Unknown America Read online

  UNKNOWN AMERICA

  Myths and little known oddities about the greatest nation on earth

  MICHAEL P. HART

  Copyright © 2017 Michael P Hart

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 0692827803

  ISBN 13: 9780692827802

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901546

  Hart of America Productions, Birmingham, ALABAMA

  Dedication

  Many people, both living and dead, inspired me to write this book.

  But none more so than my children

  Victoria Grace, Mathew Patrick, and Lily Anastasia

  Who I hope will always remember the importance of preserving, honoring and retelling the past accurately lest we forget the lessons it leaves behind.

  And to the love of my life, Tracy Renee, who inspires me every day with her wit, beauty, caring, grace and charm, and who pushes me to reach for heights I myself could not see.

  To each of them I dedicate this book.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  UNKNOWN STATES: Offbeat factoids and oddities about the states

  CHAPTER TWO

  UNKNOWN AMERICANS: Fascinating Americans that the history books mostly ignored or whose stories they just got wrong

  CHAPTER THREE

  UNKNOWN AMERICANA: Little known facts about life in America

  CHAPTER FOUR

  UNKNOWN MILITARY HISTORY: Odd plans, little known events, and bizarre ideas in defense of America

  CHAPTER FIVE

  UNKNOWN SPORTS: Weird Stats and facts from the playing field

  CHAPTER SIX

  BEFORE AMERICA: What America looked like before it was America

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE UNKNOWN PRESIDENTS: Stuff you just never learned in school

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  UNKNOWN BLACK HISTORY: The often ignored facts and faces that helped shape America

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE UNKNOWN FRAMERS: Some of the most misunderstood people in American history

  CHAPTER TEN

  UNKNOWN RELIGION: From the subliminal to the sublime. A peek inside worship & religion in the states

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  UNKNOWN POLITICS: Weird stuff you probably didn't know, you didn't know

  Introduction

  In the book “The LIFE OF REASON,” Philosopher, writer and essayist George Santayana famously penned the words: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

  What Santayana was referring to is the failures that occur when people do not learn from their past mistakes and continue in their misguided ways; and in a larger sense the tragedies that can occur when societies fail to learn, buries the truth of past mistakes, ignores or revises atrocities or worse, simply forgets.

  Over the last several centuries, whether through human error, false reporting or simple neglect, history has all-to-often been a victim of forgetfulness or in many cases, revision.

  While this book is chock full of historical trivia that many people have either forgotten, never knew, or were never taught, it also serves to set the record straight on some of the inaccuracies and myths that have persisted throughout the history of this nation.

  In this book you will learn about the lives of some of the most famous Americans that shaped this nation as well as people you may never have heard of that the history books either ignored or whose stories were simply forgotten, altered or considered not worth telling.

  In Unknown America, you will also learn fascinating facts, not just about the people that shaped America, but about the American culture and even about some of the little known oddities of the American experience.

  While this book is far from comprehensive, hopefully it will inspire you to do your own research on the commonly held beliefs and teachings too many people passively accept as truth.

  Simply stated; there's a lot of history in the past and unfortunately too much of it ignored, changed to fit a narrative or deemed not worthy of being taught.

  So be prepared to be amazed while you learn about some of the most fascinating people, places, plans and peculiarities that make up the “Unknown America.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  UNKNOWN STATES

  Offbeat factoids and oddities about the states

  Alabama

  Weird AL: Alabama is the only state where sex toys are technically illegal. You need a Doctors prescription or risk facing serious penalties (Note: This law has been involved in several legal challenges over the last few years and several adult stores do exist and are fighting to stay open)

  * Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held the day before Lent begins, on Shrove Tuesday (commonly called “Fat Tuesday”) in the port city of Mobile on the Alabama coast.

  * Alabamians built the first rocket that put humans on the moon. Actually they can rightfully claim the US Space program was started in their state when in 1950 Dr. Wernher von Braun arrived in the then tiny town of Huntsville in North Alabama. Von Braun lead The Marshall Space Flight Center which was formerly part of the US Army, but now under NASA.

  * The first 911 emergency call was made in Alabama. It was February 16th, 1968 in the town of Haleyville. At that time the President of the Alabama Telephone Company, a guy named B.W. Gallagher, caught wind that AT&T was about to implement the new emergency system nationwide. Being a bit offended that the smaller service providers had not been consulted on the new plan, Gallagher decided to beat the big boys to the punch. Haleyville was chosen as the site because the towns existing equipment was best suited to make the conversion swiftly.

  That first call was not an actual emergency. Rather it was placed by the Alabama Speaker of the House, Rankin Fite, from a room in the Haleyville City Hall to a special phone in the police department. The call was successfully answered by Congressman Tom Bevill. Although not an actual emergency, the new technology worked and Alabama can rightfully claim having successfully answered the first 911 call.

  * Montgomery was the first capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America and the Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama in 1861. Jefferson Davis, the first and only the President of the Confederacy took the oath of office on the outside steps of the Alabama Statehouse. There is a plaque on the spot to commemorate the occasion.

  * In 1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first operation on a heart in the Western Hemisphere when he sutured a stab wound in a young boy.

  The surgery occurred in Montgomery. (This is not to be confused with the first corrective heart surgery)

  * Alabama can boast the very first woman in America with disabilities to serve as Miss America. Crowned in 1995, Heather Whitestone is deaf.

  * Adolph Hitler's typewriter is on exhibit at the history museum in Bessemer a town southwest of Birmingham. At the end of World War II a German-Groma 1930s typewriter was captured by the Allies at Adolf Hitler's mountain hideaway, the “Eagle's Nest,” near Saltzburg, Austria. Although it's the Hall of History's most popular exhibit, it is not featured in any of the museum's literature.

  Alaska

  Weird AK: If the island of Manhattan in New York was as sparsely inhabited as Alaska there would be a whooping 28 people on the entire island.

  * Alaska was discovered in 1741 when the Danish explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering sighted it on a voyage from Siberia. Hence the strait that bears his name.

  * In 1867 United States Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000 or two cents per acre, for the entire state. In October of 1867 Alaska officially became the property of the United States. The Alaska Purchase would be called “Seward's Folly.”

  * The itty bitty state of Rhode Island could fi
t inside the border of Alaska 425 times and the state's coastline is over 6,600 miles long.

  * The islands of Agattu, Attu, and Kiska which are part of the Aleutian's we're the only areas of North America that were occupied by Japanese troops during the second world war. The Japanese seizure of the Islands was strategically unimportant, but the islands did provide the Japanese with a base for raiding Alaska and limiting air and sea operations in the North Pacific.

  Arizona

  Weird AZ: There is an inactive volcano in Arizona called “Shit Pot Crater” because it resembles an “accident.”

  More weird: It’s illegal for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs in Arizona. (By the way: A donkey is commonly referred to as an Ass. There seems to be a theme with these 2 “weirds”)

  * Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time all year long. The only exception is the Navajo Nation, located in the northeast corner of the state, which observes the daylight savings time change.

  * The London Bridge that originally spanned the Thames River in England was dismantled in 1967 and sold to US businessman Robert P McCulloch for $2,460,000, although more for novel reasons rather than practical. The structure was reconstructed to exact specs in Lake Havasu City.

  * Of all the states, Arizona has the largest percentage of its land designated as federally protected Indian lands.

  * Arizona is home of several real ghost towns which include: Tombstone, Ruby, Gillette, and Gunsight. The Gunfight at the OK Corral, which took place in 1881 in the Arizona Territory town of Tombstone, is considered the most famous shoot-out in the American Old West, even though it lasted only about 30 seconds. (It also didn't actually happen at the corral but between two nearby buildings. More on this later).

  * Arizona's most famous criminal was a guy named Ernesto Miranda. Miranda is the man responsible for the passage of mandated arrest rights laws (“You have the right to remain silent...”).

  Arkansas

  Weird AR: Although it's no longer enforced, it's still technically illegal to mispronounce Arkansas while you're in Arkansas. (Can you imagine being arrested for this infraction? Then being read your Miranda rights and thinking to yourself, “Well now they tell me”)

  * It is also illegal for the Arkansas River, which runs between Little Rock and North Little Rock, to rise above the Main Street bridge.

  * In Fayetteville it is against the law to kill any living creature and they mean any! (Does this state have some crazy rules or what?)

  * Voters in the Razorback state are only allowed five minutes to mark an election ballot or they can be booted out. (Actually most states have time limits but this one seems very unrealistic for many elections, especially primaries)

  California

  Weird CA: California's official state animal is the Grizzly Bear. Which ironically was hunted to extinction, by Californians!

  * Dick and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino California in 1948 after another restaurant venture, a BBQ joint, failed. (Many people believe the Golden Arches was the brainchild of Ray Kroc. While Kroc is the man responsible for the explosive growth of the chain through franchising, he was not the founder)

  * The most corrupt politician in the history of Fresno and possibly the state was an illiterate building contractor named Joseph Spinney. In 1893, Spinney sat on the Fresno board of trustees. He was enormously corrupt and gained influence by representing the vice interests of the town such as gambling, booze, and prostitution.

  Spinney held a powerful swing vote that he used to push through political appointments. Spinney was made chairman of the city board, effectively making him the mayor of the city...a position he held for only about ten minutes before he resigned and nominated his pal CJ Craycroft to take his place. But his tenure was just long enough to accomplish his intended goal – consolidating his nefarious power base and expanding his influence.

  * There is a palm tree and pine tree planted beside each other at the midway point of California. The palm tree represents the entrance to southern California, while the pine tree the entrance to the north.

  * The American movie industry is based in Hollywood because movie makers were trying to stay away from inventor Thomas Edison. Edison who was based in New Jersey, held patents covering almost the entire movie making process. But hyper liberal even those days, the Ninth Circuit Court in Cali was known to rule against patent claims. So hooray for Hollywood!

  Colorado

  Weird CO: Colorado had to change it's 420 mile marker signs to 419.99 to keep people from stealing them. The number 420 is an urban reference to smoking the weed.

  * Colorado is the only state to ever turn down hosting the Olympic games. Denver won the bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics, but voters later rejected it due to infrastructure costs and environmental concerns. Instead Innsbruck, Austria, hosted the 76 Winter Olympics. Many of the venues there are now abandoned and in disrepair.

  * The US Federal government owns more than 1/3 of the land within the state's borders.

  * The 15th step of the state capital building in Denver is exactly 1 mile above sea level. This according to Colorado state Government. (Interestingly enough many travel agencies claim it's the 13th step and not the 15th that holds the distinction.)

  * In September of 1945 a farmer named Lloyd Olsen and his wife Clara of Fruita, were killing chickens by beheading them. However despite losing it's head one of the birds refused to die.

  As the story goes…

  According to Olsen's Son-in-law “They got down to the end and had one who was still alive, up and walking around.” The headless bird was placed in a box on the farmhouse porch for the night. When Olsen woke the next morning, he discovered the fowl was still alive.

  It seems although much of the birds head was gone, Olsen's ax had missed a key part of the bird's brain. The part that governs motor as well as other key functions remained. As a matter of fact Mike, as the bird was named, lived for another year and a half sans a head. The farmer feeding Mike with an eye dropper. No, really!

  * Colorado is the only state to have had three Governors serve in a single day. In 1904 an election was held between Democrat Alva Adams and the incumbent, a Republican named James H. Peabody. The election was full of corruption on both sides. The Democrats were accused of using “repeaters” in Denver and other places, while Republican mine owners forced mine laborers to vote Republican or risk losing their jobs. After the votes were tabulated Alva Adams was declared the winner. However Peabody learned of the voting fraud and contested the results. But since Peabody's side had also engaged in fraudulent voting, an investigation was begun to determine the rightful victor. While the investigation was taking place Adams was inaugurated. But after three months of deliberation, he was replaced by Peabody on the condition that Peabody resign within 24 hours. Immediately following Peabody's resignation, the Lt. Gov. Jesse F. McDonald was sworn in as governor.

  The result: Colorado had three governors in a single day.

  Connecticut

  Weird CT: In 1970 Connecticut refused to issue a man a drivers license on the basis his homosexuality made him dangerous to other drivers.

  * “The Fundamental Orders” was the first constitution to be adopted by the colonies in 1639. It established the structure and boundaries of the new government and ensured the rights of free men to elect their public officials—principles that were later embraced within the US Constitution.

  * War of 1812 Almost a Civil War

  A month of meetings took place in late 1814 into early 1815 in Hartford among federalists who were considering seceding from the United States. The plan was to negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain in hopes of bringing an end to the war of 1812. The idea didn't gain much traction, and Andrew Jackson's victory in the Battle of New Orleans then made the issue moot.

  * Connecticut was the first state in the nation to issue license plates for automobiles in the year 1937.

  * In the early mid 50's the world’s first nuclear submar
ine, the USS Nautilus, was built in Groton. The vessel was much larger than its diesel predecessors and could travel at speeds in excess of 20 knots and stay submerged almost indefinitely because its atomic engine needed only a minimal amount of fuel and no air.

  * In order for a pickle to be officially considered a pickle in Connecticut, it must bounce. No kidding. Supposedly this law is to prevent farmers from selling certain processed foods. And apparently “non bouncers” don't meet the states required pickle pH levels.

  Delaware

  Weird DE: There are roughly 25,000 headstones in the Delaware River which are left over from when the river was diverted over a cemetery. Every once in a while one will wash up on shore.

  * In Dover in 1787, the US Constitution was unanimously ratified by all the delegates to the states Constitutional Convention, thus making Delaware the first state of the United States. (Until Pennsylvania came on-board - for a short time at least - the country could have simply been called “The State of America”)