Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Social Gospel, a 19th-century Protestant movement to apply principles of Christianity to social and economic problems of an industrial society, became a factor in the New Deal. The Rev. Endicott Peabody, founder of the Groton School and advocate of the social responsibilities of the wealthy and powerful, preached this message to his students, one of whom was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Thomas Alva Edison invented wax paper, the motion picture camera, the electric pen, the light socket and light switch, the electric railroad signal and a method for making synthetic rubber from goldenrod plants.
The first patent for an automatic spaghetti-spinning fork was issued in July 1950.
"-bury," used as part of the name of a town as in Danbury or Middlebury, is taken from and older form of English and refers to "a place that is heavily fortified and protected; a fortress."
An "acersecomic" refers to one whose hair has been cut. A "sternutation" refers to the act of sneezing.
In 1976, Cecilia M. Pizzo filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to nullify the Louisiana Purchase. This monumental land acquisition, which was made in 1803 by Thomas Jefferson and included a good portion of the southern and central United States, was, according to Pizzo, both unconstitutional and an illegal seizure of her family's original landholdings. A New Orleans federal judge ruled that Pizzo had filed her case 167 years too late - the six-year statute of limitations on such suit had run out.
Despite what you see on mainstream TV, 40 percent of the American population has never visited a dentist.
Julie Andrew's real name is Julia Wells.
James H. Smith Jr. of Camp Hill, Pa., founded a club in which the only membership requirement was that one be named Jim Smith. Smith felt the kidding he and others had taken for the ordinariness of their name should be combated by a show of international solidarity. At present, there are more than 800 members of this club, some living as far away as Scotland and New Zealand. Members meet once a year for an annual Jim Smith Fun Festival.