Page 53 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of “White Christmas” has sold over 30 million copied globally. o Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather was the premier of Saskatchewan, Canada, for 17 years. o Actor Daniel Day Lewis’s father was the Poet Laureate of England. o Ulysses S. Grant once received a $20 speeding ticket for riding too fast on his horse. o In 1929, Herbert Hoover was the first president to put a phone in the White House. o President James K. Polk’s wife Sarah, banned dancing and alcoholic beverages at the White house. o Missouri senator David Rice Atchison was appointed U.S. President for one day: March 4, 1849. The reason was President-elect Zachary Taylor was religious and refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath. o Booker Washington’s middle name was Taliaferro. o Marilyn Monroe and Shelley Winters were one roommates. o Hungarian Lazlo Biro, who patented the ballpoint pen, was also a sculptor and hypnotist. o Jerry Lewis invented and patented a video monitor system in 1956 which is used throughout the film industry today. o P.T. Barnum was jailed for libel when he was a newspaper editor. o Countess DuBarry, mistress of King Louis XV, invented the fish bowl. o Wilhelm Maybach got the idea for his carburetor from observing a perfume pump spray. o The Canadian province of Alberta was named after Queen Victoria’s daughter. o As he requested in his will, actor Bela Lugosi was buried in his Dracula cape. o In 1841, Prince Albert brought the first royal family Christmas tree to Windsor Castle. o In 1836 Alabama was the first state in the U.S. to declare Christmas a legal holiday. o President Franklin Pierce decorated the first official White House Christmas tree in 1856. o The average player height in the NBA is 6’ 7.4”. o Culinary guru James Beard wanted to be an actor. o The only person to decline a Pulitzer Prize for fiction was Sinclair Lewis for Arrowsmith. o In 1976, Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. o Sir Isaac Newton was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. o The patent name for the first computer mouse was “X/Y Position Indicator for a Display System.” o The first “mouse” was patented in 1970 by Douglas Engelbart. o Jacques Cousteau invented the aqualung while fighting with the French Resistance in WW II. o Fats Domino had 18 songs that sold a million copies, but he never had a No. 1 record. o First CD pressed in the U.S. for commercial release: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. o Hugh Hefner and Bing Crosby had ancestors on the Mayflower. o Lenin’s embalmed corpse has been on public display since 1924 which requires a team of specialists to maintain his body. o Bluesman Bo Didley’s real name is Ellas Otha Ellas Bates. o A “bo didley” is an African single-string guitar. o Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto while in England. o Actress Laura Dern’s grandfather, George Dern, was Secretary of War under FDR. o According to a U.S. agency, the surname Baer has the most spelling variations - 36. Snyder is second with 29, and Bailey has 22. o Abbe Jean Nollet’s electricity experiments were the spectacles of the 1700s. In one demonstration, over 200 monks were thrown in the air by an electrical jolt. o “Happy Birthday” was the first song to be performed in outer space by the Apollo IX astronauts on March 8, 1969. o Tonight Show veteran Ed McMahon was a retired Marine fighter pilot.