OT: Interesting Facts (history, geography, science, etc.)

[Pawsox]

Indeed it is the dog days of summer, a long way from the start of the season, so no better time for a topic like this!

What are some interesting historical facts you know for history buffs, something interesting about geography or maybe an interesting science fact?

Random Fact: 10th President John Tyler (born 1790) has a living grandson (and another who died less than a year ago).

Harrison Ruffin Tyler, born Nov. 9, 1928, and still alive at age 92. A US president born in the 18th century (1790) still has a grandchild alive in the 3rd decade of the 21st century! Pretty crazy imo.

Not one to rest on his families laurels, Harrison Tyler founded Chemtreat in 1968. It is now one of the largest industrial water treatment firms in the world.

He also owns Sherwood Forest, his home in Virginia, which counts two presidents as owners. William Henry Harrison originally owned it and then sold it to John Tyler. It is 301 feet long and for a long time was the longest wood framed house in the US. You can still tour the house which is relatively close to Williamsburg.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Toss the coin and Churchill could have been the US President and Obama the Prime Minister.

It'd take impossibly more than a coin toss: Churchill could not become US President because he was not born in the USA.

Obama has already prevailed in such a challenge, though some still persist in claiming that this is unproven.

I know nothing about what qualifies or disqualifies one for Prime Minister eligibility.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Yellowstone is due to erupt any day now and we are all Doomed.

 

[temery]

A school of clownfish is always built into a hierarchy with a female fish at the top. When she dies, the most dominant male changes sex, takes her place and can then lay eggs, use the ladies room, etc.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Most of Earth's coal exists because of one species, Archeaopteris. This species thrived because it was the first plant to manufacture lignin, dramatically increasing the strength of their stems and therefore the height they could grow (30ft or more). At the time, there was no species that could decompose the lignin, so Archeaopteris piled up in huge mounds that were eventually buried and crushed into coal.

When coal is burned, you release the energy of 300 million year old sunlight, and the carbon from a plant equally as old.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I live in Florida and am west of Detroit, Nashville, Indianapolis and Louisville and am about 3/10 of a degree east of Chicago.

 

[formerlurker]

Betty White is literally older than sliced bread.

 

[Austin316]

'Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way...'

I love this. Makes me wonder why the hell we like building on the coastlines. Climate changes are unavoidable.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I love this. Makes me wonder why the hell we like building on the coastlines. Climate changes are unavoidable.

Because we aren’t immortal vampires and the coast is quite pleasant.

 

[temery]

Betty White is literally older than sliced bread.

'Estelle Geddy, who played Bea Arthur's mother in Golden Girls, was younger than Bea Arthur.

 

[Fishy]

The Inn where Martin Van Buren was married is now a pirate bar and I got really drunk there a couple of times.

 

[InTheRed]

The last pension check from the US government related to Civil War veterans was paid in December 2020, 155 years after the war ended. It was a check to a widow who married her husband (the veteran) when he was 93 and she was 17. She lived until she was 101.

 

[Fishy]

Betty White is literally older than sliced bread.

And drier.

I will show myself out.

 

[CCSUblue]

The Inn where Martin Van Buren was married is now a pirate bar and I got really drunk there a couple of times.

View attachment 68506

Van Buren was the first president born after the revolution and remains the only president where English was not their first language.

 

[JakeTheDog]

The total equatorial diameter of the planets in our solar system(including Pluto and excepting Earth) is less than the distance between Earth and the moon at apogee. Therefore all the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and our moon.

Also not sure if this counts because we are getting into theoreticals here, but the different kinds of infinity always intrigued me. When you take every whole number in an infinite number set and multiply by two, you have an infinite amount of even numbers. So now we have as many even whole numbers as total whole numbers. And countable infinity vs uncountable infinity is fun too. Cantor’s Diagonal proof is a good place to start but is a pretty deep rabbit hole.

 

[temery]

The total equatorial diameter of the planets in our solar system(including Pluto and excepting Earth) is less than the distance between Earth and the moon at apogee. Therefore all the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and our moon.

Also not sure if this counts because we are getting into theoreticals here, but the different kinds of infinity always intrigued me. When you take every whole number in an infinite number set and multiply by two, you have an infinite amount of even numbers. So now we have as many even whole numbers as total whole numbers. And countable infinity vs uncountable infinity is fun too. Cantor’s Diagonal proof is a good place to start but is a pretty deep rabbit hole.

'The fact Uranus is a gas giant cracks me up every time I think about it.

 

[87Xfer]

As a kid (in the US) I listened to relatively local radio stations that broadcasted from a timezone that was 30 minutes different from ours. (Newfoundland)

 

[Hey Adrien!]

My maternal side of the family goes back many generations to the town in American that geographically closest to Africa:

Eastport, Maine.

 

[boba]

'The fact Uranus is a gas giant cracks me up every time I think about it.

That spins on its side too. (Uranus is the only planet whose equator is nearly at a right angle to its orbit, with a tilt of 97.77 degrees.)

 

[8893]

MLB teams are 493-2 when leading by 4+ runs entering the 9th inning this season.

The Yankees have both losses.

 

[wheelerdog]

Not one to rest on his families laurels, Harrison Tyler founded Chemtreat in 1968. It is now one of the largest industrial water treatment firms in the world.

He also owns Sherwood Forest, his home in Virginia, which counts two presidents as owners. William Henry Harrison originally owned it and then sold it to John Tyler. It is 301 feet long and for a long time was the longest wood framed house in the US. You can still tour the house which is relatively close to Williamsburg.

We did the presidential trail in VA a few years ago. The private tour of Sherwood Forest was terrific.

 

[Huskygrad88]

George Washington never knew there was such a thing as a dinosaur.

 

[Austin316]

Because we aren’t immortal vampires and the coast is quite pleasant.

Settle down Jack Sparrow.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Before World War 1, three quarters of all the newspapers published in the United States were printed in German.

 

[prankster]

My maternal side of the family goes back many generations to the town in American that geographically closest to Africa:

Eastport, Maine.

My entire family, for generations back, consists of nothing but ancestors.