Overview

Entertaining, informative, and fun. Educational, trivial, and profound. Astonishing, amazing, and surprising. That's history! Take a weird and wonderful tour of American history with this treat of stories, trivia, and facts! From Juan Ponce de Len to John Wayne to Jane Doe to the little-known stories hidden inside bigger historical events, The Book of Facts and Trivia: American History combines the educational, profound, and trivial into a rich account of American history facts (and the interesting role Johns-and Juans and Janes-played along the way)! You'll learn about the United States through hundreds of absorbing stories and interesting tidbits such as ... Our sixth president, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), had a pet alligator while in the White House. Graceland, located in Memphis, Tennessee, is America's second-most visited home. The first is Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. In 1970, Continental Airlines made it a policy that every disembarking male passenger got a kiss on the cheek from a stewardess. Twenty to twenty-five percent of cowboys in the mid-1800s were black. The first public service announcement meant to encourage Americans not to litter appeared in 1956. Washington is the most common city/town/village name in America, followed by Springfield and Franklin. Actor Jack Black's mother was a satellite engineer and author who worked on the Hubble Telescope. Most of the Continental Congress officially signed the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776 (not July 4!). The Food Marketing Institute estimates that some two million shopping carts are stolen each year. Kansas City, Missouri, leads the nation in the number of fountains inside its city limits. The Statue of Liberty is 305 feet tall with a waist that's 35 feet across. And many more American history facts! An absorbing guide to history, The Book of Facts and Triviais a treat of stories, facts, and trivia guaranteed to both inform and entertain. It's a feast of fun oddities that are delightfully eye-opening!

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9781578597956

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Reviews

“... Teri Schlichenmeyer displays her funny bone while assembling a range on anecdotes from American history as she seeks to amuse her readers with once forgotten documented lore. ... Learn that folk hero John Wayne had plastic surgery to improve his looks, or that one and a half million new shopping carts are manufactured each year in the USA ... These and other sundry historical and often trivial descriptions are scattered throughout the pages. ... This is the sort of book that is best left on the coffee table for the casual reader to open at any page and ask the surrounding company if they’re aware of these little isolated gems from earlier times.” —Portland Book Review

"""... Teri Schlichenmeyer displays her funny bone while assembling a range on anecdotes from American history as she seeks to amuse her readers with once forgotten documented lore. ... Learn that folk hero John Wayne had plastic surgery to improve his looks, or that one and a half million new shopping carts are manufactured each year in the USA ... These and other sundry historical and often trivial descriptions are scattered throughout the pages. ... This is the sort of book that is best left on the coffee table for the casual reader to open at any page and ask the surrounding company if they're aware of these little isolated gems from earlier times."" --Portland Book Review"

Author Information

Terri Schlichenmeyer is an award-winning, self-syndicated book reviewer. In addition to several columns written each week, she wrote Visible Ink Press’s The Big Book of Facts and contributed to Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers and other trivia books. You can read Terri’s book reviews in more than 150 newspapers and magazines throughout the world. She lives in a little corner of Wisconsin with two dogs and one very patient man.

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