The first theater built to show movies, Vitascope Hall, was in New Orleans. It opened in 1896 and had 400 seats.

Lady Godiva (born around 990 A.D.) survived the Norman conquest of 1066, and was the only woman still a major landholder afterwards (her husband died in 1057). She died sometime between 1066 and the Domesday survey in 1086, but her former holdings were listed in the survey.

When Doritos were introduced, they were plain corn chips (the nacho cheese flavor wasn’t introduced until 6 or 8 years later).

Benjamin Franklin had an illegitimate child when he was 24 and then raised that child in a household with the abandoned wife of John Rodgers, with whom he established a common-law marriage (they could not marry formally since her husband had disappeared).

There is a statue of Joseph Strauss, the structural engineer chiefly responsible for the Golden Gate Bridge, on the San Fransisco side of the bridge.

P.T. Barnum’s career began in 1835 when he bought a blind and nearly paralyzed slave woman and claimed that she was George Washington’s nurse (she would have had to be over 160 years old for that to be true).

The wrinkles in an elephant’s skin serve a purpose – they trap water and thus help keep the elephant cool.

Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) was first arrested for running away from the police when they wanted to question him about a rental car he hadn’t returned on time.

4,000-year-old perfumes have been found on Cyprus. Some of the essences found include anise, pine, coriander, and parsley; the archaeological team who found them also found some recipes for the perfumes that used the essences.

Lake Huron contains the world’s largest freshwater lake island, Manitoulin Island. The 1068 mi2 island has 108 of its own freshwater lakes (the largest of which, Lake Manitou, is 40 square miles), some of which contain islands.