Things You Probably Didn't Know

[IceWizard]

About The Oprah Winfrey Show










Oprah Was Already An Oscar Nominee Before Her Show Debuted

Though The Oprah Winfrey Show did not premiere on a national level until the fall of 1986,
audiences were already familiar with the would-be daytime queen, albeit as an actress — and
an Oscar-nominated one at that. Oprah was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress six months before she made her television debut for her
performance in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple
(she lost to Anjelica Huston for Prizzi's Honor).



Don Johnson Turned Down The Chance To Be Oprah's First Guest

For her very first national show, Winfrey wanted to go big—and few stars were bigger
at the time than Don Johnson of Miami Vice. But Johnson was not interested, even after
Winfrey sent him a very stylish (and very expensive) pair of rhinestone sunglasses in
an attempt to sway him. The experience convinced Winfrey that her show should focus
on everyday people, not celebrities “So what we came up with was a show called
‘How to Marry the Man of Your Choice,'" Winfrey explained. Johnson reappeared in 2010,
on the show's final season's premiere episode, to return Winfrey's rhinestone glasses.
"I know it has taken me about 24 years to get these back to you,” Johnson explained.
“For clarity, I was shooting 18 to 20 hours a day at the time and it's not that I didn't wanna
come, they [producers] wouldn't let me come. But I understand things have been going OK for you.”



Elizabeth Taylor Was Her Worst Interview

Winfrey has been candid about both her best and worst moments. When asked about her
worst interview, Winfrey recalls an appearance on the show's second season with
Elizabeth Taylor." It's still painful to watch," Winfrey admitted, "For many reasons—including
my bad hair." Taylor informed Winfrey shortly before the interview that she did not wish
to discuss any of her romantic relationships. "That's kind of hard to do when you're
Elizabeth Taylor and you've been married seven times," Oprah explained. Taylor later
apologized to Winfrey for the incident and admitted that she was suffering from severe hip
and back pain during the interview.







Her Interview With Michael Jackson Is The Most Watched Interview In Television History

On February 10, 1993, Oprah sat down with Michael Jackson for what would be the most-watched
interview in television history. The unprecedented live event drew a worldwide audience of 90 million
people. Barbara Walters' interview with Monica Lewinsky came in second with 74 million viewers,
while The Richard Nixon interview by David Frost came in a distant third with 45 million viewers.







The Big Car Giveaway Show Cost Millions

Audience members and home viewers were astonished in 2004 when Winfrey gave all 276
members of her studio audience a brand-new Pontiac G6. Winfrey wasn’t lying when she
famously screamed "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody
gets a car!"  The total cost of those cars? Just under $8 million. Those audience members
weren’t as happy when they found out they had to pay taxes on it. Although Winfrey paid the
registration and sales tax, gift tax still had to be paid to the IRS by the new owners.
For members in the studio audience that day, the tax bill for that new car was as much as $6,000.

[IceWizard]

About Batman







On June 23, 1989, Tim Burton’s spin on the well-known story of the
DC Comics hero Batman was released in theaters. It was the first installment
of Warner Bros.' initial Batman film series and starred Michael Keaton as
Bruce Wayne/Batman. Here are a few surprising bat-facts you didn't know
about The Caped Crusader.




Hollywood's Biggest Stars Were Considered For The Title Role

Tim Burton lobbied hard to cast Michael Keaton in the 1989 movie. Keaton was best known
at the time as a comedic actor and didn’t exactly look the part. Michael Keaton’s casting
was initially a source of controversy, resulting in Batman fans writing 50,000 letters to
Warner Bros. protesting the decision. Other actors considered to play Batman included:
Alec Baldwin, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Selleck,
and Bill Murray. Kiefer Sutherland, Eddie Murphy, and Marlon Wayans were initially
considered to play Robin.



Batman Was Originally A Blonde

Bob Kane's original idea for The Batman's costume was drastically different as it appears today.
Batman started off with blonde hair, a red jumpsuit, and a domino mask which only covered
his eyes. There was also no sign or logo on his chest. The only thing that made this version
of the hero feel like Batman was his cape. It was far from the iconic hero we know and
love today.



Bruce Wayne's Name Comes From Two Real Heroes

Bob Kane has long been named as the sole creator of Batman and while he was the originator,
another man had a very large role in the character’s formation. Bill Finger was the man who
nixed the colorful bat look, suggested Batman wear a full head cover rather than just a mask
and his cape should be jagged to resemble wings. Finger also apparently came up with the
name Bruce Wayne. The name is a mashup of Scottish national hero Robert the Bruce and
“Mad” Anthony Wayne, a hero of the American Revolution.


   
            Robert the Bruce                      .....                      “Mad” Anthony Wayne



Fans Voted To Kill Off Robin

The Boy Wonder was initially only supposed to appear in one issue of the comic book because
the editor didn’t like the idea of a kid fighting gangsters and “Batman was doing well enough
by himself.” The issue with Robin however sold double so the youngster was made a regular
part of the series as a result. Decades later, comic book fans were allowed to vote whether
Robin would live or die in the four-issue arc, ”A Death in the Family.” Fans decided they'd had
enough of Robin and in 1988 they voted for the Boy Wonder to be killed off.



There Is a City In Turkey Called Batman

While many fans would love to live in a city called Batman, the mayor of Batman, Huseyin Kalkan,
was not pleased by the connection. After the release of The Dark Knight he tried to sue
Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan for using the city’s name in his films apparently stating,
“There is only one Batman in the world.”  Ironically,  the city—formerly known as Iluha—was
not called “Batman” until 1957, 18 years after the comics debuted.

[Charon]

[IceWizard]

About The American Revolution






On April 19, 1775, the American Revolution began when
American and British soldiers exchanged fire at Concord and Lexington.
Here are some things you probably never heard about the
American Revolutionary War




The Word Independence Never Appears In The Declaration

The title of the document is not the Declaration of Independence. The document's first words
are "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America." The only reference
to independence is the phrase "Free and Independent States" near the document's end.



General Washington Insisted On Inoculating The Troops

Before the advances of modern medicine, disease—not combat—was one of the primary
causes of death in war. In the winter of 1777, Washington demanded the entire
Continental Army to be inoculated against smallpox. This operation required great secrecy,
as the process left the inoculated soldiers incapacitated for a stretch of time.
As a result, death by smallpox decreased from 17% of deaths to 1% of deaths
after troops were inoculated.



The Boston Tea Party Had a Sequel

We all know about the initial incident on December 16, 1773, when Boston’s Sons of Liberty
dressed as Mohawk Indians and tossed 342 chests of tea from three ships into the
Boston Harbor to protest the taxes imposed in the Tea Act. But we forget that they felt the
need to hammer the point home with a second party, on March 7, 1774 — probably because
they grabbed only 16 chests of tea.



George Washington Returned British General Howe's Dog

At the Battle of Germantown, 150 of Washington’s men were killed, 500 wounded,
and 400 taken prisoner.  But George Washington didn’t lose his sense of good manners
with the battle. A fox terrier appeared in the American’s camp that was wearing a tag
with British General Howe’s name as the owner. Washington promptly returned the
dog back to Howe along with the following polite note
(likely written by Alexander Hamilton):

To General William Howe:

General Washington’s compliments to General Howe.
He does himself the pleasure to return [to] him a
dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by
the inscription on the collar appears
to belong to General Howe.




A Woman Disguised Herself as a Man and Served During the War

Massachusetts born Deborah Sampson, who was taller than most men at the time,
was one of a few women who saw military combat during the War of Independence
and proved to be an excellent soldier. Using the name Robert Shurtliff, she enlisted
in the army with the 4th Massachusetts Regiment and was wounded in the leg by
two musket balls at a battle in Tarrytown before she was discovered after having
served for about three years. She was honorably discharged on October 25, 1783,
after a physician discovered she wasn’t a male when he treated her for an illness.

[IceWizard]

About The Universe





In 4977 B.C. the universe was created, according to German
mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler,
considered a founder of modern science. 
Check out these crazy facts you probably didn't know about the universe.




Kepler Was Wrong

Seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler should have stuck with
his theories about the motion of the planets, because it turns out that he
was wrong about the age of the universe to the tune of billions of years.
Astronomers now estimate the age of the universe at around 13.7 billion years,
give or take a few million. The age was calculated by measuring the density of
energy and matter in the universe, which determined how fast it expanded
billions of years back into the past. 



When You Look At the Stars,
You Are Looking Back In Time

The light shining from the stars in the sky has taken years to reach our eyes.
That means we're looking into the past when we gaze at the stars in the sky
at night. For example, the bright star Vega is relatively close to us at 25
light-years away, so the light we see left the star 25 years ago; while
Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion is 640 light-years away, so the
light left the star around 1381 during the time of the Hundred Years’ War
between England and France.







There's a Massive Diamond in the Sky

Astronomers have discovered the largest known diamond in our galaxy is a
massive lump of crystallized diamond called BPM 37093, otherwise known as
Lucy after The Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It can be found
50 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Its size? A staggering
10 billion trillion trillion carats, which makes the largest natural diamonds on
planet earth seem invisible by comparison. 







A Year On Venus Is Shorter Than Its Day

Venus is the slowest rotating planet in our Solar System. Venus spins so slowly that
fully rotating takes longer than completing its orbit, which means the planet has
days that last longer than its years. It’s also home to one of the most inhospitable
environments imaginable, with constant electronic storms, high CO2 readings,
and it’s shrouded by clouds of sulfuric acid.



There Are More Stars In The Universe
Than Grains of Sand on Earth

The universe extends far beyond our own galaxy, which is why scientists can only
estimate how many stars are in space. 
However, scientists estimate the universe contains approximately 
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a septillion. 
While no one can actually count every single grain of sand on the earth,
however the estimated total from researchers at the University of Hawaii,
is somewhere around seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains. 
That is an awfully big sand castle!



The Voyager 1 Spacecraft is the Furthest
Man-Made Object From Earth

In 1977, two spacecraft were launched through the Voyager Program to
explore planets and moons located on the outer edge of our Solar System.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have been orbiting for many decades and are
now traveling through the heliosphere to probe into interstellar space.
Voyager 1 is now considered the furthest man-made object from the earth
after departing the Solar System in 2013. It is now at a distance of 124.34
Astronomical Units away. That's the equivalent of approximately
1.15581251×1010 miles away from earth.

[IceWizard]

About George W. Bush








On July 6, 1946, George Walker Bush, the son of future President
George Herbert Walker Bush, was born in New Haven, Connecticut. 
Here are some things you didn’t know about George W. Bush,
known affectionately by many people as Dubya.





He Owned a Baseball Team

Prior to his election as President in 2000, Bush held numerous other positions,
including being an oil executive, an owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team,
and Governor of Texas. After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential
campaign, Bush assembled a group of investors from his father's close friends
and purchased an 86% share of the Texas Rangers for $75 million. Bush received
a 2% share by investing $606,302, of which $500,000 was a bank loan.
When the Rangers franchise was sold for $250 million in 1998, Bush personally
received $14.9 million for his $600,000 investment.



He Is An Artist

Before he was president, George W. Bush was an oilman, an owner of a professional
baseball team, and a governor. Not exactly the profile you'd expect of a budding
artist. Nevertheless, an artist is exactly what Bush has become. After leaving office
in 2009, Bush learned to paint. Although he initially kept his new hobby a secret,
he now shares it openly in hopes that others will be similarly inspired to try new
things. In 2017, he even published Portraits of Courage, a book of portraits he
painted depicting American veterans.



He Was a Cheerleader

Bush attended Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts,
where he played baseball and served as the head cheerleader. He went on to
Yale University after graduation, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in history.
He was a cheerleader and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale, serving as
the president of the fraternity during his senior year. Other politicians who were
cheerleaders in school were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mitt Romney, Ronald Reagan,
and Dwight D. Eisenhower.







He Is The Only U.S. President With an MBA

Though you might not think of Bush as a brainiac, he is actually the only president
in the history of the United States to have his Master’s of Business Administration.
He first received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968 and
continued his education at Harvard Business School, where he earned a Masters
of Business Administration degree in 1975.  He would become the only president
of the United States to hold office with such accolades.



He Is Cousins With Hugh Hefner

Bush's family history is a little more colorful than many might imagine. It turns
out our 43rd president and the founder of Playboy are distant cousins. More specifically,
they’re ninth cousins twice removed, sharing the same pair of great-grandparents.
Another cousin shared by the two is former presidential candidate John Kerry.

[Charon]

I shall always love George W. for how he took command as the first responders second wave were realizing that there would be no survivors. I shall always respect him for that. It was a hell of a time for a president and a country.

[IceWizard]

About Apple's iPhone







The first Apple iPhone was released on June 29, 2007.
Nobody, including Apple, could have predicted how the iPhone
would forever revolutionize the way we think about phones.
Here are some fascinating facts about the phone that
captured the nation's attention.




The First iPhone Was Not Made By Apple

Apple registered the iphone.org web address in December 1999.
But even that wasn’t early enough. Cisco had been using the name “iPhone”
since 1998. Not long after Apple’s iPhone was announced, Cisco sued Apple
for calling its product the iPhone. It turns out that "iPhone" was already a
Cisco trademark. The Cisco “iPhone” was a VoIP mobile device that was
launched several weeks before Apple’s iPhone was announced. Both companies
ended up retaining the rights to the name and settled the trademark lawsuit.



The Time In iPhone Advertisements Is Always 9:41 or 9:42

If you pay close attention, you will find that all iPhone advertisements show the
device at a time set to 9:41. This is no coincidence. The reason? Apple events
start at 9 a.m Former Apple executive Scott Forstall once explained, "We design
the product launch keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around
40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the product appears on
screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's
watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly." As a point of interest,
the default display times on iPhones used to be 9:42.



Apple Predicted Siri With Almost Scary Accuracy

Siri was the big selling point of 2011’s iPhone 4s. The smartphone was unveiled by
Apple in October 2011, one day before the death of Steve Jobs. But what’s most
amazing about Siri is how accurately Apple predicted the feature. In the 1980s,
then-Apple CEO John Sculley came up with a concept for a Siri-style virtual assistant
called the Knowledge Navigator. Apple even made a video to demonstrate how it
would function. In the video, set in the future, a professor asks his AI assistant for
a paper written five years ago in 2006. Meanwhile, a calendar on his desk indicates
the date to be September 16. Put those two numbers together and you get a predicted
date of September 16, 2011; which is only two weeks off from the predicted date
that was made 24 years in the past.   



Apple Designed a Landline Phone In 1983

In 1983, Apple designed an all-white landline phone. The phone featured a stylus to interact
with the built-in screen, and one of the pictures shows off some sort of accounting and
check-writing application; possibly using a modem to pay bills.  Of course, it looked nothing
like the iPhone we’ve come to know and love, but that’s when the idea was first hatched.
Unfortunately, the phone never saw the light of day, but it’s an interesting footnote in
Apple’s history with connected phones.



The iPad Predated The iPhone

The iPad predated the iPhone, at least inside Apple. In the 1990s, Steve Jobs wanted Apple
to create a device that mimicked a computer for a fraction of the price. To sell the device for
just a few hundred dollars and still make a profit, the company would need to eliminate
certain features, including keyboards. This led Apple to come up with the first iPad prototypes.
However, Apple paused the development of the tablet to focus on building a phone. A few
years after the iPhone, the iPad arrived. Everyone thought of it as a big iPhone.
In fact, the iPhone was a small iPad that made calls.

[IceWizard]

About "The Sopranos"







On this day in 2013, James Gandolfini, the actor best known for his role as
New Jersey crime boss Tony Soprano, died of a heart attack while on vacation
in Rome, Italy.  Here are a few interesting facts you'll want to know
about The Sopranos.




The Sopranos Shares 28 Cast Members With The Movie Goodfellas

Six of the regular cast members from "The Sopranos" starred in Martin Scorsese's film
Goodfellas. Lorraine Bracco, Tony Sirico, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore, Joseph Gannascoli,
and Frank Vincent appeared in both the movie and television show. Ten recurring Sopranos
characters and 11 one-time guest stars also appeared in 
Martin Scorsese's 1990 mobster movie.



James Gandolfini Was Not the First Choice To Play Tony

It's hard to imagine anyone but James Gandolfini in the lead role of Tony Soprano, but according
to David Chase, he originally envisioned Bruce Springsteen's guitarist, Steve Van Zandt, as the
top dog. Chase saw Van Zandt giving a speech at the Rock n" Roll Hall of Fame and found him
funny and charming. He also felt Van Zandt looked like a younger Al Pacino. HBO wasn't willing
to roll the dice on a first-time actor for such an important role, which is why Gandolfini was cast.
But, Chase didn't give up on having Van Zandt as part of the show—he wrote in a character
especially for Van Zandt. The character Silvio Dante, who Van Zandt came to play, was in fact
inspired by a short story about a retired hitman written by Van Zandt himself.



The Producers Wanted Lorraine Bracco to Play Tony’s Wife

Lorraine Bracco was cast as Tony's wife, Carmela Soprano, by the Sopranos producers after she
played a similar role in Goodfellas. Bracco, on the other hand, had a different idea and asked to
play Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, because she thought it would be a more challenging
role. Bracco's performance earned her four Emmy nods and three Golden Globe nominations.
Carmela was, of course, played by the brilliant Edie Falco.



Tony Sirico Was a Criminal in Real Life

Tony Sirico, who played Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri, had a long rap sheet with 28 arrests, more
than his 27 acting credits. The character's living arrangements and tendency toward neatness
came from his real life. The similarities between Sirico and his character didn't stop there,
according to both Sirico and Chase.  Paulie's neat-freak tendencies and unusual living arrangements
were transferred directly from Sirico's real-life to the screen. "I lived with Ma for 16 years before
she passed. David knew that going in. That became one of my storylines," he told Vanity Fair.



Young Tony Sirico in 1962




The Theme Song Was "Woke Up This Morning" By Alabama 3

Producer David Chase wanted to try something new by playing a different song at each episode's
opening credits. Other producers told him it was a bad idea, and he eventually chose
"Woke Up This Morning" by Alabama 3, an English band. Alabama 3 frontman Rob Spragg created
the song after reading about the 1996 murder trial of Sara Thornton, who stabbed her alcoholic
husband to death after suffering years of domestic abuse at his hands. He had no idea that his
song would become synonymous with Jersey mobsters.

[IceWizard]

About Independence Day







On July 4, 1776, the American colonies were declared free of
British rule by the Second Continental Congress with the passage
of the Declaration of Independence.
Here are some things you didn't know about Independence Day...



Congress Didn't Actually Vote For
Independence On July 4

It is widely believed that America’s first Continental Congress declared its
independence from the British monarchy on July 4th, 1776. However, the
official vote actually took place two days before on July 2nd.  In a letter
that John Adams wrote on July 3, 1777, to Abigail, his wife, he predicted
that “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha,
in the History of America.”  Adams famously insisted the annual celebration
of independence be held July 2, not July 4, and refused to attend any
events on July 4.



Most Delegates Didn’t Sign The
Declaration of Independence Until August

It is often believed that everyone signed the Declaration of Independence on
July 4th, a moment that’s often portrayed in popular paintings. However, it
took an entire month to get all 56 delegates together to put their
“John Hancock” on the document. Historians disagree on the precise order
of the signing, but it seems most signatories didn’t put their names on the
document until August 2. In fact, the only person believed to sign the
document on July 4th was also its first signer: John Hancock.



"The Pursuit of Property"?

Arguably the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence is the
second sentence of the preamble, which begins, “We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed,
by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But as originally drafted
by Thomas Jefferson, the pursuit was not of happiness, but of “Property.”
As the story goes, Benjamin Franklin convinced Jefferson to make the
change because “property” was too “narrow” a notion.



Americans East More Hot Dogs on July 4
Than Any Other Day

Hot dogs are a popular item on the 4 of July menu, and Americans eat around
150 million of them to celebrate America’s independence. That’s enough hot dogs
to lay end to end from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. around five times.
Nathan’s holds their annual contest to see who can eat the most hot dogs on
July 4, and Joey Chestnut, a California competitive eater, who downed 72
hot dogs in 10 minutes, won the competition in 2020.







July 4 Is The Biggest Day Of The Year
For Fatal Car Accidents

It's a good idea to be extra cautious while driving today. According to the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, each Independence Day has seen
an average of 118.4 persons killed in traffic accidents over the last five years,
making it the most deadly day of the year. The Fourth of July was exceptionally
dangerous for motorcyclists, with an average of 25.8 deaths reported,
more than double the daily national average of 12.1 deaths.