1. In 1560, Charles IX, King of France, created the first legislation regulating the sale of waffles (cite))
2. Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Kohl’s make roughly as much profit from their credit card business as they do from their retail business (cite)
3. The most recent year in which the 10 highest grossing films did not consist of a single sequel was 1996 (cite).
4. The LA Clippers are named so because of the great sailing ships that use to pass through San Diego Bay (where the team was originally located). A clipper is a mid-19th century sailing vessel. (cite).
5. North Dakota has the fifth highest GDP per capita of the 50 US states, above such states as Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois. (cite).
6. An ice cream barge was a vessel employed by the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of World War II to produce ice cream in large quantities to be provisioned to sailors and U.S. Marines (cite)
7. Taco Bell is named after its founder, Glenn Bell (cite).
8. The phrase "pitch black" refers to the substance "pitch", which is very black in color (cite)
9. Total household debt in the US doubled from 2000 to 2007 (cite).
10. February 19th 2024 was the first day in the history of men’s tennis in which there was no individual in the top 10 with a one-handed backhand (cite).
11. At its peak, the British East India Company had a private army twice the size of the British army. (cite)
12. The top 1% of earners pay 42.3% of the federal income taxes (cite).
13. KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is the oldest airline (c. 1919) still operating under its current name. (cite)
14. The mailing of people weighing less than 50 pounds (i.e., children) was occasionally practiced due to a legal ambiguity when the United States first introduced domestic parcel post in 1913. The children were carried along by mail carriers, but were not put in boxes. (cite).
15. Per capita beef consumption in the US peaked in 1976. (cite).
16. In the appendix to Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien notes that the characters are not actually called what they appear to be called in the text, but that their "real names" were translated from the common tongue — Westron — into approximately similar English names. For example, Samwise Gamgee’s actual name is Banazir Galbasi. (cite)
17. The majority of $100 bills are held outside of the US. (cite)