What you think you know may not be so! Amaze your friends with these fun facts.

Random Did You Know Facts

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May 26, 2009

Drivers License, Then and Now


The first driver's license ( or permit to drive) was issued to the inventor of the modern automobile, Karl Benz, in 1888.
He was required to have the license to drive his car because the citizens of Mannheim complained of the noise and the smell.
Benz requested and received this written permission by the Grand Ducal authorities to operate his car on public roads. Thus the birth of what we call a drivers license. But this license wasn't requires in the USA until August 1, 1910, after many automobile-related fatalities began to soared in North America. North America's first driver's licensing law went into effect in the U.S. state of New York, though it initially applied only to professional chauffeurs. The state of New Jersey became the first to require all drivers to pass a mandatory examination before receiving a license in July 1913. In the United States as well as some other countries that do not use national identification cards and because of the widespread use of cars, driver's licenses are often used as a de facto standard form of identification. Now we have to be of a certain age and pass a written and drivers test to obtain a license to drive. There are different test for different types of trucks and/or automobiles/vehicles that you must take to drive a vehicle other than a car/4 wheel truck.

On March 27, 2008, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced that Washington's enhanced driver's license will be the first such license approved under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
Enhanced licenses essentially combine a regular driver's license with the same specifications of the new Federal passport card. Thus in addition to proving driving privileges, the enhanced license also is proof of U.S. citizenship, and can therefore be used to cross the US-Canadian and US-Mexican borders by road, rail, or sea, but not by air. I expect this to eventually be in every state and every driver can obtain an Enhanced Drivers License.


May 17, 2009

The Radio and First Broadcast


Did you know...

Radio owes its development to two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone, all three technologies are closely related. Radio technology began as "wireless telegraphy" However, it all started with the discovery of "radio waves" - electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to transmit music, speech, pictures and other data invisibly through the air. Many devices work by using electromagnetic waves including: radio, microwaves, cordless phones, remote controlled toys, television broadcasts, and more.

Nikola Tesla's original concept was demonstrated in his famous lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1893. The four circuits, used in two pairs, are still a fundamental part of all radio and television equipment.

Nikola Tesla patented the basic system of radio in 1896. His published schematic diagrams describing all the basic elements of the radio transmitter which was later used by Marconi.

In 1896 Tesla constructed an instrument to receive radio waves. He experimented with this device and transmitted radio waves from his laboratory on South 5th Avenue. to the Gerlach Hotel at 27th Street in Manhattan. The device had a magnet which gave off intense magnetic fields up to 20,000 lines per centimeter. The radio device clearly establishes his piority in the discovery of radio.

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland. This was the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message in 1902.

The first extended broadcast of the human voice was transmitted through the air on December 24, 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. A Canadian engineer, Reginald Fessenden, had worked for Thomas Edison in his New Jersey Laboratory, and later became a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.


May 6, 2009

The First Soft Drink Manufacturer in USA


Did you know...

The first carbonated soda manufacturer in the USA was Dr Pepper?

I bet you thought it was Coca Cola...
But Dr Pepper is one year older than Coca Cola.

Don't you just love surprises?

A young pharmacist from Waco, Texas, named Charles Alderton invented the first soft drink "Dr Pepper" in the year 1885.

He worked at a corner drug store by the name of Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store where Carbonated drinks were served at the soda fountain at the front of the store. Alderton invented his own recipes for soft drinks by mixing tasty syrups or other ingredients with the carbonated water and tasting them. He and the owner of the drug store soon found one of his drinks was becoming very popular. His customers originally asked for the drink by asking Alderton to shoot them a "Waco".
For several years, Dr Pepper was sold only as a fountain drink.

Wade Morrison, owner of the drug store changed the name to "Dr Pepper" after a friend (some claim he was the father of the girl Wade was in love with) who gave him his first job, Dr. Charles Pepper. Later in the 1950s the period was removed from the "Dr Pepper" name.

As demand from other drug stores with soda fountains grew, Alderton and Morrison had trouble making enough "Dr Pepper" for the customers. That's when Robert S. Lazenby came to their rescue. Lazenby was the owned of The Circle "A" Ginger Ale Company in Waco. Yeah, Ginger Ale is older than Dr Pepper. Lazenby after tasting, was impressed with this new drink "Dr Pepper". Since Alderton did not want to pursue the business and manufacturing end of soft drinks he agreed that Morrison and Lazenby should take over and become partners.

In 1891, Morrison and Lazenby formed the Artesian Mfg. & Bottling Company, which later became the Dr Pepper Company.


In 1904, Dr Pepper was introduced to 20 million people attending the World's Fair Exposition, in St. Louis. The same world's fair that introduced hamburger and hot dog buns as well as the ice cream cones to the public.

The Dr Pepper Company is the oldest major manufacturer of soft drink concentrates and syrups in the United States. What makes Dr Pepper different from other soft drinks...cane sugar. Dr Pepper is the only soft drink still made with cane sugar.

Oh, I almost forgot...the 10, 2, and 4 you see on the older bottles are the times suggested to drink a Dr Pepper to keep up your energy.