● The head of the Library of Congress is the Librarian of Congress, selected by the president to serve a 10-year term. The current Librarian is Carla Hayden, appointed by Obama in 2016. She is the first woman and the first African American to hold the job, ending a streak of 200 years of white male librarians. FYI, Hayden has a doctorate in library science. Thanks, Obama.
● The scientific name of the cocoa tree, the source of chocolate in all its forms, is Theobroma cacao, which is Greek for "food of the gods."
● Upon his death, Thomas Jefferson owned 6,487 books.
● The eight human blood types are A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, 0+, and O-. The first seven are compatible only with certain others, and the wrong combinations can trigger the immune system to attack the transfused blood.
However, the eighth type, O-, is universally compatible and safe to transfuse freely to anyone. Unfortunately, only seven percent of the population has O- blood.
● In 1947, Ray Bradbury wrote Bright Phoenix, a short story about a government censor assigned to burn offensive books. In 1951, Bradbury broadened the concept in The Fireman, a novella in which all books are banned, sought out, and burned. In 1953, he expanded the novella into the famous dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451.
● Today in the US, an average of one person per hour is killed by a drunk driver.
● Actress Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times. Chronologically, her husbands were Conrad Hilton (rich guy), Michael Wilding (actor), Mike Todd (producer), Eddie Fisher (actor), Richard Burton (actor), Richard Burton again, John Warner (politician), and Larry Fortensky (construction worker she met in rehab).
● Niagara Falls actually is a series of three waterfalls. The largest and furthest upstream is Horseshoe Falls, which sits on the border between the US and Canada. Bridal Veil Falls and American Falls are downstream inside the US, separated from Horseshoe by Goat Island.
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