Trivia Today - Friday, September 12, 2014

Greetings Infomaniacs,

Congratulations to "Ronnie Schmidt" who won this week's "Mind Scrambler". Here was the scrambler:

What tastes better than it smells?

ANSWER: A tongue.

Enjoy!
Melissa

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Questions? Comments? Email Melissa


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave."

HINT: (1601-1658), Spanish philosopher and writer, leading Spanish exponent of conceptism.


RANDOM TIDBITS
The last execution in the Tower of London took place on Thursday, August 14, 1941, when Josef Jakobs, a German spy, was shot by an eight-man firing squad. Because he had suffered a broken ankle when he had parachuted into England on the night of January 31, 1941, he could not stand before the firing squad and he was, instead, seated in an old Windsor chair and tied up.

The last public execution by guillotine was on June 17, 1939. Eugen Weidman was executed before a large crowd in Versailles, France. The last nonpublic use of the guillotine in France, at Baumetes Prison, in Marsailles, was the execution of convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, on September 10, 1977. France abolished capital punishment on September 9, 1981.

The last person burned at the stake was Phoebe Harrius. Harrius was convicted of coining false money, a crime of high treason at that time, and was executed by being burned at the stake in front of Newgate Prison in England, in 1786.

Charles Carroll was the last of the 59 men who signed the Declaration of Independence to die. He passed away in 1832 at the age of 95.

The last person hanged in the U.S. for being a pirate was Capt. Nathaniel Gordon, in New York City on March 8, 1862. Gordon had been smuggling slaves into the country.

The last person hanged for witchcraft in the American colonies was executed on September 22, 1692.


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Answer will be posted in Friday's Trivia Today. Good Luck!

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common - but being missed when you leave."

ANSWER: Baltasar Gracian.

***
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