12 Trivia Tidbits for Thursday, July 18, 2024

When the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, they paid $7.2 million, or roughly 2 cents an acre.

A real, proper pizzamaker in a pizzeria is known as a pizzaiolo.

Clownfish are hermaphroditic. They all begin life as males, but are capable of changing sexes.

The “snug,” present in many Irish pubs, was a private area for patrons who didn't want to be seen to drinking in public.

Long before the era of Kid Cuisine and the like, the first TV dinner featured turkey, cornbread, peas and sweet potatoes.

Not by sheer amount, but by the fact that it’s an odd number: five.

They were created by crossbreeding the mandarin with the pomelo.

Most people probably know that “colorblindness” is usually a difficulty differentiating certain colors, not a world in grayscale. Though that does exist. The condition is called “monochromacy.”

It’s in Vredefort, South Africa, and it’s from an impact roughly two billion years ago, which originally left a crater estimated between 180 and 300 kilometers wide.

On April 14, 1910, William Howard Taft threw out the first pitch on Major League Baseball's Opening Day, at a game between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators.

The term blue laws, supposedly based on the color of the paper they were originally written on, refers to laws that regulate activities on Sundays or religious holidays.

Obviously, he couldn’t put “crime boss.” Instead, it said he was a used furniture dealer.