Page 134 - History Facts

A fake neighborhood was built in Seattle during WWII!

The whole fake neighborhood was built atop a Boeing factory south of downtown Seattle, and was the cumulative size of eight football fields. Houses, streets, and plants were assembled out of ply wood, cardboard, etc. to act as props and give the town the most convincing appearance possible. 

The thought was that if any Japanese bombers made it this far east, they would confuse the plant for a quiet residential neighborhood, and as a result, not bomb it. 

The workers at the plant had to use secret underground tunnels to reach nearby and also disguised cafeterias, classrooms, etc. Just another example of how war changes the landscape of a country. 

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Americans can turn right on red due to the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973!

Prior to the 1970s, some states allowed right turn on red. Most states on the eastern half of the U.S. did not allow it, though. Gas prices shot through the roof during the 1973 Oil Crisis and the 1979 Energy Crisis. 

Due to the tough economy during that time and the high energy costs, people became much more conscious of their energy consumption. Myth Busters did an episode on gas and energy consumption. 

They concluded that that by eliminating idling time of a car sitting at a red light and allowing right turns, fuel efficiency is increased exponentially. It is especially true for delivery trucks. Thus, the Right Turn on Red Policy was passed in the 1970s to help the economy and save gasoline. 

They also encouraged car pools, public transportation, and riding bikes. Interestingly, UPS has taken the right turn on red policy a step farther. They actually encourage their drivers to take routes that allow them to make as many right turns as possible to save on gasoline. 

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Cotton candy, notoriously bad for the teeth, was co-invented by a dentist.

William James Morrison was a dentist, lawyer, and author from Nashville, Tennessee in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because he became President of the Tennessee State Dental Association in 1894 and wrote several children’s books, it might seem a little odd that he would go on to invent cotton candy. 

Dr. Morrison patented several inventions in the food department. He developed a process for extracting the oil from cottonseeds and converting it to lard substitute, and even figured out a chemical process to purify the public drinking water in Nashville. 

In 1897, he and a Nashville candy maker named John C. Wharton conceived and co-patented an “electric candy machine” which produced what was then called Fairy Floss and today is called Cotton Candy. The product was brought to the public in 1904 and became a huge instant success. 

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An Icelandic teenager once briefly convinced George W. Bush’s staff he was the President of Iceland.

It wasn’t one of the highest moments for Bush’s staff. The teenager was 16 year old Vifill Atlason. Though Atlason doesn’t claim to remember where he got the private number to reach George W. Bush, he says he had had it for a few years before he made the call in 2007 to ask for a private meeting. 

A White House spokesperson claimed that Atlason had dialed the main switchboard for the West Wing; but that turned out to be false. Atlason had successfully passed through several of the necessary levels of security ensuring he was genuine by reading the Wikipedia page of Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. 

Atlason never made it to Bush, though, because he was discovered before then. Bush’s secretary told Vifill to expect a call from the President, but instead the Icelandic police showed up at his home and interrogated him for several hours. 

Atlason eventually became a local hero, and claims that if he ever got Bush on the phone, he would have just wanted to have a chat with him and invite him to Iceland. 

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In WWII, a Polish soldier volunteered to be thrown in Auschwitz and escape to prove to the Allies that the Holocaust was real.

In 1940, Witold Pilecki told his superiors of his plan to enter Auschwitz, gather intelligence, and organize enough inmate resistance to escape. At the time, very little was known about the extent of what the Germans were doing in the camps. 

It was generally thought they were internment camps, not death camps. The plan was approved, and in September 1940 he went out during a Warsaw street roundup and was brought to Auschwitz after two days of beatings. While there, he gathered intel and organized an underground union. 

The tasks of the union were mainly to provide news from the outside, improve morale, give extra food and clothing, and to train the inmates to take over the camp if Allies attacked it. The union also provided Poland with information on the camp, and in 1941, it was even being broadcast on a radio transmitter built by the inmates. 

Ultimately, Pilecki’s information did help Poland learn much of the atrocities of the Nazis and eventually liberate Auschwitz, but was unable to gain immediate help from the Allies because the British thought the stories were greatly exaggerated. 

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