OHIO--THE 48TH STATE?

In 1953, Congress adopted legislation admitting Ohio as a state. Prior to this time, many persons were under the general impression that Ohio had already joined the Union in 1803. However, when preparing for celebrations for the 150th anniversary of statehood in 1953, the organizers discovered that there was never a joint resolution signed by Congress formally admitting Ohio as the 17th state. In order to resolve any potential legal complications, the Ohio legislature approved a new petition for statehood. At the federal level, Ohioan George Bender of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill which would admit Ohio retroactively as of March 1, 1803. Congress passed the joint resolution which was then signed by President Eisenhower on August 7, 1953. 

For reasons explained in exquisite and painstaking detail by The Green Papers, it may not have been legally necessary in the first place to have a joint Congressional resolution admitting Ohio (or, for that matter, any other state). Nonetheless, creative tax protesters have argued that the 1953 date applies and that since William Howard Taft was born in Ohio prior to it becoming a state in 1953, he was not a natural-born citizen and was thus barred by the Constitution from becoming President. The protesters then conclude that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which authorized the income tax, was as a result invalid when it was adopted during Taft's Presidency in 1913. These arguments have been universally found wanting by the courts who have considered the issue. 

HOW TO SELL TIME

In 1836, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich could compute the time accurately down to the exact second. However, in a era where there was no radio, TV, internet, or telephones, there was no way a business miles from the observatory could benefit from this information in order to set its clocks.

John Henry Belville, an astronomer and meteorologist who worked at the observatory, saw the situation as a way to make a few extra pounds. He set up a horological subscription service where he sold the exact time to patrons in London. Each week, Belville would synchronize his superbly accurate pocket chronometer (which he named "Arnold") to the observatory and then take the chronometer around to his customers, who would then use it to set their own clocks.

Belville eventually died (duh) and left his business and Arnold to his wife and then to his daughter. The family shut down the service altogether in 1940, when modern technology had made it pretty well useless.

One of the primary reasons the Royal Observatory was so temporally obsessed  was that the vessels in the Royal Navy needed to know the exact time in order to calibrate a ship's chronometer before going on a voyage. A good chronometer was crucial in determining longitude while navigating.

NAZI OENOPHILIA

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If you still harbor any doubts that our society is a little sick, I invite you to peruse the website of an Italian wine company who offers a wide variety of products labeled with a picture of Hitler or one of his myrmidons, such as Himmler, Goering, or Eva Braun. Theoretically, the packaging was designed for history buffs, but according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the vast majority of purchasers appear to be either bona fide Neo-nazis or younger folks who really know little about the Nazi Party except that they can shock people by pretending to embrace its philosophy.

THE KILLER SMOG

For five days commencing on December 5, 1952 in London, a combination of a temperature inversion, fumes from the burning of low-grade coal in furnaces and fireplaces, and heavy fog lead to the formation of a deadly smog which was essentially sulfuric acid vapor. It was originally thought that 4,000 people died as a result of their lungs filling with pus, but later studies indicate that the immediate death toll was actually closer to 12,000, in addition to an unknown number of persons whose lifespans were shortened as a result of damage to their pulmonary systems.

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JUST STELLA YOU LOVE HER

The "Stella" was an experimental U.S. four-dollar gold coin first issued in 1879. It featured on the front Liberty in either a flowing or coiled hair style and a star on the back. The obverse of the coin also indicates the individual amounts of gold, silver, and copper in each unit.

The coin was intended to be used internationally. There were patterns made in several different kinds of metals, and gold examples of the flowing hair style dated 1879 were made available to members of Congress (but to no one else) by the mint. 

Congress did not authorize the general production of the coin, and only a few hundred examples were made--including some made in 1880 surreptitiously by the mint to sell to collectors. 

Oddly enough, shortly after the Congressmen acquired their 1879 flowing hair gold Stellas, the very same coins started showing up mounted on necklaces worn by the madams of some of the most venerable brothels in the District of Columbia, creating a scandal which titillated Washington high society.

Today, a Stella in top condition can easily fetch its owner a sum in the seven-figures.

THE MOVIE WHICH KILLED JOHN WAYNE

Reynold Brown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The last film produced by Howard Hughes was The Conqueror. It was made in 1956 and starred John Wayne as Genghis Khan and Susan Hayward as a red-headed Tatar princess. It was a huge flop and has achieved a place on several lists as one of the worst 50 movies ever made. This is not by itself a unique distinction; there are probably 49 other movies on each such list which would also qualify. 

However, most other movies were not made near St. George, Utah, just downwind of the Nevada atomic bomb test range, and most other movies did not have their directors (Dick Powell) and their principle cast members (Wayne, Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendariz) die from cancer (although, technically, Armendariz committed suicide as a result of the pain caused by the disease). In fact, 91 out of 220 of the primary persons involved in the production of the film got cancer within 25 years--46 of them fatally. This figure does not include extras or other persons present on the set who also contracted the disease--including John Wayne's son, Michael, who had visited him on the set and died of cancer in 2003.

It probably did not help when Hughes brought back sixty tons of radioactive dirt from Utah to Hollywood for back lot shots. The soil is no doubt still around Los Angeles somewhere.

Hughes felt bad about the carcinoma revelations and bought back all existing prints of the movie for $12 million. He refused until 1974 to allow it to be shown on television.  

For more about the deadliest film ever made, please click here.

90 DEGREES--IT'S A BOY!

The sex of a Nile crocodile is determined by the average temperature of the egg (which is buried in the sand with the others in the clutch) during the middle third of the incubation period. If the temperature is between 89 degrees and 94 degrees Fahrenheit (32 to 34 degrees C), the crocodile will be a male. If it is outside of that range, it will be something else. 

Unlike most reptiles, mama crocs have strong maternal instincts and are very protective of their eggs and young--perhaps the reason why herpetologists who poke thermometers into crocodile nests are often nicknamed "Stumpy."

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