Due to the large population of Brazil, Portuguese is the most spoken language of South America. Spanish, with slightly fewer speakers than Portuguese, is the second most spoken language on the continent.
The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water (or, flow rate) in the world, and by most accepted definitions it is the second longest river in the world, after the Nile River.
209,000 cubic meters per second is the Amazon’s discharge.
41,200 cubic meters per second is the Congo River’s discharge — #2 on the list.
16,792 cubic meters per second is the Mississippi River’s discharge — #15 on the list.
The Amazon River has over 1,100 tributaries, 12 of which are over 930 miles long.
Including the Amazon River, South America has 5 of the top 10 rivers in the world by discharge rate:
#1 Amazon River
#3 Orinoco River
#5 Madeira River
#7 Rio Negro
#8 Río de la Plata
They are all in or near the Amazon rainforest.
The Rio da Dúvida or River of Doubt (now called Roosevelt River), was first navigated in its entirety by non-Amazonians by Teddy Roosevelt and his party, which included his son, Kermit, and was co-led by Candido Rondon, Brazil’s most famous explorer. It was an arduous and dangerous undertaking that nearly killed Roosevelt. After a circuitous route involving many rivers, the waters of the Roosevelt River finally feed into the Amazon.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey is a 2005 book by Candice Millard covering president Theodore Roosevelt’s scientific expedition down the River of Doubt. The book, which was very well-researched, was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list.
(I read the book and would highly recommend it!)
Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota is the only American national park named directly after a single person.
The Bryce Canyon area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874. The area around Bryce Canyon was originally designated as a national monument by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 and was redesignated as a national park by Congress in 1928.
Two men named Warren served consecutively as Chief Justice of the United States: Earl Warren, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Warren Burger, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon. All four men were Republicans, and Nixon had served as Eisenhower’s Vice President.
The City of Chicago is served by seven expressways:
- Two are named after U.S. Presidents (the Kennedy Expressway and the Eisenhower Expressway)
- One is named after a local politician (the Dan Ryan Expressway)
- One is named after a local banker and advocate for highway development (the Edens Expressway)
- One is named after an influential, Chicago-based minister (the Bishop Ford Expressway)
- The remaining two (Lake Shore Drive and I-57) are not named for anyone
Babe Ruth was the starting pitcher in a 1917 game, in which he walked the first batter, argued with and punched the umpire, and was ejected. Ernie Shore replaced him, not allowed any warmup pitches, and then retired all the batters for the rest of the game. One of only five “perfect games” pitched in the first century of MLB.
Babe Ruth was the first baseball player to hit a home run in the All-Star game. This was at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1933.
Of the 30 franchises in Major League Baseball, seven have never been involved in a perfect game, either winning or losing. Three of these seven were part of the original 16 franchises: Pirates, Cardinals, and Orioles. The other four were expansion franchises: Royals, Brewers, Padres, and Rockies.
The Chicago Cubs are the only charter member of MLB Baseball to play continuously in the same city. The other two pre-1892 teams still in the league are the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants (originally New York), both of which joined in 1883.
Philadelphia was a 1993 film, about a closeted gay lawyer, played by Tom Hanks. It was one of the first mainstream U.S. films to deal with the topics of homophobia and AIDS. Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for his role, and Bruce Springsteen won the Oscar for Best Original Song for his “Streets of Philadelphia.”
Tom Hanks has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar five times, for his roles in Big, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, and Castaway. He won the Oscar in 1994 and 1995 for his work in *Philadelphia *and Saving Private Ryan. He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2020 for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Andy Gump was a newspaper cartoon that ran from 1917-59, featuring a real-life character. Cartoonist Sidney Smith knew Andy Wheat in Mississoppi who lost his lower jaw due to disease. Wheat later legally changed his name to Andy Gump, in response to his cartoon fame.
Andy Capp is an English comic strip since 1957. It ran in the Hartford Courant in the 1970s.
Andy Capp’s best line was “He had arthritis if the hip, from putting wet change in his pocket”.
Al Capp was the creator of the comic strip Li’l Abner. The strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through November 13, 1977. The main characters in the strip were the Yokum family, who lived in a log cabin in the village of Dogpatch, USA.
At one point, Li’l Abner’s job was a mattress tester for the Stunned Ox Mattress Company.