FACT-OF-THE-DAY ARCHIVE
"Our life is what our thoughts make it."
- Marcus Aurelius
JUL 2016

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DATE	FACT OF THE DAY
7/1/16	The presidential election is traditionally held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. November was chosen as the election month because it was a convenient time for farmers when the weather was still nice enough to travel to the county seat and the bulk of their harvest chores were finished. The Tuesday after the first Monday was chosen to prevent the election from ever falling on the first day of the month and to thwart travel on Sunday. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/2/16	Originally, the term "movies" did not mean films, but the people who made them. It was generally used with disdain by early Hollywood locals who disliked the "invading" Easterners. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/3/16	The small measured changes in the sun's radiation output from one decade to the next are only about one-tenth of 1 percent, not even large enough to really provide a detectable signal in Earth's surface temperature record. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/4/16	In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation was 2.5 million. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/5/16	While other businesses failed during the Great Depression, the popcorn business thrived. Popcorn sold at around 5 to 10 cents a bag, making it one of the more affordable (and possibly life saving) treats for poor families. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/6/16	One in 10 Thais live in Bangkok, the nation's capital and largest city. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/7/16	About two-thirds of shark attacks on humans have taken place in water less than six feet deep. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/8/16	The earliest drawings of wolves are in caves in southern Europe and date from 20,000 B.C. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/9/16	More than 650,000 Jeeps were built during WWII. American factories also produced 300,000 military aircraft; 89,000 tanks; 3 million machine guns; and 7 million rifles. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/10/16	More than 500 billion dollars a year is spent on advertising worldwide. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/11/16	In 1980, roughly 150,000 people were reported missing per year. Now the number is 900,000. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/12/16	Throughout the United States, approximately 4 percent of the population self-identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/13/16	The only woman to have ever appeared on a U.S. currency note is Martha Washington. She was on the $1 Silver Certificate in 1886 and 1891 and on the back of the $1 Silver Certificate in 1896. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/14/16	In 1932, half of all workers in Cleveland, Ohio, were jobless. And in Toledo, Ohio, four out of five were jobless. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/15/16	Tea plants need at least 50 inches of rain a year. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/16/16	The mind wanders about 30% of the time and sometimes as much as 70%, say, for example, when someone is driving down an uncrowded freeway. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/17/16	The first Hollywood movie star is arguably Mary Pickford (1893-1979), who along with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists Corp (1919). At the peak of her popularity, she made a record-breaking $10,000 a week (over $196,000 in 2008 USD). - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/18/16	The first mental asylum in the U.S opened in 1773 in Williamsburg, Virginia. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/19/16	In 1608, Shakespeare's acting company, The King's Men, opened the Blackfriar's Theatre, the template on which all later indoor theaters are based. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/20/16	eHarmony.com boasts that 236 of its members marry each day, accounting for 2% of U.S. marriages. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/21/16	The name "grizzly bear" refers to the silver-tipped or "grizzled" hair of a brown bear. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/22/16	Halloween is thought to have originated around 4000 B.C., which means Halloween has been around for over 6,000 years. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/23/16	In northern Italy, last names tend to end in "i", while those from the south often end in "o." The most common Italian surname is Russo. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/24/16	Ambergris (whale vomit) has been added to cigarettes for flavor. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/25/16	The single deadliest flu pandemic in history was the Spanish flu pandemic during 1918-1919. Occurring in three waves of increasing lethality, the Spanish flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS did in 24 years. It also killed more people in one year than smallpox or the Black Plague did in 50 years. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/26/16	Nicotine is named after Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal who brought tobacco and smoking to the French court in the mid-sixteenth century as a medicine. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/27/16	WWII ushered in plastic surgery techniques that included rebuilding entire limbs, extensive skin grafts, microsurgery, antibodies, and increased knowledge about tissue health. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/28/16	The jump from the Golden Gate Bridge is 250 feet. Trauma from the jump is dramatic and can cause ripped blood vessels, demolished central nervous systems, and a transected spinal cord. While a few have died from drowning and one from a shark attack, most die from the impact of the body on the water. Only 1% who jump survive. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/29/16	During the Great Depression, many people tried apple selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City alone, there were as many as 6,000 apple sellers. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/30/16	Sperm whales can dive as deep as two miles into the water, and their bodies have unique physiological adaptations to allow them to survive the intense cold and crushing pressure of these dives. They can limit circulation to the brain and other organs, slow the heart to 10 beats per minute to conserve oxygen, and collapse the lungs and rib cage to withstand pressure. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
7/31/16	Italians suffer more earthquakes than any other Europeans. In 1693, an estimated 100,000 people died in an earthquake in Sicily. The most deadly recent quake in Italy occurred in Naples in 1980, killing 3,000 people. - Provided by RandomHistory.com

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