California Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

Looking for California trivia? Try our list California little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Barry Hempel, from Garden Grove—who was listed as missing in action after a battle on May 9, 1968, in South Vietnam—was buried Oct. 7, along with the remains of six of his comrades in a single coffin at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The U.S. Department of Defense located the soldiers’ remains in the late 1990s; DNA analysis has since helped identify them.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

It’s reported that when Dolores Hope asked her husband, movie star and comedian Bob Hope, where he’d like to be buried, he replied, "Surprise me." The Bob Hope Memorial Garden opened to the public this past summer in Mission Hills (pop. 3,142), at the San Fernando Mission—the spot Dolores chose for the legendary entertainer after he died in July 2003.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

George Bombardier has driven from California to Connecticut four times in a golf cart. The retired roofer from Rialto made his latest trip this summer in a golf cart built to resemble a miniature 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. The trip took 10 days, and his vehicle got 50 miles to the gallon.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

Sister Aimee McPherson, one of the nation’s first famous Pentecostal evangelists, arrived in Los Angeles in 1918, built a temple for members of her Church of the Four Square Gospel, and started broadcasting her message by radio.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

During a pilot program last summer to clear overgrown areas prior to fire season, 143 goats ate their way through 12 acres of brush in the Hernandez Ranch area of San Pedro’s Peck Park Canyon in Los Angeles. The goats were brought in by Nanny & Billy’s Vegetative Management in Oregon and took about two weeks to do the job.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

Skydivers can practice their freefalls inside the SkyVenture vertical wind tunnel at Perris Valley Skydiving near Perris (pop. 45,793). Five large fans produce wind speeds of 145 mph inside the tunnel. Established in 1965, Perris Valley Skydiving is one of the world’s largest skydiving operations, hosting more than 100,000 jumps annually.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

Rafer Lewis Johnson, who grew up in Kingsburg (pop. 9,199), competed in his first decathlon—a 10-event track and field competition—in 1954, as a student at UCLA; in 1960, he earned a gold medal in the event at the Olympic Games in Rome. He returned to the Olympics in 1984, lighting the Olympic flame during opening ceremonies in Los Angeles.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

Pal, the collie who originally portrayed Lassie, wasn’t the movie executives’ first choice when they were filming the 1943 movie Lassie Come Home. But Pal, owned by Frank and Rudd Weatherwax of Los Angeles, did such a good job as a stand-in, including a difficult scene that involved crossing the flooded Sacramento River in northern California, that he was hired to play the part of the loyal and heroic dog for the entire film.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

Last May, a botanist working in Mount Diablo State Park, near Danville (pop. 41,715), discovered plants known as the Mount Diablo buckwheat, a wildflower that was believed to be extinct. The species, which looks like a pink version of the baby’s breath often used in floral arrangements, was last seen in 1936.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

When visitors to Buena Park’s Knott’s Berry Farm ride the Silver Bullet inversion rollercoaster, they find themselves upside down six times. The 2.5-minute ride reaches a top speed of 55 mph and includes a climb of 146 feet and a drop of 109 feet. The $16-million Silver Bullet opened in December 2004 as the farm’s seventh rollercoaster. Ski-lift style seats hang from the track in inversion roller coasters.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

A sports trading card collector in Stockton beat 135,475-to-1 odds earlier this year when he discovered a card bearing the signature of Pope John Paul II inside a $1.50 pack of regular baseball cards. Baseball-card maker Topps released the card in its World Treasures series, which features signatures of world figures inserted onto a regular trading card.

first appeared: 9/18/2005

Michael Rugg and Paula Yarr founded The Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton (pop. 1,051) in July 2004 to showcase evidence of Bigfoot, a large, hairy biped reported to live in northern California. The museum houses the research and collections that Rugg has amassed over more than 50 years, including a copy of the 1967 film by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin that appears to show the creature.

first appeared: 9/11/2005

Born in Alameda (pop. 72,259) in 1896, James Harold Doolittle served in the Army Signal Corps and as a flying instructor during World War I. At the start of World War II, he re-entered the military and led the first carrier-based bomber attack on mainland Japan, on April 18, 1942, for which he won the Medal of Honor. While the damage caused by the raids was relatively minor, the fact that American planes were able to penetrate Japanese defenses was a huge boost in morale for the United States.

first appeared: 9/11/2005

At 28 feet high, the Freedom Tower, unveiled in March, is the tallest building at Legoland in Carlsbad (pop. 78,247). Part of Legoland’s New York City skyline exhibit, titled Miniland New York, the tower is a 1/70-scale model of the skyscraper slated to be built on the former World Trade Center site. The "miniature" tower took four months to build out of Lego bricks and includes an 8-foot spire on its top.

first appeared: 8/28/2005

In 1976, artist Jane Pinheiro helped found the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, west of Lancaster in the Antelope Buttes. Once home to pronghorn and sheep, the park covers 1,745 acres at the high desert elevation of 2,600 to 3,000 feet and is known for its lupine and goldfield flowers in addition to poppies.

first appeared: 8/14/2005

Country music legend Buck Owens moved to Bakersfield in 1951, became a fixture on the local music scene and soon began driving to Los Angeles to play guitar during recording sessions. The Hee Haw star still performs at his Crystal Palace in Bakersfield most Friday and Saturday nights. The son of sharecroppers, he was born Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. on Aug. 12, 1929, in Sherman, Texas (pop. 35,082).

first appeared: 7/31/2005

Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought Santa Catalina Island, 22 miles off Los Angeles’ coast, in 1919. His son, Philip, created El Rancho Escondido, or the "hidden" ranch, there in the 1930s, raising Arabian horses. Today, the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy owns and protects almost 90 percent of the island, whose major town is Avalon (pop. 3,127).

first appeared: 7/31/2005

A 2004 garage sale purchase of 16-mm film reels in Redding (pop. 80,865) has resulted in the discovery of rare footage from 1930s Anchorage, Alaska. The buyer sent the reels to the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association, which recently announced that rare color footage included the 1935 Anchorage visit of humorist Will Rogers, the day before he died in a plane crash.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

The Oakland Museum holds a large collection of photographs by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), the noted Depression- and World War II-era photographer.

first appeared: 6/19/2005

Brutus, a miniature dachshund, set a Guinness World Record for the highest sky-diving dog in 1997. He and owner Ron Sirull jumped from a height of 15,000 feet above Lake Elsinore (pop. 28,928), breaking a previous record set by a Jack Russell terrier. At that time, Brutus had already made more than 70 skydives, safely tucked in a pouch fastened to his owner’s jump suit.

first appeared: 6/19/2005

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