Portal:United States/Did you know/archive/2010/September

September 2010

... that "Peligroso Amor" was Chilean singer Myriam Hernández' first number-one song in the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart in the United States?
... that, by the end of the 20th century, the Peachtree Presbyterian megachurch had the largest Presbyterian congregation of any church in the United States?
... that the first proper society page in the United States was the invention of James Gordon Bennett, Jr. for the New York Herald?

... that Bill McKown (pictured) went from being a youth with 200 model airplanes hanging from his bedroom ceiling to being a Navy E-2C Hawkeye pilot, commander of squadron VAW-114, and Distinguished Eagle Scout?

... that the domed atrium of Indiana's West Baden Springs Hotel (inside pictured) was the largest free-spanning dome in the United States for over 50 years and in the world from 1902 to 1913?
... that an irrigation dam failed on Bully Creek in 1925, flooding the city of Vale, Oregon, with 3 feet (1 m) of water and causing US$500,000 in damage?
... that Richard Funkhouser, a geologist and former U.S. Ambassador to Gabon stated, "Oil men tend to divide government people as either 'for them' or 'against them'"?
... that accountant David J. Porter handily unseated Victor G. Carrillo in the 2010 Republican primary for Texas railroad commissioner?
... that Bruce Erickson, an American paleontologist, has a collection of about a million specimens of ancient fossils?
... that American diplomat R. Smith Simpson wrote in 1962 that many students interested in joining the Foreign Service knew little about the U.S. and were "wholly unprepared for diplomatic work"?
... that Louisiana Republican figure Bob Reese in his later years was a gymnastics coach and a portrait painter?
... that Sako Chivitchian holds 11 U.S. national judo titles and won his debut mixed martial arts fight in 98 seconds at age 15?
... that in 1830, 80% of the residents of Mexican Texas—part of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas—were from the United States or Europe?
... that when Gordon MacInnes won a State Senate seat in 1993 in the 25th Legislative District, he became the first Democrat from Morris County in 18 years to be elected to the New Jersey Legislature?
... that historian David J. Weber of Southern Methodist University was called "at least a generation ahead of his time in recognizing how entwined Mexico and the United States were and are"?
... that Don Graham developed the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, the largest outdoor shopping mall in the United States?

... that Operation Power Flite, in which three U.S. Air Force B-52s flew non-stop around the world (route pictured), was made to show that "the United States had the ability to drop a hydrogen bomb anywhere in the world"?
... that for many decades, the schoolhouse in Mississippi known as the birthplace of the Order of the Eastern Star housed a segregated school for African Americans?
... that after seeing a map of the U.S. showing higher cancer rates in Northern states, Frank C. Garland did a study which found that increased Vitamin D from sun exposure can reduce colon cancer risk?
... that, after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the practice in the 1977 case Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, the law firm of Jacoby & Meyers was the first in the United States to advertise on television?
... that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Assn., Inc. v. Bresler that the use of the word "blackmail" in an article by reporter Dorothy Sucher did not constitute libel?
... that Gene Englund won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and National Basketball League championship in back-to-back seasons?
... that Missouri French is a nearly extinct dialect of French that developed in what is now the midwestern United States during the colonial period?
... that Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent are characters of the Baccano! light novels and anime, set in the Prohibition-era United States, but also appear in the Durarara!! anime, set in modern Tokyo?
... that Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee William "Moon" Evans, who twice led the United States in scoring, saw action in the Battle of Okinawa and the Battle of Peleliu?

... that Lawrence E. Roberts (pictured) was a pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen, a colonel in the United States Air Force, and the father of newscaster Robin Roberts?
... that the Kucadikadi are a band of Northern Paiute Native Americans, whose names translates to "brine fly eaters"?
... that the Harris Dental Museum in Bainbridge, Ohio, preserves the first dental school in the United States?
... that, despite losing a leg in his first term of service, Edward A. Gisburne completed two more war-time stints with the United States Navy?
... that United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bombers attacked targets in and near Singapore on eleven occasions between November 1944 and March 1945?
... that according to U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening, Alaska Territorial Governor J. F. A. Strong was not reappointed to the post because he was not a United States citizen?
... that in April 1945, Martin Dannenberg, a Jewish U.S. Army intelligence officer, found an original copy of the Nazi Nuremberg Laws signed by Adolf Hitler in a Bavarian bank vault?
... that Shoeless Joe Jackson's Black Betsy broke the record for the most expensive baseball bat in history, selling for US$577,610 in 2001?
... that The Right Reverend Bavi Edna Rivera is the first Hispanic woman bishop and the 12th woman bishop in the Episcopal Church?
... that due to potential tax implications, Governor Wilford Bacon Hoggatt opposed granting territorial status to the District of Alaska?

... that as a member of the U.S. Army during World War II, professional baseball player Andy Anderson was taken captive by German soldiers and later rescued from a Stalag?
... that professional baseball player Rogelio Álvarez failed to report to spring training with the Washington Senators in 1963 because he was unable to leave Cuba for the United States?
... that Southland Corp. v. Keating was described as "perhaps the most controversial case in the Supreme Court's history of arbitration jurisprudence"?
... that radio station KRMS in Osage Beach, Missouri, was once partly owned by then-U.S. Senator John Danforth?
... that the 1956 Maryland Terrapins lost players to the military draft and jaundice, and The Baltimore Sun called the head coach and quarterback "the biggest fall guys in college football"?
... that the first two chairmen of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City were Frederic Delano (uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt) and Owen Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice?
... that Peter Cushman Jones, who founded the Bank of Hawaii, arrived in Honolulu with only 16 cents?
... that, in the early years of the Dominion Wrestling Union, many National Wrestling Association wrestlers came from Canada and the United States to face off against New Zealand wrestlers?
... that humorist Alonzo Delano made US$400 in three weeks by drawing portraits of whiskered gold miners at an ounce of gold dust per head?