Cleopatra played backgammon all the time.

7-Up was created in 1929 by Charles Leiper Grigg in St.Louis. It used to be called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda (until 1950, it contained lithium citrate, a mood pick-me-up). It was later renamed 7 (7 natural flavors) Up Lithiated Lemon-Lime and then finally 7-Up.

Actor Wally Cox, voice of the 1960s cartoon character Underdog, was a childhood friend of Marlon Brando and later his N.Y. roommate. They remained lifelong friends and allegedly their ashes were mixed together and scattered in Death Valley and Tahiti.

If you worked as a beginning detective for Scotland Yard at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders, you’d get paid 24 bob (24 shillings) a week.

Penguins can act like hooligans.

This article appears in October 5 • 2012.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US