Facts You Probably don’t Need
- In 2006, to mark the first anniversary of the Broadway opening of “Spamalot,” the “World’s Largest Coconut Orchestra,” 1,789 people clapping together half coconut shells, performed in Shubert Alley. This record was broken by 5,877 people in Trafalgar Square in 2007.
- The oldest living land animal on Earth is a 192-year-old tortoise named Jonathan.
- On January 30, 1835, outside of the U.S. Capitol Building, a man named Richard Lawrence attempted to fire two pistols at President Andrew Jackson. Amazingly, both pistols misfired.
- Rushing to Jackson’s aid were two congressmen, one of which was the famed frontiersman, Davy Crockett.
- The assailant, Richard Lawrence, believed that he was in fact the King Richard III of England who had been dead since the 15th century. He believed that Jackson had stopped repayment of money to him long owed by the U.S. colonies.
- At Lawrence’s ensuing trial, the prosecutor of the case was Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
- Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
