Kansas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

In 1985, Lynette Woodard of Wichita became the first female basketball player to sign with the Harlem Globetrotters.

first appeared: 1/30/2005

Born in Elkhart (pop. 2,233) in 1909, Glenn Cunningham overcame great obstacles to become one of the world’s greatest middle-distance runners. Burned in a fire at age 7, he was told by doctors that he wouldn’t walk again, but "The Kansas Flyer" went on to win a silver medal in the 1,500-meter race during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

The world's best electric utility linemen compete in events such as rescuing an injured man and pole climbing during the International Lineman's Rodeo, established in 1984, each October in Bonner Springs (pop. 6,768).

first appeared: 1/2/2005

The nation’s only museum in a working salt mine, the Kansas Underground Salt Museum is under construction in Hutchinson (pop. 40,787) and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

Sharon Springs (pop. 835) doubles in population each May during the rattlesnake roundup.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

Rees Fruit Farm, near Topeka, has grown and sold apples, plums, peaches, cherries, strawberries, blackberries and pumpkins since 1901.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

To celebrate its first million-bushel wheat harvest, Sumner County held a wheat festival in 1900 in Wellington (pop. 8,647), and the tradition continues each July.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

In 1868, Charles H. Strong killed a deer in Crawford County, drove a stake at the spot, and proclaimed it the site of a new town—named Girard (pop. 2,773) after his hometown of Girard, Pa.

first appeared: 10/24/2004

Established in 1827, Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth (pop. 35,420) is the oldest active Army post west of the Mississippi River.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

Monroe Elementary School in Topeka was opened May 17 as a national historic site, 50 years after the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education declared that segregated schools are inherently unequal. The plaintiffs’ children attended the segregated school.

first appeared: 10/3/2004

Lebanon (pop. 303) is the geographic center of the lower 48 states.

first appeared: 9/19/2004

Baseball Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, born in 1887 near Humboldt (pop. 1,999), pitched a record 110 shutouts with the Washington Senators from 1906 to 1927.

first appeared: 9/12/2004

Johnny Western, a country music disc jockey in Wichita, is best known for composing and singing the theme for the classic TV Western Have Gun, Will Travel.

first appeared: 9/5/2004

He didn’t cross the finish line first, but Jim Roper of Halstead (pop. 1,873) won the first NASCAR “stock car” race in 1949 in Charlotte, N.C. The former first-place car was disqualified because its springs had been altered.

first appeared: 8/29/2004

Andrew Wojtanik, 14, of Overland Park, won the 2004 National Geographic Bee and a $25,000 scholarship in May. Nearly 5 million students from around the country compete in the annual geographic bee.

first appeared: 8/22/2004

World-renowned entomologist Charles Michener at the University of Kansas at Lawrence created a buzz in 2000 with The Bees of the World, a book that classifies 16,000 bee species.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

In 1882, Jewish immigrants from Russia established the state’s first Jewish agricultural colony, Beersheba, near Cimarron (pop. 1,934), which lasted about four years.

first appeared: 8/8/2004

One of the world’s largest stained-glass American flags, standing 29-feet-tall, is saluted at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

The tools pioneers used to quarry limestone for building post rock fences and buildings on the treeless prairie are exhibited at the Post Rock Museum in La Crosse (pop. 1,376).

first appeared: 7/25/2004

In 1965, Wichita East High School track star Jim Ryun ran a 3:55 mile, a high school record until 2001.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

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