According to the OED, “Hello” derives for “hallo,” which was used as a greeting as early as 1840, long before the telephone. OED’s first cite for “hello” is from 1883, and not given as Edison. Edison’s use was probably just a nonce coinage or even a misspelling (or misreading) of "hallo); a single private letter is hardly likely to cause the widespread adoption of a usage.
I have many favorites. For instance:
There are two “Empire State Buildings” in New York City: 350 Fifth Avenue and 640 Broadway (at Bleeker St.).
Two members of the baseball Hall of Fame wore #3 for the New York Yankees (Babe Ruth, of course, but before the number was retired, it was assigned to Joe Medwick when he tried out for the Yankees during spring training of 1947).
The team colors of the NY Knicks and NY Mets can be traced back to the colors of the flag of the Dutch East India Company when it founded New Amsterdam.
The Great Pyramid of Gaza was the tallest structure in the world up until the completion of the Cologne Cathedral in 1880. Its reign only lasted until the completion of the Washington Monument in 1884, and that was surpassed by the Eiffel Tower in 1889.
Darn it, I was going to use the John Adams-Thomas Jefferson one. You can make it really dramatic, too; all about how they were friends and comrades during the Revolution; fell out and became bitter political enemies; were reconciled and became friends again in the last years of their life; and finally both men died on the very same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (which of course both men had signed). Oh, well.
Here’s another one I like. Just to be pedantic, I like to put it in the form of a multiple choice question:
If the history of the planet Earth from its formation until the present day is represented as one year, then the extinction of the dinosaurs took place closest to which popular U.S. holiday?
a.) Valentine’s Day (February 14)
b.) Independence Day (July 4)
c.) Halloween (October 31)
d.) Christmas (December 25)
D. The extinction of the dinosaurs actually took place on about December 26. And life didn’t emerge onto the dry land until sometime in November. Incidentally, I just found a nifty web site for playing with such metaphors, Geological Time Scale Metaphors.
Sure thing! Just wait until the dramatic climax, when in crossing the Channel with vital information for Her Majesty (well, Her Majesty’s spymaster/sidekick), his small boat is attacked by none other than… ANGRY PIRATES!
I like the Jefferson/Adams trivia, too, although I couldn’t say exactly why – it just makes me feel sort of warm and happy.
The Adams/Jefferson thing is the best, but since someone already posted it, I will give my second favorite piece o’ info:
(in spoiler box for those who like to play along)
Who is the only president to be born on July 4th?
Calvin Coolidge
I got this as a question in Trival Pursuit, guessed, and got it right. I have loved it ever since.
The Pulmonary Vein is the only vein in the human body that carries oxygenated blood. It runs from the lungs back to the heart. I wouldn’t call this a favorite piece of information, but it’s one that hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Not only that, but Twain correctly predicted that he would die when Halley’s Comet returned. He didn’t cheat by committing suicide either; he died of natural causes with a doctor present. According to one book I have, Twain’s doctor reported that his last words were, “If we meet…”
There’s more hydrogen in gasoline than in liquid hydrogen.
A telegraph cable was installed between Ireland and Newfoundland in 1866.
The United States doesn’t have a national government. It has a federal government.
After taking various distance measurements and measuring the length of a stick’s shadow, an Egyptian named Eratosthenes used geometry to calculate the diameter and tilt of the earth. In 200 B.C.
Nope. The Mets colors of blue and orange come from the Dodgers (blue) and Giants (orange). They combined them to symbolize the return of National League baseball to the city.
Another interesting fact from Michigan: possibly the largest living organism is a fungi spread across 38 acres of forest near Crystal Falls, MI. Called the “Humongous Fungus”, the organism is from a strain called Armillaria bulbosa. It’s estimated to be between 1,500 and 10,000 years old and weight over 100 tons.
Full Disclosure: Since its discovery, there have been competing claims of similar organisms which are much larger (one in Washington State is supposed to be spread over 1500 acres,) but there’s some question about the validity of these claims.
I think this “fact” may be a bit suspect. I’m not sure, but I’d guess that the kangaroo and emu were chosen for the coat of arms simply because they were uniquely Australian animals. I suspect that the “can’t walk backwards” interpretation was a subsequent development. The interpretation certainly doesn’t get a mention at the Commonwealth government site discussing the coat of arms.
