Page 139 - History Facts

50% of the ownership of Domino’s Pizza was once traded for a used VW Beetle!

In 1960, Tom and James Monaghan, brothers, bought DomiNick’s, a small pizza place in Ypsilanti, Michigan. They gave a $75 down payment and borrowed $900 to pay for the store. 

After 8 months, James traded his half of the business to Tom for a used Volkswagen Beetle. Tom then changed the name of the pizza place to Domino’s Pizza, Inc in 1965. 

In 1967, the first Domino’s franchise store opened in Ypsilanti. By 1978, the franchise had opened its 200th store! In 1998, after owning the company for 38 years, Tom retired. 

He sold 93% of the company to Bain Capital, Inc for $1 billion. He quit being involved in every day operations and a year later a new CEO was named. After 44 years of being privately owned, the company began trading common stock in the New York Stock Exchange in 2004 under the ticker symbol “DPZ.” 

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St Thomas Aquinas’ family locked him in a tower and sent in a prostitute to keep him from becoming a priest!

Most of Thomas’s brothers chose military careers, but his mother desired for him to become a Benedictine monk. Instead of joining the Benedictine's, he wanted to join the Dominican order. This didn't sit well with his mom.

To prevent his mother from interfering, the Dominican arranged for him to go to Rome. On his way to Rome, Thomas’s mother sent her other sons to kidnap Thomas while he was drinking from a spring. 

They took him back to their parents’ castle and held him there for two years. Due to political reasons, the Pope didn’t order for his release. During his home imprisonment, Thomas tutored his sisters and communicated with the Dominican Order. 

His mother was hoping that the detention would kill his aspirations. His brothers became desperate and sent a prostitute to seduce Thomas. He chased her away with a burning stick. 

Legend has it that two angels appeared to him that night and blessed him with more fortitude to remain celibate. Finally, his mother realized she’d lost the battle and he wouldn’t change his mind. 

To save face, instead of just releasing him and admitting defeat, she arranged for him to escape through his bedroom window to finally join the Dominican Order. 

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The first American born President spoke English as a second language!

Martin van Buren was our 8th President and the first one to be born as an American citizen. He was also the first President not born of English or Irish descent. His family was Dutch.

Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York and grew up in a Dutch community. The entire community spoke Dutch. He is the only President to have spoken English as a second language.

Van Buren married his childhood sweetheart and first cousin once removed, Hannah Hoes. They had 5 sons and 1 daughter together. Hannah grew up in Kinderhook, as well, and never lost her Dutch accent. Van Buren became a lawyer and served as the 10th Secretary of State and the 8th Vice President.

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On Good Friday 1930, BBC announced, "There is no news."

You may be thinking this was some kind of anti-religious statement, but in reality it was the result of technological changes in the newsroom combined with government interference in news. 

In 1930, the British Broadcasting Corporation was beginning to distance itself from news agencies such as Reuters. Though Reuters was still supplying much of the news material to the BBC, the BBC was beginning to take charge in deciding which stories would air in the radio bulletins and how. 

This all began because of the introduction of news agency tape machines in the newsroom at the BBC. In addition to the new technology, information began flooding in from the government. 

These were mostly announcements for holidays, traffic warnings, and the like. Because of these, the news staff at the BBC doubled. They soon found themselves teeming with material. 

The government announcements soon began to clutter the news bulletins to such a degree that a separate slot was created for them so that the news staff could concentrate on real news. 

Problems began to arise when it started to become clear that the government was attempting to exploit the news in some degree. On the evening before Good Friday in 1930, the Home Office wanted very much to deny a newspaper account of an interview with the home secretary. 

Because the Home Office knew no newspapers would be published over Easter, it contacted the BBC to make sure the interview didn't take place. Within 24 hours, though, that interview was the only news that presented itself. Pressured by the government to not air it, the bulletin on Good Friday simply said “There is no news,” followed by piano music. 

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The Head of King Henry IV of France was found preserved in an attic in 2010.

It might seem a little strange that the head of a king was in the attic of a tax collector, instead of located on his buried body. The explanation is no less strange. 

King Henry IV ruled France from 1589 to his death in 1610. Many attempts had been made on his life as king. One such attempt left him with a gash across his upper lip. 

While in Paris in 1610, his carriage was stopped in the congested streets and he was assassinated. It was expected for him to be buried at the Basilica of St. Denis, north of Paris, where nearly every French king had been buried since 900 AD. 

His body was embalmed and interred with the kings before him, and was left alone for almost two centuries. In 1793, during the French Revolution, a number of unusual decrees were issued (such as changing calendars and clocks). 

One of these ordered the destruction of all royal tombs, including the one Henry IV was in. A mob tore through the crypt and pulled apart the royal corpses. They were carried outside and had quicklime poured over them to make them decompose faster. 

As a result, most of the bones at St. Denis were lost. For a while, it was thought that no royal remains survived the French Revolution, but rumors continued to creep up. In 1919, the head of Henry IV was found and sold at an auction. Joseph-Emile Bourdais, the photographer who purchased it, could not convince any museums it was authentic. 

When Joseph-Emile died, his widow then sold the head in 1955 to a tax collector named Jacques Bellanger. There the head remained until a journalist looked at it in 2010, and it was confirmed to be that of Henry IV. 

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