Why was the first Christmas tree put up in the White House in 1856?

Here we go again … another trip around the Sun completed.  Friday of this week, I celebrate my 67th birthday.

This one I almost didn’t make.  Most of you know I had a heart attack on July 31, but I’ve been getting better since then.

The world has changed a lot since that September day in 1958 when I made my dramatic entrance into it, but one thing that doesn’t change (much, anyway) is trivia.  So my birthday present to you is another newly minted column of the minutiae you love so much!

Did you know …

… how many bubbles are in the average half-pint of beer?  Neither did I until I learned, thanks to Mental Floss, that the average half-pint of beer has between two hundred thousand and two million bubbles.  Think that’s good?  Try this – the average flute of champagne has around a million bubbles.  (That’s why they call it bubbly, I suppose.  A bubbly thought, that.)

… you have a statistically higher chance of dying on your birthday than any other day?  A study conducted in Switzerland showed that people have a 14% higher chance of passing away on their birthday.  Why?  Experts suggest things such as greater risk-taking behaviors on birthdays, people “holding on” to get to the next year, or something as simple as errors in record keeping.  (A somewhat startling thought, all things considered.  Maybe someone should keep in touch with me Friday just to be sure.)

… the nation’s largest shopping mall does not have a central heating system?  The Mall of America, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, opened in 1992.  It did not have central heat then, and it doesn’t have it today … and it doesn’t need it, despite some pretty cold weather in a Minnesota winter.  The body heat of some 40 million visitors each year, along with eight huge skylights, provides all the heat the complex needs, though some smaller stores do have separate heating units.  The space that the original designers had included for a central heating system is now being used as an aquarium.  (Thanks to Mason for the tip!)

… the RMS Titanic was never actually advertised as being “unsinkable”?  The builders of the ship, Harland and Wolff, never once said the ship was unsinkable, nor did the trade advertising for the White Star Line, which owned Titanic.  Articles about the ship in the Irish News and in Shipbuilder magazine, which spoke at length about the ship’s construction, may have led readers to think it couldn’t sink, and while it is thought that a crew member of the vessel said, “God himself could not sink this ship,” no one can say who said it, nor can the exact quote be found.  (Well, it sure wasn’t the iceberg.)

… several nations do not consider escaping from jail a crime?  Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, and several other nations hold that it is human nature to want to escape, and in those countries escapees who get away and do not break any other laws are not charged with a crime for escaping.

… the first Christmas tree in the White House was put up in an effort to cure a First Lady’s depression?  In 1856, President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) is said to have erected the first White House Christmas tree for Washington children.  But there was more to it than that; Pierce’s wife Jane (1806-1863) was in the grip of a major depression during his term.  The couple’s only surviving child, Bennie (1841-1853), had been killed in a railroad accident while the family was journeying to Washington for Pierce’s inauguration – and Jane did not want her husband to be president, or even in government at all.  She wore black clothing during his term and shut herself away in a small set of rooms in the White House.  Pierce was able to coax her to come down to see the tree, and she brightened with a short-lived joy.  Not long after, however, she sank back into her gloom and died six years after the Pierces left the White House.  Additional trivia note:  Putting up a Christmas tree in the White House did not become a formal tradition until 1889, during the term of Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901).

… giraffes are not able to yawn?  Nor are they able to vomit, except in rare instances and then only when they are dying.  (Something to do with that long neck, I would guess.)

… the smallest set used for the entire action of a movie (in terms of confined acting space) was for a Hitchcock film?  In 1944, director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) released his masterpiece Lifeboat.  All of the action takes place in a 20-foot lifeboat adrift in the ocean after the ship the characters were on was torpedoed by a German U-boat in World War II.  (Big story for a small boat.)

… some of the men who advertised a particular brand of cigarettes died of lung cancer?  Beginning in 1955, Marlboro™ cigarettes used an ad campaign centered on the “Marlboro Man.”  Initially, the campaign featured a variety of masculine figures such as athletes, gunsmiths, and even sea captains – but it was the image of the cowboy that ended up being the most marketable.  Four of the men who appeared as the Marlboro Man in the ads died of lung cancer – Eric Lawson (1942-2014), David Millar (1906-1987), Wayne McLaren (1941-1992), and David McLean (1921-1993).  Ironically, Millar never smoked cigarettes.

… Earth would not be such a pleasant planet without its atmosphere?  Sure, we wouldn’t have anything to breathe, but it would also be pretty hot as well as pretty cold.  The atmosphere provides a kind of greenhouse effect for the Sun’s heat, and without it the average temperature of Earth would be about 5˚ Fahrenheit.  At the equator, the temperature would range from 176˚ in the daytime to -200˚ at night.  (So take care of that atmosphere; it’s the only one we have!)

Now … you know!