Kentucky Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

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

—At Sights Denim Systems in Henderson (pop. 27,373), new blue jeans get sanded, stonewashed and stressed to give the appearance of old denim jeans. The company “ages” jeans for Levi’s, Ralph Lauren and other clothing companies.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

—The state’s first powered flight was made in 1908 by Matthew Sellers when he flew his four-winged quadraplane, powered by a Dutheil-Chalmers engine, near Grahn in Carter County (pop. 26,889).

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—Before the advent of mechanically refrigerated railroad cars, Fulton (pop. 2,775) became known as the “Banana Capital of the World” because freight loads of bananas arrived there from New Orleans and were re-iced before shipping onward.

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—A 40-foot memorial carillon that plays patriotic and memorial music to honor military veterans was dedicated July 4 at Kentucky Veterans Cemetery West in Hopkinsville (pop. 30,089). The American Veterans National Service Foundation partners with local organizations to erect the carillons and installed the first, in 1949, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—In 1925, Mary Breckinridge founded Frontier Nursing Service in Leslie County (pop. 12,401) and introduced the profession of nurse-midwifery in the United States. Nurse-midwives on horseback brought health care to women and children living in remote areas.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—The hottest temperature ever recorded in the state was 114 degrees on July 28, 1930, in Greensburg (pop. 2,396). LOUISIANA—Mel Ott, who was 17 when he signed with the New York Giants in 1926, played his entire major league career with the team until 1947. Ott was born in 1909 in Gretna (pop. 17,423).

first appeared: 10/19/2008

—The first African elephant to be born at the Louisville Zoo and in the state is Scotty, birthed on March 18, 2007. The newborn weighed 285 pounds.

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—Built about 1790 by William and Lucy Clark Croghan, Locust Grove mansion in Louisville was a stopping point for explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and hosted three U.S. presidents: James Monroe, Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor. The restored mansion is a museum, which relates the story of Louisville’s founder, George Rogers Clark, and early Kentucky history.

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—The only fatality of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition was Kentucky native Sgt. Charles Floyd, born in 1782, who is believed to have died of a ruptured appendix.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—The state is the nation’s largest supplier of wild ginseng, which sells for as much as $1,000 a pound to Asian markets. The wild roots are revered for their medicinal properties.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—The first black to manage a public library was Thomas Fountain Blue, who supervised the founding of a public library exclusively for blacks in Louisville in 1905.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—Phelps Stokes Chapel at Berea College in Berea (pop. 9,851) was built by students from 1904 to 1906. Students made the bricks, quarried the stone and felled the trees for lumber.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—John Caldwell Calhoun Mayo came to Paintsville (pop. 4,132) as a teacher, but became aware of the region’s potential in coal and began buying mineral rights, becoming Kentucky’s wealthiest resident. His 43-room Mayo Mansion, built in 1905-1912, now serves as Our Lady of the Mountains school.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—As a young boy, William Horsfall left his home in Newport (pop. 17,048) to serve as a drummer boy in the Civil War and at age 15 received the Medal of Honor after saving the life of a wounded officer.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—The largest aluminum can recycling plant in the world is Novelis in Berea (pop. 9,851), which handles about 20 percent of all cans recycled in the United States. Cans are melted into ingots, which are shipped to plants and made into new cans.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—The Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail, completed last year, winds for nine miles within Mammoth Cave National Park, connecting to the Park City (pop. 517) bike trail and ending at historic Bell’s Tavern.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—The youngest U.S. vice president was John Cabell Breckinridge, who was 36 when he was inaugurated. Breckinridge, who was born in 1821 near Lexington, served from 1857 to 1861.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—Basketball coach Phil Woolpert, born in 1915 in Danville (pop. 15,477), led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back national championships in 1955 and 1956. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—Based in Louisville, the Army Corps of Engineers’ giant floating crane, the Henry M. Shreve, has a 550-ton lifting capacity, a 185-foot boom, and is used for repairing and maintaining gates on the locks of the Ohio River.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—Monroe County (pop. 11,756) was named for the fifth U.S. president, James Monroe, and its county seat, Tompkinsville (pop. 2,660), was named for Monroe’s vice president, Daniel Tompkins.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

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