Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, April 8, 2005
In 1930, Ellen Church recruited seven other young nurses to work 5,000 feet above Earth. They were the first airline stewardesses, flying on Boeing's San Francisco route, a trip that, in good weather, took 20 hours and made 13 stops.
Astronauts circling Earth may get to see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every "day."
Whe the French literary critic Saint Bueve (1804-1869) was challenged to a duel by a journalist and was permitted the choice of weapons, he wrote his opponent, "I choose spelling. You're dead."
French author Michel de Montaigne answered the rhetorical question, "Would you, if you had to choose, burn your children or your books?" by declaring he would burn his children.
"To prevent violence," it was at one time customary during particular phases of the moon to chain and flog inmates of England's notorious Bedlam Hospital.
Bleeding, usually by application of leeches, was once so common in medicine that "leech" came to mean physician. George Washington was one of many who died as a result of the practice.
Immediately after the end of the American Revolution, Congress abolished the U.S. Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps, leaving Congress as the only national governmental organization. The states feared a standing army.
People who have never married are 7.5 times more likely to be hospitalized in a state community psychiatric facility than those who are married. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the rate for such admission in 1975 for Americans 14 or older was 685.2 per 100,000 singles.
People can distinguish between 3,000 and 10,000 smells.
In medieval times, church bells were often consecrated to ward off evil spirits. Because thunderstorms were attributed to the work of demons, the bells would be rung in an attempt to stop the storms. A lot of bell-ringers were killed by lightning.