Facts of the Day

Spelling bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee was actually started by The Louisville Courier-Journal with nine contestants in 1925. In 1941, Scripps assumed sponsorship of the program. There was no Scripps National Spelling Bee during the World War II years of 1943, 1944, and 1945. Co-champions were declared in 1950, 1957, and 1962. The word "bee" as in "spelling bee" is not referring to an insect but to a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity (sewing, quilting, barn raising, etc.), usually to help one person or family. The first attested use of the term in writing dates to 1875.

Bahamas

"The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is a string of about 700 islands (and 2400 uninhabited islets) in the West Indies, spread across the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south of and north of Cuba. It is believed that Christopher Columbus first stepped on San Salvador when he found the Americas in 1492. The Arawak Indians were the first inhabitants of the Bahamas. Many of the islands are uninhabited and the rest are flooded with tourists looking for beautiful beaches. The main islands are New Providence, Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Abaco, Andros, Cat Island, and San Salvador (Watling's Island. More than 80 percent of the 230,000 people are black, having descended from slaves brought to the island. The Bahamas were a British colony until 1973 when they became an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The capital is Nassau and there is approximately 5,380 sq. mi. of land."

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway, June 3-6, 1942, was one of the decisive Allied victories of World War II. The battle, fought mostly with aircraft, resulted in the destruction of four Japanese aircraft carriers, crippling the Japanese navy. The Yorktown, which was damaged at the Battle of Coral Sea, was the U.S. carrier lost at the Battle of Midway at the hands of the Japanese carrier Soryu, which was also destroyed in the battle. The Battle of Midway brought the Pacific naval forces of Japan and the United States to an equal standing and was the turning point of the military struggle between the two nations. The islands are now administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is an open square in the center of Beijing, China - one of the largest public squares in the world. It was originally designed and built in 1651, then enlarged to four times that size in 1958; it now covers 100 acres and each flagstone is numbered for assembling parade participants. The square gets its name from the massive stone Tiananmen ("Gate of Heavenly Peace"), which was once the main gate of the former Imperial Palace.

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for outstanding public service and achievement in American journalism, letters, and music. The prizes, originally endowed with a gift of $500,000 from the newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, have been awarded each May since 1917. Currently there are 14 prizes in journalism, six prizes in letters, and one prize in music. The first prizes for letters went to Laura E. Richards and Maude H. Elliott for the biography Julia War Howe and to Jean Jules Jusserand for the history With Americans of Past and Present Days. The only U.S. president to win a Pulitzer was John F. Kennedy (1957) in Biography for Profiles in Courage.