Trivia Today:August 13, 2012

Trivia Today

August 10, 2012

    • Today is Improve Your Ice Cubes By Swapping Recipes Day.       • Elvis Week begins today in Memphis, sponsored by Graceland (800-238-2000, elvis.com). Surely you can manage an Elvis party, or at least an Elvis dinner.
     • The 3-day Kool-Aid Days celebration begins today in Hastings, Nebraska, the proud home of Kool-Aid. They'll be pouring all 22 flavors at a gallon a minute at the world's largest Kool-Aid stand.
     • Today is National Duran Duran Appreciation Day.
     • Today is National S’Mores Day.
     • Today is National Lazy Day, a day to take it easy.
     • Today is Independence Day in Ecuador.
On this date in . . .
1498: England’s King Henry the 7th paid John Cabot a 10-pound reward for discovering Canada. In American currency, that was about $15 worth of beads.
1889: Dan Rylands of Hope Glass Works in Barnsley, England, patented the screw bottle top.
1948: Allen Funt's "Candid Microphone," later called "Candid Camera," made its television debut on ABC Radio.
1985: Singer Michael Jackson paid $47.5-million for ATV Music, a catalog of the Beatles’ copyrights, which included 251 songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court`s 107th justice, and second female member.
1995: A drug addict who snatched purses to finance his habit grabbed a lady’s purse in Bari, Italy, as he sped past on a motorcycle. He didn’t recognize his own mother, but she recognized him and reported him to police.
1995: Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss was convicted of conspiracy, tax evasion, and money laundering.
1996: "Redneck Games" by Jeff Foxworthy and Alan Jackson hit #66 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1997: A grandmother in Avia, Spain, announced that her family had agreed to approve her 100th birthday celebration on board a hot-air balloon if she would give up her plans to paraglide. Romona Safont said she always liked to be daring on her birthday.
1999: A 32-year-old Egyptian man, pronounced dead after drowning near Alexandria, regained consciousness after spending three hours in a morgue refrigerator. Ali Mohammed said an attendant ran out of the morgue when he grabbed his hand.
2000: A 31-year-old burglar had a bad day when he burglarized a computer services company in Colonie, New York. He sliced a finger on a piece of glass, then left the finger tip behind. Police quickly lifted a print from the finger, identified the burglar from state records, and arrested him.
2003: Atlanta Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal turned the 12th unassisted triple play in major league history against the St. Louis Cardinals -- but the Cards won the game 3-2.
2005: A 48-year-old man in Simi Valley, California, became so annoyed by a noisy car alarm he grabbed a handgun, went out and  fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry. He silenced the alarm, but also brought out police who hauled him away in handcuffs. The charge was reckless discharge of a firearm and felony vandalism.
• Birthdays:

	actor Antonio Banderas is 52;
	actress Rosanna Arquette53
	actress Angie Harmon 40;
	actress JoAnna Garcia 33;

	singer Julia Fordham 50;
	singer Jennifer Hanson 39;
	singer Nikki Bratcher (Divine) 32;
	Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson 65;
	basketball's John Starks 47;
	boxer Riddick Bowe 45.

     Q: Was the original title of the Beatles’ hit "Eeanor Rigby:" (a) "Daisy Hawkins;" (b) "Daphne Higgins;" or (c) "Dolly Hansen?"
     A: Daisy Hawkins.
     Q: Is castor oil used as a lubricant in: (a) jet planes; (b) racing cars; or (c) sump pumps?
     A: Jet planes.
     Q: After dropping out of school in the 10th grade, did future model-actress Rene Russo work in: (a) a bowling alley; (b) a supermarket; or (c) an eyeglass factory?
     A: Eyeglass factory. She was discovered by a modeling agent in a parking lot following a Rolling Stones concert.
52 years ago today:

	The #1 song was "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" by Brian Hyland.
	The #1 country song was "Wolverton Mountain" by Claude King.
	The #1 R&B song was "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend" by Jackie Wilso

DID YOU KNOW?

• Live Pigeon Shooting took place in the 1900 Paris Games. Over 300 pigeons were slaughtered in an orgy of blood and feathers. Though it's in dispute as to whether the event was sanctioned by the Olympic council, there's no disputing that Parisian sidewalks were cleaner for a brief period at the turn of the century.  It was the only time animals were killed on purpose during an Olympic event.
• The Beijing Olympics, 2008, began at exactly 8:08:08 PM on 8/8/08 because the number 8 is considered lucky in China.
• The Berlin 1936 Olympiad was the first games to be televised.
• There is a study of the 2004 Athens Olympics which shows that athletes who wore red while competing in "combat sports", such as wrestling, scored higher than opponents wearing blue. Very interesting but no scientific evidence can be produced say Will and Guy.
• It wasn't until 1900 that women were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games.
• In 1928 Australian rower, Henry Pearce, stopped halfway through his quarter-final race to let a family of ducks pass in front of his boat.  The French competition overtook him, but Pearce managed to get back in front and win the gold.
• When London hosts the Olympic Games in 2012, they will become the first city to be officially listed as hosting the Games three times: 1908, 1948 and 2012.  (Athens was host in 1896, 1906 and 2004, but the Intercalated games of 1906 were de-listed as being 'Olympic Games'.)
• There are four special Olympic flags that differ from all others in that they have a 6-coloured fringe.  Such a flags will be displayed in the City of London. The flag was presented to Boris Johnson the mayor during the Beijing closing ceremony.
• Olympic cities (not countries) are chosen by secret ballot, so we're not sure how London beat Paris for the 2012 Summer Olympics.  Some blame French President Jacques Chirac, who insulted Britain before the vote by saying, "After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."  France's bid wasn't getting British support anyway, but Finland had two IOC members, and some speculate that they were swing votes in the 54-50 outcome. Who really knows comment Will and Guy?
• At the 1948 games in London, the English national anthem, (God save the King) was played only three times: at the opening and closing ceremonies and when Princess Elizabeth arrived at the stadium for the first time. This was 477 times fewer than the German anthem had been played in the 1936 games held in Berlin.
• The first Paralympic Games was held at London in 1948. The name "Paralympics" comes from the words "Parallel" and "Olympics".
• The reason the extra yards were added to the running distance of the marathon to make the total length a rather strange figure of 26 miles and 385 yards was because of the rather whimsical demand of Queen Alexandra of Great Britain, who demanded, in 1908, that the marathon should end below the royal box at London's White City Stadium, which added the extra 385 yards.
• The only Olympian ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was Philip Noel-Baker of Great Britain, who won the silver in the 1500 metres in 1920.
• I watched the Princess Royal present the silver medal to her daughter, Zara Phillips, for the Great Britain eventing team finishing second in the London 2012 Olympics it reminded me of another occasion. Princess Anne won a gold medal at the European Eventing Championships in 1971. She won silver in both individual eventing and team eventing at the European Championships in 1975. When Princess Anne won her European gold medal she remarked that it was the only time in history that the Queen had bred both the horse and the rider.
• The Olympics of 1904 were appointed to Chicago.  However, St. Louis blackmailed the IOC with the threat to organise a competing series of sport events if the Games would not instead be held in St. Louis together with their World's Fair. The IOC gave in, and Chicago still wait for their chance to host the Olympics.
• The gold medals won by British runners Harold Abrahams in the 100 meters and Eric Liddell in the 400 in the Paris 1924 Olympics were chronicled in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film 'Chariots of Fire.'

Do You Know? - Amusing and Amazing Olympic Trivia

• Pierre de Coubertin, the late founder of the International Olympic Committee [IOC], decided to send his heart to the site of ancient Olympia in Greece, where it is kept in a monument. The rest of him is buried in Lausanne, Switzerland.
• No boxing was held at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics because the sport was illegal in Sweden.
• George Patton, who would later become a famous U.S. general, competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics pentathlon, an event combining pistol shooting, swimming, fencing, cross country and steeplechase. Patton performed poorly in his best event, pistols, but shined in fencing, defeating the French army champion. 'Old Blood and Guts' finished fifth overall, the only non-Swede to make the top seven.
• During the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, Olga Korbut, the gymnast from the USSR was the media darling. She was 17 years old and only stood 4ft 11in tall. [1.49 metres].
• Tug-o-war made its last appearance as an Olympic sport in 1920.
• French athletes bent the rules at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics: despite 'Prohibition', they were allowed wine with their meals.
• The greatest star of the 1936 Berlin Olympics was the 10th child born to an Alabama sharecropper family named Owens. He wa