Portal:United States/Did you know/archive/2010/December

December 2010

 * ... that a lawsuit brought by William Shernoff against an insurance firm that refused to pay claims for damage from Cyclone Val in American Samoa yielded penalty payments of $86.7 million?
 * ... that during World War I the United States Army recruited over 28,000 soldiers for the Spruce Production Division, which harvested Sitka spruce in the Pacific Northwest?
 * ... that Judson Welliver is widely regarded as having been the first presidential speechwriter?
 * ... that former Oregon Duck and Detroit Lion George Christensen co-founded a multinational manufacturing company with factories in France, Japan, Canada and the United States?
 * ... that contractor George Caldwell was sentenced to four years in a U.S. Penitentiary for income tax evasion and kickbacks received on buildings that he completed at Louisiana State University?
 * ... that as the runaway winner of a special election for his late father's seat in the Texas House of Representatives, John Kuempel of Seguin is the 101st Republican in the 150-seat body?
 * ... that African American Republican Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans held the post of comptroller of customs under both Presidents Harding and Coolidge?
 * ... that when District of Columbia judge Robert L. Wilkins was recently out of law school, he was stopped by Maryland State Police for "driving while black" and won a landmark racial profiling lawsuit?
 * ... that the Cincinnati Riot of 1853 involved Germans objecting to the presence of an Italian cardinal preaching in French in the United States on Christmas Day?
 * ... that in 1958 the Public Personnel Association named the New Orleans attorney Charles E. Dunbar "Mr. Civil Service of North America"?
 * ... that one of the largest aboriginal title claims in the United States was rejected based on an interpretation of the Articles of Confederation?
 * ... that Albanian American Anthony Athanas, who rode a donkey en route to the United States, became a multi-millionaire restaurateur in Massachusetts?
 * ... that Sir William Blackstone Commentaries on the Laws of England (published 1765–1769) is still cited by the Supreme Court of the United States between 10 and 12 times a year?
 * ... that the scams uncovered by Operation Broken Trust, the largest investment fraud sweep by the US Government, may have involved over 120,000 victims?
 * ... that English-born footballer Ellis Remy made his international debut playing for the Montserrat national football team?
 * ... that a 1907 stagecoach robbery organized by Vladimir Lenin (pictured) and Joseph Stalin killed an estimated 40 people and netted approximately 250,000 rubles (over $3 million in current USD)?
 * ... that St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Carson City is the oldest building still in use by the Episcopal Church in the state of Nevada?
 * ... that American yachtswoman J. J. Isler, who competed in both the Olympics and the America’s Cup races, was the first woman named to the Sailing World Hall of Fame?
 * ... that on October 21, 1915, a band of Mexicans invaded the United States and conducted a raid on Ojo de Agua in Texas as part of the Plan de San Diego?
 * ... that the American historian Gerald W. Wolff collaborated on studies of six Indian tribes, the Arikara, Hidatsa, Mandan, Ponca, Ottawa, and Comanche?
 * ... that in 1922–23, journalist Elmo Scott Watson wrote Stories of Great Indians, an attempt to refute the noble savage concept then popular among writers about the Native American tribes?
 * ... that the surprise about the WikiLeaks revelations of spying on UN leaders by US diplomats was not that it was done, but rather who would be doing it, and what information would be required?
 * ... that college football coach Harry Baum helped build the Broadmoor Hotel and three state capitol buildings?
 * ... that the phrase "more bang for the buck" was used to describe the United States' New Look policy of depending on nuclear weapons, rather than a large regular army, to keep the Soviet Union in check?
 * ... that Bremo Slave Chapel is the only place of worship known to have been built for slaves in the Commonwealth of Virginia?
 * ... that the Office of Science in the Department of Energy is the predominant U.S. federal government sponsor for research in the physical sciences and initiated the Human Genome Project?
 * ... that No. 61 Wing RAAF built a 10000 ft runway at Darwin, Northern Territory, in 1944 to accommodate a proposed deployment of 100 USAAF B-29 Superfortress bombers that never eventuated?
 * ... that the namesake of the Patrick Henry Hotel in Roanoke, Virginia, is the American Founding Father Patrick Henry?
 * ... that it was not until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that housing discrimination in the United States became illegal?
 * ... that the Rosendale trestle, once the highest span bridge in the United States, was sold in 1986 for one dollar?
 * ... that the 1946 fire at the Winecoff Hotel (pictured) in Atlanta, Georgia, was the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history?
 * ... that pastor A. T. Powers, president of the American Baptist Association from 1957 to 1959, once led a blue collar church in Monticello, Arkansas, which paid him only US$12.50 per month?
 * ... that the historian James L. McCorkle, Jr., has researched heavily on the importance of rural truck farming in feeding the urban population of the American South?
 * ... that in 1935, muralist Gilbert Brown Wilson was paid only US$28 in coins collected by schoolchildren for three years of work in Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Terre Haute, Indiana?
 * ... that in the deepest underwater rescue in history, CURV-III, a US Navy ROV, saved two men stranded in a submersible at a depth of 1,575 ft (480 m) with just minutes of air remaining?
 * ... that this year a U.S. Embassy attaché visited the tomb of Samuel Lucas who lived to hear the "tidings of the destruction of the slave power in the United States"?
 * ... that Daniel O'Brien, senior editor for Cracked.com, was confronted by the FBI and United States Secret Service after writing an article titled "How to Kidnap the President's Daughter?"
 * ... that in 1955 the Indonesian film workers union Sarbufis launched a campaign to ban American newsreel film?
 * ... that the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, is the oldest continuously serving Presbyterian church in the United States?
 * ... that the ancestral home of U.S. Presidents William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, believed to be the oldest three-story brick mansion in Virginia, was built by Benjamin Harrison IV in 1726?
 * ... that Daniel D. Badger, with James Bogardus, was one of the major forces in creating cast-iron architecture in the United States?
 * ... that the song "Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí" performed by Jorge Drexler received two nominations for the 11th Latin Grammy Awards even though it was not promoted to radio in the United States?
 * ... that James Gross considers NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., NLRB v. Columbian Enameling & Stamping Co., and NLRB v. Sands Mfg.Co. the most significant Supreme Court rulings on the National Labor Relations Act since the Court upheld the Act?
 * ... that in 1985, Carmelita Vigil-Schimmenti (pictured) became the first Hispanic female to attain the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force?
 * ... that Michael Stroukoff, a Russian emigrant from Kiev, designed the largest glider ever built in the United States (pictured), as well as its first jet-powered transport?
 * ... that when Prohibition forced the Kentucky-based Bavarian Brewing Company to stop producing beer, it continued to produce soft drinks as The William Riedlin Beverage Company?
 * ... that holders of the position that would become the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council have included Eleanor Roosevelt and Geraldine Ferraro?