became the only commander in chief to lead troops. o Weirdly, the “D” in D-Day stands for “Day,” so June 6, 1944 was “Day-Day.” o France used taxis to shuttle Parisian soldiers to the front at the Battle of the Marne. o The Battle of the Somme cost a million casualties - and advanced the Allies a mere 7 miles. o Military tanks were named for the water tanks that they were disguised as during World War I. o From 1978 to 1999, American-born Lisa Halaby was Queen of Jordan. o When Napoleon invaded Portugal, its royal family moved to Brazil, and a branch stayed on. o The word “czar” and “Kaiser” are both descended from the word “Caesar.” o Peter the Great once went undercover to study European shipbuilding. o Before Columbus, no Indian had type B blood. o Peter Minuit was conned into buying Manhattan from the wrong Indian tribe. o After the Battle of Little Bighorn, Chief Sitting Bull tried to get sanctuary in Canada. o Joan of Arc was actually captured by the French, not the English. o Operating out of Sri Lanka, Julia Child worked for a U.S. spy agency during World War II. o More words in English begin with the letter “S” than any other letter. o In 1873, Mark Twain was granted a patent for the self-pasting scrapbook. o Ben Johnson was buried standing up in Westminster Abbey - he couldn’t afford a full plot. o Da Vinci could draw with one hand and write with the other - at the same time. o The dot over the lowercase letter “i” is called a “tittle.” o Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the first American to install indoor plumbing at home. o When a Paris mob stormed the Bastille, they missed rescuing the Marquis de Sade by just days. o After Waterloo, Napoleon tried to escape to the U.S., but was captured by a British warship. o A New Orleans man hired a pirate ship to rescue Napoleon from St. Helena. o France is named for a barbarian tribe called the Franks. o During France’s yearlong Reign of Terror, 17,000 people were beheaded. o Apollo 13 was launched at 13:13, military time, and was aborted on Friday, April13. o The first black person in space was Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez.