By Wilson Casey

For someone who ever desired to understand the background of the chocolate chip cookie, earmuffs, and sunlight Savings...

Firsts-history throughout the milestones of human achievement-are enjoyable. And Wilson Casey, trivialities specialist, has accumulated over 500 firsts in approximately each significant class of tradition: from model to foodstuff, politics to technological know-how, leisure to paintings to architec­ture. every one "first" is an entire clarification of the subject to hand, written in a funny but authoritative variety. It contains:

•The actual heritage of the golfing tee

•How a blind guy got here up with cruise keep an eye on

•The fable at the back of the origins of the Caesar salad

•Why and the way the 1st dieter dieted

Show description

Read or Download Firsts: Origins of Everyday Things That Changed the World PDF

Best humor & entertainment books

The Who's Who of Nobel Prize Winners 1901-2000: Fourth Edition

The who is Who of Nobel Prize Winners is a one-stop resource of specific details at the women and men who earned the Nobel Prize in the course of the twentieth century. prepared chronologically via prize, each one vast article comprises in-depth details at the laureate's existence and profession in addition to a particular checklist of his or her guides and biographical assets at the person.

Jazz Conception for Saxophone Duets

One of many world's preferred jazz duet books. Designed for sax, yet compatible for many treble clef tools. extremely popular with academics as the Duets are hip and enjoyable to play! Please word: duets are written for two Eb saxes or 2BB (not one in every of each). every one tune at the CD is recorded in 2 keys to facilitate 2 altos or 2 tenors.

Fact of Fiction: Science Tackles 58 Popular Myths

Truth or Fiction: technology Tackles fifty eight well known Myths via the Editors of clinical American

Did NASA relatively spend thousands making a pen that may write in house? Is chocolate toxic to canine? Does tension reason grey hair? those questions are only a pattern of the city lore investigated during this e-book, truth or Fiction: technology Tackles fifty eight well known Myths. Drawing from clinical American’s “Fact or Fiction” and “Strange yet real” columns, we’ve chosen fifty eight of the main remarkable, interesting, important and simply undeniable wacky themes faced by means of our writers through the years. each one short article uncovers the reality at the back of daily mythology, beginning with part One, “In the Animal Kingdom,” the place we research the various extra outlandish claims approximately our fellow earthly population, resembling no matter if elephants particularly take into account every thing and even if a cockroach can dwell with out its head. different sections hide replica, the surroundings, know-how and private and psychological wellbeing and fitness. whereas the solutions to a few questions, akin to no matter if bogs quite do flush within the wrong way south of the Equator, might simply serve to elevate your Trivial Pursuit wisdom, others, reminiscent of even if to pee on a jellyfish sting or wake a sleepwalker, may well come in useful. even though this e-book represents a fragment of circulating people knowledge and concrete mythology, we are hoping that it’s an relaxing fraction and that it encourages you to perform a little debunking your self.

Additional resources for Firsts: Origins of Everyday Things That Changed the World

Sample text

Handler named her doll Barbie after her daughter, Barbara. It sold for $3, and during the introductory year of 1959, 351,000 Barbie dolls sold. Barometer The first barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure was invented around 1644 in Florence, Italy, by Evangelista Torricelli, Galileo’s secretary. Galileo had suggested that Torricelli use mercury in his vacuum experiments. Torricelli filled a 4-foot-long glass tube with mercury and turned it upside down into a bowl. The tube was sealed at one end and left open at the other.

The balls were shoved rather than struck with a wooden stick through a wire gate just like croquet. Over time, the players began using the sides of the table to purposefully angle the balls into the gates. Billionaire On September 29, 1916, John Davison Rockefeller’s net worth officially surpassed $1 billion, making him the world’s first billionaire. Born in Richford, New York, he became an American industrialist and philanthropist who revolutionized the petroleum industry. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company, and as gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller’s wealth soared.

The palace was royal property at the time and was used for courtly entertainment, including opera productions and cultural events. The art exhibitions became very popular, and beginning in 1671, they were held biennially in the Louvre. This allowed for more exhibitions with public awareness and attendance. Artificial Gene A gene is a unit of heredity that determines the characteristics an organism inherits from its parents. Dr. Hargobind Khorana, an Indian American scientist, was responsible for producing the first manmade or artificial gene in his laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1970.

Download PDF sample

Rated 4.26 of 5 – based on 29 votes