Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, requested that a telephone be installed in her casket. She passed away in 1944

The Florentine painter Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi (1444-1510) is better known by his nickname Botticelli, which means "little barrel," most likely a reference to his girth.

Although the pelvis is commonly believed to be a large bone...read more

Experts report that robberies are most likely in the months of August and December and least likely in the months of February and April

The first on-screen kiss in a Bollywood film was the 1978 "Love Sublime" with the first embrace ever seen in an Indian movie. The inclusion of the kiss was so controversial that at least one government minister called for public protests of the film.

Charles...read more

Elvis Presley recorded and released a concert album in October 1974 that reached number 30 on Billboard's Hot LP Chart. But the record didn't have a single song. That's because "Having Fun with Elvis on Stage" consisted entirely of dialogue taken from the King's previous concerts

At least two major film-producing countries have banned kissing in the movies: Turkey and Iran...read more

In 1652, Oliver Cromwell - known for his de facto dictatorship of England after the Puritans deposed King Charles I - made public kissing illegal on Sundays

President Woodrow Wilson's dreamed-of League of Nations was established at Geneva in 1920, the same year that Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize. But Wilson's country never joined the League as the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Treaty...read more

The alligator's snout is rounded while the crocodile's comes to a point. Easy enough to tell the difference. Or is it? Contrary to popular belief, the animal that appears on the Izod Lacoste polo shirts is not an alligator. It's a crocodile

The California Department of Education reported in 1940 that the top problems in local schools included talking, chewing gum, making noise, running...read more

Houseflies may not have actual suction cups on their feet, but the flying insects do have hairy pads called pulvilli. The pads are coated with a sticky substance that allows for flies to walk along smooth surfaces such as windows and mirrors.

President Theodore Roosevelt instituted the Bureau of Investigation in 1908 because he believed the federal government should be able to enforce federal law...read more

Three dogs have their own stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Everybody knows about Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, but who is that third dog? Trained in Germany as an attack dog, Etzel von Oringer changed his name (to Strongheart) and his vocation (to the movies) when he came to America. His first hit film was "The Silent Call" (1921). In later movies with sound, Strongheart, who had an aversion...read more

Tuesday derives its name from the Germanic god of war, Tiu. Wednesday is named for Woden (also known as Odin in Norse mythology). Thursday gives honor to Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Friday is named for the Norse goddess of love and fertility, Freya. Saturday takes its name from Saturni, the ancient Roman god of agriculture

Residents of Washington, D.C., may be close to power, but they don't...read more

Alert reader Sam Talerico contacted me this week regarding an article in which I discussed napalm drops on Tokyo in 1945.

That is wrong, as it was used the first time on Peleliu Island. At least , it was told to our Division it was the first time. The First Marine Div was there and The 81st Army Div was there. As a Combat Infantryman of the 81st, I watched Marine Corsairs drop napalm on Peleliu in 1944, October.

Sam's comment illustrates one of the difficulties I face in crafting each bit of trivia -- lots and lots of information, itsy-bitsy space. For that reason, I often choose facts that illustrate in my attempt to give a glimpse of the bigger picture in 50 words or less. Here's my response:

Claims have been made that napalm was first used on July 17, 1944, on a French fuel depot at Coutances and that it was used later that same year at the Battle of Tinian (the first use in the Pacific Theater). I wrote that "the jellied combination of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid was dropped by U.S. Air Force bombers on Tokyo during World War II." You're correct in pointing out that the Tokyo raid was not the first use of napalm. I had hoped that in referencing Tokyo, I might make clear to readers the impact of napalm as a weapon during World War II. I probably should have clarified that the Tokyo raid was not the first, only that it was one of the largest.

The oldest letter in the English alphabet is "O," which was first used by the Egyptians in about 3,000 B.C. The newest letters are "J" and "V." The letter "J" was first distinguished from the letter "I" in the 1600s, and "V" was most likely separated from "U" during the Renaissance

Historians point to Jonathan Walker as the last...read more

In the manufacture of M&M's, the colors are regulated as a result of heavy consumer testing so that a bag of plain M&M's will contain 24 percent blue candies, 20 percent orange, 16 percent green, 13 percent red, 14 percent yellow and 3 percent of brown. Peanut M&M's, however, have a slightly different mix of colors: blue (23), orange (23), green (15), red (12), yellow (15) and brown (12)

The...read more

In a number of places in America, public kissing was long considered a crime. In 1656 in Boston, for instance, Captain Kimble was placed in the stocks for kissing his wife in public on the Sabbath, and to this day, it remains illegal in Indiana for a mustached man to "habitually kiss human beings."

The shortest boxing match on record, held in Lewiston, Maine, in 1946, ended in 10.5 seconds...read more

The Australian epic "Greenskeeping," released in 1992, is the only movie ever made about lawn bowling

The expression "the hair of the dog that bit you" comes from the traditional belief that the antidote for a dog bite should include some hair from the guilty canine.

In Great Britain, MI5 is the home-based counterintelligence service while MI6 is Britain's Secret Service...read more

Hollywood puts out roughly 10 films each year that focus on sports. So what's the most popular sport of all? In the movies, it's boxing. The second most filmed sport is horse racing. What about baseball? It's in fifth place behind football and auto racing

Experts claim that when it comes to the crime of shoplifting, female perpetrators outnumber men by four or five to one.

A recent...read more

Star Trek fans know that William Shatner started the 1966 science-fiction television series as James R. Kirk. In the pilot's third episode, his middle initial was changed from "R" to "T," and his middle name was finally given as Tiberius in a 1974 episode, "Bem," of an animated Star Trek series

Colorblindness occurs in 5 to 8 percent of men but only 0.5 percent of...read more

Of all hibernating animals, the barrow ground squirrel sleeps the longest, staying in its underground nest for nine months out of every year

The song most "covered" by musicians continues to be the Beatles 1965 hit "Yesterday." Within 12 years of its release, the song had been re-recorded by more than 1,200 artists.

In order of frequency, the most used letters of the alphabet...read more

The flag of the Philippines is flown with the blue portion on top during times of peace. The flag is inverted so that the red portion can be flown on top during times of war

Before "nice" was used to describe a kind person, it often denoted somebody foolish. That's because the English word for an agreeable person comes from the Latin "nescius," which means ignorant.

The...read more

Only one state capital has no McDonald's franchise: Montpelier, Vermont

In Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein is not the monster. Instead, he's the doctor, Victor Frankenstein, a student of natural psychology. The creature, brought to life by Frankenstein, is named Adam.

Australia exports more wool than does any other country. But Australia is only second in the world when it comes...read more

Experts claim that the term "best man" comes from a time in Scottish history in which a bridegroom simply kidnapped the woman he wanted for his bride. In order to get away with the deed, the groom enlisted a number of friends, the toughest and bravest of which was his best man

Folks in Sedona, Arizona, are serious about color coordination. For example, Sedona is the site of the only McDonald's...read more

During the Eisenhower Administration, White House gardeners actively considered some kind of fence to keep out squirrels, hordes of which were interfering with the president's daily putting practice

The abbreviation e.g. stands for the Latin "exempli gratia" or "for the sake of example." The abbreviation i.e., however, is short for the Latin "id est," which means...read more

Napalm was not used for the first time in the Vietnam War. The jellied combination of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid was dropped by U.S. Air Force bombers on Tokyo during World War II. The 1945 drop of nearly 2,000 tons of napalm bombs killed at least 83,000 people and injured more than 40,000. Up to a million Tokyo residents were left homeless as a result of the air raid

The famous 1881 gunfight...read more

Although "Dixie" was commonly sung by Civil War soldiers, the song wasn't really the official anthem of the Confederacy. That honor goes to a tune called "God Save the South."

French philosopher Voltaire finally struck gold in a 1728 French lottery. A friend of Voltaire's noticed that, through a government mistake, the prize money was significantly larger than the price...read more

Attentive reader Karen Burke contacted me regarding a reference I made to the hit sitcom, "Seinfeld":

You wrote . . . that "Superman appeared in one form or another in every single episode of the television hit sitcom Seinfeld." I watch Seinfeld every day...on the weekends I watch the DVD's...I don't see Superman. There are references to him in SOME episodes, but you said he "appears" in every episode. Just tell me this..where in episode one does he appear? I must be missing something here!

Karen's...read more

Poets who have died by drowning include the following: Percy Bysshe Shelley died in a mysterious boating accident, Hart Crane leapt from the deck of a cruise ship, and 8th-century Chinese poet Li Po drowned while trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in the Yangtze River. Experts report that Li Po most likely was drunk

One of the world's best-known tunes is Britain's anthem "God...read more

At the celebration of the New Year in Germany, it's believed that eating carp is such good luck that some people place the fish's scales in their wallets for financial good fortune

The youngest artist in history to record a number one album was Stevie Wonder at age 13 with "Little Stevie Wonder - The Twelve Year Old Genius."

Humble pie, as in the expression "to eat humble...read more

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry of America listed the following songs as the best to come out of the 20th century: "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland, "White Christmas" (Bing Crosby), "This Land Is Your Land" (Woodie Guthrie), "Respect" (Aretha Franklin), "American Pie" (Don McLean), "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"...read more

Although many Americans know that buffalo never roamed the plains of the Midwest - those were bison, not buffalo - most have difficulty explaining the difference. Buffalo have 26 ribs and joined horns. Bison have 28 ribs and separate upturned horns

Before she died, American poet Emily Dickinson was offered a glass of water and responded with these, her last words: "Oh, is that all there is?"...read more

The United States, contrary to popular belief, is not a democracy. Instead, the country's government is a republic. What's the difference? In a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person. In a republic, the government is exercised by the people's agents or representatives

In the chivalric code, first outlined by Leon Gautier in his book "Chivalry, the Everyday...read more

Nonfiction: Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry (2008 by Simon & Schuster). An award-winning author discusses his other life, the one in which he's a book scout, a seller of antiquarian books, and a life-time reader of women's travel. It all started with a gift, a box of 19 books, from an elusive uncle, a gift that showed McMurtry the possibilities (and the beauty) of literature

Fiction...read more

The word "ain't" is termed colloquial in most dictionaries and commonly corrected by English teachers as an unacceptable contraction of the words "am not" or "are not." But the word has been around for more than 300 years, and experts report that there's no clear reason as to why it is now considered wrong

Experts estimate that New York's Empire State Building...read more

Although the handshake is considered the world's universal greeting, some countries require a bit more. For instance, in Belgium, it is polite to offer three kisses, alternating cheeks, and in China, a slight bow is appropriate. In Greece, the traditional handshake is usually followed by an embrace or a kiss. In Tahiti, shaking hands is all that's required, but the newest person to enter a...read more

The United States of America actually only has 46 states. Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Kentucky are commonwealths. In all respects other than name, however, a commonwealth and a state are legally the same. Technically, the name commonwealth refers to the fact that the government of those places has been organized "for the common good of the people."

There are at least two...read more

Perfume hasn't always been used for attraction. The Greeks, for instance, wore rose petals about their necks in order to ward off hangovers, and the Romans often put on perfume before entering battle

The first national organization for purebred cats, the Cat Fancier's Association of America, was founded in 1906.

A 2003 study published in Cornell Law Review found that fewer than 1 in 3 death...read more