Kansas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 11

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

In 1889, Albert Alexander Hyde of Wichita introduced a soothing menthol ointment for colds and sore throats: Mentholatum.

first appeared: 5/4/2003

Two rare albino calves have been born on the Tim and Kathy Gintner farm near Frontenac (pop. 2,996) since 1998. Researchers say the odds of producing an albino calf, with its unique white coat and pink eyes, are one in a million or more.

first appeared: 4/27/2003

The buffalo, which can weigh 2,000 pounds and stand nearly 6 feet high at the shoulder, was designated the state animal in 1955.

first appeared: 4/20/2003

Clutching skillets with pancakes, women in Liberal (pop. 19,666) race against their “sisters” in Olney, England, during the International Pancake Race each Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Since 1950, the cities have competed at 11:55 a.m. local time along a 415-yard course.

first appeared: 4/13/2003

Vice President Charles Curtis (1929-1933), the first vice president who was part American Indian, was born in 1860 in Topeka.

first appeared: 4/6/2003

Actress Vivian Vance, best known as Ethel Mertz in the television sitcom I Love Lucy, was born in 1909 in Cherryvale (pop. 2,386) and grew up in Independence (9,846). She won an Emmy in 1954 for her role as Lucy’s landlady in the popular show that aired from 1951 to 1957.

first appeared: 3/30/2003

T. Claude Ryan, a native of Parsons (pop. 11,514), launched the Los Angeles-San Diego Airline, the nation’s first year-round regularly scheduled airline in 1925.

first appeared: 3/23/2003

On June 29, 1541, Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his men forded the Arkansas River near present-day Dodge City (pop. 25,176).

first appeared: 3/16/2003

The pronunciation of Arkansas River depends on where it’s flowing. Inside the state, it’s Ar-Kansas, but outside, it’s Ar-kan-saw.

first appeared: 3/9/2003

Freeport (pop. 6) is the nation’s smallest incorporated city with a bank, Freeport State Bank.

first appeared: 3/2/2003

Champion bricklayer Jim Brown, an Oneida Indian, laid 125 to 150 bricks a minute while paving streets in the 1920s in Goodland (pop. 4,948).

first appeared: 2/23/2003

Greensburg (pop. 1,574) is sweet on Richard Huckriede, 73, a soda jerk at Hunter Drug since 1952.

first appeared: 2/16/2003

White envelopes containing $10 bills began arriving anonymously in the mailboxes of Turon (pop. 436) residents after Sept. 11, 2002, both confusing and delighting townspeople.

first appeared: 2/9/2003

Boxer Jess Willard of Pottawatomie County reigned as world heavyweight champion from April 1915 until July 1919 when he was defeated by Jack Dempsey.

first appeared: 2/2/2003

In 1997, residents of Bern (pop. 204) spent four months doing 20,000 loads of laundry testing a new washing machine to save water and energy. For their efforts, townspeople last September earned a free trip to the nation’s capital where they received special recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy.

first appeared: 1/26/2003

The state’s coldest temperature of minus 40 degrees was recorded Feb. 13, 1905, at Lebanon (pop. 303).

first appeared: 1/19/2003

The 1904 Old Limestone Building, which houses the public library in Potwin (pop. 457), originally served as the town’s first bank.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

In 1880, Kansas became the first state to prohibit alcoholic beverages by constitutional amendment, preceding national prohibition by 40 years.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

Carry Nation lived a fairly quiet life in Medicine Lodge (pop. 2,193) before she became a leading advocate of the temperance movement and began smashing saloons with a hatchet in the early 1900s.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

Fick Fossil and History Museum in Oakley (pop. 2,173) features a rare collection of 11,000 shark teeth, remnants of a prehistoric period when what would become Kansas was covered by water.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

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