User:Doug Coldwell/Did You Know article subjects


 * This is my work of over 15 years creating Wikipedia articles in my retirement.
 * These are my articles in bold I have created, listed by the subject matter.
 * 500 articles have been featured on Wikipedia's main page in the Did You Know section.
 * 97% of all my articles I have created have ultimately become a Did You Know article.





Airplanes and Airports

 * Did you know that at the age of 17, Dean Cullom Smith (pictured) was the youngest flight instructor in U.S. Army history?


 * Did you know that Charles Townsend Ludington, his brother and two other executives formed Ludington Airline, the first every-hour-on-the-hour air transport line?


 * Did you know that W. Wallace Kellett made the first autogyro used by the United States Post Office Department for carrying mail?


 * Did you know that the first transcontinental night airmail service was established at Hadley Field?


 * Did you know that the George Washington Air Junction was designed to be the world's largest airport, larger than the New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Chicago, and Philadelphia airports combined?'


 * Did you know that the Hybla Valley Airport was the first licensed airport in Virginia?

Amazing

 * Did you know that a collection of light bulbs was bought by General Electric in 1912 for $10,000 and by 1931 was valued at over a million dollars?


 * Did you know that Max Deutsch intentionally destroyed his compositions so that his only surviving legacy would be his students?


 * Did you know that George Edward Hilt founded the largest farm-store retailer in the United States?


 * Did you know that Joseph Hobson designed the first underwater railroad tunnel to a foreign country?


 * Did you know that the Syllabical and Steganographical Table was the first cryptography chart ever made?


 * Did you know that Robert Louis Stevenson believed that politics is a profession for which no preparation is necessary?


 * Did you know that in 1907, the moose Älgen Stolta defeated horses in a harness race?


 * Did You Know that samples of moon rock and lunar dust soil from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions, mounted on wooden plaque displays especially for Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Honduras, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Romania, Spain, and Sweden, plus the states of Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii (pictured), Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and West Virginia, were later reported missing by many of the recipients?


 * Did You Know that cellarettes were designed with 3-D optical illusion art to conceal their illegal alcoholic beverages during prohibition in the United States?


 * Did You Know that the Rotolactor was the first invention for milking a large quantity of cows successively and largely automatically?


 * Did You Know that Project Loon is a project by Google to send thousands of high-altitude balloons into the stratosphere to beam wireless Internet to remote locations worldwide?


 * Did You Know that the Sealyham Terrier was created at Sealyham House in Pembrokeshire, Wales?


 * Did You Know that much like Anne Frank's diary, the letters of Philip Slier, discovered more than fifty years after his death, reveal the history of Nazi-controlled Netherlands through a personal perspective?


 * Did You Know that ablaq is an Arabic term for the use in stonework of alternating or fluctuating rows of light and dark color stone?


 * Did You Know that Abraham Lincoln was the only U.S. president to have a registered patent to an invention?


 * Did You Know that despite the devastation of the second U.S. Patent Office fire (pictured), in a supposedly fireproof building, not one patent was lost?


 * Did You Know that the U.S. Patent Office 1836 fire occurred in the same building that housed the local fire department?

American history

 * Did you know that the Thoroughbred Spark was a gift to Samuel Ogle from Lord Baltimore regifted from the Prince of Wales?


 * Did you know that the Lord Baltimore penny (pictured) is the first copper coin issued for circulation in the Thirteen Colonies?


 * Did you know that the Benjamin Loxley house is noted in history as the place where a Quakeress overheard secret British plans and passed them on to George Washington, saving the Continental Army?


 * Did You Know that Nicholas More was the first judge in colonial America to be impeached?


 * Did You Know that George Ronan was the first West Point graduate to be killed in battle?


 * Did You Know that throughout U.S. history, different types of mail bags have been called mail pouch, mail sack, mail satchel, catcher pouch, mochila saddle mailbag (pictured), and portmanteau depending on form, function, place and time?


 * Did You Know that the Daniel Cragin Mill is the only remaining operating water-powered measure mill in the United States?


 * Did You Know that Flat Top Manor, built by textile industrialist Moses H. Cone in 1900, gets nearly 250,000 visitors annually as the main feature of the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park in North Carolina?


 * Did You Know that John Stuart Skinner and Francis Scott Key were on a mercy mission to get back Dr. William Beanes from British hands, when Key was inspired to write "The Star Spangled Banner?


 * Did You Know that from 1908 the Cone Mills Corporation (mill pictured) was the world's largest producer of denim fabric, making its founder Moses H. Cone the "Denim King?"


 * Did You Know that the Cone sisters (pictured) were friends of Gertrude Stein and amassed a collection of artwork of Picasso, Renoir, Gauguin and van Gogh – now worth one billion dollars?


 * Did You Know that Jacob Earl Fickel is credited with firing the first gunshots from an airplane?


 * Did You Know that Louis Timothee was the first public librarian in the United States?


 * Did You Know that Theresa Elmendorf was the first woman president of the American Library Association?

American Civil War

 * Did you know that after ordering the bombardment of Fort Sumter which started the American Civil War, General P.T. Beauregard watched the attack from the Edmondston-Alston House?


 * Did You Know that Samuel D. McDearmon played a significant role in the development of Appomattox, Virginia?


 * Did You Know that the timeline of the Conclusion of the American Civil War shows there were several surrenders after April 9, 1865 (the supposed end of the war)?


 * Did You Know that the Appomattox Park (pictured) has a Court-house, Tavern, Jail, Store and Prizery, the Bocock-Isbell, McLean, Peers and Wright houses, the Sweeney and Sweeney-Conner cabins, the Jones and Woodson law offices, ruins and cemeteries?


 * Did You Know that A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize in history?

Ancient

 * Did You Know that King Rother is the earliest known Spielmannsdichtung heroic epic of wandering minstrels?


 * Did You Know that the Augustinian monk Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro arranged for the crowning of Francesco Petrarch as the first poet laureate since antiquity?


 * Did You Know that ancient scholars considered the Mutiny at Sucro the most important event of Scipio Africanus' early military career?


 * Did You Know that the overhead awning for the Colosseum was saturated with scented water which dripped on spectators' heads to cool them?


 * Did You Know that the first library catalog was the Pinakes developed by the first bibiliographer Callimachus of Cyrene at the Library of Alexandria?


 * Did You Know that Bibliotheca universalis was the first modern bibliography of importance done by the "father of bibliography", Conrad Gesner?


 * Did You Know that Conrad Gessner's 1551 book Historiae animalium is the first use of fossil illustrations? ''


 * Did You Know that Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers is the first dated book printed in England?


 * Did You Know that the biography Vita Karoli Magni on the life of Charlemagne is the first of a medieval European king?


 * Did You Know that the Marsala Ship is the first warship known from archeological evidence?


 * Did You Know that in the Greek mythology tale of Iole, Deianira (pictured) inadvertently killed her husband Heracles with a love charm because of jealousy?


 * Did You Know that Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX is a collection of nearly 1,000 ancient historical anecdotes written by Valerius Maximus?

Architecture and buildings

 * Did you know that William A. Starrett, builder of the Empire State Building, sent his steel construction technology to Japan to help design buildings to resist earthquakes?


 * Did you know that William Plankinton, for whom the William Plankinton Mansion is named, commissioned the John Plankinton statue (pictured) from the sculptor who was his sister's ex-fiancé?


 * Did you know that "Merchant Prince and Princely Merchant" John Plankinton built a mansion (pictured) as a wedding gift for his daughter Elizabeth, but she refused to live in it because her fiancé Richard Henry Park ran off with a dancer?


 * Did you know that the historic I.O.O.F. Centennial Building (pictured) is a three-story commercial building with an exterior decoration of raised brickwork spelling out "Centennial 4 July 1876"?


 * Did you know that Tiny Town was the first complete modern city built in miniature?


 * Did you know that Thomas Maddock started the American indoor toilet industry through his invention?


 * Did you know that the Demarest Building (pictured) built by Aaron T. Demarest was the first building with an electric elevator?


 * Did you know that the Milam Building was both the tallest brick and reinforced concrete structure and first office building with built-in air conditioning in the United States when it opened in 1928?


 * Did you know that the lobby of the $1 million St. Nicholas Hotel in New York City featured a painting of Sinterklaas placing presents into Christmas stockings?

Attractions

 * Did You Know that Wawatam Lighthouse (pictured) started out as an architectural folly at a highway Welcome Center, was moved more than 300 mi, and is now an operating Coast Guard-approved aid to navigation?'


 * Did You Know that the world's largest pelican is over 15 ft high?


 * Did You Know that a pile of junk wooden pallets built up by Daniel Van Meter became a cultural historic monument?


 * Did you know that the first Woman's World's Fair was held in Chicago in 1925?

Automobile

 * Did you know that George Huebner is known as the "father of the automotive gas turbine engine"?


 * Did You Know that the American Motor League was the first automobile organization formed in the United States?


 * Did You Know that  The Three Musketeers  were the nucleus engineers of the Chrysler Corporation?


 * Did You Know that  Frederick Morrell Zeder  became chief engineer of Studebaker Automobile Company at the age of 28?


 * Did You Know that Owen Ray Skelton is credited with engineering a rubber engine mount system for cars known as "floating power" to greatly cut down on engine vibration to the chassis?


 * Did You Know that Carl Breer was one of the core engineering people who formed the present day Chrysler Corporation?


 * Did You Know that Eugene Turenne Gregorie was a designer of the 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr, referred to as "the first successfully streamlined car in America"?


 * Did You Know that Jayco, the largest privately held manufacturer of recreational vehicles (collapsible model pictured) in North America, has mostly Amish and Mennonite employees?


 * Did You Know that a car cooler (pictured) is an early type automobile "air conditioner" that has been around since 1930?


 * Did You Know that the first car that had a body entirely of plastic was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in 1941?


 * Did You Know that  Gottfried Schloemer  (pictured with car) is considered by some to have built the first practical gasoline automobile in the United States?


 * Did You Know a motocycle is not a two-wheeled bicycle with an engine, but a four-wheeled automobile with a motor?


 * Did You Know that Charles Brady King made and drove the first automobile (pictured) in Detroit—three months before Henry Ford made his?


 * Did You Know that John W. Lambert in 1891 made the first U.S. car for sale as well as Union cars and Lambert cars using his gasoline engines and gearless transmissions for the Union car company and Lambert car company as subsiduaries of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company?

Benjamin Franklin

 * Did you know that David Hall bought Benjamin Franklin out of his printing business?


 * Did you know that the lightning rod fashion (lightning rod umbrella shown) was a fad in 18th-century Europe?


 * Did you know that Franklin's electrostatic machine led to the invention of the lightning rod?


 * Did you know that  Experiments and Observations on Electricity  is Benjamin Franklin's only scientific book?


 * Did you know that it was Benjamin Loxley house key that was used by Benjamin Franklin for his kite experiment to attract lightning?

Bibles

 * Did You Know that Isaac Collins published the first American family Bible?


 * Did You Know that Jane Aitken was the first woman to print an English-language Bible in the United States?


 * Did You Know that the Pony Express bible was given only with a signed frontier pledge of loyalty, honesty, and sobriety?

Biographies

 * Did you know that Mario Peruzzi was an Italian immigrant who was the co-founder and president of Planters Peanut company?


 * Did you know that Raymond Cazallis Davis (pictured) was the first to offer a college course in bibliography?


 * Did you know that Benjamin D. Wood produced the first multiple choice test?''


 * Did you know that Vernon Arnold Haugland was the first civilian to receive the Silver Star medal, normally awarded only to members of the United States Armed Forces?


 * Did you know that Frank H. Winter presented the American Astronautical Society first Goddard Memorial Lecture and received a medal for it?


 * Did you know that puppeteer Bernard H. Paul performed the first children's television program?


 * Did you know that the scientist Harold Horton Sheldon wrote as early as 1929 about the serious possibility of man visiting other planets one day with the aid of rockets?


 * Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt McElroy holds the record for the highest speed at which anyone has received Morse code?


 * Did you know that the Great Lakes merchant Rasmus Rasmussen named his schooner after a postmaster's wife?


 * Did you know that actress Lo Kauppi was a singer and guitar player in the feminist punk band Vagina Grande?''


 * Did You Know that although George Livermore dropped out of school at the age of 14, he was given an honorary master of arts degree by Harvard College?


 * Did You Know that printer Samuel Keimer gave Benjamin Franklin his first paying job?


 * Did You Know that John Buttencourt Avila has been called the father of the sweet potato industry?


 * Did You Know that Reuben T. Durrett was a founder of the Louisville Free Public Library?


 * Did You Know that in 1849 Justin Butterfield was appointed commissioner of the General Land Office in preference to Abraham Lincoln?


 * Did You Know that Christopher Werner made a lifelike South Carolina Palmetto tree out of iron, copper, and brass?


 * Did You Know that Mildred Seydell was one of the first women newspaper journalists in the State of Georgia while breaking the gender barrier in journalism?


 * Did You Know that Irish plasterer John Henry Devereux became a noted architect in South Carolina, designing a church (pictured) that was the state's tallest building for 101 years?


 * Did You Know that Erie J. Sauder was a Mennonite cabinetmaker with only an eighth grade education when he started the ready-to-assemble furniture industry?


 * Did You Know that Marc Sautet started the philosophical cafe known as Café Philosophique?


 * Did You Know that Frank Atwood Huntington became the first person to patent a gasoline engine propelled vehicle?

Books

 * Did You Know that John Ratcliff is the first identifiable bookbinder in America?


 * Did You Know that the Algonquian Bible was the first Christian Bible to be published in America?


 * Did You Know that soldiers in Cromwell army were issued a soldier's pocket version of the Geneva Bible, with just 16 pages of verses all of which pertained to war?


 * Did You Know that  Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes  is the first known children's book published in America?


 * Did You Know that Hezekiah Usher was the first known colonial bookseller in the thirteen colonies?''


 * Did You Know that The Long Short Cut is the first book printed completely by electronically controlled typesetting?

Bowling and games

 * Did you know that William V. Thompson preferred the title "Dean of Bowling" over "Father of Bowling" in recognition of his work promoting and standardizing ten-pin bowling?


 * Did you know that Moses Bensinger helped organize the American Bowling Congress, which standardized the rules of modern ten-pin bowling?

Business

 * Did you know that J. R. Watkins (pictured with sales wagon) offered America's first money back guarantee for his products?'

Construction

 * Did you know that William A. Starrett, builder of the Empire State Building, sent his steel construction technology to Japan to help design buildings to resist earthquakes?


 * Did you know that Charles Corydon Hall is considered the father of the rock wool insulation industry in America?


 * Did you know that the first automobile factory in the United States built with reinforced concrete beams and encasements was constructed by Julius Kahn Trussed Concrete Steel Company and its Truscon Laboratories, with Albert Kahn Associates as the architects?

Churches and religion

 * Did You Know that Saint Illtyd Church on Caldey Island, established in the 6th century, is reputedly the oldest Celtic church in Wales?


 * Did You Know that the General Prologue of the Wycliffe Bible was not done by John Wycliffe?


 * Did You Know that Henry Knighton was the first historian of Lollardy?


 * Did You Know that  Wilhelm Victor Alfred Tepe  had a virtual monopoly on the building of new Catholic churches in Utrecht from 1872 until 1882?


 * Did You Know that Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg was a nineteenth century German-Dutch sculptor who built church interiors in the Gothic Revival style?

Crafts & Housing

 * Did You Know that Thomas Elfe, a contemporary of Thomas Chippendale, was the most successful furniture craftsman in Charleston in the eighteenth century?


 * Did You Know that the Thomas Elfe House is the oldest house in Charleston that is open to the public?


 * Did You Know that Schloss Warthausen has been the home of famous historical personages like authors Christoph Martin Wieland and Sophie von La Roche, and painter Johann Heinrich Tischbein?

Culture

 * Did you know that the first private railroad car was made for the singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale?


 * Did you know that Sandy Proctor sculpted The Guardians, depicting two War in Afghanistan SEALs who inspired the film Lone Survivor?


 * Did You Know that members of the  British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors  include United Kingdom's most experienced and successful songwriters like Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Elton John?

Electrical & Electronics

 * Did you know that the electric fire engine had numerous advantages over the 19th-century steam fire engine, but was not put into service because a storm could knock out the power?''


 * Did you know that the Electro-Dynamic Light Company, organized by Albon Man and others, was formed three months before the Edison Electric-Light Company?


 * Did you know that the SS Jacona was the world's first seagoing electric generator powership?


 * Did you know that Alfred Charles Garratt was the first full-time medical doctor in electrotherapy in the United States, and wrote the first book on the subject?


 * Did you know that Steven Anzovin published the first serious study on computer pollution and how it affects the world's environment?


 * Did you know that under the direction of Austin Cornelius Dunham the first transmitted three-phase electric current in the United States for a distance of several miles was done by a public utility company?


 * Did you know that the Hammond Electric Bridge Table was the first bridge table to automatically shuffle and deal cards using electricity?


 * Did You Know that IDT Megabite Cafe is considered to be the world's first kosher cybercafe?


 * Did You Know that William M. Brish was instrumental in developing the first closed circuit television network for public elementary schools?


 * Did You Know that Conrad Hubert was the first commercial vendor of flashlights?


 * Did You Know that the electric flash-lamp, a photographer's light source, was used as an underwater mine detonator fuse?


 * Did You Know that the birth of public radio broadcasting was a live concert from the Metropolitan Opera House with Enrico Caruso as one of the opera singers?


 * Did You Know that Odo J. Struger is known as the "father of the programmable logic controller," an electronic device used in nearly every automated factory worldwide today?


 * Did you know that Charles A. Cheever constructed the first telephone line in New York City and was its owner?


 * Did you know that Sidney Howe Short produced the first electric motor without gears that operated a streetcar directly from its built-in armature?


 * Did you know that Archibald Spencer introduced Benjamin Franklin to the study of electricity, and was his mentor?


 * Did You Know that IDT Megabite Cafe is considered to be the world's first kosher cybercafe?


 * Did You Know that William M. Brish was instrumental in developing the first closed circuit television network for public elementary schools?


 * Did You Know that the Natural Bridges National Monument Solar Power System in Utah was the world's largest solar cell power plant when it opened in 1980?


 * Did You Know that Harrison Gray Dyar erected the first telegraph line and dispatched over it the first telegraph message ever sent in America?


 * Did You Know that Clarence Saunders developed the first self-service grocery store (pictured) concept into the first fully-automated grocery store concept?


 * Did You Know that an image within photosensitive glass is the most durable form of photography and will last as long as glass itself?

European history

 * Did you know that the Stanhope Medal (pictured) for each year's most gallant rescue honors Chandos Scudamore Scudamore Stanhope?


 * Did you know that Peniel Chapel (pictured) changed the practice of the traditional interior of a Welsh church to that of a theatre building with a ramped gallery floor for an auditorium experience?


 * Did you know that Dyserth Castle was the last of the British fortified defense castles on the Clwydian hills in the Middle Ages?


 * Did you know that the solar eclipse of 1 May 1185 gave rise to the first known description of flame-like tongues of live embers?


 * Did you know that the 1185 East Midlands earthquake is the first earthquake in England for which there are verifiable damage reports?


 * Did you know that Richard the Lionheart deliberately took church property without its permission?


 * Did you know that the Cronica Walliae helped popularise a legend that the Welsh discovered America in about 1170, a tale used to justify English encroachments on the early colonies of the Spanish Empire?


 * Did you know that William Maurice built a three-story library just for his personal book collection?


 * Did you know that Cadwallon ap Gruffydd, son of the king of Gwynedd, was willing to murder three of his mother brothers to gain power, but was himself later killed by another brother of hers?


 * Did you know that Fittja gård became a popular overnight inn and station for exchange of horses for Swedish kings?


 * Did you know that Juozas Gabrys worked to liberate Lithuania, but became "virtually an unperson" in that country?


 * Did you know that British airman Tom Rees was killed in the first official victory credited to German flying ace the Red Baron?


 * Did You Know that Beatriz Enriquez de Arana was the mistress of Christopher Columbus (pictured)?


 * Did You Know that Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli (pictured) opened a French brasserie in 1686 that was permitted by King Louis XIV?

Famous Firsts

 * Did You Know that Benjamin Hale was the first instructor of the first vocational trade school in the United States?''


 * Did You Know that Benjamin Hanks is considered to be the first to make bronze cannons and church bells in America?


 * Did You Know that William Hamlin was the first engraver for the state of Rhode Island?


 * Did You Know that in 1852  Franz Johann Joseph Bock  founded the first large exhibition of ancient masterpieces of Christian art?


 * Did You Know that the first transcontinental trip by a solar-powered vehicle was completed in 1983?


 * Did You Know that the Sunmobile, world's first solar-powered automobile, was demonstrated in a 1955 General Motors car show?


 * Did You Know that the Cloth of St Gereon is the oldest known European tapestry still existing?''


 * Did You Know that the first woman to write a book on childbirth was Louise Bourgeois Boursier?


 * Did You Know that the oldest known museum labels are from c. 1900 BCE, describing 2000 BCE objects?


 * Did You Know that the first life insurance company was founded in 1706?


 * Did You Know that Hamburger Feuerkasse was the first official fire insurance company established in the world?


 * Did You Know that Princess Ennigaldi, daughter of the last Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus, created the world's first museum (ruins pictured)?


 * Did You Know that the first manual on a double-entry bookkeeping system was written by Benedikt Kotruljevic in 1458, more than 36 years earlier than previously thought?

Fashion

 * Did You Know that fragrant sachets were used by Queen Isabella of Spain?


 * Did You Know that King of France Louis XIV (1638–1715) used toilet water for his shirts and called it "heavenly water"?


 * Did You Know that cameline, a middle ages "cheap" fabric of camel's hair, is considered by some authorities to be what we call today cashmere?


 * Did You Know that Caroline Reboux was known as the Queen of the Milliners?


 * Did You Know that Georgia Cayvan was the first person to wear a glass dress?

Food and drink

 * Did you know that American Civil War Confederate surgeon Charles T. Pepper was the original inspiration for the Dr Pepper brand soft drink ''(1910 logo shown)?


 * Did you know that Austin Church and John Dwight were the first to commercially manufacture baking soda in the United States, and the former was first to use the Arm & Hammer trademark logo (pictured) for selling it?


 * Did you know that Italian immigrant Mario Peruzzi was the co-founder and president of Planters Peanut company?


 * Did You Know that Albert P. Halfhill is considered the father of the tuna packing industry and is the first to use the slogan "chicken of the sea" as a sales gimmick?


 * Did You Know that the SweeTango is a new variety of apple, not a romantic dance?


 * Did You Know that the Hot and Hot Fish Club was a gentlemen's club dedicated to epicurean pursuits?

Founders

 * Did you know that Howard B. Meek was the founder and dean of the first college to train professional hotel managers?


 * Did you know that Eli Parsons Royce founded the city of Escanaba, Michigan, while Nelson Ludington named it?


 * Did you know that Lewis Ludington founded the city of Columbus, Wisconsin, but never resided in the state?


 * Did You Know that James Ludington never lived in Ludington, Michigan – the town that bears his name?

Health and medicine

 * Did you know that a 1700s Philadelphia property named Bathsheba's spring and bower was said to be the first spa in the Society Hill area?


 * Did you know that Dixi Crosby was the first surgeon in the United States to be sued for medical malpractice?


 * Did you know that Operation Sahayogi Haat ("helping hands") delivered about 120 ST of emergency disaster supplies for the Nepal 2015 earthquake relief effort?


 * Did You Know that Louis Duret was the chief physician to King Charles IX and his brother King Henry III?


 * Did You Know that Giovanni de Ventura, a plague doctor who may have worn a beak doctor costume (pictured), was restricted by a covenant to treat only infectious patients?


 * Did You Know that the tainted wine from an antimonial cup (examples pictured) was used to make oneself vomit?


 * Did You Know that physician Charles de Lorme (1584–1678) prescribed an eye cosmetic concoction to French kings Henry IV and Louis XIII as a medicine?


 * Did You Know that otium, a Latin term, has a variety of meanings including leisure time in which a person can enjoy eating, playing, resting, contemplation and academic endeavors?


 * Did You Know that in his Florentine Chronicle, Baldassarre Bonaiuti, tells how during the Black Death of 1348 sick people in Florence were abandoned by their families?

Inventions

 * Did you know that Carl Edgar Myers invented an air-bicycle (illustrated) that navigated through the air like a bicycle?


 * Did You Know that Charles Dinsmoor invented the endless chain tractor in 1886, forerunner of the continuous track vehicle?


 * Did you know that William Donald Scherzer invented the first rolling lift bridge?


 * Did you know that Schuyler Skaats Wheeler invented the first electric fan?


 * Did you know that James L. Buie invented transistor-to-transistor logic circuitry (TTL), which led to the development of the integrated circuit industry?


 * Did you know that when the early telephone was being developed, John Peirce (pictured) invented the mouthpiece that was used for the hand-held version?


 * Did you know that William Francis Channing invented the first citywide electric fire alarm system?


 * Did you know that Chester H. Pond invented the first electrical self-winding clock?


 * Did you know that Herbert Grove Dorsey invented the first practical fathometer for ships?


 * Did you know that the electrical principles of an electrostatic machine invented by a Shaker doctor in 1810 for medical treatment were later used by Thomas Edison?


 * Did You Know that Royal Page Davidson, son of Northwestern Military Academy founder Harlan Page Davidson, invented the first U.S. military car and fully armored car as well as a lightly armored car?


 * Did you know that Isaac Dripps invented the railroad locomotive cowcatcher?


 * Did you know that Luther Atwood invented "coup oil", the first oil extracted from coal?


 * Did You Know that Giovanni Caselli made the world's first practical operating fax machine 11 years before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone?


 * Did you know that Birdsill Holly invented a water pumping system for city mains that not only supplied drinking water for domestic service, but also furnished water under pressure for fire hydrants (Holly fire hydrant pictured)?''

Ladies

 * Did you know that Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald helped found the first secret society in a women's college?


 * Did you know that Mary Florence Potts (pictured) patented various styles of cold handle clothes irons that were the most popular irons ever used?


 * Did you know that PFE Albee (pictured) is considered the first "Avon Lady", and was followed by over half a million others?


 * Did you know that the first US Army hospital named for a woman or nurse was named after US Army Nurse Corps Lieutenant Ruth M. Gardiner (pictured)?


 * Did you know that women's rights activist Meaza Ashenafi noted that Amharic proverbs that place women only in domestic roles are to blame for the degrading of women in Ethiopia?
 * Did you know that Edith Ellen Greenwood was the first woman and first nurse to receive the Soldier's Medal after she rescued 15 patients from a burning hospital ward?
 * Did you know that President Eisenhower praised Mary F. Hoyt, the first woman appointed to the US federal civil service in 1883, as a leader for the hundreds of thousands of women who followed her?


 * Did you know that Wellesley College president Ellen Fitz Pendleton supported academic freedom for pacifists during World War I and later opposed the 1935 loyalty oath required of teachers in Massachusetts?


 * Did you know that Mary Myers was the first American woman to fly and pilot a dirigible balloon, which she did on Independence Day in 1880?


 * Did you know that Marianne Means was the first woman reporter to be assigned full-time coverage of the White House?


 * Did you know that Olive Hoskins was the first woman promoted to warrant officer in the United States Army?


 * Did you know that Mary Ingraham  was the first woman to receive the United States Medal for Merit award?


 * Did you know that Claire Giannini Hoffman was the first woman to serve on the boards of Bank of America and Sears, Roebuck & Company?


 * Did you know that Effie Maud Aldrich Morrison originated the concept and was the instigator for the plan of the first senior housing project in the United States?


 * Did you know that Elizabeth Plankinton, known as the "municipal patroness" for her philanthropy, gifted a 9 ft high bronze George Washington sculpture to the citizens of Milwaukee?


 * Did You Know that Eleonora de Cisneros, an American opera singer, promoted the sale of Liberty bonds more than any other person during World War I?


 * Did You Know that Cordelia E. Cook, the first woman to receive the Bronze Star Medal, was also awarded the Purple Heart?


 * Did You Know that Mary Babnik Brown was the first woman to have her hair used as crosshairs in military aircraft bombsights?


 * Did You Know that Juliana R. Force brought about the first public showing of American folk art in the United States?


 * Did You Know that Mary E. Clarke was the first woman to achieve the rank of major general in the United States Army?


 * Did You Know that Mary Hamilton Swindler was the first woman editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archaeology (1932–46) since its inception in 1885?


 * Did You Know that Elizabeth Burchinal, considered America's leading authority on folk dancing, organized large folk dance gatherings – one in particular involving 10,000 schoolgirls?


 * Did You Know that Virginia Mae Brown, the "'First Lady of Transportation", was the first woman chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission since its inception in 1887?

Literature

 * Did you know that George Escol Sellers was the basis for the fictional character Colonel Eschol Sellers in Mark Twain's novel The Gilded Age?


 * Did You Know that Mattheus Marinus Schepman most significant work is "The Prosobranchia of the Siboga expedition", a publication of 494 pages encompassing 212 genera and 1,467 species of snails and slugs?


 * Did You Know that Wikipedia covers the whole shebang?


 * Did You Know that the Agricultural Museum was the first agricultural periodical journal published in the United States?


 * Did You Know that hundreds of words still in use today, including accident, cinnamon, desk, scissors, vacation, and Valentine, first appear in manuscripts written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1300s?


 * Did You Know that The Ladies' Mercury was the first periodical publication designed just for women?


 * Did You Know that the first use of the format of the advice column was in The Athenian Mercury in 1690?

Michigan

 * Did You Know that the SS Andaste (pictured) – a hybrid whaleback Great Lakes cargo vessel – disappeared with all hands on Lake Michigan in 1929 and is still listed as not found?


 * Did you know that the Michigan Heritage Park (typical exhibit pictured) is an outdoor attraction that spans 10,000 years of Michigan history?


 * Did You Know that the  McArthur Mining Company  was Michigan's first coal mine?


 * Did You Know that the Fremont Canning Company, owned by Frank Daniel Gerber and Daniel Frank Gerber and known for its Gerber Baby logo, pioneered the commercial baby food industry in the U.S.?


 * Did You Know that the Pickle Barrel House (pictured), a cabin built of two large barrels, is based on comic strip characters that were two inches (5 cm) tall and lived in a pickle barrel?


 * Did You Know that the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive was originally a route called the Sleeping Bear Dunes Park?


 * Did You Know that the Port Oneida Rural Historic District is the largest historic agricultural community fully protected by government ownership in the United States?


 * Did You Know that the Kaleva Bottle House was built using over 60,000 bottles?


 * Did You Know that Mary Augusta Dickerson found it inspirational to write her children's books inside a Pickle Barrel House?


 * Did You Know that Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company is the world's largest limestone quarry?


 * Did You Know that Kitch-iti-kipi is Michigan's largest freshwater spring and a major tourist attraction?

Cadillac and Manton

 * Did you know that when Clam Lake Canal freezes over early in the Michigan winter, the lakes on each side remain unfrozen, but when the lakes later freeze over, the canal thaws and flows once more?


 * Did you know that George A. Mitchell has been called the father of Cadillac?


 * Did You Know that John Caldwell was originally given the name at birth of George Washington Caldwell because he was born on the Fourth of July?

Detroit

 * Did you know that John Ward Westcott developed a marine mail system that eventually became the only floating ZIP Code in the United States?

Escanaba

 * Did you know that Eli Parsons Royce founded the city of Escanaba, Michigan, while Nelson Ludington named it?

Hart area

 * Did you know that Larry Kelly founded Shelby Gem Factory, which at one site grows uncut cultured gems, including diamonds, facets them, and mounts them in gold?


 * Did you know that the Oceana County Historical & Genealogical Society contains "an organization within an organization"?


 * Did you know that "the smallest newspaper in the world" (issue shown) was published by Swift Lathers from his home for over 50 years, and had paid subscribers in 38 states?


 * Did you know that Dunes Forest Village was an exclusive "island" retreat in Hart, surrounded by sand rather than water, and owned by a newspaper publisher?

Ludington related

 * Did You Know that Luther H. Foster and his brother Edward A. Foster were hired by the lumber tycoon James Ludington to manage his vast business interests and the Pere Marquette Lumber Company was developed.


 * Did You Know that John Mason Loomis determined through experimenting that boring for salt and distilling the brine could produce usable salt and brought about the salt industry that helped develop the city of Ludington, Michigan?


 * Did You Know that Delos L. Filer owned around two-thirds of the present day city of Manistee?


 * Did You Know that a mural of William Rath depicts him drinking from a Fountain of Youth?


 * Did you know that the Pere Marquette Lumber Company is a defunct lumber company of the nineteenth century?


 * Did you know that a mural of William Rath depicts him drinking from a Fountain of Youth?


 * Did you know that cargo had to be loaded and unloaded by hand onto the SS John Sherman, the first freight ship used on Lake Michigan? (It crossed at Ludington, Michigan).


 * Did you know that the SS Pere Marquette was the first steel train ferry built in the world? (went between Michigan and Wisconsin on Lake Michigan)


 * Did you know that William L. Mercereau, Superintendent of Steamships for the Pere Marquette Railway, was responsible for building up what was at the time the world's largest carferry fleet? (main port in Ludington, Michigan).


 * Did you know that the Ludington family included a teenage girl (statue pictured) whose night-long ride to alert the Continental Army of an imminent British attack has been compared to the ride of Paul Revere?


 * Did you know that Lewis Ludington founded the city of Columbus, Wisconsin, but never resided in the state?


 * Did you know that Henry Ludington helped General George Washington create a spy ring to gather information on British troops during the American Revolutionary War?


 * Did you know that Eli Parsons Royce founded the city of Escanaba, Michigan, while Nelson Ludington named it?


 * Did you know that the House of Flavors's signature ice cream is the secret formula "Blue Moon" flavor (pictured) that they have been making available to their customers since 1935?


 * Did you know that the Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation provided most of the plywood material for the Spirit of St. Louis, which Charles Lindbergh flew on a record-breaking transatlantic flight in 1927?


 * Did you know that that Henry L. Haskell patented a game board (1900 vintage board shown) through the Carrom Company to keep young boys out of pool halls where they might develop bad habits?
 * Did you know that the one-piece Haskell canoe (pictured) was made from plywood glued together with slaughterhouse blood?


 * Did you know that the Haskell Manufacturing Company produced the material for the first airplane made with moldable plywood?


 * Did You Know that Justus Smith Stearns built the first all electric sawmill in the United States?


 * Did You Know that the Star Watch Case Company made a "Moonwatch" that was worn by astronaut Wally Schirra on a trip to the moon?


 * Did You Know that Antoine Ephrem Cartier can trace his family history line back 400 years to Jacques Cartier, French explorer who claimed Canada for France?


 * Did You Know that Warren Antoine Cartier was a neighbor of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone?


 * Did You Know that Charles Mears was known as the "Christopher Columbus of the West Coast"?


 * Did You Know that Michigan's Ludington Public Library was claimed as the library that will last a thousand years?


 * Did You Know that Michigan's Mason County District Library is an umbrella entity that administers two libraries?


 * Did You Know that James Ludington never lived in Ludington, Michigan – the town that bears his name?


 * Did You Know that Burr Caswell built his farmhouse in 1849 out of old driftwood and it is now a museum centerpiece?


 * Did You Know that Mason County, Michigan's courts used an old farmhouse until the county courthouse was built?


 * Did you know that the Mason County Sculpture Trail is a garden of public art with exhibition pieces located only outdoors?

Manistee

 * Did You Know that Silas C. Overpack's Michigan logging wheels, designed to haul logs across rough terrain, were nine to ten feet high and always painted red?


 * Did you know that the movements of some Manistee Watch Company pocket watches had 17 jewels of heliotrope garnet, and were the first in the United States to use non-magnetic hairsprings?


 * Did You Know that Nels Johnson built Century tower clocks, designed to last 100 years?


 * Did You Know that a young black aspiring actor by the name of James Earl Jones had his beginnings at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan?


 * Did You Know that Thomas Jefferson Ramsdell built the opera house where James Earl Jones started his career?

Military

 * Did you know that C. C. Beall's 1945 Treasury poster (pictured) of Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima was used for a World War II campaign which brought in $26 billion?


 * Did you know that the Army and Navy Union (badge shown) is the oldest veterans' organization in America?


 * Did You Know that the accolade (pictured) was a ceremony for knighthood in the Middle Ages?

Religion

 * Did you know that Richard McNemar, the "father of Shaker music", was the most prolific composer of Shaker hymns and anthems?


 * Did you know that the first hymn in the first Shaker hymn book reflects the Shaker belief that God is both male and female?

Schools and training

 * Did you know that high school teacher Gertrude Hull tutored Douglas MacArthur in preparation for passing his entrance examination to West Point?


 * Did you know that Henry Ford considered Ralph Waldo Trine an old friend and had several conversations with him concerning success in life?


 * Did you know that Josiah Holbrook organized the first industrial school in the United States?


 * Did You Know that United States president Abraham Lincoln learned his ABCs when he attended a blab school which he walked to in his youth?


 * Did You Know that the  Guild of St. Bernulphus, a guild trade union of church Gothic Revival architecture, was operated more like a jovial feasting fraternity than a scholarly society?

Shaker

 * Did you know that Thomas Corbett, a Shaker doctor, developed an electrostatic medical device in 1810 as a "cure" for rheumatism?


 * Did you know that the flat broom was originally made in the Shaker broom vise?


 * Did you know that the Shaker tilting chair lets its occupant lean back without the chair slipping and scraping the floor?''


 * Did you know that Shaker-style pantry boxes are associated with Shaker folklife because they "express the utility and uniformity valued in Shaker culture"?


 * Did you know that the Shakers were the first to package seeds for sale in small paper envelopes that were sold through the Shaker Seed Company?


 * Did you know that Mary Whitcher wrote the first published Shaker cookbook?

Technology

 * Did you know that Robert Grace was the first manufacturer of the Pennsylvania fireplace, designed by Benjamin Franklin, which heated rooms more efficiently than an open fireplace?


 * Did you know that Alexander Bonner Latta made the first steam fire engine to be used regularly by a city fire department in the United States?


 * Did You Know that the Experiment was a boat powered by horses running on a treadmill and propelled by a then-novel type of screw propeller?


 * Did You Know that the Red Cross (pictured) is a kitchen stove?


 * Did You Know that a large waterbag (pictured) can bring water to California and, according to its inventor, peace to the Middle East?


 * Did You Know that William Austin Burt was the first to invent a workable typewriter in America, as well as a workable solar compass (pictured), a solar use surveying instrument, and an equatorial sextant, a precision navigational aid to determine with one observation the location of a ship at sea?


 * Did You Know that Eber Brock Ward built the first Bessemer steel mill in the United States?


 * Did You Know that an 18th-century soldier, court-martialed for sleeping at his post, swore that he heard the clock of St Paul's Cathedral strike 13 times – and other witnesses corroborated it, saving his life?


 * Did You Know that the Benson raft (pictured) was a huge sea-going log raft designed to transport millions of board-feet of timber at a time through the open ocean?


 * Did You Know that François Coignet was the first builder to use iron reinforced concrete?


 * Did You Know that the first modern time capsule was Thornwell Jacobs’ Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia, due to be opened May 28, 8113?


 * Did You Know that Walter Scott Lenox produced the first set of American-made china dishware (pictured) for the White House?


 * Did You Know that John B. Curtis made the first commercially available chewing gum?


 * Did You Know that Whitcomb L. Judson is recognized as the inventor of the zipper?


 * Did You Know that George J. Seabury with Robert Wood Johnson I developed a medicated adhesive plaster (pictured) with a rubber base as a precursor to the Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid?


 * Did You Know that Leverett Candee became the first person in the world to manufacture rubber footwear?


 * Did You Know that Henry Pitkin and his brother produced the first American-designed pocket watches (pictured) with machine-made parts?


 * Did You Know that Bernard Courtois was the discoverer of iodine (crystal structure shown)?


 * Did You Know that the first platform scale was built in 1830 by Thaddeus Fairbanks (pictured) to measure large loads accurately?


 * Did You Know that Henry Fitz was the first American to make refractor telescopes and constructed the largest refracting telescopes in America on five different occasions?


 * Did You Know that the curfew law associated with the curfew bell started by Alfred the Great was abolished by Henry I of England?


 * Did You Know that William Jay Bolton was the first artist in the United States to design and manufacture figural stained glass windows?


 * Did You Know that William Munroe was the first manufacturer of pencils in the United States?


 * Did You Know that Amasa Holcomb was the first in the United States to manufacture telescopes?


 * Did You Know that Bellifortis is the first illustrated manual of military techology?


 * Did You Know that the Dresden Codex is the earliest known book written in the Americas?


 * Did You Know that Nonsuch House is the earliest documented prefabricated building?


 * Did You Know that Charlotte Guillard was the first European woman printer of history?


 * Did You Know that Sumerian Farmer's Almanac is the first farmer's almanac on record?


 * Did You Know that Giovanni Soro was likely the Western world's first great cryptanalyst?


 * Did You Know that Henry Clay Fry was the first to imitate cut glass from pressed blanks?


 * Did You Know that a laboratory accident by S. Donald Stookey led to the invention of CorningWare?


 * Did You Know that Carl Johan Cronstedt increased the efficiency of wood-burning stoves in the 18th century by a factor of eight?


 * Did You Know that the Westinghouse Time Capsules (pictured) of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair were made of special metal alloys to resist corrosion for 5000 years, the time span of all previous recorded human history?


 * Did You Know that lithophane (example pictured) is an artwork in porcelain that can only be seen clearly when lit from behind?


 * Did You Know that the Glass Pavilion (pictured), a prismatic glass dome structure built for the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition, was destroyed after the exhibition?


 * Did You Know that Joseph Nathan Kane had personal possession of America's first fountain pen and the 1849 patent model for America's first safety pin?


 * Did You Know that Thomas Kimmwood Peters was the only newsreel photographer to film the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906?


 * Did You Know that one of the founders of the International Time Capsule Society estimated that over 80 percent of time capsules will be lost before they are opened?


 * Did You Know that George Edward Pendray coined the term time capsule and created the word laundromat?

Carferries

 * Did you know that William L. Mercereau, Superintendent of Steamships for the Pere Marquette Railway, was responsible for building up what was at the time the world's largest carferry fleet?


 * Did you know that Charles F. Conrad founded Lake Michigan Carferry Service, which has the last coal-fired passenger steamship in the United States?


 * Did you know that the naval architect Robert Logan designed the first steel train ferry?

Locomotives

 * Did you know that Anthony Harkness is considered the founder of the Cincinnati locomotive industry?


 * Did you know that the English inventor Paul Rapsey Hodge built the first steam fire engine in the United States?

Newspapers & Printing

 * Did you know that The Electro-Magnetic and Mechanics Intelligencer was the first newspaper printed on a press run by electricity?


 * Did You Know that Alexander Purdie Virginia Gazette was the first American newspaper to publish the complete full text of the United States Declaration of Independence?


 * Did You Know that Elizabeth Timothy was the first female publisher of a newspaper in America?


 * Did You Know that the American colonial newspaper publisher John Holt has been labeled by a modern day historian "the most important Radical printer outside Boston" during the American Revolution?


 * Did You Know that William Hunter printed the first George Washington official report?


 * Did You Know that the Williamsburg publisher Joseph Royle refused to print the 1765 Virginia Resolves in his Virginia Gazette newspaper, causing Thomas Jefferson to intervene with an opposing newspaper?


 * Did You Know that the American colonial printer William Parks established four new newspapers in his lifetime?


 * Did You Know that William Calvin Chase took over the Washington Bee in 1882 and turned it into "one of the most influential African American newspapers in the country"?

Photography

 * Did you know that Frederick Langenheim made the first set of panoramic images of Niagara Falls and a sequential set of images of the first American total solar eclipse ever photographed?


 * Did you know that Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson opened the first commercial photography portrait studio in the world?


 * Did you know that Valentin Wolfenstein owned the first successful photography studio in Los Angeles?

Steam

 * Did you know that the Holly Steam Combination Company was the first commercially successful steam heating company for district heating from a central distribution station?


 * Did you know that Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar designed and built the first steam-powered grain elevator in the world?


 * Did you know that Mary-Ann was the first steam turbine generator operated by a public utility to produce electricity?

Television

 * Did you know that the 1928 one-act play The Queen's Messenger was the first television drama?

Travel

 * Did You Know that Christopher Columbus's letter recounting his first voyage, the first written description of America, was so popular it went through nine printed editions?


 * Did You Know that Archie J. Old Jr. completed the first round-the-world nonstop flight (route shown) by a jet-powered aircraft?


 * Did You Know that Linda Finch is the first person to complete Amelia Earhart's unfinished final flight using the same aircraft type, a Lockheed L-10 Electra?

United States

 * Did you know that the Wistarburgh Glass Works was America's first successful glass factory?


 * Did You Know that the Nebraska House (pictured) in Virginia was so named because Colonel Samuel D. McDearmon's wife refused to move to Nebraska?


 * Did You Know that the two-inch-tall people of The Teenie Weenies were a Chicago Tribune comic strip written by William Donahey for over 50 years?''


 * Did You Know that the Julian Price Memorial Park, developed in Julian Price’s honor, and the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park are the largest developed recreational areas on the Blue Ridge Parkway?


 * Did You Know that Peter Lorillard may have been the first American publicly referred to as a "millionaire"?


 * Did You Know that the Golden Age Passport has been replaced by the "Senior Pass" of the new pass series now called "America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass"?


 * Did You Know that the tiny Dinkey Train of only a passenger coach and dummy engine went to the Mammoth Caves?


 * Did You Know that the Folk Art Center (pictured) located in Asheville, North Carolina is the most popular attraction on the Blue Ridge Parkway with 250,000 visitors per year?


 * Did You Know that the land acquisitions for the Southern Railway's Spencer Shops in 1896 were secretly done to prevent land speculation?


 * Did You Know that only one of the twenty six tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway is in Virginia?


 * Did You Know that Sarah Thompson was the first American countess?

World

 * Did you know that Soviet economist Dimitri Navachine, assassinated in Paris in 1937, may have been killed for possessing documents showing that certain Soviet political prisoners were innocent?


 * Did You Know that the French missionary and explorer Prosper Philippe Augouard was dubbed "Cannibal Bishop"?


 * Did You Know that the Praise of the Two Lands was the first reference to a ship bearing a name?


 * Did You Know that the Dokos shipwreck is the oldest known underwater shipwreck discovery known to archeologists?


 * Did You Know that the Footprints of Eve are the oldest known footprints of an anatomically modern human?


 * Did You Know that Daniel Kievsky was the first Russian travel-writer?


 * Did You Know that Heinrich Steinhowel, a 15th-century German scholar and humanist who was physician to Eberhard, Count of Württemberg, is better known for translating Aesop's Fables into German?


 * Did You Know that Salvador Toscano Barragán was Mexico's first filmmaker?