Lax on Facts!

Preakness
The Preakness is a Triple Crown race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, annually. Fillies carry 121 pounds, colts 126 pounds. The course is 1 3/16-mile; the race was first run in 1873. It follows the Kentucky Derby and precedes the Belmont Stakes. The Preakness was the brainchild of Maryland governor Oden Bowie, a sportsman and racing entrepreneur. Governor Bowie, whose term had ended in 1872, named the race in honor of Preakness, an impressive colt who had won the Dinner Party Stakes in 1870, at the opening of the Pimlico Race Course.

Crater Lake
Crater Lake in Oregon was first discovered by white explorers in 1853. A couple of years later, William Gladstone Steele saw the lake and made it his mission to establish the lake (6 miles in diameter) and surrounding area (286 square miles) as a national park, which finally took place in 1902. The lake is within a volcanic caldera and it may be a remnant of Mount Mazama, a volcano that rose to probably 12,000 feet until an eruption about 7,000 years ago destroyed the upper portion - or it may be of meteoric origin. Its maximum depth is 1943 feet, making it the deepest lake in the United States and the seventh deepest in the world. Its waters are extremely clear and it is often possible to see to a depth of more than 100 feet.

Victoria Day
Victoria Day commemorates the birthday of Queen Victoria, the British sovereign, in 1819. After Victoria's death in 1901, an act of the Canadian Parliament established Victoria Day as a legal holiday, to be celebrated on the Monday before May 24. It has now become a day for Canadians to celebrate all British sovereigns' birthdays.

Geography Bee
In the last National Geographic Literacy Survey, about 11 percent of 18-to-24-year-old citizens of the U.S. could not even locate the U.S. on a map. The Pacific Ocean's location was a mystery to 29 percent; Japan, to 58 percent; France, to 65 percent; and the United Kingdom, to 69 percent. More young U.S. citizens in the study knew that the island featured in the TV show "Survivor" was in the South Pacific than could find Israel. Each year thousands of schools in the U.S. participate in the National Geographic Bee using materials prepared by the National Geographic Society. The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.

Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention met at the State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and there were 55 delegates to the Convention. Twelve of the thirteen states were represented; Rhode Island did not send delegates to the Convention. The Constitution was drafted in 1787. The Constitution became law on June 21, 1788 after 2/3 of the states ratified it. Not all the states had ratified the Constitution by April 30, 1789 when George Washington became the first President of the United States. The structure of the document has not changed since it was written but amendments have provided the flexibility necessary to meet changing circumstances. The Constitution is preserved for all to view at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.