Another 10 Things About the US You Might Have Wrong

From the Mayflower, the Wright Brothers, to the Apollo landing on the Moon, here are more facts you might like to check.

After many readers asked me for more curious facts about the United States history and general information, I’ve decided to write a second installment.

I wondered whether to call it the “Adjust your Factometer Book II” or the “U.S. and the Chamber of secrets and curious facts.”

1 — The Appalachian Mountains are America’s second-largest mountain range. That is true in part. Eighty percent of the Appalachians extend along the U.S. Still, the rest runs into eastern Canada and up to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, an overseas territory of France, near Newfoundland, Canada. Therefore, you can take a thirty-minute ferry trip from Canada to France. And this is also the reason you can see many cars with European license plates in Newfoundland. Thanks to @Mallory for sharing this Information.

2 — The Mayflower didn’t land first in Plymouth. The English ship arrived in New England on November 11, 1620, into what will become Provincetown in Cape Cod Bay. The Pilgrims had planned to travel south to the Colony of Virginia, but dangerous weather forced the ship to seek shelter and set anchor again on November 21. One month later, on December 16, 1620, The Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor. The Mayflower also made a second voyage from London to Plymouth Colony in 1629, but this was a different boat. There were 26 vessels named Mayflower in England during the reign of James I (1603–1625). Some descendants from the original passengers include Humphrey Bogart, Julia Child, Norman Rockwell, and presidents John Adams, James Garfield, and Zachary Taylor.

3 — Key West is not the Southernmost Point of the Continental US. I’m sorry to tell you “conchs” (Key West-born locals), but your Southernmost Point of the Continental US monument, is as your beloved Mar-a-Lago resident says, “Fake News.” Whitehead Spit is the southernmost point of Key West, and the Dry Tortugas Key is the Westernmost Florida Key. Key West coordinates 24°33′55″N 81°46′33″W. Dry Tortugas National Park coordinates 24°37′42.92″N, 82°52′23.83″W. But don’t worry, Florida, you’ll still have Ex-President Trump, Matt Gaetz, and Governor Ron Dion DeSantis.

4 — The United States was not the first country to land on the Moon. On September 14, 1959, at 21:02:23 UT, a Russian spacecraft aimed at the moon’s surface, radio signals from Luna 2 stop after crashing on the moon, making it the first spacecraft to contact another solar system body. On February 3, 1966, at 18:45:30 UT, after bouncing several times, Luna 9 landed in Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), making it the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing and transmit photographic data from the Earth’s Satellite. Four months before Surveyor 1, the first U.S. spacecraft landing on the Moon. But we got to be the first to send astronauts to the Moon and back. Or did we really send astronauts to the Moon, my conspiracy theorist friends?

5 — The Wright Brothers didn’t invent the airplane. On May 6, 1896, Samuel Pierpont Langley’s Number 5 unpiloted air machine flew 2,300 ft. (700 m.) But contrary to the Wright Brothers’ piloted flying machine, Langley’s piloted version never flew. Still, there is a controversy if the Wrights were the firsts to flight. On August 18, 1901, a reporter for Bridgeport Sunday Herald published that Gustave Whitehead flew half a mile. But despite that, over 100 newspapers around the world printed the news, and with over 20 testimonials and signed affidavits confirming the event. The Smithsonian refuses to accept the facts and recognizes Orville Wright as the first man to fly on an airplane.

6 — English is not the official language in the United States. According to the Census Bureau, there are at least 350 Languages spoken in the U.S. The most spoken ones are:

• English — 254 million native speakers
• Spanish — 43,200,000 native speakers
• Chinese (including Cantonese, Mandarin, and other varieties) — 2,900,000 native speakers
• Tagalog (Filipino) — 1,610,000 native speakers
• Vietnamese — 1,400,000 native speakers
• French and French Creole (including Cajun) — 1,281,300 native speakers

Republican Rep. Steve King for Iowa’s 4th congressional district has presented Bill H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act, to make English the Official Language of the U.S., nine times from February 27, 2003, to February 9, 2019. This year it was the turn for Rep. Louie Gohmert from Texas to sponsor the Bill. You have to recognize that these Republicans might not like other languages, but they are consistent in presenting this bill in Congress.

7 — Unicorns don’t exist. Just because you haven’t seen one doesn’t prove they don’t exist. You could say the same thing about God, many people believe in him, and even Einstein once said, “Black holes are where God divided by zero.” But we are not here to prove or deny God’s existence, just to read about curious facts. Did you know that although no one has seen a unicorn, you can still get a unicorn hunting license from Michigan’s Lake Superior State University (LSSU)? Of course, there are some restrictions. According to the webpage, you can only hunt them with rubber arrows, and the limit is one unicorn per month. Also, the only legal unicorn bait is a virgin. It is not illegal to use simulated virgins and doesn’t specify gender or sexual preference. If you are interested, you can apply at LSSU by clicking the word UNICORN

8 — You don’t live in that smallest town in the U.S. Unless your address is on Monowi, NE with a population of one, something it shared with Lost Springs town, WY, but increased 300% and now has an overcrowded population of four, reported in the 2020 Census. There is just one town with less population, Willow Canyon, AZ, with a ZERO population according to the United States 2019 census (2020 data hasn’t been released on this subject).

9 — Some Geography facts:

• Cows outnumber humans in nine States. South Dakota 4.32, Nebraska 3.29, Montana 2.51, North Dakota 2.45, Wyoming 2.18, Kansas 2.00, Idaho 1.36, Iowa 1.20, Oklahoma 1.12.
• More people live in New York City than in 40 out of 50 States. It has over two-fifths of New York State’s entire population, and It’s home to 8.5 million people and growing.
• Kansas produces enough wheat in 1 year to feed everyone in the world for two weeks. If we could transport and distribute all the wheat in Kansas, it could provide everyone in the world for two weeks (except gluten-free people).
• There’s an island only for wild monkeys off the coast of South Carolina. Morgan Island, located on the coast of S.C., is the only place in the U.S. where only monkeys are allowed. But if you are a human interested in looking at this place, you can do it only from a boat or a kayak.
• May the Force be with you. The month of May is Star Wars fan’s favorite time of the year, especially the fourth. What better place to celebrate it than on the Washington National Cathedral in D.C., where there is a Darth Vader “gargoyle.”

10 — Other random facts:

• 838 miles of bookshelves. The Library of Congress contains approximately enough bookshelves to make a line form from Houston to Chicago.
• Hillary Clinton was not the first woman to compete for president in the U.S. The first woman to compete for a Political Party nomination was Victoria Woodhull, who ran for president for the Equal Rights Party against Ulysses S. Grant. During the 1872 elections.
• The compass needle does not point to the north. All the compasses point to the North Magnetic Pole, which constantly drifts. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 2020, it was located across the Canadian Arctic at 86.50°N and 164.04°E.
• Saint Patrick wasn’t born in Ireland. The beloved patron saint of Ireland, and Americans’ excuse to get boozed on green beer, was born in Britain to wealthy parents. He died on March 17, around 460 A.D.
• Red Pandas and Koalas are not bears. In 1825, Red Pandas were described as members of the raccoon family. Later, DNA analysis suggested that red pandas might belong in the bear family, but now they have their family: Ailuridae. Probably most closely related to skunks, raccoons, and weasels. As for the lovable Australian Teddy Bear, as Maury Povich would say: the DNA results are back, and they show Koalas are not in the same family of bears. They belong to the Phascolarctidae family of the order Diprotodontia, consisting of only one extant species, the koala, which makes him more marsupial than bear. These two don’t have anything to do with the United States, but I just liked them enough to include them in this list.

© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2021