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Saturday, November 21
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. …Read more.
Saturday, November 21
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. …Read more.
Friday, November 20
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" …Read more.
Thursday, November 19
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 …Read more.
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Trivia Bits for October 14Some odd people accidentally got canonized by the Catholic Church. Saint Josaphat was probably just Buddha. Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, was accidentally canonized in the fourth century. Castor and Pollux were the now de-canonized St. Cosmas and St. Damian. Other Roman gods who got sainted included Diana, Artemis, Helios, Bacchus, Aphrodite, Mercury and Silvanus. And St. Philomena never existed at all. Catholics mistook her for a martyr when the word "lumena" (meaning "dear one") was found on catacomb walls. Modern devices need patron saints, too. Joseph of Cupertino was picked to be the patron saint of astronauts and air travelers because he could apparently fly. By himself. Claire of Assisi became patron saint of television after she saw visions of a Catholic mass on the wall of her cell. The term "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" was coined as a hoax in 1935 as the putative longest word in the English language. Who would get this disease? A) Divers B) Farmers C) Miners D) Prostitutes Previous answer: Tang is both a former Chinese dynasty and an astronautical orange-flavored soft drink. TRIVIA FANS: Send the trivia questions you've always wanted answered, or original TriviaBits ideas of your own, with your full name and hometown, to Paul Paquet at paul@triviahalloffame.com or visit him online at www.triviahalloffame.com.
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