Category: Did you know?

While researching information on businesses this morning, I came across the Story of Nokia page. Did you know:

• Nokia’s history begins in 1865, when Fredrik Idestam built a wood pulp mill in southern Finland?
• Nokia gets its name from the Nokianvirta river, where Idestam built his second mill?
• Nokia Corporation was officially formed in 1967 with the merger of Nokia Ab (Fredrik Idestam’s company), Finnish Rubber Works and Finnish Cable?
• Nokia decided to focus on the telecommunications industry in 1992, after Jorma Ollila became the company’s President and CEO?
• The world’s first satellite call was made in 1994 using a Nokia GSM handset?
• Nokia sold its billionth phone -a Nokia 1100 – in Nigeria in 2005?

[tags]DYK, Nokia, History, Business[/tags]

While preparing for a Junior Achievement class that I was to teach, I read up on the California Gold Rush of the nineteenth century.

Did you know:

• Gold was initially discovered at Sutter’s Mill (in Coloma, California) on January 24, 1848?
• President Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in California to Congress on December 5, 1848?
• California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state on September 9th, 1950?
• In late October, 1850, reports from Sacramento City stated that 57,000 miners are working the gold fields?
• In 1854, there were approximately 25,000 Chinese in California, and nearly all of them could read?

For more information about the history of the California Gold Rush, or San Francisco in general, click here. When reading, take note of all of the earthquakes that were recorded… it’s kind of amazing!

According to the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco:

• In 1851, gold exports amounted to $34,492,000?
• In 1852, gold exports amounted to $45,587,803?
• In 1853, gold exports amounted to $56,390,812?
• In 1854, gold exports amounted to $51,429,101?
• In 1855, gold exports amounted to $44,640,090?

[tags]DYK, California, Gold, Money, History[/tags]

Today is Tuesday, November 6th – Election Day. Did you know:

• Election day is set for the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November?
• In every even-numbered year, all seats in the House of Representatives are voted for?
• On every year evenly divisible by four, the President and Vice-President are voted for?
• That November was thought to be a good time for elections because, in our early agrarian society, the fall harvest would have been completed but the winter storms would not have hit yet?
• Tuesday was thought to be a good day for elections because it would allow people in rural parts of the country to begin travel on Monday, rather than Sunday (so traveling would not interfere with Sunday church services), to get to the voting location?
• Women were given the right to vote on June 5, 1919, with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment?
• Grover Cleveland was the only President to be elected, defeated, and then elected again – becoming the 22nd President from 1885-1889 and the 24th President from 1893-1897?

[tags]Election, Politics, Society, DYK[/tags]

Early this morning, many of us in the United States set our clocks back one hour due to Daylight Saving Time (DST). Did you know:

• That DST was introduced by an Englishman named William Willett in the early 1900’s?
• In 1918, the United States Congress put the entire country on DST for the remainder of World War I (the law was later repealed)? From 1942-1945, the U.S. was again on DST due to war.
• It wasn’t until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that the U.S standardized the use of Daylight Saving Time?
• For the years 1945-1966, each state and locality established whether or not they would observe DST?
• In 2008, the United States will observe DST from March 9th – November 2nd?

To learn more about DST in the United States than you could ever want to know, click here or here.

[tags]DST, Time, DYK [/tags]

Did you know that the carving of jack-o’lanterns originated as an Irish tale about a man named ‘Stingy Jack’?

According to the myth:

Long ago, Jack tricked the Devil into promising that he (the Devil) would not bother Jack, and that, upon his death, the Devil would not take his soul. When Jack finally died years later, God would not let him into heaven due to his dealings with the Devil. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) for Jack, the Devil was true to his word and would not take his soul either. Jack was sent on his way with a glowing ember in a turnip to light the way through the endless night. Later, people would make their own version of Jack’s lantern out of turnips and put them in their windows to keep Jack (and other evil spirits) away at night. When the Irish in America discoverd pumpkins, they realized that carving them was far easier than carving turnips – and our tradition was born.

To read a nice telling of the story from History.com, click here. Also found on the site are links to other Halloween information, including holiday origins, fast facts, and famous haunts.

The Boston Red Sox have just swept the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series.

Did you know:

• Before Fenway Park, the Red Sox played at Huntington Avenue Grounds (opened: May 8, 1901; last game: October 7, 1911)?
• Cy Young threw a perfect game for the Sox against Philadelphia on May 5, 1904 (aided by Huntington’s 635 feet deep center field!)?
• Only one Red Sox player has hit for the cycle two times in his career (Bobby Doerr – May 17, 1944 and May 13, 1947)?
• The Red Sox have retired six numbers (1 – Bobby Doerr; 4 – Joe Cronin; 8 – Carl Yastrzemski; 9 – Ted Williams; 27 – Carlton Fisk; 42 – Jackie Robinson)?
• Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s #42 in 1997 for all teams?
• The first time the season attendance surpassed 1 million was in 1946 (1,419,944)?
• Ted Williams in 1941 bacame the last man to hit over .400 for a season (.406)?

Saturday is college football day in my house.  To me, college football is epitomized by Notre Dame and the Southeastern Conference.  Did you know that the SEC has been around for 75 years and the current commissioner is Mike Slive?  And in case you didn’t know, the following schools are members of the SEC:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Auburn
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• LSU
• Ole Miss
• Miss. State
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Vanderbilt

Did you know that the oldest university in the English-speaking world is the University of Oxford? Oxford is located about 55 miles west of London, England in the town of Oxford. Lectures have been given at the university since about 1096, making Oxford over 900 years old! Think about that for a minute… Oxford was founded in 1096. The plague in Europe was in the 1300’s; America was discovered in 1492; the United States declared its independence in 1776; the Civil War was from 1861-65; the first airplane flight was in 1903. When I think about the 19th century, I try imagine the type of life that my ancestors were living. Their lives must have been extremely difficult in comparison to mine (thank goodness for modern conveniences!). What must it have been like in Oxford in 1096?

Did you also know…

that in the United States, the oldest institution of higher learning is Harvard University. Founded in 1636 and named after John Harvard of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Harvard has graduated seven presidents (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush) and over 40 Nobel laureates. In addition, the Harvard University Library contains over 15 million volumes and is the largest academic library in the world (and the oldest library in the United States).