Category: +Did You Know?

Did You Know? Charles Taze Russell published the first issue of the Jehovah’s Witness magazine The Watchtower on July 1,1879. Back then it was called “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.” The first edition ran 6,000 copies. Today the public (as opposed to study) edition runs 42,000,000 copies, giving it the largest magazine circulation in the world. LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? Albert Einstein published four amazing papers in 1905, the year known as his “Annus Mirabilis” (Latin, “Miraculous Year”). The third was received for publication on June 30. In it he proposed his special theory of relativity. Despite this being much more important than his work on the photoelectric effect, it was too controversial, and he won the Nobel Prize for the latter rather than special relativity. LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? The earliest surviving intentional recording of music (or so it is, or was, thought) was made on June 29, 1888. It was a recording made to wax cylinder (like the ones pictured) of Handel’s “Israel in Egypt.” You can listen to a copy of that recording at the link. LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? Despite its association with the culture of the 1950s, pinball was actually invented much earlier. Precursors of pinball were in production as early as the 1600s. The pinball machine pictured here dates from around 1760 and, in addition to having a spring mechanism to propel the ball, it has two slide out trays to hold candles to keep the board lighted! Cool! LEARN MORE.

Hellen Keller was born June 27, 1880. Though she later became famous as a deaf and blind activist, she was not born deaf or blind. Instead, when she was about a year and a half old, she contracted a disease (possibly scarlet fever or meningitis) that left her deaf and blind. She became a world famous author and advocate for people with these conditions. I have no idea if she ever actually played pinball, but I’m sure she would have been good at that, too. LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? According to legend, in 1284, while the town of Hamelin, Germany was suffering from a rat infestation, a man dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the townsmen a solution for their problem with the rats. The townsmen in turn promised to pay him for the removal of the rats. The man accepted, and played a musical pipe to lure the rats with a song into the Weser River, where all but one drowned. Despite his success, the people reneged on their promise and refused to pay the rat-catcher the full amount of money. The man left the town angrily, but vowed to return some time later, seeking revenge. On St. John and Paul’s Day (June 26) while the inhabitants were in church, he played his pipe yet again, dressed in green, like a hunter, this time attracting the children of Hamelin. One hundred and thirty boys and girls followed him out of the town, where they were lured into a cave and never seen again. The moral of the story: Always pay your debts. Or never enrage the exterminator. Or use the cats of Ulthar instead. Something like that. LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? There was a bear in a zoo in Medoza City, Argentina that contracted a skin condition. Zoo officials tried treating the skin condition, and in the process the bear turned purple! (Temporarily, at least.) It looked much better than the algae-stained green bears, FWIW. (Also, check out the video of polar bears playing with sled dogs!) LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? Aviator Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a group of fast-flying objects in Washington State on June 24, 1947. He compared their motion to that of saucers being skipped across water. Though he did *not* say they were *shaped* like saucers (actually, he said they *weren’t*), his account led to the term “flying saucer.” LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? The Dead Sea on the Israel-Jordan border is the lowest place on land on Earth. Its surface and shores are 423 metres (1,388 ft) below sea level, Earth’s lowest elevation on land. The Dead Sea is 377 m (1,237 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline (extra salty) lake in the world. With 33.7% salinity, it is also one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water, though Lake Assal (Djibouti), Garabogazköl, and some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica (such as Don Juan Pond) have reported higher salinities. It is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name. It is, however, extra floaty. LEARN MORE.

Did You Know? The Holy Office in Rome forced Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe on June 22, 1633. LEARN MORE.