Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
By Mr. Smarty Pants, Fri., Feb. 12, 2016
On July 3, 1950, pianist and jazz singer Hazel Scott became the first African-American woman to have her own television show.
Walt Disney World is the second-largest purchaser of explosives in the U.S. after the Department of Defense.
According to one literary historian, it's possible to sing the words of the Emily Dickinson poem "Because I could not stop for Death" to the melody of the University of Texas spirit song, "The Eyes of Texas."
Embalming was popularized in the U.S. during the Civil War as a way to get the fallen to last long enough to be shipped home for burial.
Narciso Claveria, governor-general of the Philippines in 1844, declared that Jan. 1, 1845, would come directly after Dec. 30, 1844, and Dec. 31, 1844, would be skipped. Prior to this, the Philippines had used the American date, but this led to mind-bending issues for trade. To catch up, the Philippines decided to skip a day and then switched to the Asian date.
