Louisiana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

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

—Fashion designer Geoffrey Beene, who was born in 1927 in Haynesville (pop. 2,679), became one of New York’s top designers and designed the wedding gown worn by Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Beene died in 2004.

first appeared: 1/27/2008

—In 1892, Creole shoemaker Homer Plessy boarded a “white-only” streetcar in New Orleans and challenged a law that segregated black and white passengers on the state’s trains. His action made him a party in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, which yielded the “separate but equal” doctrine.

first appeared: 1/13/2008

—Mike the Tiger, a live Bengal tiger, serves as team mascot at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, a tradition begun when the first tiger arrived on campus in 1936. Before football games, Mike the Tiger is wheeled across the field in his cage and tradition says that the team will score a touchdown for every time Mike growls.

first appeared: 12/30/2007

—At 80 feet high, the Voodoo at Blue Bayou Waterpark in Baton Rouge is the world’s largest enclosed bowl-shaped slide. Riders in cloverleaf rafts travel down a chute into darkness, swirling around before splashing into another tunnel below.

first appeared: 12/2/2007

—In 2000, more than 2,000 volunteers added brushstrokes to the “Once in a Millennium Moon” mural covering more than 25,000 square feet of the AT&T Building in downtown Shreveport.

first appeared: 11/18/2007

—Two of the state’s governors were born in or near Shiloh in Union Parish (pop. 22,803). William Wright Heard, born in 1853, served as governor from 1900 to 1904, and Ruffin G. Pleasant, born in 1871, served from 1916 to 1920.

first appeared: 11/4/2007

—Founded in 1892, the American Rose Society in Shreveport is dedicated to the cultivation and enjoyment of roses and has more than 15,000 members—mostly home gardeners—in about 400 local chapters nationwide.

first appeared: 10/21/2007

—The simple plywood coffin for Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, was built by convicted murderer Richard Liggett at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Graham, 87, died in June.

first appeared: 10/7/2007

—A realistic robotic talking statue of Huey P. Long, the state’s legendary Depression-era governor known as the Kingfish, lectures visitors at the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge about politics, corn pone, pot likker and Louisiana State University football.

first appeared: 9/30/2007

—The 200-year-old Oakley House is the centerpiece of the Audubon State Historic Site, a 100-acre wildlife preserve near St. Francisville (pop. 1,712). Artist and naturalist John James Audubon stayed at the house in 1821 and drew inspiration for many of the birds in his Birds of America series.

first appeared: 9/9/2007

—Begun in 1791, the open-air French Market in New Orleans is one of the oldest farmers markets in the United States. The market offers produce, fresh seafood, souvenirs, and flea market and retail shop goods.

first appeared: 8/26/2007

—When metal was diverted to war efforts during World War II, the state made its 1944 license plates from bagasse, a fibrous material made mostly from sugarcane.

first appeared: 8/12/2007

—During his 57-year career at Grambling State University in Grambling (pop. 4,693), coaching legend Eddie Robinson sent more than 200 players to the NFL and won 408 games. Robinson, who retired in 1997, died in April at age 88 and lay in state at the Louisiana Capitol.

first appeared: 7/29/2007

—Residents of North Vacherie (pop. 2,411) and South Vacherie (pop. 3,543) are the least transient people in the United States, according to the 2000 census. Ninety-eight percent were born in Louisiana. Nationally, about 60 percent of Americans live in the state where they were born.

first appeared: 7/15/2007

—Donaldsonville (pop. 7,605) had a brief tenure as the state capital from 1830 to 1831 before legislators voted to move the capital back to New Orleans, where it had been established in 1812. Today, Baton Rouge is the capital.

first appeared: 7/1/2007

—Helping bring music back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is Musicians’ Village, a housing development for displaced musicians. Conceived by entertainers Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, the village is being built by Habitat for Humanity and also is open to other qualifying families.

first appeared: 6/17/2007

—Established by Jack Marucci in 2002 in his backyard shed, the Marucci Bat Co. in Baton Rouge makes custom maple and ash baseball bats. The bats are a hit with major league players such as Sammy Sosa, Orlando Cabrera and Albert Pujols.

first appeared: 6/3/2007

—Susan Davis, 51, decided that her grandmother’s antique buttons were too beautiful to be hidden in tins and began fashioning them into jewelry in 1984. Today, Grandmother’s Buttons in St. Francisville (pop. 1,712) employs 24 people who craft antique-button jewelry that is sold nationwide.

first appeared: 5/28/2007

—Tony Joe White, the king of “swamp rock,” was born in 1943 near Oak Grove (pop. 2,174) and is best known for his 1969 hit Polk Salad Annie. The West Carroll Poke Salot Festival is held each spring in Oak Grove to honor White and the native pokeweed.

first appeared: 5/6/2007

—The nation’s worst ferry disaster happened Oct. 20, 1976, when a ferryboat crossing the Mississippi River from Destrehan (pop. 11,260) to Luling (pop. 11,512) was struck by a Norwegian tanker ship. Of the 95 people aboard the ferry, 77 died.

first appeared: 4/22/2007

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