March 2:
In the game of Monoply, the most commonly-landed-on square is Illinois Avenue. (In the red monopoly just past JAIL.) The GO space ranks 2nd.
VARIOUS SOURCES USED: The Book of Useless Information (Publications International, Ltd); Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts (Wings Books); More Fascinating Facts (David Louis, Crown Publishers); Evan Swensen’s Publications Consultant newsletter; Explaining Space website; American Shrimp Processors Association; Parade Magazine: 105 Weird Facts; True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t, by Shane Carley; MerriamWebster.com; Various Ripley’s Believe It or Not Books; BBC Science Focus Magazine; The Book of Bizarre Truths (Publications International, Ltd.); Cosmopolitan magazine; others from the web in some form.
Previous Tidbits:
March 2:
The city of Nome, Alaska, was inadvertently named when a British mapmaker – apparently with really poor handwriting – circled the port and wrote “Name?” next to it.
February 2: Peculiar Presidential Facts, Part II:
- Grover Cleveland was the first and only president to marry in the White House itself. He wed Frances Folsom in 1886.
- With 15 children from 2 marriages, President John Tyler was the most prolific chief execututive.
- President George Washington never shook hands with visitors, choosing to bow instead.
January 19: Peculiar Presidential Facts, Part I:
- President John Quincy Adams started each summer day with an early-morning skinny-dip in the Potomac River.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt was related to 11 other presidents, either directly or through marriage.
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day after the official signing of the Declaration of Independence.
January 5:
Thomas McKean (1734 – 1817), one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, Governor of Delaware, and a member of the Continental Congress from Delaware – almost simultaneously! (Two of the terms overlapped by one day.)