Facts You Probably don’t Need

• American coinage was made using definite measurements. Sixteen pennies stacked equals one inch and 16 pennies in a line equals one foot.

• The first public school in the United States is still open. The Boston Latin School was founded in 1635. Some of its famous alumni include Sam Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Hancock and Leonard Bernstein.

• The original version of “Ain’t no Sunshine” by Bill Withers did not chart on the UK Singles Chart until 2009, 38 years after its release.

• While making “The Shining,” Stanley Kubrick was asked not to use room 217 as is featured in the book. The lodge was worried that future guests would be too afraid to stay there. Instead, a non-existent room 237 was used in the film. 

• Winston Churchill once had a doctor’s note written for him that declared that he was allowed an “indefinite quantity” of alcohol on his trip to America during prohibition.

• While playing chess with the Duchess of Bourbon in France, Benjamin Franklin put her king in check and took it. She angrily responded, “we do not take kings so.” To which Franklin responded, “we do in America.” 

Facts by Sean McVeigh,
factologist.