Month: April 2015

April 10 marks the 90th anniversary of the publication of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here are three things you might not know about “The Great Gatsby”: First: Among the other titles Fitzgerald considered were: “Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires,” “Gatsby,” “Gold-Hatted Gatsby,” “The High-Bouncing Lover,” “On the Road to West Egg,” “Trimalchio,” “Trimalchio in West Egg” and […]

On April 9, 1959 NASA announced the first seven American astronauts. Here are three things you might not know about Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Deke Slayton: ” The Mercury Seven” One: All candidates for the Mercury program were test pilots. All were five-foot-11 or shorter and weighed 180 or fewer pounds. […]

On April 8, 1904, New York’s Longacre Square at the intercection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway was renamed Times Square. Here are three things you might not know about Times Square: 1. It was the center of New York’s horse and carriage industry. It got its former name after London’s Long Acre which was a similar district in the British […]

April 7 is World Health Day marking the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. Here are some things you might not know about World Health Day and the WHO: First: It has a theme each year. This year’s theme is food safety. According to the WHO, 2 million people die as a result of unsafe […]

April 6 marks the anniversary of the first modern Olympic games in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Here are three things you might not know about the first modern Olympics: First: Greece had the largest contingent of athletes with 169 participants. The next largest delegation was from Germany with 19 athletes, followed by the United States with 14. Second: The first […]

April 5 marks the 21st anniversary of the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain. Here are three things you might not know about Cobain and Nirvana: First: According to friends, the first concert he went to was a 1983 show at the Seattle Center Coliseum featuring Sammy Hagar and Quarterflash. Second: Cobain, along with Krist Novaselic and Aaron Burckhard, […]

April 4 marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Microsoft. Here are some things you may not know about the software giant. One: The company was not founded in the Seattle area. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after they secured a contract to produce a programming language translator for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. […]

On April 3, 1973, the first handheld mobile phone call was made. Here are some things you might not know about early cellular phones: First, Martin Cooper of Motorola made that first call to his counterpart at AT&T and said, “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone; a real handheld cell phone.” Second: The prototype phone […]

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory also claimed by Argentina. The invasion sparked the Falklands War. Here are three things you may not have known about the Falklands War: One: 904 troops were killed and 2,432 were wounded during the 74-day conflict. Two: The British lost two destroyers, two […]

Today is April First and here are some things you may not know about April Fools’ Day. 1. Boston University professor Joseph Boskin traced the tradition to the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine. 2. A group of court jesters jokingly said they could do the emperor’s job better than the real emperor. Afterward, a court jester named Kugel was made […]