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Weird-But-True Facts About U.S. History

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Loads of quirky, cool, and astonishing historical facts, including famous Americans, American firsts, the U.S. government, and forgotten ideas and plans.

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

8 people want to read

About the author

Arnold Ringstad

109 books4 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Meg McGregor.
4,080 reviews81 followers
March 24, 2019
I have always enjoyed learning new things!

I love trivia and history, so I eagerly devour, books like this one!

Five new tidbits of information, that I learned from this book, are:

A. Baseball player, Babe Ruth, put leaves of lettuce under his hat to keep cool during games!

B. During President Richard Nixon's impeachment trial, he was accused of illegally raising the price of McDonald's hamburgers.

C. There are more than 137 million items in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

D. In 2004, computer tycoon, Bill Gates, received 4 million e-mails per day.

E. Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals because he was tired of carrying two pairs of glasses - one for up close viewing and one to see far away.

As Lord Byron wrote, "Tis strange - but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction."
18 reviews1 follower
May 30, 2018
This was a very weird book about odd facts from United States history. a lot of these facts were very suprising and i knew almost none of these. great book abd would recommend
Profile Image for Gail Sacharski.
1,210 reviews4 followers
July 6, 2022
Some of these I knew, but there are a lot more strange things I didn't--very interesting. Some of them could have used a little more explanation, but still good.
Profile Image for Joan.
2,438 reviews
January 11, 2014
I considered simply not noting this book since it didn't take long to read and was so disappointing. But then I decided that might help someone considering purchasing this for their library or school. Don't waste your money. This is a wonderful book for very young Jeopardy wannabes but this is not much good otherwise. It has factoids with absolutely no explanation beyond a few sentences in the book. An example: p14. "In 1911, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives tried to pass a law to abolish the U.S Senate." No more info is given. There is a reference at the end to a website and a comment assuring "parents, Teachers and Librarians" that they keep this site up to date and encourage your readers to use it. This book has everything I dislike about poorly taught history. It thinks it is given fascinating info but there is no context. I suppose kids are supposed to know that the US Senate was apparently extremely unpopular at one point. Well, HOW was it unpopular? Was it a power fight between the representatives and the senators? Or was there a scandal going on at the time? Or something else? I realize that the idea is to intrigue the kids into reading more. My reaction was irritation. You mean I have to go to a commercial website to look up the info and then, since I'm a fairly sophisticated reader, unlike the primary to grade 4 kids who are likely reading this book, I would have to go elsewhere to verify the info. It wasn't that fascinating a tidbit that I'm willing to do more research. And I'm an adult who really enjoys history. It is assumed that I will naturally simply believe the info. Isn't that part of what the newest fad in education, Common Core, is trying to prevent? I could go on and on but you get my basic point by now I hope. I'm not real happy with the publisher, Child's World. They have done vastly better quality in the past. I hope this doesn't represent a change in how they produce their books. Emphatically not recommended.
Profile Image for Paula.
825 reviews6 followers
September 30, 2013
Over forty facts pertaining to U. S. history, loosely grouped by topic, are presented in this compact (32 pp), colorful book. The large and bold colored fonts and lively color illustrations will appeal to intermediate readers. There are facts about presidents, American symbols, and events. Some are well-known, while others are unfamiliar and quirky. All in all, it is a good browsing book; young readers will come away knowing some facts about U. S. history, however trivial they may be. Librarians, purchase at your discretion. This title is one of the “Weird-but-true Facts” series. The other titles may be worthwhile as well.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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