12 Astounding Trivia Odds and Ends

For a change, the trivia listed here isn’t about any specific subject. It really is odds and ends, but that doesn’t make this information any less interesting. In fact, many people might find it astounding. Without further ado, here are some interesting trivia odds and ends.

* In over 2,000 years, only one Englishman has ever been the Pope. His real name was Nicholas Breakspear, but he was better known as Pope Adrian IV. He was the Pope from 1154 to 1159.

* The first Bible that was actually printed in the US wasn’t printed in English, Spanish, or French. It was printed in Algonquin Indian.

* It is said that Brazoria County in Texas has the distinction of being the only county in the US that is inhabited by every native species of poisonous snakes that are found within the US and Canada.

* In the bible, every kind of domesticated animal is mentioned, except one. The bible has no mention of cats. This is especially interesting considering that cats were revered in Egypt long before Jesus was born and were common throughout the Middle East.

* In the old west, many towns were too small to have their own preacher. For this reason, there were preachers who would ride from town to town on horses. These were known as circuit riders.

* The word “debut” came from the game of billiards. Specifically, it comes from the French word ‘debuter’, which means ‘to lead off’. In other words, the debuter was the person who shot first.

* The phrase, “turning point”, comes from the old chariot races the Romans held. The turning point was the spot at the end of the stadium where the chariot racers would turn their chariots and race back the other way.

* In card games, the person who sits on the right side of the dealer is called the pone.

* Former boxing heavyweight champion, George Foreman, has five sons. All five of them are named George.

* The oldest person to ever win an Olympic medal was Oscar Swahn from Sweden. He was 72 when he won a silver medal for shooting, in the 1920 Olympic Games.

* Boxing was first introduced to the Olympic games in 776 BC. The rules were quite a bit different than those of modern boxing, though. For one thing, there were no rounds and no set time limit. The bout continued until one of the men was knocked down or gave up.

* A French dice game known as Hazard was introduced into the US by the Creoles of New Orleans. Because the Creoles have a partly French origin, they were known as Johnny Crapauds at the time. The dice game they introduced took on half of the slang term and was known as Crapauds. Not much later, the name of the dice game was shortened into the name that is used today; craps.