Martha Graham's 117 Birthday And Facts - strangefacts

• Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 - April 1, 1991), an American dancer and choreographer, known as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance

• Martha Graham is to modern dance as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is to the modern art school of cubism Indeed, for many dance connoisseurs, Martha Graham is synonymous with modern dance

• She developed innovations in structure, style, technique, costuming, and in the training of choreographers and dancers that defined the movement

• She rejected the traditional view of women dancers as beautiful, lithe, and graceful, and instead she viewed female dancers as powerful and intense

• Her colleagues have described her long career as an American archetype, because with only a few exceptions, only Graham herself—or her company—ever performed her compositions, making Graham one of the most individualistic dance artists of the 20th century

• Born on May 11, 1894, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and raised in Santa Barbara, California, Graham began her formal training at Denishawn School of Dance, a Los Angeles academy started by the dancer Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) and her partner Ted Shawn (1891-1972)

• In 1923, Graham left Los Angeles to join the Greenwich Village Follies in New York, specializing in exotic Spanish and Indian dances

• She taught dance for two years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, all the while preparing herself for her debut as a soloist in 1926

• Martha Graham gave birth to modern dance, in the sense that she changed people’s minds about what dancers—especially female dancers—could do

• Whereas traditionally, female dancers had been used by choreographers to symbolize beauty and decoration, Graham de-sentimentalized the female body by emphasizing its power, intensity, and, in her fall sequences, its recovery from defeat 
  

Graham’s varied and evolving career can be divided into four overlapping phases :-

• In the first stage, which began after her debut, Graham choreographed short solos and group works for all-women companies. Most of these compositions were based on historical figures and styles of art. Her debut, for example, included two pieces called From a XII Century Tapestry and Maid with the Flaxen Hair. She also experimented with dances that explored a single emotion, such as Lamentation (1930). In this piece, Graham developed one of her signature modern characteristics: manipulating costume to enhance the theme of her dance. Lamentation featured a tube-shaped piece of cloth that encased Graham from her neck to her feet. She remained seated throughout the dance, in which she struggled to rid herself of the tube. The dance, which has been satirized as often as it has been praised, viewed the process of grieving as being similar to feeling trapped in extreme sorrow, from which one searches for an escape. Critics have compared the dance to Kathe KOLLWITZ’s drawings of grieving women

• The second phase of Grahams career coincided with her growing interest in the theater, with the drama of American history, and with the formation of her own dance company. She also began choreographing for men; two male dancers, Erick Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, joined her troupe in the 1930s. During the Great Depression in the United States (1930-41), some of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs focused on the arts in American culture. While Graham did not participate directly, her dances from this period reflected the focus on American history as worthy of artistic recording and celebrating. Her Appalachian Spring (1944), for example, depicted the pioneer experience in American history

• In the third period of her career, which lasted from 1944 onward, Graham interwove two related themes in her work: Greek mythology and Freudian interpretations of myths (for more on the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, see Anna FREUD). Most of the characters she focused on were women, and often, her dances had a feminist twist. For example, in Night Journey (1947), Graham portrays the female character Jocaste, in Sophocles’ play Oedipus, as the victim, rather than Oedipus. Graham also produced two dances about JOAN OF ARC, The Triumph of St. Joan (1951) and Seraphic Dialogue (1955)

• In the fourth and final phase of Graham’s career, she returned to the abstract themes of her earlier period. These dances are not attached to any particular historical figure or to a plot. Acrobats of God (1960) and Adorations (1975) both reflect Graham’s signature dance techniques: spiral movements and linear stage patterns. The spiral movements were movements in which Graham tended to view the human body as “collapsible,” and the stage on which she performed as part of the dance, not a surface merely there to be danced upon. Unlike traditional choreography, her spiral movements involved fall sequences in which she emphasized the recovery from the fall, not the descent to the ground. The stage, then, often seemed as though it was a taut drum off of which Graham and her dancers would bounce. Furthermore, Graham choreographed dances in which she used her corps onstage as though they were architecture. For example, she would use a row of dancers, rather than a stage setting, to build a wall that moved when the scene changed

• She died in New York City on April 1, 1991

Facts About John James Audubon - strangefacts

• John James Audubon from 1785 to1851 was an American Woodsman

• John James Audubon was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America (Alexander Wilson has that distinction), but for half a century he was the young country’s dominant wildlife artist

• His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed Wilson’s work and is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists, such as Roger Tory Peterson and David Sibley, are measured

• Although Audubon had no role in the organization that bears his name, there is a connection: George Bird Grinnell, one of the founders of the early Audubon Society in the late 1800s, was tutored by Lucy Audubon, John James’s widow

• Knowing Audubon’s reputation, Grinnell chose his name as the inspiration for the organization’s earliest work to protect birds and their habitats

• Today, the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over

• John James Audubon was enrolled in the French Naval Academy at he age of 14

• He was also a limner (traveling portrait artist), dance instructor, clerk and taxidermist

• In 1819 he was briefly jailed for failing to pay his debts

• Audubon was born in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and his French mistress. Early on, he was raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Audubon, in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music

• In 1803, at the age of 18, he was sent to America, in part to escape conscription into the Emperor Napoleon’s army. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell
• While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year

• With no other prospects, Audubon set off on his epic quest to depict America’s avifauna, with nothing but his gun, artist’s materials, and a young assistant. Floating down the Mississippi, he lived a rugged hand-to-mouth existence in the South while Lucy earned money as a tutor to wealthy plantation families

• In 1826 he sailed with his partly finished collection to England. "The American Woodsman" was literally an overnight success

• Audubon found a printer for the Birds of America, first in Edinburgh, then London, and later collaborated with the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray on the Ornithological Biographies – life histories of each of the species in the work

• The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled this country several more times in search of birds, and settled in New York City 

• He made one more trip out West in 1843, the basis for his final work of mammals, the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was largely completed by his sons and the text of which was written by his long-time friend, the Lutheran pastor John Bachman (whose daughters married Audubon’s sons)

• Audubon spent his last years in senility and died at age 65 and buried in the Trinity Cemetery at 155th Street and Broadway in New York City

John James Audubon Quotes

• I am as dull as a beetle. -- John James Audubon Quote

• Up the river the view was indeed enchanting.; the undulating meadows sloped gently to the water's edge on either side, and the larks that sprang up before me, welcoming the sun's rise, animated my thoughts so much that I felt tears trickling down my cheeks as I gave thanks to the God who gave life to all these in a day. -- John James Audubon Quote

• A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children. -- John James Audubon Quote

• Look at that mallard as he floats on the lake; see his elevated head glittering with emerald green, his amber eyes glancing in the light! Even at this distance, he has marked you, and suspects that you bear no goodwill towards him, for he sees that you have a gun, and he has many a time been frightened by its report, or that of some other. The wary bird draws his feet under his body, springs upon then, opens his wings, and with loud quacks bids you farewell.-- John James Audubon Quote

• The sun at length sank beneath the waterline that here formed the horizon; and we saw the birds making their first appearance. They were in small parties of two, three, or five, and by no menas shy. --- John James Audubon Quote

Facts About Human Brain - strangefacts

• Human brain neurons system is so large that you start from earth and take a round of moon and back to starting position

• Average human brain usage is  upto 2 % out of 100 % while Einstein uses his brain upto 15 %, thats  why he is so genius

• The odds are 1 out of 7,143 (.014%) that you have a brain tumor

• Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour

• The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells

• The average human loses 85,000 brain cells each day, while only 50 are regenerated each day

• According to UCLA neuroscientists, only one brain cell is needed to spot a familiar face

• After age 30, the brain begins to lose about 50,000 neurons per day - shrinking the brain .25% each year

• The human central nervous system filters out 99% of what your senses register so the brain doesn't have to bother processing unimportant matters

• More electrical impulses are generated in one day by a single human brain than in all the telephones in the world

• After the death of the genius, Albert Einstein, his brain was removed by a pathologist and put in a jar for future study

• It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself

• People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain

• Scientists have actually performed brain surgery on cockroaches

• The first coin operated machine ever designed was a holy-water dispenser that required a five-drachma piece to operate. It was the brainchild of the Greek scientist Hero in the first century AD

• The average person's skin weighs twice as much as their brain

• Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV

• The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannic

• We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain

• Ishi had made it very clear before he died that he did not want to be autopsied. However, his wishes were ignored and his body was autopsied and the brain removed and sent to the Smithsonian

Facts About Kissing - strangefacts

• You burn 26 calories in a one-minute kiss

• Longest underwater kiss - 2 minutes and 18 seconds in Tokyo, Japan, on April 2, 1980

• Ancient Egyptians kissed with their noses instead of with their lips

• The average amount of time spent kissing for a person in a lifetime is 20,160 minutes

• The longest kiss on record lasted 30 hours and 45 minutes. Dror Orpaz and Carmit Tsubara recorded it on April 5, 1999 at a kissing contest held in Tel Aviv, Israel

• It takes 20 different muscles to form a kiss

• James Bond is also known as Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang

• The first far eastern country to permit kissing in films was China. The first oriental screen kiss was bestowed on Miss Mamie Lee in the movie "Two Women in the House"

• People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)

• The record for most kisses in a movie is 127 in Don Juan
  

• 8 percent of Americans kiss with their eyes open

• During a kiss , as many as 278 bacteria colonies are exchanged

• Lips are 100 times more sensitive than the tips of the fingers. Not even genitals have as much sensitivity as lips

• On July 5-6, 2005 a couple in London locked lips for 31 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds, making it the longest kiss ever recorded

• Mothers who passed chewed solid food to their infants during weaning may have created the first kiss

• Alfred Hitchcocks’ creative attempt to circumvent Hollywood’s Hays Code led to one of the sexiest kisses in cinematic history

• "Eskimo" kisses are loosely based on a traditional Inuit greeting called a "kunik"

• The average woman will kiss 22 men, enjoy four long-term relationships and have their heart broken five times before she meets ‘the one’

• The average guy will kiss 23 women, have 10 one-night stands, and have his heart broken six times before he finds The One

• Let's talk science. Kissing generally uses one muscle, called the orbicularis oris, that is responsible for puckering your lips when you kiss. The science of kissing itself is called philematology

Facts About Harry Houdini - strangefacts

• Harry Houdini (1874-1926) The Great Houdini  is a name that will forever define the term "escape artist."

• As the Budapest-born, American-bred performer would so often proclaim, "No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom."

• The real name of  Harry Houdini was Erich Weiss

• There is no question that Houdini is the most famous magician in history. His name is synonymous with escapes; his ability to get out of seemingly impossible situations- and his knack for publicizing these events- made him a legend in his own time.

• The Houdini myth is about to be examined, and truth really is stranger than fiction!

• Houdini was born Erich Weiss on March 24, 1874. Though he claimed throughout his life that Appleton, Wisconsin was his birthplace

• He was really born in Budapest, Hungary. He was four years old when his family moved to America

• Houdini was small, standing a mere 5'5", with dark, wavy hair, dark gray eyes and a high-pitched voice

• Houdini was poorly educated. He was, however, extremely athletic and highly motivated to succeed

• According to an autobiographical pamphlet published by the magician in 1920, Houdini said that his favorite place was Hollywood, California and that his favorite song was Auld Lang Syne (the traditional New Year's Eve tune)
  

• Houdini became fascinated with magic after seeing Dr. Lynn, a traveling magician, as a young boy. He did not, as legend has it, run away with a circus, nor was he an apprentice to a locksmith

• In reality, he turned to magic at age 17 as an alternative to factory work. He teamed up with Jack Hayman, a fellow magic enthusiast, to form the Houdini Brothers

• Surprising as it may seem, Houdini was not an instant success. For the first five years, he tried every type of magic, from card manipulations (billed as the "King of Cards") to illusions and run-of-the-mill box escapes

• In 1896, ready to give up, he actually ran a newspaper ad offering to sell all of his magic and secrets for $20. There were no takers

• His one big success was the Needle Trick, a grisly effect involving the swallowing of dozens of needles and thread, then the regurgitation of the thread with all the needles neatly threaded on. This effect would be a cornerstone of his act throughout his life

• During a visit to a psychiatrist friend in Nova Scotia in 1896, Houdini saw his first strait jacket. Rather than be shocked by it, he was inspired to create an act around escaping from it. And Houdini didn't just escape from a strait jacket- he did it hanging upside down from his ankles, suspended yards above the ground

• The 1953 movie Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh did much to create the commonly-held belief that Houdini died onstage attempting to perform the Water Torture Cell illusion

• The sad truth is that Houdini was in the middle of a U.S. tour in the fall of 1926 when he and Bess began to experience severe stomach discomfort. A performer to the core, Houdini refused medical treatment, because that would have meant missing some shows. Quite possibly Houdini was suffering from the onset of appendicitis, and his own stubborn refusal to see a doctor might have spelled his doom. Houdini was tired, and unusually accident-prone

• Both Houdini's New York and Los Angeles homes were said to be haunted by his ghostly spirit. The New York townhouse still stands at 278 W. 113th Street (it was recently offered for sale); Houdini's "HH" initials are set in mosaic tile on the bathroom floor. His Los Angeles home at 2350 Laurel Canyon burned many years after his death, but the site is still rumored to be visited by ghostly apparitions

• For ten years, Bess presided over annual well-publicized séances held on October 31, the anniversary of Houdini's death. Though she stopped participating in 1938, séances to contact Houdini continued

Facts About Adolf Hitler - strangefacts

• Adolf Hitler was claustrophobic and installed a mirror in his elevator just to keep him from being scared 

• King Kong was Adolf Hitler's favorite movie

• Adolf Hitler loved chocolate cake

• Adolf Hitler wanted to be an architect, but he failed the entrance exam at the architectural school in Vienna

• Adolf Hitler was one of the people that was responsible in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle

• Hitler and Napolean both had only one testical

• Adolf Hitler was Time's Man of the Year for 1938

• Richard Marowitz who lives in New Jersey once took one of Adolf Hitler's hats and now keeps it in safety deposit box. The hat is said to be worth $35,000

• Germania was the name Adolf Hitler gave to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin, part of his vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II

• Adolf Hitler's typewriter survived from his mountain retreat and is exhibited at the Hall of History in Bessemer

• During the final days of the war in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours later, the two committed suicide

• The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews during the Nazi genocide by Hitler and in 1933 nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Nazi Germany during World War 2

• By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed and estimates range as high as 1.5 million murdered children during the Holocaust

• A German businessman trained his dog to do the Hitler salute 

• The Dr Seuss book 'Yertle the Turtle' was based on Adolf Hitler

• The New York phone book has 22 'Hitler' names listed before World War II, and none after

Facts About Thomas Edison - strangefacts

• Thomas Edison had a collection of over 5,000 birds 

• Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

• Thomas Edison' s first major invention was the quadruplex telegraph

• As a boy, Thomas Edison suffered a permanent hearing loss from head injury

• A person sneezing was the first action caught on video by Thomas Edison

• Thomas Edison once designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder that blew up his factory

• Anthea Turner, Walt Disney, Tom Cruise, Susan Hampshire, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Edison, Henry Winkler, Cher, Brian Conley, and Leonardo DaVinci are, or were, dyslexic 

• 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb

• Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory

• Thomas Edison once saved a boy from the path of an oncoming locomotive who was a station official's child. For his bravery, the boy's father taught Edison how to use the telegraph

• During one four-year period, Thomas Edison obtained 300 patents, or one every five days

• Lazy Susans are named after Thomas Edison's daughter. He invented it to impress a gathering of industrialists and inventors

• When Thomas Edison was a youngster, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He was counseled to go into a field where he might succeed by virtue of his pleasant personality

• The public saw an electric light for the first time in Louisville. Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light bulb to crowds at the Southern Exposition in 1883

• The light bulb, phonograph (record player), motion picture projector were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park laboratory

Facts About Smoking - strangefacts

• It is possible to go blind from smoking too heavily

• The odds are 3 out of 4 (75%) that you forbid smoking in your home

• The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night

• The music hall entertainer Nosmo King derived his stage name from a 'No Smoking' sign

• Marijuana increases heart rate by 20–100 percent shortly after smoking; this effect can last up to 3 hours

• The first American advertisement for tobacco was published in 1789. It showed a picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe

• One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children

• The British Medical Journal has estimated that smoking one cigarette takes 11 minutes off the average person's life

• 5% of the $40,700,000,000 received by states from the lawsuit against the tobacco companies has actually been spent on fighting smoking

• Three years after a person quits smoking, there chance of having a heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked before

• The town of Timnath, Colorado, has banned smoking in bars and restaurants. Timnath, Colorado (population 223) has no bars or restaurants

Facts About Abraham Lincoln - strangefacts

• Abraham Lincoln had a wart on his face

• Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated

• Two United States navy ships have been named after Abraham Lincoln

• Abraham Lincoln went to school for less than a year. He taught himself to read and write

• Before winning the election in 1860, Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections for various offices

• A short time before Abraham Lincoln's assassination, he dreamed he was going to die, and he related his dream to the Senate

• The Lincoln penny was the first U.S. coin to feature a historic figure. President Abraham Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909

• Abraham Lincoln's political experience before he became president was a two year term in the House of Representatives

• Abraham Lincoln's mother died when she drank the milk of a cow that grazed on poisonous snakeroot

• Abraham Lincoln created a national banking system with the National Banking Act in 1863, resulting in a standardized currency

Facts About Population - strangefacts

• In Uganda half the population is under 15

• The world’s population has been increased 3.1 billion in last 40 years

• Approximately one-third of the population can't snap their fingers!

• The minority population of Los Angeles County, California (7,000,000 people) is larger than the total population of 38 states

• Loving County, Texas is the emptiest county in the United States. The population in 2004 was 52 people. Yet it still received $30,000 in anti-terrorism funds from Homeland Security

                                                     

• In 2030, almost half of the United States' population growth will be in three states: California, Florida and Texas.

• The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people

• The world's population grows by 100 million each year. Some 950 million people in the world are malnourished

• 5% of the world population lives in the US but 22% of the world's prisons population are held in the US

• In 1800 on 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000

• Medical reports show that about 18% of the population are prone to sleepwalking

Facts About Human Body - strangefacts

• The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime- that's enough to fill more than 3 super tankers.

• If you took all the human urine produced in the world in one day, it would take a full 20 minutes for it to flow over Niagara Falls.

• If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.

• If you took all the approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels out of a human body and laid them end-to-end, they would stretch around the world twice .

• There are nealy 45 miles of nerves running through our bodies .

• The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

• It would take a person typing 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, around 50 years to type the human genome.

• The speed of message transmission to the brain can be as high as 180 miles per hour.

• During his or her lifetime, the average human will grown 590 miles of hair.

• The average human produces a quart of saliva a day or 10,000 gallons in a lifetime.