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1781/ In 1893, the Supreme
Court ruled that the tomato must be considered a vegetable,
even though, botanically, it is a fruit. Because vegetables
and fruits were subject to different import duties, it was
necessary to define it as one or the other. So, tomatoes were
declared to be a vegetable given that it was commonly eaten
as one. If you find this hard to believe here is a link to
take you to some more information about the court ruling.
NIX
v. HEDDEN, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)
1782/ Walkers Crisps
use more than 350,000 tonnes of potatoes each year which is
the equivalent of 17,000 truckloads.
1783/ New Jersey has
the tallest water-tower in the world.
1784/ On a grave stone
in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
"Under the sod and
under the trees
Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod:
Pease shelled out and went to God."
1785/ The combination
"ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways.The
following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated,dough-faced,
thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough;
after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.".
1786/ Armadillos have
four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex.
1787/ In the eighteen
century an Austrian doctor named Franz Anton Mesmer found
he could cure people of different diseases without medicine
or surgery, and he believed he had a magnetic force which
could regulate the flow of magnetic fluids in people to produce
cure. In many cases his cures were successful and this method
of healing came to be known as Mesmerism.
1788/ In the middle of
the 19th century a Scottish doctor named James Braid published
a book called Neurhypnology or the Study of Nervous Sleep.
He invented the word neurhypnosis from which the word hypnosis
originated.
1789/ In the sunniest
parts of Scotland (Angus, Fife, Lothians, Ayrshire, Dumfries
& Galloway) there is an average of 1,400 hours of sunshine
each year. Even in the mountain regions of the Highlands there
are over 1,000 hours of sunshine a year.
1790/ The word "whisky"
comes from the Gaelic "uisgebeatha" which means
"water of life".
1791/ Tax was first imposed
on whisky by the Scots Parliament in 1644.
1792/ In 1194 A.D., Richard
I of England introduced the Cross of St. George, a red cross
on a white ground, as the the national flag of England until
James I succeeded to the throne in 1603. When King James VI
of Scotland became King James I of England a new flag combining
the white on blue cross of St Andrew, with the red cross of
St George, was adopted by the Royal Navy and christened the
" The Union" in 1707. In 1801, after the Union with
Ireland, King George III added the cross of St Patrick to
the Union flag, to make the Union Jack we have today.
1793/ Big Ben is the
name of the large bell in the tower that forms part of the
Houses of Parliament (in London). The bell is named after
the first Commissioner of Works, Sir Benjamin Hall. In the
clock tower there is a prison cell for MPs who break Parliamentary
laws - it was last used in 1880 for this purpose.
1794/ Skin has two layers:
the epidermis on top and the dermis below. The epidermis keeps
producing new cells that push to the top of the skin surface.
You have approximately 19,000,000 skin cells on every square
inch of your body.
1795/ Ancient Egyptians
believed in chromatherapy, the ability to heal with colors:
Red stimulates mental energy, yellow stimulates the nerves,
blue heals organic disorders such as colds and hay fever.
1796/ From ancient times
until 1972, asbestos cloth was widely used. Historical records
show that asbestos cloth was used by ancient Egyptian pharaohs.
During the Middle Ages, Charlemagne, a Roman emperor, used
to impress his guests after a banquet by throwing the table
cloth into the fire to clean it. He’d leave it in a
while to burn off all of the food scraps, then snatch it from
the flames to show that it was as good as new. This appeared
to be magic, but the secret was just that the table cloth
was made of asbestos cloth. The ancient Romans knew of asbestos's
properties and used it in woven form for clothing, bedding
and even burial shrouds. They reported, through Pliny the
Elder and others, of the disease and death suffered by slaves
who spent their short lives weaving asbestos cloth.
1797/ Fake snow, both
for movies and Christmas trees, used to be made of asbestos.
It was used in movie lots and by theatre companies. They also
sold it commercially, so you could take asbestos and sprinkle
it on your Christmas tree at home.
1798/ From 1952–6,
Kent made cigarette filters out of asbestos. They called these
filters the “Kent Micronite Filter.”
1799/ Botulinum toxin,
the etiologic agent of botulism, is considered the most poisonous
of poisons.
1800/ Ricin is a protein
produced by the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, which
is highly toxic (the minimal lethal dose is around 1 µg
/ kg body weight, that means 1/15th of a milligram could kill
a 150 lb. person). Ricin can be a dangerous contaminant, making
the production of castor oil a precisely controlled process.
Click on the links below for more great
facts...
More
next week...
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