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Hot Topics
August 8, 2005

Did You Know?

  • How Many Emails Did Bill Clinton Write as President?

  • Who Wrote More Words than Anybody Else?

  • What Are the Origins of the Jewish Blood Libel Myth?

  • NASA Considered -- The Rejected -- Female Pilots in the 1960s

  • Ben Franklin's Musical Invention Enjoys a Revival

  • How the Zip Code Changed America

  • Does the Stock Market Do Better Under Democrats or Republicans?

  • Why Is Washington DC So Much Smaller than the Founders Envisioned?

  • What's a Spider Hole?

  • They Can't Both Be Right

  • How the Smithsonian Finally Got an African-History Museum

  • Why Is There a Pyramid on U.S. Money?

  • The Anasazi Ate Turkey Long Before the Pilgrims

  • Who Invented Port?

  • Lincoln Never Said That

  • So the Pilgrims Celebrated the First Thanksgiving?

  • When Was Cloture Devised?

  • George McGovern's Faux Pas

  • JFK Was Almost Killed as President-Elect

  • The Woman Behind Thanksgiving

  • So Where Did the First Thanksgiving Take Place?

  • Iraq's Casualties Greater than Vietnam's During the First 3 Years of War in Asia

  • His Father Fought in the Civil War -- HIS FATHER!

  • Racist Place Names

  • Name the Person Who Made These Anti-Semitic Remarks

  • What Happened to the Riderless Horse at JFK's Funeral?

  • Oldest Condom in the World

  • What Does the Stock Market Tell Us About Next Year's Election (And Vice Versa?)(

  • Islam's Division into 2 Main Camps Began When ...

  • What? Charlie Chaplin Wasn't Jewish?

  • Just How Lewd Was Elizabethan England?

  • When the Papal Chair Is Empty

  • Benedict Arnold's Flawed Gravestone

  • How Did Mobsters Hide Bodies?

  • Noted Suicides Through History

  • Did the Japanese Use Mustard Gas in WW II?

  • How the Poverty Rate Is Determined

  • Dr. Rice, I Presume!

  • Reagan Opposed the Recall

  • Edison and the Electric Chair

  • How Many Generals Have Been Elected President?

  • Did the U.S. Count Civilian Dead in Vietnam?

  • Voting in California 100 Years Ago: How Things Have Changed

  • Korea Used to Be Spelled Corea: Why That Is Now Important

  • The 10 Commandments?

  • Bush Is a Divider not a Uniter

  • Peter L'Enfant?

  • Quick: Guess Which Film Clip from the 20th Century Is the Most Popular?

  • Muslim Against Muslim: The War Within Islam

  • Keep the 10 Commandments in the Alabama Courthouse?
  • What Was the Triangle Trade?

  • Why Do Suburbs Feature Grand Lawns?

  • House-Senate Conference Committees: A Tempestuous Past

  • Road Accidents ... Are Cars to Blame?

  • Has a UN Official Ever Been Specifically Targeted for Assassination?

  • When Did World War II End?

  • What Is the Baath Party

  • Productivity Isn't Increasing Faster Now than in the Past

  • Was Duke University Built with Tobacco Money?

  • Why Don't Editors Show Dead People on TV or in Newspapers?

  • What Event in History Cost the U.S. the Most Money?

  • Why Do Museums Now Have to Worry About the Origins of Their Artifacts?

  • Bush's 2 Question Rule

  • Did the British Invent Lasagne?

  • Putting the Death Toll of Saddam's Victims in Perspective

  • The Story of the Only Enlisted Man to Be Honored with a Memorial at Gettysburg

  • The Origins of the Great Seal

  • Wright Brothers Didn't Hail from North Carolina

  • Ohio's Importance in the Presidential Sweepstakes

  • Paul Revere's Ride: A Team Effort

  • How Easy Would It Be for a PhD to Make an Atomic Bomb?

  • Do You Know the Story Behind the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria?

  • How Much Do States and Localities Spend?

  • What War Since World War II Has Been the Deadliest?

  • Is the American Economy Really the Best Off in the World?

  • Just How Badly in Debt is the United States?

  • What Kind of Gas Mileage Did the Model T Get?

  • The Gay Betsy Ross

  • How Did St. Petersburg Come into Existence?

  • Does the Stock Market Affect Presidential Elections (Or At Least Reflect Economic Conditions that Decide Elections)?

  • How Did Arlington National Cemetery Come into Being?

  • Is It Iraq or Irak? (And Is It E-raq or Eye-raq?)

  • When the U.S. Government Tested Chemicals on American Citizens

  • Did State Spending in the 1990s Get Out of Control?

  • Why Do Soldiers Shout HOO-AH?

  • Where Does the Word Quarantine Come From?

  • "Render to Caesar": What Jesus Meant

  • What's a Cakewalk?

  • How Does the Bush Tax Cut Compare with Reagan's and Kennedy's?

  • When Did President Begin Releasing Their Tax Returns?

  • Was"Americanism" Always the Preserve of the Right?

  • What the Marshall Plan Cost

  • Terrorists and Pirates

  • Imbedded Journalists: Nothing New

  • New Zealand: We Beat the Wright Brothers

  • On the Relationship Between War and Money

  • Will the Bush Tax Cuts Prove Supply-Side Economics Works?

  • War-Speak

  • Iraq's Indebtedness Is as Deep as Its Oil Wells

  • War of Words

  • Public Opinion in the 1930s When Danger Lurked Everywhere

  • Do Wars Bring About Prosperity?

  • Blacks Were Not Over-Represented in the Ranks of the Vietnam Troops

  • Science and War

  • How Long Do Our Wars Last?

  • Why Do We Put Up Yellow Ribbons During Wars?

  • Will Iraq Begin Selling Oil in Dollars Again?

  • The History of the Marine Units Fighting in Iraq

  • Why do Soldiers Wave a White Flag When Surrendering?

  • Say Goodbye to the Cold War Peace Dividend

  • Just How Big Is the Projected Deficit?

  • Artists And War

  • How often has the u.s. Used the veto at the un?

  • Bush's Infrequent Press Conferences

  • How The NYT Missed The News That Crick And Watson Had Discovered Dna

  • Out Of Africa

  • So How Long Will We Stay In Iraq?

  • It Took Less Time To Try Eichmann

  • 25 Percent Of Gulf War Vets Disabled

  • Is The Stock Market Doomed This Year?

  • Hard To G