Category: Uncategorized

False

Tea is believed to have been discovered in China

A popular legend attributing its origin to Emperor Shen Nong around 2373 BCE. The story goes that while boiling water, leaves from a nearby tree fell in, and upon tasting the resulting brew, the emperor found it to be both flavorful and restorative.

True

Approximately 2,000 tiny leaves is required make just one pound of finished tea. There are more than 1,500 types of teas in the world. Tea plants grow wild in parts of Asia, but over 25 countries cultivate tea as a plantation crop. The very best tea comes from high elevations and is hand-picked.

False

Water is the most consumed beverage globally.

Tea, the second most consumed beverage globally, is one of the world's most popular beverages, boasts a rich history and fascinating facts. All true teas, including black, green, white, and oolong, come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. Tea is the second most consumed beverage globally, after water. Beyond its popularity, tea is also known for potential health benefits, like antioxidants and possible heart health improvements.

False

While China is the largest overall consumer of tea by volume, Turkey drinks the most tea per capita. In Turkey, tea is a cultural staple, and the average person consumes 3.16 kg (6.96 lb) per year,

True

Both coffee and tea are rich in bioactive compounds-plant-based chemicals that promote health-but tea stands out for its particularly diverse array of antioxidants. These compounds, including flavonoids, polyphenols, and catechins, are linked to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Several recent analyses have found that higher consumption of tea, especially black tea and green tea, are associated with reduced risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and early death.

False

The Roadrunner is not the fastest bird in the world. While it's known for its speed and is the fastest running bird capable of flight, the fastest bird overall is the Ostrich a flightless bird that can run up to 43 miles per hour. The roadrunner can reach speeds of up to 26 miles per hour.

True
The largest bird in the world is the Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus). It is both the tallest and heaviest bird alive today. Reaching heights of up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) and weighing as much as 346 pounds (157 kilograms), the ostrich is a flightless bird native to Africa.

True

A Hummingbird is a small bird from the family Trochilidae, the only bird capable of sustained hovering, flying backward, and upside-down. Native to the Americas, these birds have unique physical and behavioral traits, including long bills for nectar feeding, wing patterns that create a distinctive humming sound, and an ability to enter a state of torpor to conserve energy.

The Hummingbird is also the smallest bird in the world. Native to Cuba, it measures around 6 cm (2.4 in) in length, and males weigh approximately 1.95 g (0.069 oz). Females are slightly larger, weighing about 2.6 g (0.092 oz).

False

The bird's-eye shot is attributed to Alfred Hitchcock in the movie, The Birds (1963).

A bird's-eye shot is a high-angle camera view from directly overhead a subject, simulating the perspective of a bird in flight to provide a unique overview or establishing shot of a scene, location, or action. This specialized camera angle can be used to establish scale, convey emotions like awe or terror, provide context, or create a detached, omniscient feeling for the viewer.

True

The Spix's macaw is considered the rarest bird in the world, having been declared extinct in the wild in 2000. While approximately 180 remain in captivity, their natural habitat has been devastated. Another contender for the title of rarest bird is the Night Parrot, a nocturnal parrot rediscovered in Australia after being thought extinct. Sightings and sounds of the Night Parrot are rare, and it prefers remote areas.

False

The Les Paul was invented by Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 - August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul.

True

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born in Seattle; November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time.

False

Also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii, brought by Portuguese cowboys. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and construction. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.

False

Throughout the years, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page once played with the Yardbirds, but not Mick Taylor. He did, though, eventually play with the Rolling Stones before branching out into a solo career.

False

The signature guitar sound of Guns N' Roses is attributed to Slash (Saul Hudson: born July 23, 1965).

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler.

No

Alexander the great was King of Macedonia and created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of thirty. He was never defeated in battle, and only stopped expanding his Empire because his men wanted to go home. It’s likely he could have expanded his empire even further if they had kept going. His army stretched from Greece to Northwestern India. Ambitiously, he sought to conquer until he reached the end of the world.

Alexander the great was taught by the philosopher Aristotle at a young age, about politics, and philosophy. This might be why he was such an inspiring ruler. Alexander not only conquered over 2 million square miles of land, but created the biggest library of all time, the library of Alexandria. Alexander III of Macedonia is one of the most famous conquerors of all time.

One of the lesser known facts about Alexander the Great, was that he had different colored eyes, one was dark brown, and the other was sky blue.

Maryland

Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951 – October 17, 2019), born and raised in Baltimore, was a popular American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019. The district includes just over half of the city of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts of Baltimore County, as well as most of Howard County. He previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates. Cummings was the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until his death in October of that year. Before his funeral service at Baltimore's New Psalmist Baptist Church, Cummings lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Building's Statuary Hall, the first African American lawmaker to achieve that honor. Following a state funeral, the official funeral for Cummings was held at the New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore and was attended by members of his family, various political figures — including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — and thousands of Baltimore residents. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barak Obama spoke at the widely attended memorial, along with countless others who considered Cummings a mentor. A man of strong principles, he never hesitated to reach across the aisle to Republicans, making life-long friends.

His parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina and left the state after they had Cummings’ eldest sibling. While Cummings was born and raised in Baltimore, South Carolina never stopped being home for the late congressman, according to relatives who still lives in the state.

Peter Green

Peter Green (born Peter Greenbaum; October 1946) is a legendary English blues rock lead guitarist, singer-songwriter and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac. He vanished decades ago in a blur of drugs and mental illness, proclaiming he left the music business "for my freedom." Previous he had played lead guitarist for John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, replacing Eric Clapton, then preceding Mick Taylor.

Green was a major figure in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement. B.B. King commented, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats. Eric Clapton has praised his guitar playing, noting his use of string bending, vibrato, and economy of style. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Rolling Stone ranked Green at number 58 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". His tone on the instrumental "The Supernatural" was rated as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player.  In June 1996, Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine.

The Hittites

Scotland's national instrument, the Bagpipe or in Gaelic "piob-mhor" (the great pipe) is not, contrary to popular belief, an instrument which has its origins in and has diffused from Scotland. The bagpipe is an instrument of great antiquity, an instrument which has its origins in the Middle East and traveled through and evolved in Europe alongside the diffusion of early civilization. The "Oxford History of Music" makes mention of the first documented bagpipe being found on a Hittite slab at Eyuk. This sculptured bagpipe has been dated to 1,000 B.C. Biblical mention is made of the bagpipe in Genesis and in the third Chapter of Daniel where the "symphonia" in Nebuchadnezzar's band is believed to have been a bagpipe. The Hittites were an Anatolian people living in what is now Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. The empire started in the 18th century BCE, peaking in the 14th century BCE and finally trailing off around 1180 BCE with the collapse of the Bronze Age. Author Sayce traces the history of the Hittite people, attempting to demonstrate that this was an empire of significance that is not afforded the credit it deserves.

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse (1840 – 1877;  Standard Lakota Orthography: Tȟašúŋke Witkó) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on American Indian territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His most famous battle was the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 where he led a war party to victory over George Armstrong Custer and US federal army. The victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people. In September 1877, four months after surrendering to US troops, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Amerindian warriors and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp. The popular bumper sticker ‘Custer had it coming’ illustrates the respect he still command to this very day.

Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States (1837 to 1841) played the central role in building the coalition of state organizations that formed the Democratic Party in 1828.

The Democratic Party is the world's oldest active political party. It initially supported expansive presidential power,the interests of slave states, agrarianism, and geographical expansionism, while opposing a national bank and high tariffs It split in 1860 over slavery and won the presidency only twice between 1860 and 1912, although it won the popular vote two more times in that period. In the late 19th century, it continued to oppose high tariffs and had fierce internal debates on the gold standard. In the early 20th century, it supported progressive reforms and opposed imperialism, with Woodrow Wilson winning the White House in 1912 and 1916.

Things changed when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, the Democratic Party has promoted a liberal platform that includes support for Social Security and unemployment insurance. The New Deal attracted strong support for the party from recent European immigrants but diminished the party's pro-business wing. From late in Roosevelt's administration, a minority in the party's Southern wing joined with conservative Republicans to stop progressive domestic reforms. Following the Great Society era of progressive legislation under Lyndon B. Johnson, the party was able to overcome the conservative coalition in the 1960s, the core bases of the parties shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.The election of Bill Clinton moved the party's economic stance towards market-based economic policy. Barack Obama oversaw the party's passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. During Joe Biden's presidency, the party has adopted an increasingly progressive economic agenda.

In the 21st century, the party is strongest among urban voters, union workers, college graduates, women, African Americans, LGBT+ people, and the unmarried. On social issues, it advocates for abortion rights,voting rights, LGBT rights, action on climate change, and the legalization of marijuana. On economic issues, the party favors healthcare reform, universal child care, paid sick leave and supporting unions. In foreign policy, the party supports liberal internationalism as well as tough stances against China and Russia.

Vice President Kamala Harris, currently in President Joseph R. Biden’s administration, has been nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2024 election. Minnesota Senator Tim Walz is her running mate.

The US States of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington and the District of Columbia allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail.

In mostly-mail elections, all registered voters are sent a ballot in the mail. The voter marks the ballot, puts it in a secrecy envelope or sleeve and then into a separate mailing envelope, signs an affidavit on the exterior of the mailing envelope and returns the package via mail or by dropping it off.

Ballots are mailed out well ahead of Election Day, and thus voters have an "election period," not just a single day, to vote. Mostly-mail elections can be thought of as absentee voting for everyone. This system is also referred to as "vote by mail."

Two states - Nebraska and North Dakota - permit counties to opt into conducting elections by mail.

Nine states - Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming - allow specific small elections to be conducted by mail.

Four states - Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey and New Mexico -permit mostly - mail elections for certain small jurisdictions.
--- The NCSL elections team

John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856 behind the slogan "Free soil, free silver, free men, Frémont and victory!" Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base in the U.S. Northern States.

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by anti - slavery activists who opposed the Kansas - Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It supported classical liberalism and economic reform, while opposing the expansion of slavery into the free territories. The party initially had a very limited presence in the South, but was successful in the North. By 1858, it had enlisted most former Whigs and former Free Soldiers to form majorities in nearly every northern state. White Southerners became alarmed at the threat to the slave trade. With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, the southern states seceded from the United States, and the American Civil War began on April 12, 1861.

Under the leadership of Lincoln and a Republican Congress, the Republican Party led the fight to defeat the Confederate States in the American Civil War, preserving the Union and abolishing slavery.

For 110 years, the numbers stood as 618,222 men died in the Civil War, 360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South - by far the greatest toll of any war in American history. But new research shows that the numbers were far too low, by combing through newly digitized census data from the 19th century.

After the Great Depression in the 1930s, the party changed course, and lost its congressional majorities as Democrats' New Deal programs proved popular. Dwight D. Eisenhower's election was a rare break in between Democratic presidents and he presided over a period of increased economic prosperity after World War II. The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan realigned national politics, bringing together advocates of free-market economics, social conservatives, and Cold War foreign policy hawks under the Republican banner. Since 2009, the party has faced significant factionalism within its own ranks and has shifted towards right-wing populism.

In the 21st century, the Republican Party receives its strongest support from rural voters, evangelical Christians, and white male voters without college degrees. It supports deregulation while opposing labor unions and single-payer healthcare. On social issues, it advocates for restricting the legality of abortion, promoting gun ownership and easing gun restrictions, and opposing the transgender rights movement. In foreign policy, during the George W Bush presidency, the party was dominated by neoconservatives, supporting an aggressive foreign policy against China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, while the populist faction is isolationist and in some cases supporting non-interventionism.

The party transitioned again when Donald Trump, a media personality, served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump is the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice. He lost the 2020 presidential election to current president Joe Biden, but as of October 2024 has refused to concede. He falsely claimed widespread electoral fraud and attempted to overturn the results. On January 6, 2021, he urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, where many of the domestic terrorists attacked and were arrested. Approximately 452 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including around 123 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6 at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department. New evidence in the Federal Election Case Against Trump has been reopened.

Since leaving office, Trump has continued to dominate the Republican Party and is their nominee again in the 2024 presidential election. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is his running mate, as opposed to his previous Vice President, Mike Pence, whose life was threatened by many of the Trump domestic terrorists for legally certifying Joe Biden as the next U.S. president on Jan. 6. A noose was set up above Pence's desk in the Capitol building. Vance also refuses to concede that Biden won election.

In May 2024, a jury in New York found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an attempt to influence the 2016 election, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. He has been indicted in three other jurisdictions on 54 other felony counts related to his mishandling of classified documents and for the previous mentioned, efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In civil proceedings, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023, defamation in 2024, and financial fraud in 2024.

The Lincoln Project v. Trumpism

The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee (PAC) founded in December 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump and Trumpism. During the 2020 presidential election, it aimed to prevent the re-election of President Trump, now a convicted felon, and to defeat incumbent Republican candidates running for re-election who had been loyalists to Trump. In April 2020, the committee endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Since 2022, the committee has focused on preventing the re-election of Trump in the 2024 presidential election, endorsing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. Vigdís is the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as president. Having served as president of Iceland for 16 years, she is the longest-serving elected female head of state in history. Vigdís ran for president to prove that women were able to lead political campaigns. During Vigdís' campaign, her anti-military position and her opposition to a United States presence in Iceland led to allegations that she was sympathetic to communism. She oversaw the Reykjavík Summit in October 1986 between American president Ronald Reagan and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, which is credited with improving relations between the countries and bringing the Cold War closer to an end. In the 1988 presidential election, Vigdís became the first incumbent president of Iceland to face a challenger in the presidential election. The challenger fared poorly, and Vigdís won with 92.7% of the vote. She was again re-elected without opposition in 1992.

Philippine President, Cory Aquino

Corazon Aquino served as president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, the first woman to hold that office. She was also the first female president in Asia. As president, Aquino restored democracy by abolishing the legislature, declaring a new revolutionary government, and appointing a fifty-member commission to write a new constitution. She is best known for her role in leading the country away from the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos. U.S. President Ronald Reagan supported Marcos, and tried to keep him in office. But he could not overcome the will of the people of the Philippines, and ultimately gave the unpopular Marcos sanctuary in Los Angeles.

Indian President, Pratibha Patil

Pratibha Patil served as president of India from 2007 to 2012, the first woman to become the country's head of state. She was very low-profile during her political life, generating little opposition to her campaign for the presidency. Her time as president, however, was marked with controversy. Patil was reported to have spent more money and to have gone on more foreign trips with her family than any Indian president before her, spending about $30 million.

Argentine President, Isabel (Eva) de Perón

Isabel (Eva) de Perón served as vice president of Argentina from 1973 to 1974 and then succeeded her husband, dictator and Nazi sympathizer, Juan Perón, in the position of president after his death. She served as president from 1974 until 1976. She was Argentina's first woman head of state, and she holds the honor of being the first woman president in the world (though she was not elected to the position). She stood for women's rights and helping the poor, though she was not liked in the Perón government.

Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party chairwoman

Khertek Anchimaa-Toka is regarded as the first ever elected woman head of state in the world, BUT not in multiparty, free and fair elections. She served as head of the parliament of the Tuvan People's Republic, called the Little Khural. Anchimaa studied in Moscow where she learned Stalinist ideology that earned her multiple leadership positions within the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party when she returned to her home. Once elected chairwoman, Anchimaa led Tuva into World War II in 1941 on the side of the Allied powers, largely assisting the Soviet forces. She acted as head of state in Tuva until the country's inclusion into the Soviet Union by a vote in 1944, afterward becoming deputy chair of the Tuvan executive committee until 1961.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 - January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. Hayes died of heart disease on January 17, 1893. A long funeral procession wound through the Ohio countryside, led by President-elect Grover Cleveland. Biographer Ari Hoogenboom has written that Hayes's greatest achievement was to restore popular faith in the presidency and reverse the deterioration of executive power that had established itself after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. His supporters have praised his commitment to civil-service reform; his critics have derided his leniency toward former Confederate states. In retirement, Hayes was troubled by the disparity between the rich and the poor, saying in an 1886 speech, "Free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands and large masses of people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age."

Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Austria-Hungary

In June 1914, Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip at Sarajevo, today the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A month later, World War I began with Austria's declaration of war against Serbia. Princip's act gave Austria-Hungary the excuse that it had sought for opening hostilities against Serbia and thus precipitated World War I. In the former Yugoslavia, Princip was regarded as a national hero. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 40 million. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.

Indira Gandhi, Indian prime minister

Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 at her residence in New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards. Gandhi's military operation was to remove Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple of Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab, the holiest site of Sikhism..

Gandhi's assassination led to the 1984 Sikh massacres which were instigated by political figures from the Indian National Congress, who orchestrated pogroms against Sikh populations throughout India. Four days of mob violence resulted in the destruction of 40 historic Gurdwaras and other important Sikh holy sites. Official Indian government figures put the death toll at 3,350 while other sources have quoted that between 8,000 to 16,000 Sikhs were killed.

William McKinley, US President

Following his inauguration in 1901, United States President William McKinley left Washington for a tour of the western states, to be concluded with a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Cheering crowds throughout the journey attested to McKinley's immense popularity. More than 50,000 admirers attended his exposition speech. The following day, September 6, 1901, while McKinley was shaking hands with a crowd of well-wishers at the exposition, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, fired two shots at the president's chest and abdomen. Rushed to a hospital in Buffalo, McKinley lingered for a week before dying in the early morning hours of September 14. He was the third American president to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. John F. Kennedy would follow in 1963.

After McKinley's death, newly inaugurated President Theodore Roosevelt declared, "When compared with the suppression of anarchy, every other question sinks into insignificance." On October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, now a former US President, survived an assassination attempt while campaigning for the presidency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under his new progressive Bull Moose Party. The bullet lodged in Roosevelt's chest after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a 50-page-thick copy of his speech titled "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual," which he was carrying in his jacket pocket.

Roosevelt concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung; he declined suggestions to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot - but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt

On  October 6, 1981, Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr, during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back the Sinai Peninsula from Israel at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War.  The assassination was undertaken by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Sadat's assassination likely stemmed from Islamists who opposed Sadat's peace initiative with Israel and the United States relating to the Camp David Accords, signed by Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, witnessed by President Jimmy Carter. Due to the agreement, Sadat and Begin received the shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.