Our world is full of facts.
What is a fact, exactly? As Webster explains, a fact is “a thing that is known or proved to be true.”
Here are a few facts I happened across. Some of them are more interesting than others.
1. The USA won the last ever Olympic gold medal for rugby in 1924 and is, therefore, technically still reigning champions. You see, in 1925, a new guy took over as the president of the International Olympic Committee. His name was Count Baillet-Latour. Apparently, he really, really disliked rugby. So he made a case to the committee and it was taken off the Summer Olympic sports list. No one has played rugby at the Olympics since that game in 1924.
2. Many people who live in Hawaii refuse to be US citizens. Here is the deal. They believe that the USA is occupying their country. They claim that Hawaii is actually the property of the Hawaiian Kingdom and not the good old USA.
So. Just for the record. Let’s just say this. On January 16, 1893, United States troops invaded the Hawaiian Kingdom without just cause, which led to a conditional surrender by the Hawaiian Kingdom’s executive monarch, Her Majesty Queen Lili’uokalani, the following day. Sounds a little bit like Putin taking claim to Ukraine, but that’s just me spitballing.
A lot of other stuff happened, but by July 7, 1898, there was a House Joint Resolution 259, 55th Congress, 2nd session. It was known as the “Newlands Resolution.” It was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7, 1898. And there it was. The Hawaiian islands were officially annexed by the United States.
And more stuff happened. But 60 years later it became a state on August 21, 1959. Eisenhower was president.
3. Scientists in 1916 felt America was degenerating into a second-rate nationality. As such, they made a list of why they felt this way, back in 1916. Among their “Top 20 Threats To The USA:
#7 Enormous number of drug and alcohol victims
#8 America leads all nations in murders
#12 Hearty eating without exercise
#18 Remarkable cancer mortality increase
And here, I always think of 1918 as wholesome. Except for the Pandemic. And WWI.
4. The USA has a law that allows citizens to occupy any unclaimed island in the world, as long as there is seabird or bat poop on it.
That is about all of them, I think. What the USA wants, the USA takes, I suppose. (See Hawaii.)
5. The cost of the International Space Station is funded by the USA 81%, Russia 8%, Europe 3%, Japan 3%, and Canada 1%.
I’m not sure why we are footing the big bill here. It seems like all sorts of people are in and out of that space station. And they better not let anyone on board who isn’t paying their dues. Like if a Chinese astronaut shows up with his buddy from Russia? They better just leave him outside on the doorstep with his little oxygen tank and hope somebody from the Chinese Space Labs swings by to pick him up. Unless he is a dog. And in that case, it wasn’t his choice to be there in the first place.
So. A few nifty facts to start your day.
Just remember. You read it here. The epicenter of fast facts.
The things that are known or proved to be true.
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“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley
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“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.” – John F. Kennedy
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“Facts are the air of scientists. Without them you can never fly.” – Linus Pauling
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The invasion of HI, the cost of space, and more.
