Trivia Bits from Creators Syndicate

Thursday, November 5 for 11/05/2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night in Britain, which celebrates the thwarting of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. Fawkes and a group of Catholics wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. (At the time, Catholics were severely repressed in England.) Today, the British celebrate with fireworks and by burning effigies called guys.

For about a year, "NBC Nightly News With ...

Updated: Thu Nov 05, 2009

Thursday, November 5 for 11/05/2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

For about a year, "NBC Nightly News With ...

Updated: Thu Nov 05, 2009

Friday, November 6 for 11/06/2009

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Built out of solid rock in the 1960s, Temppeliaukio Church is found largely underground in Helsinki. Architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen designed the church to burrow into solid rock, using designs that predated World War II. The back wall of the altar is a solid exposed rock wall. It finally opened in 1969. The name, by the way, is Finnish for "Temple Square," and it doubles as a c ...

Updated: Fri Nov 06, 2009

Saturday, November 7 for 11/07/2009

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

William Lear had quite a career, despite having dropped out after eighth grade. He sold the patent for the car radio to Galvin, which is now Motorola. He invented the 8-track tape cassette that became a '70s fad. And he founded a company that produced jets for wealthy executives. He even had a bit part as a pilot in the 1967 film "In Like Flint." Plus, he named his daughter Shanda ... ...

Updated: Sat Nov 07, 2009

Monday, November 9 for 11/09/2009

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Monday, November 9

The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago today, and soon, the rest of European communism crumbled along with it. And it likely all happened because a bureaucrat misread a poorly worded memo. Hearing that the border was open, East Germans overwhelmed the border guards at the wall, and tens of thousands crossed into West Berlin. Soon, the Mauerspechte — or Woodpec ...

Updated: Mon Nov 09, 2009

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 9 for 11/09/2009

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Monday, November 9

Tuesday, November 10 for 11/10/2009

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? We've been asking that question for 40 years now, as of today. The show was expressly designed to use television as an educational medium, with segments timed based on children's attention spans. The show was also designed so that parents would watch with their children, which is why so many celebrities are asked to appear. Even so, early critics fre ...

Updated: Tue Nov 10, 2009

Wednesday, November 11 for 11/11/2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This used to be Armistice Day, in memory of the Armistice that ended World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. But in 1954, with fewer WWI vets and lots of new WWII vets, President Eisenhower signed a bill renaming the commemoration "Veterans Day." To further confuse things, in Commonwealth countries, including Canada, the day is called Remembrance Day. A Canadia ...

Updated: Wed Nov 11, 2009

Thursday, November 12 for 11/12/2009

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The original "daring young man on the flying trapeze" was Jules Leotard, and he made his debut, 150 years ago today, at the Cirque Napoleon in Paris. He is best known for the tight-fitting garment now named for him, urging men to "put on a more natural garb, which does not hide your best features." He actually called it a maillot, which is what the French now call a bathing ...

Updated: Thu Nov 12, 2009

Friday, November 13 for 11/13/2009

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

George Voinovich won the Ohio Senate seat opened up after the incumbent went back to space. That would be John Glenn, who made history as the oldest man in space. As the junior senator from Ohio, Voinovich also intersected with pop culture trivia. On the last episode of "Spin City," Mike becomes an environmental lobbyist. He reports tangling with Alex Keaton, the junior senator from O ...

Updated: Fri Nov 13, 2009

Friday, November 13 for 11/13/2009

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Saturday, November 14 for 11/14/2009

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Yesterday, we wondered about the "real" Robin Hood. What about the "real" Lady Godiva? As the story goes, she rode naked through the streets of Coventry to get her husband to lower taxes. As it happens, there is a record of a Godgifu who was married to Leofric, earl of Mercia, which includes Coventry. The widowed Godgifu is mentioned in the Domesday survey as one of the few ...

Updated: Sat Nov 14, 2009

Monday, November 16 for 11/16/2009

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Monday, November 16

This is the 50th anniversary of opening night for "The Sound of Music" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre but moved to the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1962. In all, it ran for 1,443 performances. A London production opened at the Palace Theatre on May 18, 1961, and it ran for 2,385 performances. There was als ...

Updated: Mon Nov 16, 2009

Tuesday, November 17 for 11/17/2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Happy International Students' Day! It was on this date, 70 years ago, that the Nazis stormed the University of Prague to stomp on students protesting the killing of medical student Jan Opletal, who had been protesting the Nazi occupation. The Nazis went on to execute nine student leaders and sent more than 1,200 students to concentration camps. Moreover, they closed all Czech universities and c ...

Updated: Tue Nov 17, 2009

Wednesday, November 18 for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Harry Potter's Sorcerer's Stone was called the Philosopher's Stone in the British edition. Historically, alchemists sought to create a philosopher's stone to make their own gold. In 1980, Glenn Seaborg succeeded when centuries of alchemists had failed, when he converted trillionths of a gram of lead into gold, albeit at mind-boggling cost in energy.

Knott's Berry Farm is now an a ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

Wednesday, November 18 for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Knott's Berry Farm is now an a ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

Thursday, November 19 for 11/19/2009

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

One of the titans of animation was Isadore Freleng, nicknamed Friz for his frizzie hair. He had been part of the Kansas City clique of animators working for Disney before moving to Warner Brothers, where he was a key person behind such characters as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat and Yosemite Sam. Despite this, Warner closed its animation studio, and Freleng moved on, cre ...

Updated: Thu Nov 19, 2009

Friday, November 20 for 11/20/2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Last month, we looked at Earth's prime meridian. There is a prime meridian on Mars, too. It runs through the crater Airy-0, which is named for British Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy. And as it happens, he built the "transit circle" telescope at Greenwich that marks Earth's prime meridian. The prime meridian of Venus passes through an oval feature called Eve.

Buddh ...

Updated: Fri Nov 20, 2009

Saturday, November 21 for 11/21/2009

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ever wondered what happened to Francis Gary Powers? He was the American pilot who crashed into the Soviet Union, deeply embarrassing the Eisenhower administration. He was traded back to the United States in 1962, for a Soviet spy caught in the U.S. He went to work as a test pilot for Lockheed but was fired after he wrote a book rehashing the U2 incident. He became a helicopter reporter for TV s ...

Updated: Sat Nov 21, 2009

Saturday, November 21 for 11/21/2009

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800