The first petroleum well was dug by American railway conductor Edwin L. Drake on August 28, 1859, at Titusville in western Pennsylvania.
Kerosene for lamps was the first product to be refined from oil; gasoline did not become important until the development of the internal combustion engine in the 1880s and ’90s.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with 1,560 games, is the NBA lifetime leader in most games played. Born Ferdinand Lewis (Lew) Alcindor in 1947, Abdul-Jabbar began playing for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975.
An authoritative variorum edition of Emily Dickinson’s complete poems was not published until Thomas H. Johnson did so in 1955, nearly 70 years after Dickinson’s death. Dickinson (1830-86) died with over 1709 poems unpublished; shortly thereafter (in 1890-91), her friends Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel L. Todd began a tradition of publishing her poetry in…
Ten McDonald’s hamburgers are made per pound of beef, apportioned by a computer formula.
As of 1992, the honor goes to Richard (Dick) Button, who held the title for seven years from 1946 to 1952. Four skaters have held the title for four years: Hayes Jenkins-1953-56 David Jenkins-1957-60 Scott Hamilton-1981-84 Brian Boitano-1985-88 What female figure skater has most often won the U.S. Skating Championship? As of 1992, the honor…
Forty-one people signed the Mayflower Compact, in 1620. How many signed the Declaration of Independence? Fifty-six delegates plus Secretary Charles Thomson, beginning in 1776. How many signed the U.S. Constitution? Thirty-nine delegates plus Secretary William Jackson, in 1787.
Idaho-born sculptor Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941), with the help of his son, carved the faces on Mount Rushmore from 1927 to 1941. The faces are those of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Washington.