(05-30-2024, 06:35 AM)Ladypanther Wrote: The fork thing....fingers...really????

Quote:One of the most feared, successful and respected pirates in all of history, was actually a Chinese female prostitute named Ching Shih. She commanded a fleet of more than 1500 pirate ships and 80,000 sailors.

Quote:The shortest war in history was between England and Zanzibar, and only lasted 38 minutes.

Quote:The longest war in history lasted 335 years, between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly. No one was killed during the entire war.

Quote:"Edgar Allen Poe’s 1838 novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, tells the story of four crewmen on a whaling ship who end up stranded. In order to survive, the crewmen draw lots to see who among them should be eaten. The lot lands on their cabin boy, Richard Parker.  Later, in 1884 (forty-six years after Poe's book was published), four crewmen aboard the yacht Mignonette capsized on their way to Sydney from London. Three of the crewmen decided to kill and eat the youngest and weakest among them – their nineteen-year-old cabin boy, Richard Parker."

Quote:Before the United States had the Constitution (which established the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches of government), they had the Articles of Confederation. Under this legislation, the central authority of the United States was the Second Continental Congress. John Hanson was the first politician elected as President of the Continental Congress (a largely administrative role). Several other men held the title of President before George Washington's election in 1789 (the Constitution was ratified in 1787).

Quote:Boston experienced a deadly molasses flood

In January of 1919, an enormous molasses tank burst in the North End of Boston. While a molasses flood might sound like a scene from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, it was no laughing matter. The tank contained—and released—nearly two and a half million gallons of the sticky substance, which surged through the streets at a whopping 35 miles per hour. It was essentially a full-on tidal wave, reaching nearly fifteen feet tall and killing twenty-one people. A hundred and fifty more people were injured, and buildings and houses were knocked from their foundations. Emergency responders had trouble reaching the victims since they had to clamber through the sticky sludge. It took Bostonians weeks to clean up the mess, and many residents would claim that, in the summer heat, they could smell the sickly-sweet odor of molasses even years later. 

(12-27-2024, 08:29 AM)Ladypanther Wrote: Not a quote, but interesting history I have never heard before.

President Harry S. Truman was forced to vacate the White House for years.

In November 1948, President Harry S. Truman and his family were forced to vacate the White House regarding concerns over the building’s structural integrity. Truman had moved into the White House after taking office in 1945, but a series of incidents — including one in which the leg of his daughter’s piano fell through the floor — affirmed that the residence required extensive renovations. A dissatisfied Truman called repairs from Theodore Roosevelt’s administration a “botch job.” Analysts also suggested that the building deteriorated during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time in office, as the Great Depression and World War II forced FDR to reallocate vital resources away from much-needed repairs.


The Truman family moved into nearby Blair House, a building purchased by the federal government in 1942 to serve as the President’s official guest residence. Though Truman wasn’t pleased with the displacement, he also wasn’t in a rush to return to an unsafe building. The president authorized an extensive renovation that lasted from 1948 until 1952, during which deeper foundations were dug and a steel frame skeleton was added to the White House’s interior. Nearly the entire building was renovated; a balcony installed by Truman in early 1948 was one of the few elements left untouched. After lengthy delays, Truman moved back into the White House in March 1952, and spent the final 10 months of his presidency there.



https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/harry-s-truman-forced-to-vacate-the-white-house-for-years/

Quote:Truman Little White House

As Florida’s only presidential museum, the Harry S. Truman Little White House was the winter White House for this country's 33rd president. Truman spent 175 days during 13 vacations in the home that is filled with original furnishing and memorabilia from Truman’s days. Presidents Taft, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton also used the house. Guided tours offer guests a window into the world President Truman and life of a US president.

Quote:The president’s shirts were loose, comfortable, vividly patterned, and tropically bright. They represented a break from the blue-suit, white-shirt formality that had been Harry Truman’s hallmark since his days as a Kansas City haberdasher. They proclaimed temporary independence from the mansion Truman called “the big white jail.” Some people found them gaudy, garish, and unpresidential. Others simply called them Harry Truman shirts. When photographs of Truman wearing them hit the newspapers, people showered the Little White House at Key West, Florida, with gift shirts. Since there were far more than the president could wear, he had dozens laid out on the lawn for others to take. And that led to “the Key West uniform” and contributed to the breezy informality of all of the president’s Florida vacations. Arriving at Key West in the giddy aftermath of Truman’s dazzling upset election victory in 1948, Vice President-Elect Alben Barkley took in the president’s vivid shirt, jaunty cap, and casual slacks. “Where’s the general store?” he asked. “I want to get an outfit like that.” 

Truman visited Key West 11 times from November 1946 to March 1952, vacationing and working there in good times and bad for a total of 175 days. He timed his escapes for the fall or late winter, trading Washington’s cold and often snowy weather for the warm breezes that blew through what the newspapers variously called the whispering, rustling, or swaying palms. 


At the end of the island chain stretching from Florida into the Gulf of Mexico, the coral island of Key West—4 miles long and two miles wide—is the southernmost point in the United States. Coconut palms, purple and red bougainvillea, frangipani, red and pink hibiscus, and tinted oleanders thrive in the frost-free tropical climate. Off-shore, the cobalt-blue reaches of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico offer deep-sea fishing for yellowfin, grouper, amberjack, mackerel, and barracuda.

---More...