Don't Know Much About Anything Else
Even More Things You Need to Know but Never Learned About People, Places, Events, and More!
- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Don't Know Much About Anything Else
Even More Things You Need to Know but Never Learned About People, Places, Events, and More!
About This Book
"Reading [Davis] is like returning to the classroom of the best teacher you ever had."â People
For years, Kenneth C. Davis has enlightened and enthralled us, opening our minds and tickling our fancies with his wonderfully irreverent, fun, and factual Don't Know Much About Âź series. He has carried readers on wild and edifying rides through history, mythology, geography, the Bible, the Civil War, even across the universe. Now, following on the heels of his triumphant New York Times bestseller Don't Know Much About Âź Anything, comes Don't Know Much About Âź Anything Else, a one-stop potpourri of intriguing information.
Chock-full of delightful historical snippets and fascinating people, remarkable milestones and boneheaded blunders, and eye-opening, brain-boggling facts about simply anything and everything in the world, here is the ideal companion for those long car rides, plane flights, quality family hours, or relaxing downtime.
Frequently asked questions
Information
FAMOUS PEOPLE
- 1. Barton was a trained nurse.
- 2. When the war started, she worked in the U.S. Patent Office.
- 3. Barton was appointed head of nurses when the war started.
- 4. When the Civil War ended, she led the effort to locate missing soldiers.
- 5. The Red Cross was her idea.
- 6. The Red Cross originally assisted only soldiers.
- 1. False. Educated at home, she became a schoolteacher and her only medical experience was nursing an invalid brother, including applying leeches, a medical practice of the day.
- 2. True. She was the first female clerk in what is now the Patent and Trademark Office.
- 3. False. When the war broke out, she began a volunteer effort to carry medical supplies to the battlefield. But the government initially refused to give her help. In 1864, she was appointed superintendent of nurses for the Army of the James, a division of the Union forces.
- 4. True. Barton formed a bureau to search for missing men and the office marked more than 12,000 graves in the infamous Andersonville prison in Georgia.
- 5. False. In 1869, she went to Europe and learned of the International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Geneva. She took part in Red Cross activities during the Franco-Prussian War and when she returned to America campaigned for the establishment of the American branch of the Red Cross. She became its first president when it was founded in 1881. She also urged the United States government to ratify the Geneva Convention, which was done in 1882.
- 6. True. Barton was responsible for the clause in the Red Cross constitution that provides for civilian relief in peacetime calamities. It is known as the âAmerican Amendment.â
- 1. DalĂ is best known for the style called âcubism.â
- 2. Besides his paintings and lithographs, DalĂâs most famous work is the notable short film Un Chien Andalou.
- 3. A committed Communist, DalĂ fought in the Spanish Civil War against General Franco.
- 4. DalĂ collaborated with both Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney.
- 1. False. DalĂâs most famous work, including the painting The Persistence of Memory, is surrealist, which uses fantastic images to convey what DalĂ called âhand-painted dream photographs.â Cubism is usually associated with fellow Spaniard Picasso, whom DalĂ greatly admired.
- 2. True. The sixteen-minute film made with Luis Buñuel is a surrealist classic with such shocking images as a womanâs eyeball being sliced.
- 3. False. Briefly a Communist, DalĂ left Spain during its Civil War and was later criticized when he returned to Spain and praised General Francoâs repressive Fascist regime.
- 4. True. He worked on a dream sequence in Hitchcockâs film Spellbound and collaborated with Disney on Destino, begun in 1945 and finally released in 2003.
- 1. In which story does a child say, âBut the Emperor has nothing onâ?
- 2. What really became of the Little Mermaid? Where is her famous statue located?
- 3. What is the test of âThe Real Princessâ?
- 4. What real person inspired Andersen to write âThe Nightingaleâ?
- 5. Who played Andersen in the 1952 film based on his life and stories?
- 6. True or False? All of Andersenâs 156 fairy tales are based on old folk tales.
- 1. âThe Emperorâs New Clothes.â
- 2. In the original, she is turned into sea foam after her prince marries another girl. The statue, which has been vandalized on several occasions, is in Copenhagenâs harbor.
- 3. She could feel three peas through twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds.
- 4. The famed singer Jenny Lind, known as the âSwedish Nightingale,â who was Andersenâs great unrequited love.
- 5. Danny Kaye.
- 6. False. All but twelve are original stories.
- 1. Ike once served under a famous general he would later command. Who was he?
- 2. Before being elected U.S. President, what other presidency did Eisenhower hold?
- 3. In 1951, Eisenhower donned a uniform again. What did he command?
- 4. When he left the White House, Ike issued a famous but surprising warning. What danger did he foresee?
- 1. In 1933, he became an aide to General Douglas MacArthur, the Army chief of staff. In 1935, MacArthur became military adviser to the Commonwealth of the Philippines and took Eisenhower with him. After World War II, Ike was named Army chief of staff, making him MacArthurâs superior.
- 2. In 1948, Eisenhower retired from active military service to become president of Columbia University in...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- Famous People
- Exceptional Places
- Historic Happenings and Civics
- Holidays and Traditions
- Everyday Objects and Remarkable Inventions
- Space and the Natural World
- Sports
- Entertainment
- And More!
- Acknowledgments
- Index of Subjects
- About the Author
- Praise
- Books by Kenneth C. Davis
- Copyright
- About the Publisher