Trivia People

Dogs pull a sled during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Frank Kovalchek via Wikimedia Commons)

(Originally published March 20, 2015)

March 20 is the 20th anniversary of Libby Riddles becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail sled dog race.

Here are three things you might not know about the Iditarod.

• It’s named after the Iditarod National Historic trail, which runs from Seward to Nome via the ghost town of Iditarod.

• It is run in honor of the 1925 serum run which was a sled dog relay to deliver a diphtheria antitoxin to Nome to fight an outbreak.

• In the inaugural race in 1973, 22 mushers completed the race, which was won by Dick Wilmarth, who finished in 20 days, 49 minutes, 41 seconds.

Our question: Who holds the record for most wins by a female musher?

The Las Vegas Strip (Photo by Lasvegaslover via Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the 84th anniversary of the legalization of gambling in the state of Nevada.

Here are three things you may not know about gambling in Nevada.

• In part, you have civil engineering to thank for the casinos of Las Vegas.

The legalization of gambling coincided with the construction of the Hoover Dam, 30 miles away.

• It’s not legal everywhere in the state.

Gambling is not legal in the cities of Panaca and Boulder City.

• A lot of people never go to Las Vegas on their trip to Vegas.

The Strip and McCarran Airport are in the unincorporated community of Paradise, Nevada.

Our question today:

What is the name of the world’s largest hotel, in terms of total guest rooms? A hint: it’s on the Las Vegas Strip.

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Today is the birthday of Ben Cohen, one of the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Here are some things you may not have known about the company and its founders.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met in gym class when they were seventh-graders in Merrick, New York, in 1963. Cohen went off to college at Colgate, while Greenfield went to Oberlin.

In 1977, the pair reunited and decided to go into business together. They originally planned to start a bagel business, but decided on ice cream because the start-up costs were lower. They set out to find a college town with a warm climate in which to set up shop. They discovered that every warm-weather college town already had an ice cream shop and settled on Burlington, Vermont, instead.

Their first location opened in a former gas station on May 5, 1978 and had a successful summer. Winter was a different story. On their first anniversary they celebrated with a free cone day, which is now an annual event at their locations around the world.

In 1980, the duo began selling pints of packaged ice cream in stores and restaurants throughout the region.

Perhaps the most noticeable characteristic of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is the texture caused by large chunks of fillings. One of the reasons behind this is that Cohen has anosmia, a lack of a sense of smell and a limited sense of taste. One of their most memorable flavors was introduced in 1987, Cherry Garcia was named after Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia. It consists of cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes.

Another well-known flavor is Chubby Hubby, which was introduced in 1995. It is vanilla malt ice cream rippled with fudge and peanut butter and containing fudge covered peanut butter pretzels.

If you’re really into ice cream, then the Vermonster might be for you. First off, it’s served in a bucket. It contains 20 scoops of ice cream, four bananas, 4 ladles of hot fudge sauce, three chocolate chip cookies, one fudge brownie, 10 scoops of walnuts, two scoops each of any four toppings and whipped cream. The Vermonster checks in at 14,000 calories and 500 grams of fat, and a possible lifetime of insulin dependence.

Our question: Which U.S. late night talk show hosts have their own flavors of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream?

Today is Flag Day in Aruba, Gallipoli Memorial Day in Turkey and Anniversary of the Oil Expropriation in Mexico.

It’s National Biodiesel Day, National Preschool Teachers Appreciation Day and World Sleep Day.

It’s the birthday of former U.S. president Grover Cleveland, former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, and musician and actress Queen Latifah.

This week in 1963, the top song in the U.S. was “Walk Like a Man” by The Four Seasons.

The No. 1 movie was “How the West was Won,” while the novel “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters” by JD Salinger topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Cohen_(businessman)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Greenfield#cite_note-6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_%26_Jerry%27s

Griffins stand guard over the main entrance to the Empire State Building in New York City. (Photo by Ingfbruno via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1930, construction began on the Empire State Building in New York.

Here are some things you may not have known about the landmark building.

The land where the Empire State Building sits was first developed as a farm in the late 1700s. Later, the block was the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The building’s plans were drawn up in just two weeks, using an earlier design for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as its basis. The lineage is recognized each year as the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Fathers’ Day card to the staff of the Reynolds Building.

Site preparation began on January 22, 1930, and construction began on St. Patrick’s Day. More than 3,400 workers helped complete the project. Five workers died during construction.

When it was completed, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world. It was a title the building would hold until 1970, when it was passed by the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Early on, the building had a high vacancy rate. Besides the lousy economic climate of the Great Depression, the building was also hurt by its distance from transportation hubs like Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station.

In its first year, the building took in as much money from admission to its observation deck as it did from rent.

In 1945, a B-25 bomber crashed into the north side of the building in thick fog. 14 people died in the crash. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a 75-floor elevator fall.

The spire atop the building was intended as a mooring mast for zeppelins. However, updrafts caused by the building made it too dangerous to land airships there.

In 1951, the building sold for a then-record $51 million.

After the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building again was the tallest building in New York. The new One World Trade Center is now the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Our question: How tall is One World Trade Center?

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, Children’s Day in Bangladesh and National Muay Thai Day.

It’s the birthday of carmaker Gottlieb Daimler, singer Nat King Cole, and soccer star Mia Hamm.

This week in 1962, the top song in the U.S. was “Hey, Baby” by Bruce Channel.

The No. 1 movie was “State Fair,” while the novel “Franny and Zooey” by JD Salinger topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City#Timeline_of_tallest_buildings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_17

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/born-on-march-17

Jerry Lewis

Today is the 90th birthday of entertainer Jerry Lewis.

Here are some things you may not have known about him.

Joseph Levitch was born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. His father was a vaudeville entertainer, who used the stage name Danny Lewis. His mother played piano for a radio station. He started performing at age five, and developed his “Record Act,” in which he lip-synced and acted out prerecorded music. He eventually picked the stage name Jerry Lewis after going by Joey Lewis. He changed to avoid confusion with comedian Joe E. Lewis and boxing champ Joe Louis. Lewis dropped out of high school in the 10th grade.

In 1945, when Lewis was 19 years old, he met Dean Martin at the Glass Hat Club in New York City. Martin, nine years older than Lewis, was a nightclub singer at the time. They worked together for the first time more than a year later when Lewis suggested Martin as a replacement for a singer who was not available. At first the duo was not well received. So, they got rid of their scripted act and turned to improvisation. The combination of music, slapstick and vaudeville jokes proved immensely popular.

After a year of working together, the pair went from earning $175 a week to taking home $30,000 a week during a headlining gig at the Copacabana nightclub in New York. Soon they began “The Martin and Lewis Show” on NBC Radio, which would last for four years. They also appeared on the first episode of what came to be called “The Ed Sullivan Show.” In 1949, they signed a movie contract with Paramount Pitctures, and by 1951, they were the highest-paid act in show business. However, the pressure and pace were taking their toll. Martin, as the straight man, was relegated to romantic roles, while Lewis provided the laughs and drew most of the praise. Eventually the duo broke up acrimoniously in 1956, 10 years to the day after their first show together.

Martin went on to a career in movies, television and singing and was part of the Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. According to Lewis, the two didn’t speak for 20 years.

Lewis went on to star in and direct several films, including “The Bellboy,” “Cinderfella” and “The Nutty Professor.” He also taught a film directing class at the University of Southern California for several years. Some of his students included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

In 1966, Lewis began hosting a Labor Day-weekend telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The first telethon was so successful that Lewis had to paint an extra digit on the tote board when the total money raised went over $1 million. It made even more money the next year. Until this point, the telethon was seen only in the New York television market. In 1968, the telethon expanded by four stations in upstate New York and Massachusetts. In 1970, the telethon was broadcast on 64 stations, including ones in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The show moved to Las Vegas in 1973, when it also topped $10 million for the first time.

In 1976, the telethon’s network hit a peak of 213 stations, and more than 85 million viewers, who saw Lewis reunite with Martin for the first time since 1956. Until 1983, Lewis would host the entire 21 1/2-hour broadcast. At that point, he started taking a few hours to rest during the show. Lewis hosted his last MDA Telethon in 2011. The telethon itself aired for the last time in 2014.

Our question: Jerry Lewis’ son Gary Lewis led a band called Gary Lewis and the Playboys in the 1960s. What was their only No. 1 hit in the United States?

Today is Freedom of Information Day, Black Press Day and National Artichoke Heart Day.

It’s the birthday of U.S. President James Madison, actor Erik Estrada, and guitarist Nancy Wilson of Heart.

This week in 1973,

“The Internet Messenger” sculpture by Buky Schwartz (Photo by Dr. Avishai Teaicher via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1985, the first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered.

Here are some things you may not have known about domain names and their history.

Domain names are what identifies resources on the Internet. TriviaPeople.com is our domain name and .com is the world’s most popular top-level domain.

Symbolics, the company that registered the first domain name, was a computer manufacturer. Founded in 1980, it focused on servers and workstations. It went bankrupt in 1996. The domain name is currently the home to a website related to Internet history.

The oldest domain name still held by the original entity is the University of California’s berkeley.edu. The oldest continuously operating commercial site is xerox.com.

Top-level domains .com, .net, and .org are available for anyone to register. .edu is restricted to American colleges and universities. .gov is for governments in the U.S., while .mil is reserved for the American military.

As mentioned earlier, .com is the most popular domain, followed by .de, for domains in Germany, .net, and .uk for sites in the United Kingdom.

Our question: What country’s domain is .ch?

Today is the Ides of March, a bad day for Julius Caesar. It’s Constitution Day in Belarus, National Day in Hungary and International Day Against Police Brutality.

Today is National Peanut Lovers Day, World Consumer Rights Day and World Social Work Day.

It’s the birthday of U.S. President Andrew Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and musician Sly Stone.

This week in 1985, the top song in the U.S. was “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon.

The No. 1 movie was “Witness,” while the novel “If Tomorrow Comes” by Sidney Sheldon topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Links

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Also, if you’re enjoying the show, please consider supporting it through Patreon.com

Please rate the show on iTunes by clicking here.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_15

http://www.jottings.com/100-oldest-dot-com-domains.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_currently_registered_Internet_domain_names

http://symbolics.com/about-symbolics/

https://www.checkiday.com/03/15/2016

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/born-on-march-15

http://www.billboard.

Eli Whitney, portrait by Samuel F. B. Morse (Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1794, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for his cotton gin.

Here are some things you may not know about Whitney and his invention.

Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1765. He went into business early in life manufacturing nails in his father’s workshop during the Revolutionary War. He began college at Yale at the age of 23, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1792. After college, he traveled to Georgia, where he met plantation manager Phineas Miller, who became his business partner.

The next year, Whitney invented the cotton gin, which is a machine that separates the seeds from the fibers of cotton. Without a machine to do this, it is an extremely labor-intensive process. The gin, which is short for engine, consisted of a wooden drum with hooks on the outside that pulled cotton through a filter. The fibers fit through the filter, but the seeds did not. The machine revolutionized the business of cotton production, both for   better and for the worse. The year the gin was invented, the United States exported 500,000 pounds of cotton a year. Seventeen years later, the country exported 93 million pounds, becoming the country’s chief export.

Which brings us to the major negative effect of the cotton gin: Slavery.

Before the cotton gin, slave labor was used mostly in growing tobacco, rice and indigo, businesses that weren’t particularly profitable at the time. Cotton wasn’t very profitable either, until the invention of the cotton gin.

The total number of enslaved African-Americans increased almost 400 percent between 1790 and 1850, despite the importation of slaves being made illegal in 1808. Because of this, the cotton gin is sometimes cited as an indirect cause of the American Civil War.

Whitney planned to build cotton gins and then go into business processing cotton for the growers. His price, was 20 percent of the total cotton produced. This high price, combined with the relative simplicity of the invention, meant knockoffs would be inevitable. In fact, Whitney and Miller spent so much money fighting patent infringement that the company went out of business three years after the patent was granted.

Whitney would go on to work on creating guns with interchangeable parts, at the time the holy grail of the arms business. His business ended up achieving interchangeability, but was not the first.

Eli Whitney died of prostate cancer in 1825 at the age of 58.

Our question: In what city is Yale University located?

Today is Constitution Day in Andorra, Mother Tongue Day in Estonia and Pi Day.

It’s Genius Day, National Potato Chip Day and National Workplace Napping Day.

It’s the birthday of scientist Albert Einstein, actor Michael Caine and actor Billy Crystal.

This week in 1972, the top song in the U.S. was “Without You” by Harry Nilsson.

The No. 1 movie was “What’s Up, Doc?,” while the novel “The Winds of War” by Herman Wouk topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney

March 13 marks the 376th anniversary of the naming of Harvard College.

Originally founded as “New College” in 1636 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the college was renamed to honor clergyman John Harvard, who left the college £779 and a library of about 400 books.

The 779 pounds is worth roughly $177,200 today.

Our question: Which of these former presidents of the United States does not hold a degree from Harvard University: Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover or George W. Bush?

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Girl Scouts raising the flag at a Municipal Band concert in Eau Claire, Wis. (Photo by Villwock via Wikimedia Commons)

March 12 marks the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Girl Guides, which would later become the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Guides after meeting Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Scouting movement in 1907.

The Girl Scout mission is to build “girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.” They do this through activities such as camping, community service and by learning practical skills.

Today there are more than 2.8 million Girl Scouts in the United States and 10 million worldwide.

One of the Girl Scouts’ best known fundraisers is their cookie sales.

Thin Mints account for 25 percent of all Girl Scout Cookie sales.

Our question: What is the second-most popular Girl Scout cookie variety?

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Twenty One host Jack Barry, center, with contestants Vivienne Nearing and Charles Van Doren. (New York World-Telegram photo via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1957, Charles Van Doren ended his four-month run as champion of the quiz show “Twenty One.” It was later discovered that the show was fixed.

Here are some things you may not have known about Van Doren and the quiz-show scandal.

The game show “Twenty One” premiered on September 10, 1956 on NBC. The show featured two contestants in separate isolation booths answering questions of varying point values. The first person to reach 21 points and not be tied won the game. The winner received $500 per point of the margin of victory.

When the show premiered it was played honestly. However, the first two contestants were terrible and the sponsor threatened to pull out if the show continued to be embarrassing. This led producers to fix the show. They provided contestants with answers and when to answer incorrectly to maintain the illusion of an honest game.

On November 28, 1956, Charles Van Doren appeared on the show as a challenger to champion Herbert Stempel. Stempel, had dominated the show, but was unpopular with viewers. Van Doren and Stempel played to four tie games , before Van Doren won the fifth. In the deciding game, Stempel faltered, and Van Doren won with 18 points.

Van Doren went on to win more than $143,000, worth more than $1 million today. During the run, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine and the show ranked higher than “I Love Lucy” in the ratings. Following his appearance, NBC hired him to appear on the “Today” show. He lost on March 11, 2957 to Vivienne Wax Nearing, whose husband had lost to Van Doren during his streak.

Stempel was angry about being forced to lose, and he asked a federal investigator to look into the show. Not much came of his request. More than a year later, a CBS quiz show was canceled after a notebook was found containing the questions and answers for the show. Another former “Twenty One” contestant provided evidence in the form of registered letters he mailed to himself containing all of the questions he was coached on.

During a congressional hearing, Van Doren admitted to being fed the answers. The show was canceled on October 17, 1958.

Quiz shows essentially disappeared from the airwaves. Game shows, featuring puzzles and word games, became more common. Many game shows had strict prize limits.

Herb Stempel went on to work for the City of New York for 20 years. Van Doren went on to become editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He didn’t speak publicly about the scandal until he wrote an article for the New Yorker magazine in 1998.

The scandal was dramatized in the 1994 film “Quiz Show” starring Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren and John Turturro as Stempel.

Our question: Who directed the film “Quiz Show”?

Today is Independence Day in Lithuania and Johnny Appleseed Day in the United States.

It’s National Preschoolers’ Day and World Plumbing Day.

It’s the birthday of bandleader Lawrence Welk, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and journalist Sam Donaldson.

This week in 1988, the top song in the U.S. was “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.

The No. 1 movie was “Good Morning, Vietnam,” while the novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities” by Tom Wolfe topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

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Also,