Archives: Useless Facts

Although lovers of sailfish may debate this, with average recorded speeds of 82 miles per hour, the black marlin is the fastest fish in the sea. Found primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, it is not only the fastest, but also one of the largest among the species of marlins. For you sailfish lovers, they have only been clocked by researchers at 68 miles per hour – not to shabby either, but not as fast as the black marlin!

On land, the cheetah is considered to be the fastest animal in the world, reliably clocked at 60 miles per hour, but reportedly capable of reaching bursts of speed from 80 to almost 120 miles per hour. In the air, the peregrine falcon is the winner, routinely cruising at 68 miles per hour in level flight, but capable of achieving speeds of 200 to 240 miles per hour in a high-speed dive, making it capable of preying on fast-moving birds, even in mid-air.

Can you identify the fastest fish in the sea?

In 1539, a Franciscan friar (Marcos de Niza) described a location of untold wealth to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, then the governor of New Galicia (today part of Mexico). Backed by his wife’s wealthy family, Coronado took de Niza as his guide and in February of 1540 set out to find these Seven Cities of Gold.  Needless to say, he didn’t find them, but at the Tiguex pueblos (which is near Santa Fe, New Mexico today) Coronado met a slave referred to as “the Turk,” who told Coronado of a land known as Quivira replete with gold.

Leaving a trail of blood and violence in his wake, by mid-1541 Coronado found himself no closer to any gold, but out of patience and confronted the Turk, who admitted he had lied. Although he told Coronado that he was hoping to gain his freedom by helping lead the expedition, Coronado was told by others that secretly the Turk simply hoped Coronado would become lost in the wilderness and die. Unfortunately for the Turk, Coronado believe those others and had the Turk strangled.

Coronado returned to his post as governor of New Galicia, disgraced and bankrupt.

 

 

 

The Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cibola was a popular myth in the 16th century.  The legend told of seven cities of gold that were believed to be in the then Territory of New Mexico.  Seeking to discover them, a Spanish conquistador set out in 1540 to discover them.  Name the Spanish explorer!

A pen grip is used to hold a sandwich bat (paddle), in table tennis (ping pong)!

In what sport would you use a pen grip to hold your sandwich bat?

The Yugoslavian dictator known as Marshal Tito, was born Josip Broz (Јосип Броз in Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic).   Without boring you with all the details, his fairly checkered past included some time in prison and upon his release in 1934, he was required to live in Kumrovec (where he was born) and report to the police each day.  Needless to say, he didn’t do so and often travelled using false passports to avoid detection.

Since he was wanted by the police for failing to report to them in Kumrovec, Broz adopted various false names, including “Rudi” and “Tito” and he used the name “Tito” to write articles for Communist party journals. That said, within the Comintern network his nickname was “Walter.”  Although he never explained why he chose to keep the name “Tito” (it was a fairly common nickname in Kumrovec) it stuck!

In 1892, when Tito was born, Kumrovec was a village in the northern Croatian region of Hrvatsko Zagorje, which was then part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

 

 

Generally referred to as Marshal Tito, he ruled the former nation of Yugoslavia as its dictator from 1945 until his death on May 4, 1980. What was his birth name?

Rome had three forms of government from the 700’s (B.C.E.) until 476 (A.D.):  Monarchy; Republic and Empire.

Rome was ruled by the Etruscan monarchy in the seventh century B.C. – as a monarch, there was one ruler and it appears there were seven kings.  But sometime around the year 500 B.C., Roman citizens took control from the Etruscans and established a Roman Republic.

In a Republic, the government becomes “public.”  Government officials are elected and the people – the citizens – share leadership responsibility. Under the Roman Republic,  magistrates were elected who represented Roman citizens.  At its beginnings, a magistrate was elected only from the patrician class – a group of elite Roman families. At some point, commoners, known as plebeians, could be elected as a magistrate – ultimately affording most Roman citizens a voice in their government.

Two of the magistrates were known given the title of “Consul” and they had the power to decide when to wage war and when to add new laws, although they worked in collaboration with the Roman Senate which was made up of men from wealthy Roman families – often holding their senatorial positions for life. While the Senate began as advisors to Consuls,  but gained power steadily throughout the years of the Republic.

As the Roman Empire grew, each time Rome conquered another land, they invited the people there to become Roman citizens, with all the rights and an equal voice to those of people born in Rome.  Also as the empire grew, more categories of government officials were established: Tribunes and prefects, in addition to magistrates and senators.  All of them, at one point during the republic, were elected by the Roman Assembly, a group of Romans representing the various different sections of Rome.

Over the years Senators began to fight amongst themselves – increasingly violently. As Rome grew, the military increased in power probably the result of Rome’s armies stationed far away from Roman Senate and controlling vast sections of territory captured by the Romans. In  83 B.C., after a number of successful military campaigns, a Consul, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, seized power and assumed the title of dictator, with complete control of the government – the fall of the Roman Republic.

In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar became dictator and after his murder in 44 B.C., Caesar’s nephew, Octavian, became the ruler.  It was Octavian, who introduced the concept of an Empire and he became Rome’s first Emperor in 27 B.C.  With full control of the Roman army, even though Octavian kept the various Senators, Tribunes and Prefects as government officials, the Emperor’s word was sovereign.

The Roman Empire lasted for another 300 years and then started to decline in power and most historians ascribe the date of 476, following the rule of Constantine, that the Roman Empire fell and the Middle Ages began.

For a little over a thousand years – from 700 BCE to 476 AD, Rome had three different forms of government. Can you identify them?