Page 60 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o Castro’s daughter Alina defected to the U.S. in 1993. o Che Guevera suffered from severe asthma, a factor in his move to Argentina to study medicine. o Shortly after his exile from Russia, Leon Trotsky stayed with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. o Sam Walton of Wal*Mart was an army intelligence officer during WWII. o Draftee John D. Rockefeller paid someone to fight in his place in the Civil War. o Gandhi observed a day of silence on Mondays. o Duke Ellington’s first job was selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games. o Miles Davis was once married to actress Cicely Tyson. o Miles Davis had a cameo as a street performer in the Bill Murray movie Scrooged. o Albert Einstein was an accomplished violinist. o Trotsky’s assassin killed him with an ice pick. o Darwin suffered from seasickness. o Some believe that Shakespeare died after a drinking contest with fellow writer Ben Johnson. o Capone’s nickname Scarface steams from 3 knife slashes he suffered in a fight over a woman. o John Gotti could quote long passages of Machiavelli’s The Prince from memory. o As a teenager, Mafia boss Joe Bonanno fought against Mussolini’s fascists. o Jackie Gleason wrote the theme song for \The Honeymooners. o Captain Cook tried to prevent scurvy by feeding his men sauerkraut. o Lucille Ball and Bette Davis were in drama class together. o Babe Ruth got his nickname as a young player on the Baltimore Orioles team. o Jim Thorpe was once a national ballroom dance champion. o Colette was one of the few Frenchwomen to become a grand officer of the Legion of Honor. o Walt Disney named names in his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. o Debra Winger was one of the actors who did the voice of E.T. th th o JFK was the first 20 -century presidents born in the 20 century. o Gloria Swanson and Joseph Kennedy Sr., had an affair. o Kris Kristofferson, Janis Joplin’s former lover, penned her hit single “Me and Bobby McGee.” o Richard Byrd was the first man to fly over both the North and South Poles. o Dwight Eisenhower’s mother was a pacifist. o The Salem witch trials resulted in the execution of 20 girls and women. o Immigrant Russian songsmith Irving Berlin wrote over a thousand tunes. o John Wayne’s horse was named Duke. o Catarina was the name of Edgar Allen Poe’s cat. o Winston Churchill’s cat was named Nelson. o Tiddles, Horatio Nelson’s cat, was with him at Trafalgar. o Augustine’s law #1: The best way to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear - start with a silk sow. o Erma Bombeck’s rule: Never go to a doctor whose houseplants have died. o Lynch’s law: When the going gets tough, everyone leaves. o Seit’s law: The course you need to graduate will not be offered your last semester. o Yardley’s dining law: No matter how many good tables there are, you’ll always be given the worst. o James Cook was the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle. o Former heavyweight champion George Foreman has five sons - all named George. o First African American in space: Mae Jemison on the Endeavor. o Oldest continuously inhabited town in the U.S. - the 1,000-year-old-Hopi village of Oraibi, AZ. o Timothy Leary is godfather to actress Uma Thurman and Winona Ryder.